Art on a cart encourages creativity every day

Too often craft materials languish in a drawer or on a shelf, and kids have to beg for parents to get them out. I know the feeling of wanting to reserve messy art play for a scheduled time to limit cleaning up.

But if your kids are anything like my boys, they love to create on a whim, not on Mommy’s schedule. If left to their own devices, can spend the better part of an hour just cutting paper into shapes and bits, coloring, gluing, and tracing. Yes, it makes a mess. But I think their creative time is worth the cleanup.

I first saw the concept of “art on a cart” on Red Ted Art (a fabulous resource!), and thought that would be perfect for our boys and bring those art supplies out into the light!

Art on a cart encourages creativity every day by presenting a constant opportunity to create.

I usually leave paper, crayons, and scissors out daily for creative play, but summer gave me the perfect chance to explore an art on a cart scenario in a less-mess environment: the outdoors!

Loading up our Melissa & Doug wheelbarrow with craft supplies, we headed for the back woodpile. Plastic tumblers made great containers for sidewalk chalks, brushes, clay tools and more!

A long board made for an outdoor easel. An overturned bin became a table.

Creativity reigned!

The boys picked out the clay tool set first, and happily smashed and mashed and cut and snipped. (They even discovered what happens when dirt mixes into the clay!).

The clay box became a nature collecting bin, soon full of rocks and twigs, leaves, and flowers. The boys used these for their Nature Pictures (more on that later).

Jumbo sidewalk chalk on the wooden “easel” was next. They enjoyed the new texture of writing on wood versus the driveway.

Finally, paints! I included some paint with water pages in the cart, as well as fingerpainting paper, poster paint, and watered down fingerpaints in spray bottles. With my help, we clipped paper to the easel and they sprayed on different colors and patterns across the papers.

Our first foray into art on a cart became a full-blown affair due to the novelty of our art cart. I’ve left these supplies out for the boys to use at will, replenishing and substituting materials as needed (spray paint bottles need a little supervision!).

I also bring the cart into the playroom for indoor fun that’s right at hand! I plan to keep our art cart where ever we’re at play, so there’s always the opportunity for the boys to design or draw.

Art on a Cart is perfect for back to school celebrations!

Think about creating an art on a cart situation in your back to school plans, too! Art on a cart (or in a bin or box, whatever you have handy, of course!), is a great option for after-school creativity. When the kids get home, set up a snack table near your art cart and let them decompress from a busy school day with creative expression!

This post was sponsored by Melissa & Doug Toys, and I was provided materials needed to create this post. All opinions are my own.