Digital Artwork Idea for Middle School Teens I’m learning that middle school kids love to customize settings on school Chromebooks. My son’s favorite tricks are creating a custom mouse cursor, inverting the screen color mode, swapping funny animated gifs as profile pictures, and making custom Chrome browser backgrounds. Today, we’ll show you how we created a custom animated Chrome browser background depicting Baby Yoda shaking a can of BBQ Pringles! Note: This Project Requires Photoshop and Design Skills As background, I’m a graphic and web designer. You can view my portfolio on kellybarkhurst ..read more

This is a LEGO Technic review and building experience by a 10-year-old brick fanatic. The Ford F-150 Raptor LEGO set was received as a LEGO birthday gift. Getting Started Tip Don’t get frustrated right out the gate if you can’t find what you’re looking for because there are two #1 bags. Open both #1 bags to get started! Bags #1: Building begins with parts of the front wheels and the engine. Build Time My son built the Ford F-150 Raptor over a three-day span. This was a different approach than Dom’s Dodge Charger. The Dodge Charger was a straight 10 to 12-hour epic build; my son was so focused ..read more

Surprise Kid Doodles Our kids found that without unlocking our iPhones, they can access the Photo edit settings, which means they can take photos, draw, and doodle on our photos. Finding new images in my Photo Library is always a fun surprise, especially when the images feature playful kid-drawn doodles! iPhone Photo Doodles by My Kids My kid’s favorite doodles are making us throw up, sneezing snot, or giving us laser eyes and unicorn horns! Furry friends get hats and glasses, too Encourage creative drawing on your phone Our parenting style is to keep our kids off our phones, devices, and ..read more

The Obsession My son’s 4th-grade class is OBSESSED with Squishies. Have you heard of these? They’re little “squishy” creatures perfect for trading and imaginative play. These are excellent cheap gifts for stocking stuffers, Easter baskets, Valentine’s, and birthday gifts. So, what does my son play with his Squishies? Squishy basketball, of course. He makes full courts from cardboard boxes and single hoops attached to cylinders, boxes, and other containers. His favorite ball is created from aluminum foil. Sometimes the rims are made from cardboard, metal, or plastic milk rings; nets are sometim ..read more

Robots ? We literally had a summer full of dozens and dozens of marker-rendered drawings of robots. I love how my son distinguished evil and good robots by their eyebrows! If the robot has a V-shape, then the bot is bad! What do you do with too many robot drawings? We make wall decals, of course!!!! We created several sets of Robot Wall decals that anyone can purchase. Declutter Artwork: Turn your Child’s Artwork into Wall Stickers Did you know Arts and Bricks specializes in turning your child’s creations into Wall and Window decorations, too? If you have a season of robot drawings ..read more

Personalized Cards by Kids My kid’s willingness to make home-drawn cards for holidays and special events has always made me happy. They make a card if invited to a friend’s birthday party, to say thank you for a gift, to say, “I’m sorry” and “I love you!” I ADORE their thoughtful cards, and so do their recipients. Many friends and family members have told me my children’s cards are still lovingly displayed on their fridges and walls years later! Need some inspiration to inspire your family to make homemade and hand-drawn cards? Here are a few of my favorites! Thank You Card by Kids Say Thank Y ..read more

At Arts and Bricks, we’re passionate about design, kids’ artwork, and LEGO bricks! So, of course, our living room’s Faux Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree’s decor rotates between LEGO bricks and kids’ creations! Here’s how our Fig Tree looks throughout the year. We also love our art gallery walls. Decorate your Faux Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree with Christmas Lego Ornaments We hang LEGO Holiday ornaments on our Faux Fiddle Leaf fig tree at Christmas. Some LEGO holiday ornaments are holiday sets; others are favorite designs from various LEGO Advent Calendars. Decorate your Faux Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree with Salt Dough ..read more

This year I was in charge of games for my fifth-grade child’s classroom holiday party. The plastic wrap candy ball was the hit game of the party. Here’s how I made the saran ball and how we played the game. You’re a good “wrapper” I used one box of plastic wrap, the cheapest I could find, and the game turned out great. We used a bag of assorted Hershey candy bars, a bag of Dum Dums, and a bag of boxed nerds for the treats. This seemed to be the right amount of candy for his classroom of eleven students. As I wrapped, I changed the plastic wrap’s direction and added clear packing tape to slow t ..read more

Inspiration for Children’s Science Dioramas Love or hate them, elementary school diorama projects are part of life for the typical parent! Here we’re sharing our process for making a rainforest jungle diorama in 5th grade and grassland in 2nd grade. Inspiration for Children’s Science Dioramas Rainforest Jungle Diorama – 5th Grade Science The Perfect Shoe Box Acrylic Paint Jungle Photograph Background Plastic Animals and Mosaic Glass Tropical Plants from Tissue Paper Explore the Yard for Sticks and Moss Trip to Michaels Hot Glue Finishing Touches Final Product Grasslands Diorama with Leopa ..read more

As an artist and designer, I believe art is a great way to express yourself, including day-to-day feelings. This is one of the reasons I’ve loved my daughter’s first-grade daily Reflections pages, where she draws and writes how she is feeling each day. She completes these at school, and they are sent home. I truly enjoy seeing where she’s emotionally at each day, and it helps us connect and have something to talk about. For parents, this seems like a great at-home daily drawing exercise, or maybe initiate this every few days or even once a week. Perhaps even create an “I am feeling” journal wh ..read more