Simple Art with Shapes from The Creation Station

Today, we have the lovely Sue from The Creation Station here to share with you all some amazing art projects for you and your little ones. The Creation Station is an award-winning arts and craft fun for children, and Sue runs her sessions in and around the Frampton Cotterell area in South Gloucestershire.

Back in March, she shared her "10 Arty Things To Do With Your Little Ones" and today, she sharing "Simple Art with Shapes" projects. Enjoy!

Simple Art with Shapes

Here is some amazing art using only shapes and your little ones imagination ...and a little help from The Creation Station Frampton Cotterell. Shapes are always a brilliant choice for children’s art: they are everywhere and don’t have to be perfect. Simple but effective. 

We start the series with Squares.

Magic Squares

Nip to your local DIY store and pick up some lining paper; 10 metres of painting/drawing paper for under £5 and some masking tape from the pound shop.

Take the lining paper and cut out a square (I used an old pizza box as a template, but it doesn't have to be accurate). Then make a grid using the masking tape, I always leave a little bit hanging off the paper so you can find it later when it’s all cover in paint.

Then let the fun begin...

You can paint with brushes, sponges (these can be cut into all sorts of shapes), cotton reels, lego, string, even stickle bricks! Don’t have a fancy paint palette? Just use an empty egg carton or muffin tin or just squeeze the paint directly on the paper.

One of our favourite things is dropping paint-covered string onto the paper. You can get some amazing patterns! 

When the paper is covered in paint, you might want to add a little glitter for that extra sparkle. At The Creation Station we always use a glitter tray – this can be a disposable foil tray or an old roasting tin, anything that you might not want to use again. Put the picture in the tin and sprinkle the glitter, most of the glitter should either stick to the picture or stay in the tray.

Now for the magic...together, gently remove the tape and discover the amazing picture underneath! 

Square Caterpillars

This is the perfect craft for home; simple with no mess and great for developing fine motor skills

For this all you need is some foam sheets cut into squares and a couple of pipe cleaners. Take one pipe cleaner for the caterpillar's body. Roll one end up a couple of time so the squares don’t fall off. Then simply thread the foam squares onto the pipe cleaner. I made a small hole in each foam square using a pencil so it was slightly easier to thread. 

Don’t squash the squares to close together! 

When you have enough for a nice long caterpillar just roll the end up, this makes a cute nose. Cut the other pipe cleaner in half and twist it around the body one or two squares from the end to make antennas. Add a couple of googly eyes and a smile, and voila, one hungry caterpillar. 

You can find The Creation Station (Frampton Cotterell branch) on Facebook, the Internet, or you can email Sue direct here. 

If you are not local to South Gloucestershire, you can find your nearest session by clicking here. 

Scarlett and I will be attempting these projects - blog post HERE.

(Images kindly provided by Sue Hammond from The Creation Station Frampton Cotterell)