Art meets engineering with our awesome cardboard automaton! Use simple materials to build a fun machine that spins and bobs in Galileo's DIY for kids challenge.

Art can be a powerful driver of innovation in any field and observing how artists choose to use–or even invent–technology can be an inspiring indicator of things to come. For decades, e-textiles and…

Escape room activities are a fun and interactive way to work on the skills kids need. My favorite part about escape room activities is that they really encourage cooperation and critical thinking skills. Kids work together and use their collective brain power to solve a variety of puzzles and challe

2017 Topic 16: Rustification Hello everyone, it's Leandra here with you tonight, before we launch into the new topic, which I sense you are all going to LOVE! Let's see who won the last challenge for the Pearlescent topic! The winner is: Craftyfield from Crafty Endeavours She got on a bit of a roll with challenge entries over the last 2 weeks, and even snuck an entry in at the 11th hour of the challenge deadline! The random number fell on her black and white entry, but all of them were quite different with a touch of pearlescent about them all! Congratulations! Email Darcy to claim your prize. [email protected] So we had no shortage of bloggers wanting to play with rust for the new topic, and that doesn't surprise me, as the whole concept of making things look rusty has been super popular in mixed media circles for the last few years. Whether you are working onto fabrics, wood, metal, even glass, creating a rust patina can be done in all kinds of ways, and in this post I'm going to share a few with you. Please feel free to join in the blog challenge by linking your own creativity at the foot of this post to any of you online social media links. Experiments from Alice Fox onto fabric with objects that can be rusted. There are loads of photos from Alice on Pinterest, it is a good way to get some inspirational ideas of how you could rust fabric... I particularly loved the blog post she shared of an exhibition, the piece below was one on show. It is fascinating how rusty fabric is so popular, yet lots of Artists create their own take and pull together the inspirations in different ways and methods. Jennifer Coyne has created a rust effect by printing onto teabags. You can see the process in this link here, where she took a photo and then extrapolated that onto teabags. She explains on her blog how she stitched it all together to create a much larger print. You will need to follow a few posts on her blog to understand how it all came together! Amazing! As below a work in progress... And then here is the finished piece being exhibited. See here. I also loved discovering about Jule Mallet She also uses her fabrics rusted in all kinds of ways to create a wide range of objects, dimensional and flat! and she makes prints... Even displaying rusty fabric can be done simplistically to great effect. And one of our own designers, Lin Brown, is also a dab hand at rusty fabric too, here is just one photo from her blog, but there are more if you follow the link. I adore how she brings her layers together so perfectly! Charlotte Hupfield, a ceramicist, is inspired by pieces like this rusty panel.... ... to inspire her when creating her ceramic art such as the samples below. Cracks, layers, light and dark. Beautiful! and how amazing is this! Take a bureau, add some paint, tadaaa. Here is our own mixed media specialist at rusting things...or at least, using Frescos to make something look rusty! Nikki Acton is a genius at this, see the details here on her blog. She has many posts using paints to create rusty effects, and the example below is gogeous with thos classic colours of patina and rust! The textured heart allows for shades to play in the light. Totally gorgeous, love the crackles too! Plus she gets loads of Seth Apter stamps and dies in the mix so cleverly! Deb blogged this piece over at Paxton Valley Folk Art , such a beaut using all kinds of products, including metal tape, embossed and coloured, die-cut shapes painted, and the whole frame ebellished. And here is Finnabair with one of her typical layered compositions. The cool thing about this idea, layers of textured objects, is you can apply any colour of paint to your base layer, then create a rust effect from there. This could be purely with paints and stippled layers, tickled with Treasure Gold waxes, or (and I've been wanting to try this for ages) ...how about painting shades of patina blue/greens onto the base, and then applying Rusting Powder?? I'm thinking a base