10 Reasons why you have to Visit the Eric Carle Museum

10 Reasons why you have to visit the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art 

Amherst, MA

#1  Did you know the Hungry Caterpillar had his own set of wheels?

Oh yeah!  

#2 You can see all of your favorite characters from "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" in the bathroom!

# 3 They let kids be kids from providing books to read, toys to play with and allowing kids to run wild and free!

#4 They have a theater and a gift shop with lots of fun things to see and play with!

#5  They let you explore your artsy side at all age levels.

#6 You can pick your own apples right outside!

#7 The grounds are large and gorgeous, perfect for a picnic lunch or taking a break to run around.

#8 They have a delux art studio with projects to make all the time!

#9 Their galleries are always changing and always incredible and perfect for children of all ages and they have a library where you can read any picture book you can imagine!

#10 Atkins Farm is around the corner and has any food you would ever want to eat including a deli, salad bar, bakery, full grocery store, candy counter and little dining tables to eat at- Thanks for the recommendation ladies who work at the museum- WE LOVED IT!  

What a wonderful wonderful trip!  WE WILL BE VISITING AGAIN SOON!!

Art Week Day 6 and 7

Day 6 of Art Week we went to a Trash Museum. 

I love the above sign....so cute!!

It was pretty fun.  It may be unique to where we live but it showed how materials are recycled, had different displays to show what to recycle and how and had a "Temple of Trash."  There were a few fine art creations but the bottom line is it just made me more dedicated to recycle.  In fact I went home and got myself a whoppin $1.50 for some water bottles I had lying around!  It was a pretty good day.  Check out what cheap, unique museums are in your area.  This was very educational and a great cheap thing to do on a day off!

 

These are some items found in the "Temple of Trash"- I had to take a picture of the carebear Thermus.  Ah the good old days!



Anyone else remember the vintage Dorito bag?  Different Bag, same great taste!

Day 7 we ended our art week with a boom and went to church-yup it was Sunday and thats what we do around here on Sundays and we love it!  Please learn more about it here or here.

Art Week Day 5

Upcycled Mod Podge Bracelets

(Before)

 (After)

So we decided to fancy up the cheap bracelets we got at a thrift store.  We used Scrap paper and Mod Podge and had a blast doing it.  The one above was created by my sister.  I think she did a fantastic job.

The one below I created.

It was very fun.  Very easy.  And Very cheap!

Plus its always fun to make something cheap and old come alive again! 

Try it yourself. 

I love Mod Podge!

(Before)

(After)

I wish I had done more with mod podge with my students.  I think we could have done some fantastic crafts.  But you can bet I'll be making some with my own little ones!

Art Week Day 4

Duck Tape Purses and Wallets

So on day four of our art week we created these very fun, easy and adorable duck tape purses and wallets.  We decided to use clear duck tape because we thought it would be a little bit fun and different.  We have seen colored duck tape items but we didn't really find any colors we cared for and thought it would be fun to go with clear and add our own accents. 

This is a little wallet sized item I made.  I added a little paper flower accent to spice things up.  I decided to use it to store bobby pins!

This little purse opens and closes with a little duck tape tie.  This is my sisters, I thought it was very cute and fun.  Its kindof a clutch shape- Small and Slick.

Try it Yourself:  This would be very easy to do with almost any child over 4 (With help of course)  its pretty easy to fix any mistakes without much notice, and very fun to do!  Plus its very cheap!

Art Week Day 3

Art week day 3 isn't that creative as far as coming up with some brilliant idea but it was something that I don't do as often as I should and will probably start doing more often...because I went!

 Look at my cute sister admiring the art!!

We decided to head over to one of our Museums of American Art.  Since I knew she was coming ahead of time and that this would be our "Art Week"  I decided to see if our local library had any passes....and it did......and it got us all in for Free!  Such a Bonus!!!  It was a beautiful museum and inspired me to try and pull some artistic talents out of nowhere, can't wait to do that!

But seriously after I called the library I looked on their site and found TONS of other discounts and free entries to many museums, zoos etc. 

Another great reason to visit the library!!

Art Week Day 2

Supplies

So the second day of Our Art Week we of course had to load up on supplies.  We decided not to limit ourselves to just drawing but to do some other things as well.  Heres what we came home with.  We got some good deals too!  There is just something about walking into a thrift store with creativity on the mind.  You can do some great things for really cheap!

This little project in the making cost 99 cents

These 2 unused canvas boards and two large matching frames cost $5 all together.  I was so excited about these finds.  It was like someone knew we were coming and had perfect items waiting for us!

This little one was 99 cents as well.

And of course we needed Duck Tape.

And my sister bought some brushes and paints for her canvases.

Walking into an art store is educational in so many ways.  There is so much to see and no matter how hard you try to stop them, your creative juices start flowing uncontrollably.  There are so many different mediums for creation, I love it!!  I want to buy EVERYTHING in Michaels.  Its such a fun place to go.  We were good though and just bought the basics that we needed. 

Art Week Day 1

So my sister and I both had school off this week and so we decided to have an Art Week. She love sart and is a very excellent artist....I on the other hand am not the most talented in that department but I like to pretend and I like to look at art so we decided to spend a few days doing little outings and projects related to Art. Since we are having so much fun I thought I would share. For your information she is almost 16 so although these things can be done with younger children some might have to be modified but just as a point of reference thats where we stand.

Day 1

We went to the library to pick out books on drawing (thats her favorite thing to do so we decided to start there) She loves animals as well, you can probably tell by the book choices.

We figured this would give us lots to work with.  We shall see!

The library is such an excellent resource for EVERYTHING! There were so many books I wanted to get. I did sneak a few NON-ART books but I will have to tell you about that later..