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You are here: Home / Kid Activities / nine things i LOVE about my art cabinet

nine things i LOVE about my art cabinet

By Jillian | February 8, 2011
Filed under: Kid Activities Tagged: art activities

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I have been collecting odds and ends for. . .well forever really.  I wonder where Little M gets her love for little bits and pieces!  A couple of months ago I reorganized my kids art cabinet and it has been better than I could have ever imagined.  Since it has been more than 21 days, I guess I can assume it’s all habit and now it will stay clean and easy to use for . . .well forever really!

Do you want to know which art items I can’t live without?  Here they are.

nine things i LOVE about my art cabinet

1. kid section and mommy section ~

 

I actually have two art cabinets.  The one pictured above is too high for the kids to reach and the one pictured to the right that’s at their level.  I love this because it gives me the decision of which things will be always available and which things I only want out when I can supervise.

 

2. table cloth ~ I have only had this table cloth for about 6 months, and I don’t know what I ever did without it.  Mine is a cheap $5 tablecloth from Walmart.  It has a wipe-able surface, and folds up nicely.  I cut it down into three sections.  The big section, fits over the entire table and works great as an art blanket on the grass. The two small sections cover enough space for one kid to work comfortably in their own space.

3.   art caddy ~ I have had this art caddy for about 3 years.  I like it. . .because I fixed what didn’t work.  The bottoms fell out all the time, what a mess, so I hot glued them into place.  The cups are too short for tall supplies like colored pencils so I added tall plastic restaurant cups.  (That was my sister’s brilliant idea! She even gave me the cups.)  What I love about this caddy is that I can pull out just the crayons or I can bring the whole thing out.

4.  plastic containers ~ I used to have 2 big containers and everything was shoved in, overflowing, and forgotten.  Now I have 5 small bins, 4 with lids, that are labeled and easy to pull down.  It makes it so much easier to see what items will be perfect for a last minute project.

 

 

5. paper holder ~ My Dad made mine when our preschool was up and running.  Lakeshore carries this one. Of course you can probably find something similar in any office supply shop.  Having the paper divided looks nice, and it is very quick and easy to see what colors are available.

 

 

6.  bean box  and play dough box~ I filled you in on my love of dried beans and trust me there will be many more bean activities to come.  Our play dough box has a few actual play dough toys, but mostly holds the items M and M run off to collect while they play.  So cars and tea set pieces.  I make kool-aid play dough and keep it in a zip lock bag.  These boxes don’t take up too much room and are always ready to come out and entertain.

7.  sticker box, cutting box and tracing bag ~ I keep these in the kids section of the art cabinet.  A lot of stickers come in books so I usually cut the pages into smaller pieces so they are easier to use.  The cutting box is full of scraps, wrapping paper, magazine pages, etc.  Anything I can find that I think the kids would enjoying cutting or gluing.  In our tracing bag I have objects like frozen juice lids, and shapes made with a manila folder.

8.  scrap bag ~ I have about 4 storage bags full of scraps.  Fabric scraps, wrapping paper scraps, magazine scrapes, old Christmas cards.  I have them sorted by holiday.  It makes it really easy to switch out the kids cutting box.

 

9.  catch all box  ~ I think the reason my art cabinet is staying organized is this box.  When I am cleaning paint off a 3 year old, a table and trying to transition to a new activity all at the same time; I just don’t have an extra 2 minutes to neatly put everything away!  Now I just toss everything into that box and when it’s full I put everything back where it goes! SIMPLE.

Of course I could go on and on, but I’d like to hear what you would put for #10.  What do you love about your art cabinet?

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Kid Activities

Comments

  1. shelley says

    February 8, 2011 at 5:11 pm

    jillian,
    great list! i love all of this kind of stuff… but i’m a scrapper… ok a scrapaholic! there i said it and my husband can find it written now! lol.. thanks for taking the 31 day challenge with me!
    *waving,
    shelley

    Reply
  2. Rhonda Bell Designs says

    February 9, 2011 at 9:08 am

    Wow! This is a great list even for those of us without kids. I have a lot of art supplies and need to get better organized. And a table clothe with my art supplies? Why didn’t I think of that? I’m always looking for newspaper to but down.

    Good luck with the challenge!

    Reply
    • amomwithalessonplan says

      February 10, 2011 at 9:18 am

      Good luck to you as well! It took me a long time to get this cabinet working. It has made all the difference as far as being able to pull out a project in minutes. Now my own craft closet could use a good make over!

      Reply
  3. adrienne says

    February 9, 2011 at 6:56 pm

    I wish my parents pushed arts on me. I always had an interest but it was never explored. Even now I still love the arts even though I’m not that good at it.

    This is a great way to organize your supplies. I don’t have art supplies but I have plenty of stuff to organize.

    Reply
  4. Brenna @ Almost All The Truth says

    March 6, 2011 at 12:59 am

    I so need to organize our art supplies. It has become a disaster area. I really like the paper holder. That may need to come to my house soon. 😉

    Reply
    • amomwithalessonplan says

      March 6, 2011 at 9:43 am

      I love my paper holder! It took some time to get my art stuff organized but it is the one place I keep in order. It makes a huge difference when I want to create! When you get together I would love to see a pic!

      Reply
  5. Belladante@on666.com says

    July 24, 2011 at 11:36 pm

    Thanks for inspiring me yet again. Can’t wait to try my hand with your suggestions in mind. Keep up the good work…

    Reply
  6. Melinda Saunders says

    November 13, 2011 at 3:50 am

    Looks great! – though I hope there’s some paint in there too 🙂
    I have taken #8 to the extreme and have LOTS of zip-lock bags filled with scraps – but a different bag for each colour! – So I have a box looking like a rainbow and holding all the scrap bags… (plus I’m very lucky to have a whole art studio for me and the kids to play in… but that means I have to be VERY organised and everything has to have it’s place and container otherwise it would be mega-chaos!)

    Reply
    • Jillian says

      November 13, 2011 at 5:17 am

      Oh there’s paint in there! Lots of paint. Scraps of every color? Do you only give the kids one bag at a time or do you sort them when the kids are done using them? I would love to see you craft room !!! LUCKY!

      Reply

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I'm Jill Riley. I have a son and a daughter (both in the tween years), a very handsome hubby and the laziest puppy ever!
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