The Ghost Book- a Halloween special!

Today my 5 year old was home ill with a fever. She wanted to pass the time by doing something for Halloween. So we had a look on the internet for some crafty Halloween ideas and adapted a beautiful idea and turned it into a book (we found the original idea at a website called Journey into Unschooling )

Here is the result!

Once upon a time there was a ghost house. Lots of ghosts lived in the ghost house.

The ghosts decided to go out and scare everyone.

They said BOOO to us!

Children's book illustration ideas in abundance!

A simple way to tap into new, effective inspirational ideas.

Today I want to introduce you to an abundant resource of creative ideas. This resource will not only inspire you but also prove to be very useful.

This resource is BLOGS... but not just any blogs. The blogs I recommend are blogs written by creative parents and teachers who document artwork they create with children.

Art exercises designed for children are incredibly useful for amateur artists creating ilustrations for children. There are several reasons for this:

• The exercises are designed to be simple (you don't need to be a trained artist to achieve great results).

• The materials used are usually materials you are likely to already have in your home.

• The exercises are designed for children's tastes so you get a good idea of the kind of pictures and themes children enjoy.

• People working with children and art are fantastic at thinking 'outside of the box' which in turn is a wonderful way to inspire you to think 'outside of the box'.

• Once you have read a few different creative blog posts for kids art you will very quickly find yourself synthesizing new creative solutions to your own illustration challenges.

• The information they provide is free!

I was inspired to write this article after interviewing the artist Maggy Woodley for this month's 'Inviting Creativity' interview. Maggy is not only an artist in her own right but she enjoys exploring stories and art together with her 2 young children. She documents the many creative exercises they do together in her blog so that we too can replicate them.

There are many creative mummy blogs to visit but to keep things simple I recommend you start by visiting Maggy's blog www.redtedart.com . Then once you dive in you will find yourself introduced to other creative mummy bloggers and to the abundant world of creative blogs.

I encourage you to listen to this month's creative interview where you will have the chance to 'meet' Maggy. (This months interview I kept to only 30 minutes as I had the feeling 1 hour interviews were too long- let me know what you think).

To listen just click here! Red Ted Art creative interview

Below is photo of Maggy and her inspiration!

Warmly,

Nina

A tip for creating illustrations for babies!