Art Supplies We Love

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This is a page devoted to the supplies we have on hand for creating these story time art projects at home. There are SO many different materials to choose from, and it can be overwhelming when you try to figure out what to buy. This is a list that works the best for us for the younger age groups (6 and under).

It’s easy to go crazy with trying and accumulating all sorts of new supplies, and it can be so fun! However, I’m trying to keep my list as basic as possible because of one issue I have that you may share with me…. STORAGE. Oh my goodness, this can be a real challenge for us as an active duty military family moving every two years. We are very limited with our space, so I continue to learn how to be creative with these solutions. For this reason, I try to keep my collection of art supplies for the kids at a minimum…sticking to items that produce amazing results and fun experiences for my girls.

Paper:

You just cannot go wrong with Tru-Ray SULPHITE heavy weight construction paper. When I was teaching in the elementary art classroom, I followed Deep Space Sparkle almost exclusively, and Patty turned me onto this brand. I never went back…even now that I’m at home with my girls!

Paint:

Crayola Washable Tempera Paint was always a favorite in my art room. If I’m going to take the time to paint with my girls at home, I want the experience for them to be rewarding. The whole process of creating with higher quality paints is more valuable than using the cheapest paints. It’s just not as fun for us. From toddler hand prints to splatter backgrounds, this is the way to go. The paints in this picture are Crayola Tempera artista II. They aren’t the lowest quality of Crayola, but also aren’t the best. I feel like they work great with my kids. Even the plain Crayola Washable (without the artista II) is better than your cheap finger paints… just don’t use the YELLOW! Upgrade your yellow so it shows up better. 🙂

I also use Crayola Glitter Paint… it’s a luxury that I never used in the classroom with large groups. But now that I’m doing art at home, there are days I REALLY don’t want glitter everywhere. Enter in: these fun paints that add such a fun shimmer to our projects. We use them more than I thought we would.

Even for this former art teacher, there are days where I don’t feel like prepping liquid paints at home. That’s when we pull out these babies: Kwik Stix. I also did not use these in the classroom, but they can be a life saver for art making at home.

Watercolor:

When it comes to painting with watercolors with young kids, these are the way to go in my opinion. Pan watercolors can work just fine too, but in my experience both in the classroom and at home with little ones, liquid watercolors give such a great experience for the little artist because they don’t have the challenge of figuring out adding water to a pan and having the color not show up right away. For these, you just dip your brush into the color and go! Immediately children see rich and vibrant colors on their paper. I have Blick from my classroom days, but Sargent is great too.

*I store the actual bottles in the cardboard box they came in. I found that they can leak and drip and make a mess when storing, so I decided to keep them in there to protect my shelves. Also, I pour the colors I want and dilute with a little water into glass baby food jars and label the lids.

You can use on white drawing paper, but if you can get some watercolor paper, it is something special… especially when you add salt!

Painting Tools:

I have chubby toddler brushes and a variety of other larger flat brushes which just seem to work really well for the little ones. And this set of sponge brushes, rollers and scrapers are perfect for making painted paper or just adding cool textures to different projects.

Coloring & Drawing:

  • I love Crayola construction paper crayons (and regular crayons) because they show up great on colored paper.
  • These Oil Pastels are wonderful for my girls because they are a little thicker which is easier for their little hands to work with.

Craft Supplies:

Other supplies we have on hand for projects include:

  • Scissors
  • White school glue & glue sticks
  • Glitter
  • Foam stickers
  • Googly eyes
  • Sequins
  • Buttons
  • Popsicle sticks
  • Pom poms

STORING ART SUPPLIES AT HOME:

I wish I had a beautiful studio to show you with all my gorgeous supplies lined up and organized… but like I mentioned before, space is not my friend with this phase of life. And that’s okay! This is all the storage I need (for now). This 3-shelf cart stores my paints, brushes, etc. I also have this plastic three drawer storage from Walmart that fits the 12″ x 18″ papers great. It’s not my forever solution, but it works great for now and can definitely get you started.

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