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Toys, Games, and Other Fun Stuff

Learn how to use scrap or repurpose common items you have around the house to make a variety of toys and games.

Make Sidewalk Chalk
Play Catch
Scoop a Ball
Make a Mancala Game
Create a Snow Globe
Build a Rod Puppet
Make a Candy Box Guitar
Make Maracas
Create a Folk Art Doll
Tell a Tale with a Tangram

*Other Fun Stuff includes games and puzzles such as environmental word searches.

Click on the thumbnail pictures for a larger image.

Holiday Art and Crafts, Part II

Many of the projects show how to make gifts, which will be appropriate for birthdays and specific holidays such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas. Others are more of a seasonal nature. For example, printmaking with leaves is a good fall activity, and learning how to make a Pop Art book is a fun end-of-camp or school project.

Design a Miniature Float
Decorate an Easter Egg(Picture)
Make a Pop Art Book
Shrink Some Plastic
Tie and Dye a T-shirt II
Make a Booksafe
Create a Photo Frame
Make Prints with Leaves
Wrap a God's Eye
Fold a Gift Box

What do yesterday's newspaper, vintage jewelry, and old jeans have in common? All can be reused to make art and fine crafts. Presented by Marilyn Brackney, creator of The Imagination Factory, this hands-on workshop will allow you to partner with teachers and others who work with children to spread your reduce, reuse, and recycle message.

The Art of Reuse Workshop with Marilyn Brackney

The workshop is designed for presentation by school corporations and solid waste management facilities. Class participants learn to reuse solid waste materials to make quality art and crafts, as they discover how the practice helps save money, natural resources, and landfill space.

We'll talk about community sources of free, preconsumer and postconsumer waste, and I'll show many examples of art and crafts created from solid waste, as well as visual aids that help demonstrate art and reuse. Activities can be adapted to fit your needs and the season in which the class is held.

While the workshop is intended for teachers and others who work with children in a school setting, attending can be beneficial to camp counselors, librarians, Girl and Boy Scout leaders, and people involved with Earth Day, 4-H, Boys & Girls Clubs, Big Brothers Big Sisters, YMCA, YWCA, and Junior Achievement.

For more information, contact Marilyn Brackney at kidatart@kid-at-art.com.

The Itty Bitty Bottle

When a local manufacturer switched from glass to plastic containers, these clear, two-ounce bottles were taken to the recycling center. However, instead of crushing them, someone at the facility gave the bottles to us for reuse in art projects.

The containers will be great for holding spices, vinegars, cookie decorations, tea, sugar, salt, pepper, honey, syrup, lotions, body oils, bubble bath, perfumes, colognes, shampoo, rubbing alcohol, conditioners, beads, ink, dyes, sand art, straight pins, glitter, paint, confetti, toothpicks, matches, flowers, and anything else you can imagine!

We have a limited supply, and we're offering them for 40¢ each. In addition to the bottles, each order will include the story of How The Itty Bitty Bottle Came to Be. The minimum order, which weighs one pound, contains six bottles. Shipping will be calculated based on bottle quantity and your zipcode. Please write for exact shipping costs. This offer is available in the continental United States only.

Inspired by the Don CeSar Hotel, St. Pete Beach, Florida

Although most snowbirds flock to Florida to soak up the sunshine, part time Pass-a-Grille resident and professional artist and teacher Marilyn Brackney searches for subjects suitable for mixed media creations. Her latest work, the intriguing 'A, B, C, Don', is now available as a poster at the Don CeSar Hotel and online at The Imagination Factory. She's always liked historic architecture, but when Brackney saw the Don CeSar, it

was love at first sight. The west tower caught her attention while walking beautiful St. Pete Beach. Looking at it with an artist's eye, a shape located near the roof resembled the letter B. She was confident this grand, pink palace would reveal 25 more letters so she could create an alphabet based on elements located at the Don.

After finding all the letters, Brackney laid out the artwork in pencil on heavy watercolor paper. Then she went over the lines with ink, and applied color with thick, water-based paint. Next she covered everything with India ink. When the work was dry, she washed off the ink and paint, leaving an antiqued, pale image of the letters, flowers, birds, shells, and background. She added the final shading with colored pencils.

Printed on heavy stock, the poster measures 18" x 24" and fits a standard frame. Each alphabet comes with a description of how the letters were found and how the art was created. Also included is a list of the letters' locations on the Don CeSar. Brackney hopes the work will help people appreciate the beauty of the Don CeSar and encourage historic preservation.

The poster's cost is $20.00 each, which includes postage for mailing in the contiguous United States. For shipping costs for multiple copies or for posters mailed to Alaska or Hawaii, write kidatart@kid-at-art.com for postal rates. Indiana residents, will be charged 7% sales tax.

Hawaii's 50th Anniversary Activities

Store Offerings

The Imagination Factory Store

Toys, Games, and Other Fun Stuff

Click on the thumbnail pictures for a larger image.

Holiday Art and Crafts, Part II

The Art of Reuse Workshop with Marilyn Brackney

The Itty Bitty Bottle

A, B, C, Don Alphabet Poster

An Architectural Alphabet

Inspired by the Don CeSar Hotel, St. Pete Beach, Florida

© 2010 Marilyn J. Brackney (revised 6-2010)