Art with Anything: 52 Weeks of Fun Using Everyday Stuff (Mary Ann Kohl Books)

by MaryAnn F. Kohl
Silver Spring: Gryphon House, 2010

Designed for use with children ages 4 – 10, “Art with Anything” by MaryAnn Kohl features a year’s worth of art and craft ideas guaranteed to keep kids busy and creating. Using many items found around the house such as foil, buttons, old CDs, duct tape, magazines, paper plates, etc, these projects are great for those who want to do art but don’t want to break the bank in the process. While you may want to go out and purchase some additional supplies for some of the projects, this is a great book to pull off the shelf when you are looking for something new to do with what you have on hand.

As Kohl writes in the Introduction, “All the art activities in ‘Art with Anything’ value and stress the ‘process of art,’ and encourage children to think for themselves about how to use materials to make the art their own.” Each week contains five projects utilizing one common item. For example, week number one has five projects making use of address labels.

“Art with Anything” is a great resource for any parent or teacher looking for ideas for art projects.