in shades of turquoise-green patina, then you could apply a layer of gel medium, sprinkle all over liberally with rusting powder, tip off the excess. Once the gel is dry, you are then ready to rust the powder by keeping the powder damp for at least one and probably more like 2-3 hours, and of course, the rusty effect will develop. If you add a bit of acid (vinegar) to your water it will speed up the effect, or you could just put the canvas outside and let the natural elements do the work for you over a period of days or even weeks! Another rusty mixed media guru is Laura Bomber. If you check out this blog post she shares how she created all these frames using different painterly techniques. Brenda Brown created another gorgeous piece here with paints, and there are wonderful photos on her blog explaining how she created this. Ruth Mescall is another rust addicted crafter. Check out this post for more ideas. And how cool is this from Sally Mankus!! An acrylic skin with embedded rusty stuff! See here for details! OK, so I could go on and on sharing mixed media rusty things, so let's move on. What about rusted objects? What can you find in a local dump, on the side of the road or have you got a stash of hidden objects in the corner of your garden with some rusted treasures? Not sure you will have any of these to hand, but they are nice to look at! A typesetter... Corrugated iron always rusts to perfection! We actually have one of these rusting here on the farm...a newer version though, so not quite as 'pretty' as this! Old train... A sewing machine! (*shocked face*) or maybe you have loads of these lying about?? Finally some art, the layers of peeling and cracked paint always has massive appeal to me, I could fill any room with this type of creation, I love the colours and this style of abstract art. How hard can it be to do something like this ..worth a go I reckon! So as I said at the outset, no shortage of ideas for this topic! I think you're going to enjoy yourselves! I know our bloggers have! Wait to you see what they have been up to ober the coming 2 weeks!.... Have fun! ~ Leandra Don't forget to follow Darcy and Leandra's Pinterest boards if this topic pushes your buttons, you will see plenty more examples to whet your appetite there! I am really looking forward to seeing what you create over the next 2 weeks! We hope that you learn something interesting from our blog. Our bloggers deeply appreciate your comments so much, so please take time to let them know you've been inspired! Why not join our challenge by blogging your interpretation of the current topic and link it here? The current topic link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, 12th November 2017, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00. All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. An InLinkz Link-up Challenge Guidelines The challenge is a for you to show how you are inspired by the current blog topic. We encourage you to play with us and explore your personal creative style. Please mention which PA blog post inspired you and and why (link directly to that post). Please don't link to the home page of your blog because then no-one can track back to easily find the original post. We prefer your challenge blog post is created exclusive to our challenge, but if our topic fits perfectly with another challenge, then you may link to both if appropriate. You are most welcome to use stamps/ products/ substrates you have to hand from a variety of companies, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - it's lovely when you do though! You can enter as many times as you like. We don't want to restrict your creativity! NB. Link closes at 17:00 Sunday 12th November, 2017 (London Time) Prize: The winner will receive a £50 credit voucher to be redeemed on the PaperArtsy Website. The credit voucher includes VAT and postage. We request that one of your purchases is an A5 rubber stamp. You can add any other items to your basket, but the final total should not exceed £50. It's your responsibility to claim your prize coupon from Darcy. email: [email protected] NEW Challenge/ winner: Each fortnight on Sunday, the winner will be announced at 19:00 (London time). In the same post, the link for the next fortnight will be posted. Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Working with kids and young adults who are oppositional can be challenging. Being oppositional might mean refusing to do work, breaking rules, and engaging in other challenging behaviors. The truth is, many kids can be oppositional from time to time, so many of these strategies work with all learner

