How I set up my ART CARTs

I found the coolest idea!

I see a lot of people on Pinterest are doing this…making use of the IKEA Raskog cart to make a really cool Art Cart!
(I was at Michaels the other day and they also have a similar cart that you can buy)
I’m sure that you could really use just about any cart you’d like to but, this one works really well.

Here’re a handful of links about how others have made them:

As promised earlier, I am building two ART CARTS this June.

One is for my grandsons (6,4, and 2 years old) and
One for my granddaughter & grandson (2 years & 6 months)

I started with a stop at IKEA.

I also got some sockerbit and samla containers. But, for everything it was under $65 including tax!

You can also paint the carts with their names or maybe label what supplies are in each bucket. But, what I did was made some magnets on zazzle and stuck them on the buckets so they can hang their art work on the sides…and the colorful fish are nice designs.

If you Google ‘IKEA Raskog Cart’
you’ll see some of the cool ideas that people have come up with.

Here’s a chart that I made to get an idea of what I wanted to put in the carts. I was able to add some more fun things to the boy’s cart because they are a little bit older…and are capable of a little bit more.

But it was all fun…here are some of the things I added:

I found these cool Do-A-Dot Markers at a local store. They are kind of like bingo markers and they come in different color sets. We got the ‘brights’ with aqua, magenta, coral, yellow and lavender…so pretty!

Crayola, Prang (and a few others) make some WASHABLE markers, crayons, paints …and even stamp markers! We added those…and some nice big paintbrushes (you can’t cheap out on those). You can add Q-tips to paint with also…sometimes you just need a throw-away.

Although you can buy aprons for the kids, an old adult button-down shirt put on backwards also keeps them clean. But if you’d like ‘official-kid’ aprons, you could purchase them at any of the above links also.

I stocked the carts with some nice thick paper:

construction paper,
manila paper, and
drawing papers…
(cover stock and copy paper are also good in a pinch).

You can also purchase a drawing pad or a watercolor pad. They sell them at Walmart, Michaels, Hobby Lobby…and online. Coloring Books can also be fun…even grown-up coloring book or two, so you can join in the fun! We made an area for papers in the cart, keeping them 9″x12″ and under, just to make it simple to store.

I added foam stickers, shiny stickers, pom-poms, wiggle eyes, popsicle sticks, glitter pens …these are so much fun to shop for at Joanne Fabrics or Hobby Lobby or Pat Catans, Walmart…etc.

Play Dough is fun, with some fun clay tools! Or you can try Model Magic also…it is easy to manipulate and dries overnight at room temperature…and then you can even paint it, if you’d like.

We added: Elmers glue, tapes, glue sticks, scissors, punches, stencils & texture rubbing plates!!! And also included some face paints which are always fun before bath time.

Another fun thing is a coloring book that has the pictures already colored and all you have to do is add the water with a paint brush. Melissa & Doug make some that are re-useble….my grandsons love them!

And I also added a couple of my Draw Books for each of them.

The Draw Page: Volume 1

As the kids grow you can add colored pencils, graphite pencils, sharpeners and erasers. Even rulers, pointy-scissors, scotch tape, stamps, ink pads and paper punches, paper cutters…yarn & needles and threads…your imagination is the limit!

The only limit is your imagination!

Just remember:

-to make it fun for you & them.
-make it easy to clean up, making a labeled place for everything to go.
-make it age appropriate.
-this particular cart is small enough to be able to roll into a closet and lock it when not in use.