Animal Character Badges for Gap Kids review and DIY

A big thank you to all of you that were able to make it out the the final Mer Mag + Gap Kids craft event this past weekend! Looking at all the photos of your little shining stars just makes me so happy. I simply love what they have created.

And if you missed this last Gap Kids craft, animal character badges, you and your little one can still make one at home.
 
Materials:

To make these animal character badges, you'll need the following:

1. 2" circle punch (or you can just cut out the animal images in a 2" circle by hand)
2. 2" wooden circular discs
3. Assorted colors of wool or acrylic felt
4. Pinking shears and scissors
5. Pin back
6. Hot or cool melt glue gun with glue
7. Mod Podge and brush or 8.5x11 printable sticker paper
8. Fine tip pens or colored pencils for coloring in the animals
9. PDF download of the animal characters

Start by printing out the animal characters on 8.5x11 white paper or white sticker/label paper. Then punch out your animals with a 2" circle punch (or you can adapt this to whatever size of punch and wooden disk you have).

Now, together with you little one, you can cut out ribbon shapes out of corresponding colors of felt.

To create the circular background for the badge, place a piece of felt behind your 2" wooden disc. Now take your pinking sheers and cut out a circle shape using the wooden disc as a guide.

Now that you have all the felt "ribbon" elements of your badge complete, you can glue them all a top one another with hot glue.

Now for the fun part. Break out the fine tip pens or colored pencils and have your little artist color in their animal.

You can now adhere the illustration onto the wooden disc with Mod Podge (or if you printed it on sticker paper, just peel and stick).

You can now glue on your pin back to the back of the badge.

Now your new animal character badge is finished and ready to wear! Pin it on your little star and let them shine!

And I just have to share a recap of the darling Gap Kids animal character badge events. I really wish I could have made it out to all of these events but seeing these great photos is almost just as good.
I completely love the colorful set up they had with all the different felt ribbons shapes alongside the rainbow of colored pencils. Just looking at this make me with to dive in and I can imagine our little creative friends felt the same way.

And just look at these little cuties working on their badges!
 
Just look at that focus. So so cute!


Love these color combos! and sisters! so perfect. 

And this little darling...well doesn't she just melt your heart?!

It's been so fun to work with Gap and A Squared Events on these projects. And such an honor to work with you and your little ones! I've loved every minute of it.

And if you missed the previous two Gap Kids Shine On crafts, you can catch up on them here:

Geometric Art

&

Journal Making

Mark your calendars for the final Mer Mag + Gap Kids event tomorrow: Animal Character Badges!!

I don't know what it is about this last craft for Gap Kids, but I'm just over the moon about these animal character badges. I'm loving the badge/button/award trend going on and Gap Kids Military Prep clothing is perfect for this. Or put it on any of these fantastic backpacks or a jacket from the French Muse collection. I'm dying at the possibilities of cuteness.

So if you haven't already marked your calendars for tomorrow, I would do so now and visit one of the following Gap locations to make one of these fun badges!!

Saturday, 8/25: Make an animal character badge


from 10 AM to 1 PM

Participating Gap stores:

New York: 122 Fifth Ave
Los Angeles: 2111 Glendale Galleria
San Francisco: 1139 S. Main St. @ Walnut Creek
Chicago: 533 Oakbrook Center
Boston: 250 Granite Street @ South Shore Plaza
Miami: 19575 Biscayne Blvd. @ Aventura
Washington D.C.: 1100 S. Hayes St. @ Pentagon City Mall
Philadelphia: 690 W. DeKalb Pike @ King of Prussia
Dallas: Central Expwy & NW Hwy #738 @ NorthPark
Toronto: 100 City Centre Drive @ Square One
 

I seriously can't wait to see what your brilliant little creators come up with! And like always take pictures and share by using the hash tags #shineon and #clevergap.

And are any of you soaking up the fantastic online crafts that GAP has going on? This weekend you can make a sport patch to go along with your animal badges. How cool is that?!! Take a looky lou here.

Have fun shining on this weekend!!

Gear up for Journal Making at GAP Kids this weekend!!

Friends it's almost the weekend and that means it's almost time for another fun and crafty filled weekend with Mer Mag and GAP Kids! This Saturday your little shining all stars will be making their very own custom journal!


