10 Art activities to do with kids

Life of Colour paint pens are suitable for all ages, from toddlers to adults! We have been asked about some activities that are suitable for the younger Life of Colour artists and you will be pleasantly surprised with all the ideas that we have come across to get them started. 

Life of Colour acrylic paint pens can be used in everyday crafts in place of your kids paint supplies as well as many other resources such as- texta’s, pencils, crayons and permanent markers.

We are huge fans of Life of Colour paint markers in this house using them for assorted reasons everyday!

This blog contains some awesome activities shared by our art group community along with other ideas we thought we would share with you.

Fluro photo colouring and collage

Children love to see themselves in a photograph and we have a really fun activity for them to enjoy . Print some black and white copies of family photos and provide the children with a set of Life of colour Fluro paint pens and ask them to colour them in! It will not only keep them entertained but they will enjoy a good giggle giving each other new funky hair dos and clothes.

You don't have the Fluros yet? Worry not, you can get them here

Scrapbooking art

Photo and artwork courtesy of Vee Lawry 

Following on from our Fluro photo art is a great suggestion of scrapbook art coming from a member of our Life of Colour art group member Vee Lawry.

Provide children with a set of Life of Colour paint markers, a scrapbook and a selection of photographs for them to create a unique memory book. Books like these also make the perfect gift for a loved one!

Rock dot painting 

Photo and artwork courtesy of Kellz Dixon

Life of colour acrylic paint pens are a perfect dotting tool so why not encourage your children to give dot art a whirl.

Simply draw an animal shape in dots for them to fill in. Make sure you assist the children in priming the pens before use.

If you need simple animals ideas, you can download a printable set of aussie animals, including kangaroos, koala, wombat, kookaburra, emu, frilled lizard, echidna and glider.

Colouring in pages

Nowadays you can purchase some top quality colouring books that have the perfect resource for guiding children to create magnificent images.

I find that adult colouring books are also suitable for kids to use as well. There are many benefits of sitting down and focusing on colouring an image such as relieving stress and anxiety, relaxing the amygdala (fear center of the brain), improving fine motor skills, vision focus and improving sleep.

Wooden spoon stories and nursery rhyme sets 

Photo and artwork courtesy of Gemma Jones

Wooden spoons can be bought cheaply to create sets of stories (like story stones) and nursery rhymes. Provide children with books or images correlating with the chosen theme in order for them to use pictures as a guide to paint their spoon set. As you can see in the photograph above Gemma Jones painted the Wombat stew story and provided children with extra resources to enable them to make their own “stew”.

Nursery rhymes such as Five little ducks, Speckled frogs and Old MacDonald would make effective spoon sets that the children could paint too!

Wood craft creations and paddle pop art

Remember making paddle pop stick houses and peg people? Paint pens can be used to transform wood creations into brightly coloured art.

Life of Colour paint pens can be the perfect mess-free partner for wood crafts for kids, making sure the play time is a mess free painting experience! Get your paint pens and wood slices together in our handy crafty wood bundle. 

Fun coloured pencil cases

I often see plain coloured pencil cases which I think would be perfect for children to give life to with their Life of Colour paint markers. 

Alternatively you could recycle an old piece of material and allow the children to paint a swirl patterned design which could be sewn into a simple envelope pencil case. 

To start off the pencil case cut out a rectangular shape with a triangular shape at one end. Decorate and then run a seam around all of the edges. Turn the material onto the reverse side and fold into an envelope shape- sew the two side edges to retain the envelope shape.

Turn the pencil case inside out so that the printed material is now facing out and attach a press stud at the point of the triangle. My son and I sewed our pencil case together and once it was complete he turned to me and said “I’m proud of you for making that!” (real tear jerking moment together) 

Rock tutorials

There are many rock and drawing tutorials that show simple steps to follow to create an image and depending upon the age group will determine the level of difficulty that can be achieved. You can encourage drawing skill development by providing children with step by step tutorials which is a sound foundation for painting and artistry in general.

Some of the benefits of rock painting for children include teaching the concept of “sharing is caring”, supporting their creative outlets, learning new age-appropriate artistic techniques, improve abilities to follow step by step instructions and be patient. The list really is endless! Read more about the benefits of rock painting for children and follow these easy rock painting ideas for kids.

Colouring in images on paper and rocks

Step by step rock painting tutorials may be too complicated for younger artists to follow  however you could assist them by completing character outlines for them to use as a colouring in! Try to position key points of the character such as body shape and stance, eyes and mouth to allow for a good starting point for them. Images from colouring in books can be a good guide to get your base character looking accurate.

Shape tracing and geometric art

Photo and artwork courtesy of Petra Berndorff

Learning about shapes and geometric patterns is a valuable lesson for children’s development and it is so much more fun when you can create a hands on activity to do so. 

Children need to be provided with the opportunity to create and explore shapes to learn what shapes look like and how to make them.

So why not provide a few rocks with various shapes in black and white for the children to colour. The shapes you use could be basic or more complex (similar to the art provided by Petra) depending on the level of fine motor skills the children have. 

Alternatively you could provide various shapes for your children to trace around to reproduce the images onto rocks.

Here’s some more crafty suggestions for you and your young artists to enjoy- 

• Book covers 
• Life of Colour stencils on paper and rocks
• Personalised plates
• Contact paper suncatchers
• Crepe paper or material butterflies
• Drawing on old toys, such as cars, jungle animals or dinosaurs to revamp colours 
• Observational drawing using magazines for prompts
• Art journaling
• Challenge drawings
• Dioramas and school projects
• Make your own stickers from mailing labels
• DIY cartoons and comic books
• Colour wooden craft sticks
• Scribble drawings 

All of our products can be easily purchased online and conveniently delivered to your door, there are assorted payment options available such as Afterpay and orders within Australia are free with a mere $6 fee for New Zealand orders. 

Life of Colour is all about creating art together and making lifelong memories, we encourage using our good quality art products that are portable and empower art lovers to be creative anytime, anywhere with minimal set-up and mess!