How To Make A Portable Art Box
I love a good art caddy. We have a simple little caddy in our studio that holds our markers and crayons, which makes it really easy to have an impromptu drawing session anywhere around the house. Sometimes my girls want to draw at the kitchen table during breakfast and sometimes they want to make treasure maps outside. They grab the caddy and a few sheets of paper and they are good to go.
But when I saw this post about a closet art studio that included a portable art box, it got me thinking about having more items available for art on the go. I kept my eye out for a good sized caddy and found this craft/hobby box from The Container Store. I love that it has tiered storage for smaller items on the left and an open space on the right for taller items.
Because it’s translucent, simply glancing at the box will remind my girls of what’s inside and might spark their interests.
Make A Mini Art Studio
This box is basically a mini studio, stocked with markers, crayons, stamps, tools, tape, play dough, glue, collage items, and paint. Can you believe I fit all of that in there? It’s a great option if you don’t have a lot of space for storing art supplies in your home. Or if you have a large home, it can be something you keep in one part of your house, while the main supplies are stored in another room.
Make A Thoughtful Gift
These caddies make fun gifts as well. When we have time to make an extra special gift, we like to give stocked caddies for birthday presents. I used to sell this beautiful wooden caddy (below) in my old shop and it made a nice gift on it’s own. To make it a little more fun for our neighbor’s 3rd birthday, we decided to stock it with a few items to get her started. Young kids love having their own caddies to tote around! My only concern would be if a toddler were to secretly tote it to another room and get creative on the walls or furniture. If that’s an issue, you could always keep it out of reach and only bring it out for supervised play. Or you could stock it with items that are less harmful to your home- like paper, stickers, pipe cleaners or Wikki Stix
To get even fancier, you can wrap up an art caddy like a gift basket. Here is an example from one that I created for a school auction. It didn’t have any dividers, so I added a couple of metal cups inside to hold some of the smaller items. This one has been discontinued, but you can find a similar caddy here
Whether it’s for a gift or for your home, art caddies and portable boxes are simple ways to bring more creativity into kids’ lives. Have you tried making a portable art box? Was it for lack of storage space or for taking art on the go? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