I love the idea of getting your kids into journal writing at an early age. My boys each have a journal and we try to have them write in it at least once a week. Little O can't really write as of yet but he can draw pictures and I can write in captions of what he says.

It's so great to look back at these to see what you children were interested in and what little thoughts go through their adorable heads. For example, A used to have a lot of imaginary friends. They have not really been around for the past year and I'm afraid I would completely forget about this stage in his little life if we hadn't written about them all and drawn a number of pictures of them (their names were Pusa - his absolute best imaginary friend - Tiger, Patrick, Weird, and more). I miss the silly imaginary guys but It think that now that Little O is an older playmate for A, his need for imaginary friends has diminished.

Little O's thoughts these days are very Mario centric. Right now it seems like there will never be an end to Mario talk around here but I'm sure one day he'll grow out of if and I'll love looking back at all pictures and stories we've told. (Can you guess what the boys will be for Halloween this year? I'm having fun trying to figure out how to get into that one...).

If you live by one of the participating GAP stores, I would highly recommend stopping in for some journal making and back to school shopping (they have some great sales and I love their selection this fall!).


Journal making will take place from:

10AM - 1PM

at any of the following GAP Kids locations:

New York: 85th & 3rd

San Francisco: Los Gatos
Los Angeles: Sherman Oaks

Chicago: Old Orchard

Boston: Natick Mall

Miami: Coco Walk

Philadelphia: Walnut St.

Dallas: Stonebriar

Toronto: Yorkdale

  
And like always, I'd LOVE to see any pics of your little ones creating as well as what their final journals end up looking like! Just email them over and I'd love to put them on the blog.

And don't forget to check out GAP's online line up of crafts. This weekend is sure to be a creative one!!

xo

Mer

Geometric Art for GAP Kids Recap!

I just got back from LA last night and working on getting caught up on everything and enjoying seeing my Littles again (who I swear have grown in just a few short days!). The geometric painting for the GAP Kids event in LA at the Grove was a smashing success! I had such a fabulous time meeting so many little Picasso's and their parents. And the girls from A Squared Events, particularly Jen Truc, who ran the show, were phenomenal to work with. I love seeing everything all set up and ready to go. And then when the kids started coming, well it was pure magic.

I loved to see the many wonderful combinations and creative applications the kids came up with for our geometric art project. They were nothing short of brilliant! I am sharing a few photos from my Instragram feed from the LA Event, (as well as a few from other city attendees feeds), here to share with you. I'm just so thrilled with how everything turned out! (see the flickr page from all the geo painting events here! so inspiring!!)

And if you were not able to make it out to one of these events, and want your little ones to make some geometric art on their own you can now do so at home!

Materials:

• You will need either a canvas or thick sheet of watercolor paper (if you use paper, I would suggest taping it down to a firm surface). 
• A fun selection of bright acrylic or tempera paints
• A paint brush 
• and some masking tape (I like the 1/2" size)

Start by taping off sections of your canvas so that they make a variety of fun geometric shapes.

Now grab your first color of paint. Decide which shapes you want to be this color and paint them in within the line of the tape (overlapping is fine as the tape will be taken off). Then proceed on to the next color, until your canvas is filled with a variety of fun, colorful shapes!

Once the painted canvas is dry, you may remove the masking tape.

Now enjoy your new work of geometric art! I love how striking these turn out. There are so many options and directions you can with this.

I also love how this is a great art activity for kids of all ages. If your child is at the preschool age, and more into sensory painting, they can just go crazy and see what fun magic happens when the tape is removed. And if they are bit older, they can really get into disciplining their color selection and planning out their different shapes. They can be more precise and intentional, creating something really amazing.

If do this art project, we'd love to see pics of your final creations! And if you attended any of the geo art painting events accross the US and Canada, I'd LOVE to see your pics from that as well!

And for this weekend, get geared up for journal making! Your child's thoughts and acheivments will shine on throughout time as they record it all in their very own journal that they make themselves! See more about dates and locations for this event on GAP's Shine On Facebook page. And based on how successful this last weekend was, you won't want to miss it!!

Unleash Your Gap Kid's Inner Artist with Mer Mag!

 

Friends, friends, friends!! If you haven't heard yet, Mer Mag is partnering with GAP Kids to craft the next three Saturdays and it's time to mark your calendars and get ready to Shine On!! Come on in with your Littles the next three Saturday's and craft with Mer Mag at any of the following GAP Kids locations: 

• Boston
• Chicago
• Dallas
• Los Angeles
• New York
• Miami
• Philadelphia
• San Fransisco
• Toronoto 
• Washington D.C. 