Learn tips and tricks to embroidering a t-shirt in this MCreativeJ DIY hand embroidery tutorial.

Budget home improvement ideas are our specialty and our readers agree! These are our top 10 visited DIY projects from 2018. Also included are our top 10 budget-friendly ideas of all time! #howto #diy #budgethomedecor #affordablehomedecor #frugalfamilytimes

Using invisible thread can be tricky when working on a quilt project. This video gives a few helpful tips on when to use the thread and the type you should look for.

This DIY sensory tool is perfect for kids who are constantly jiggling their legs. You know the kiddo, it's like he has ants in his pants?

The Pipe Cleaner (aka "Fuzzy Sticks") Challenge is one of my favorite STEM activities to introduce students to STEM learning. This is a fun, inexpensive, and engaging challenge that can be tailored to different ages, settings, and time-frames. This challenge is also an excellent

Save Your Marriage With The 40 Day Love DarePlease like when you save

This landlord told her tenants of 14-years they had 3 months to move out, but they responded that it was a jerk move.

Build a Heart Model - STEM activity about heart rates and how blood flows through the body. Engineer a functioning model of a beating heart.

Laura: I always like to challenge myself to do something fun and different for Halloween. I came across the idea of a fortune teller machine while searching the internet for costume...

With the perfect curves and cuts at all the right places endomorph females have been considered as a paradigm of beauty for a long time…

Download the FREE Ombre Puff Quilt Pattern here! If you've been around for any amount of time, you might've seen my Puff Quilt that my grandmother made for me. I love this thing SO much. She used various scrap fabrics and clothing to create this very dense, yet very snuggly quilt. . . . When I look at this quilt, I see something new each time. Recycled tablecloths from the 80s, pieces of my grandfathers button-down shirts, left-over fabrics from previous quilt projects. The list goes on. Some fabrics are used multiple times within the quilt, while other fabrics are only represented once. I love looking over all of the puffs and finding all of the similarities and differences between the squares. . . . My Granny made this for me when I was 7 years old. I absolutely LOVE that she created a tag for this quilt. I also love that she referred to the quilt as a

Downloads, Printables and resources to organize, plan and perfect your running

Want to learn to sew? There are so many different options for anyone who wants to Learn to Sew. I've made a of several Learn to Sew Tutorials and Classes.

Here's an awesome and extremely easy Kid's Science Experiment - You shouls have everything you need at home!!

Dealing with life in quarantine, with schools canceled and jobs moved to telework, is something that most of us never expected would occur. Getting through the next few weeks (or longer) will be stressful and challenging. Here are resources to help you navigate the impact of Coronavirus. I’ll be continuing to update these resources throughout […]

Build a marshmallow and toothpick tower for a fun and budget-friendly way to explore STEM with kids. Free printable.

Incentive programs are a great way to keep momentum in your music studio, encourage good practicing habits, and assess where your students are in all facets of their musicianship. Looking for a fun, creative theme for your next studio incentive program? Here are five to consider.

Inject the 'A' into your STEM challenge projects with cut paper and the free app Stop Motion on the iPad. The 'A' being Art of course! Full STEAM ahead... We used Stop Motion and cut paper to make moving models of the Lunar Cycle and the phases of the moon in science. The challenge was that students were only allowed to use cut paper (you could also use Oreos for this to mimic the moon as shown in this free download) and the app Stop Motion to show all 8 lunar phases. As with any STEM/STEAM challenge, I introduced

How to clean grout that is dirty or moldy without scrubbing Nothing like a neglected tub to snap me out of it, right? I realized yesterday how bad the tile in our tub had gotten. There was quite a layer of soap

Escape Rooms are a very popular thing right now. Here's how to make your own escape room challenge for kids in a few simple steps.

Escape room activities are a fun and interactive way to work on the skills kids need. My favorite part about escape room activities is that they really encourage cooperation and critical thinking skills. Kids work together and use their collective brain power to solve a variety of puzzles and challe

Stop motion is an easy and fun way to get kids using their tablets to learn and create. These 5 activities and 6 tools are perfect for getting you started.

Last week Kenny, Olivia and I completed our last anatomy and physiology lessons on the cardiovascular system.

Hello everyone !! It's been a while and I hope everyone is doing great :) I really wanted to hop on this monthly challenge as it included one of my f...

Laura: I always like to challenge myself to do something fun and different for Halloween. I came across the idea of a fortune teller machine while searching the internet for costume...

Escape Rooms are a very popular thing right now. Here's how to make your own escape room challenge for kids in a few simple steps.

Phoenix Area Family Photography

(EDIT: This challenge is closed. If you’re interested in sending a request, please refer to my blog for a link to the current one.) Now that I've finished off the old challenge, it's time for Palette...

We had so much fun with last year’s egg drop challenge that we had to do it again this year! The egg drop project is such a fun way incorporate critical thinking and problem solving into a fun science activity for kids, and it’s great for a wide variety of ages. Both my kindergartener and my …

Dashing.io is an easy way to create gorgeous dashboards. It's simple to set up on Linux-based machines, meaning you can use it to create a wall-mounted dashboard with a Raspberry Pi.