Laura Ashley are running a competition to promote the launch of their new Girlswear collection!  The deadline is 10 September. Read on for more info.

Children aged 2-8 years are invited to enter a creative drawing competition for a chance to create their very own design to be sold in Laura Ashley stores and on-line. The winning designs will also win a £250 Laura Ashley giftcard plus there are also some fantastic runner-up prizes to be won.

The two winning designs will be sold as part of the new Girlswear collection launching Spring/Summer 2011 with 100% of the profits from every competition t-shirt sold going to Barnardos children’s charity.

To enter, get your crayons, pencils and paints out and start drawing on an A4 piece of paper using one of two themes: A day at the seaside or a picnic in the park. Click here for the entry form.

Please post entries to:
Laura Ashley T-Shirt Competition
27 Bagleys Lane, London, SW6 2QA

Creature Comforts feels to me like when I walk into Anthropologie. It’s just filled with impossibly beautiful things!

EZ writes Creature Comforts and describes it as a blog “about celebrating the tiny details that make life so amazing and looking to find beauty in the unexpected.” Her daily inspiration posts are lovely and she also shares her etsy finds, favourite artists, mood boards, DIY ideas and her own beautiful pictures. You can even browse her blog by colour!

Elle Decoration UK recently featured EZ and she gave us a peek into her studio. Gorgeous, no?

You can really get lost in her site. Just remember not to make it feel bad about your own, less beautiful life! It’s meant to inspire you!

Here are a few of my favourite posts:

DIY: Repurposed Tins as Magnetic Organizers

Free Download: Printable Party Bunting and Cupcake Toppers

Colour Crush: Bright Pink

One Good Thing: Message-in-a-Cookie Cutter

Inspiration Daily: 6.25.10

Other sites I’ve been loving include Domestic Sluttery, Make and Takes and Old School.

Nesquik is running a brilliant promotion at the moment. All you have to do is send in a picture of your child’s artwork and they will post you a Crayola art pack. I can’t tell you exactly what is in the pack but it looks pretty good in the photo below!

The “best” entries will be featured in a gallery on the site (I have a teensy issue with “best” here because when it comes to childrens’ art, well, who is to say what’s best…) and each month a professional designer will also pick a winner for the grand prize. This month you could win entry to the National Space Centre for a family of four plus £225 towards travel and spending money.

You can submit your entry here. That is Beth from Derby’s entry from the gallery in the main above. Well done, Beth!

GREAT news for anyone who likes to do crafty things like I do! I just discovered HobbyCraft is having a summer clearance event and there are loads of great deals. Plus you’ll get free shipping if you spend over £30. Click here to start shopping!

Keep reading for some of the best offers.

Yay!!

HobbyCraft Craft Scissors – 8 inch Only £1.84 (was £3.69)				Sirdar Juicy DK 50g Yarn Only £1.79 (was £3.59)
HobbyCraft 50 Pack of Pastel Fab Foam Sheets Only £3.49 (was £6.99)				Derwent Academy 24 Colour Pencils Only £4.99 (was £9.99)
Reeves Acrylic Painting Set for Dummies Only £14.99 (was £29.99)				HobbyCraft A4 Paper Cutter Only £18.99 (was £33.99)

By all accounts the weather in London was spectacular this week…up until last night’s rainstorm. Given the unpredictability of English weather in general I thought I’d keep us safe by writing up another art project post!

This time round, we’re doing seaside-inspired “sand” art. You’ll need plenty of table salt, powder paints or chalk, paper or plastic disposable cups, clean and dry glass jars and some ice lolly sticks or stirrers (a few extra lifted from Starbucks will do).

1. Line up about half a dozen cups and pour a good portion of salt in each cup.

2. Add a different colour of paint powder to each cup – or scrape a stick of chalk with a knife. Mix well.

3. Fill your jar with one colour at a time by pouring carefully or spooning in.

4. Use sticks to push the salt into patterns as you layer and/or tilt the jar as you pour in the salt.

5. Fill to the tip top to prevent the salt shaking around in the jar and put the lid on tightly.

Optional: paint the jar lid and decorate with stickers.

Yay! Colourful, summery sand art!

Making potato stamps is fun and – assuming you’ve got already got paint – is as cheap as a bag of potatoes!

1. Start with large potatoes. Wash, dry and cut them in half.

2. Draw the shape you’d like to stamp on the inside of the potato. Remember to keep it pretty simple because you will have to cut out the shape.