I'm so excited about the craft projects we have in store!! To celebrate your child's accomplishments and unique abilities to SHINE I've come up with three exciting crafts for your little one to delve into! Here's the break down on what we we will be doing on the next three Saturdays:

• August 11th (from 10am to 1pm): GEOMETRIC ART: Your little on will be able to make their very own eye popping geometric work of art! They will love exploring with paint and pattern and will be sure to leave with a personal masterpiece that you both will treasure!
• August 18th (from 10am to 1pm): JOURNAL MAKING: Your little shining star will be able to create their very own colorful custom journal to take home and record all of their hopes, goals, dreams and shining accomplishments!
• August 25th (from 10am to 1pm): ANIMAL CHARACTER BADGES: You know how special and unique your little one is. Now it's time to award them with a custom badge of honor. Your child will create their very own animal character badge that they can then pin onto their lapel, jacket, backpack or more!

And if you are in the LA area, I'll be at the Grove to participate in the first craft workshop, Geometric Art, this weekend! I'd be more than thrilled to meet you and your little one(s) so please stop in and say hello! (And if you don't have any Littles, please stop in anyway and say hello! No doubt GAP will have plenty of fun things you just won't be able to live without :)). And let's be honest, I'm planning on getting all my back to school shopping done this weekend. I already have my eye on a number of great GAP Kid's clothing items!

And don't forget about GAP's online Shine On Saturdays for those of you who don't live near one of the above locations. There is just so much fun crafting to get in on!! and if you like Gap's facebook page you can keep up on all these events that they have in store!! You can also get in on the conversation on Twitter using hashtag #ShineOn. I'll keep you updated by liking Mer Mag's facebook page and on Instagram (@mer_mag) as well. I even got all social networky and finally got a Twitter account (@mer_mag). Can you even believe it ;). This is going to be fun, fun, fun!

xo
Mer

Pssst Pssst! Mer Mag will be crafting for GAP Kids!!!

Friends I have been beyond excited to share some great news. Mer Mag has been asked to create crafts for GAP Kids as part of their Shine On Saturdays. I'm not only thrilled to be partnering with GAP but am over the moon about the concept behind their new Shine On campaign. The Shine On campaign highlights the talents and strengths of children in their own lives and within their community and has even chosen two adorable kids, via an open casting call, to help share the concept of Shining On. And over her at Mer Mag we are ALL about celebrating kids abilities and empowering them with creativity! So needless to say we are so super honored to be a part of GAP Kid's Shine On Campaign!!

To share the news with you, Little O and I made this little stop motion video together. Inspired by the efforts of GAP's Shine On kids, who painted a mural at an LA Middle School, we decided to create our own little piece of vibrant geometric art. Take a look at how it all came together in this video!

   

And if you want to create your own piece of geometric art, along with two other shining crafts we have in store for you, just mark your calendars for GAP Kids Shine On Saturday's!!! In fact, I'll be making and appearance at LA's Grove GAP Kids store (one of my favorite shopping centers in LA!). So if you are in the LA area, please do stop in and say hello! And bring your kid(s), ready to get their craft on!GAP Kid's Shine On Saturday's will be taking place in their flagship stores on the following Saturdays: 

• August 11th: Geometric Art
• August 18th:  Journal Making
• August 25th: Animal Character Badges

These events will be taking place at the following GAP Kids US stores (And if you don't live in the US, don't worry, I believe they are still doing this outside of the US with other international crafters. So cool right?!):

• Boston
• Chicago
• Dallas
• Los Angeles
• New York
• Miami
• Philadelphia
• San Fransisco
• Toronoto 
• Washington D.C.

 And for those of you who don't live close to one of the GAP Kid's stores mentioned, don't worry! There is still a load of online crafting fun that you can take part in starting this Saturday! Take a look at the first project her on GAP's facebook page.


We can hardly wait to get our Shine On!! We do hope you'll join us!!

xo Mer

(Oh and Little O is wearing a GAP Kids orange fall sweater. And if he was wearing some of GAP's new action stretch denim pants, I'm confident he wouldn't be picking a wedgie ;)).