3. Carve out your shape carefully, about 1 cm deep.

4. Dip the potato half in paint and stamp away! Use poster paint for paper paintings or try fabric paint on a t-shirt.

5. Rinse and dry completely before switching paint colours.

Another fun twist on this idea is to make stamps from fruit and veg and turn them into people! Check out the project below and with full instructions at Kaboose.

Aren’t I glad I get the Time Out London email newsletter? Aren’t YOU glad I do??

Well Time Out London is offering a voucher for 2-for-1 entry to the ‘John Baldessari: Pure Beauty‘ exhibition at Tate Modern through 13th November.

I love the Tate Modern, as previously mentioned in my post Mummy Daddy Date Night: Late Nights at the Museums. If you go on Friday or Saturday night you can do the late night thing AND use this voucher!

Print out your voucher here and go get some culture!

About the exhibition, from the Tate Modern website:

Based in Los Angeles since the 1960s, John Baldessari (b. 1931) is one of the most influential artists of his generation. Making his name as a pioneer of conceptual art in the 1960s with his text and image paintings, he shocked the art world when he announced in a newspaper that he was cremating all the artworks he had produced between 1953 and 1966. He then turned his attention to photographic works often incorporating found film stills, trawling dumpsters for discarded material from which he created his famous photo-compositions.

Baldessari’s lifelong interest in language, both written and visual, has been at the forefront of both his artwork and his teaching, through which, over more than thirty years, he has nurtured and influenced succeeding generations of artists. His work has had a huge influence on Cindy Sherman, David Salle, and Barbara Kruger among others. His works incorporate wit and irony, both mocking conceptual art and delivering it in his written work I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art; superimposing media images and painting with his trademark dots and over-painted figures in The Duress Series; and exploring the idea of subliminal images in advertising in his sequence of ice cubes containing the words of his name, ‘U-BUY BAL DES SARI‘.

A great thing about living in London is that some of the world’s best museums are free. To truly take advantage, plan an evening visit away from the hordes of tourists and school field trips.

One of our favourite cheap dates is wandering around the nearly empty exhibits at the Tate Modern on a Saturday night and then treating ourselves to a glass of wine. The members bar has a lovely view so if you have any friends with memberships see if you can borrow their card!

Here is a clip ‘n save guide to late night hours at London’s museums (click for large size):

On Saturday, Zoom In/Zoom Out, a free event at the National Portrait Gallery, will give kids the chance to create their own artwork alongside professional artists on a fantastic large scale art project in the gallery as part of the city-wide Big Draw Campaign. The event runs from 1-4 in the Main Hall. According to View London:

A fun activity that is suitable for children, teenagers and their families, the Big Draw at National Portrait Gallery event is just one of the activities taking place around London to celebrate the Big Draw. Collaborate on a large scale drawing led by artists Emma Middleton and Grace Adam. The event is free and no booking is required.

On Sunday, join Time to Change’s Get Moving in Regent’s Park from 1-4 for a festival of dance to support World Mental Health Day. The Time to Change campaign to end mental health stigma aims to highlight the role of physical activitiy in boosting mental wellbeing. According to the website:

Take part in dance workshops of different styles from around the world including ceroc, capoeria, bellydancing, bollywood, and more. Join our celebrity supporters including new World Triple-Jump Champion Phillips Idowu and former-children’s TV presenter Dave Benson Phillips in supporting Time to Change, listen to fantastic music from Blake, relax in the BBC Headroom tent or try one of their drumming workshops, and learn from Britain’s Got Talent’s bellydancing finalist Sophie Mei!

It promises to be a fantastic day out, and it couldn’t be easier to kick start an active lifestyle than by dancing and meeting lots of people.All ages and abilities welcome.

Home-made picture frames are a great gift for kids to make. See a sample of one we made for Poppy for her birthday in the picture above.

1. Pick up cheap, unfinished wood picture frames from Ikea. The ones we used were in packs of two for about £1–I can’t remember the exact price. See a larger version of what we used here.

2. Set up paint, beads, buttons, sequins, glitter, stickers, ribbons, feathers or anything else you’ve got extras of. Shops like Paperchase also have great supplies for this project.

3. Let the little ones go wild, providing assistance with the glue as necessary.

4. Once the glue has set (give it a good 24+ hours to be safe), pop in a picture of the artist and you’re finished!