Making Art Possible
Free resources for super engaging art that can include Special Needs Kids and Artists

Our Printable Resources

Our Inspiration for our Anyone Art series
We seek to provide resources for those providing care for young, developmentally disabled and aging artist that are often left out of typical art experiences. Hope’s passion is to create awareness that art, along with therapeutic listening, not only creates hours of developmentally beneficial fun- it can also build or restore hope for a brighter and more joyful future as well as advancing their progress by creatively strengthening treatment plans for the disabled and elderly.
The act of creating art while listening to treated music builds a powerful mind-body connection that can influence brain wave patterns, heart rate and the substances released by the brain. It helps people express hidden emotions; reduce stress, fear, and anxiety; and provides a sense of freedom. She is living proof of this.
However, please understand that we are both dyslexic.
So if you find errors, we appreciate you letting us know.  
Anyone Art- Music Inspired Art- "Creating fun" for those developing their pre-art skills

No art skills are required prior to using these ideas. This book was written for working with young or new artists and special needs artists. Anyone can teach theses adventures in art and anyone can do them.

Choice art and open ended art allows students to grow at their own pace and gives them the opportunity to express to their own creative ideas. As they explore, grow, and create, students will continue to gain more confidence in their art making and presentation skills. When students get to have more choice, they are thinking even more critically, building their creative capacity, communicating more often, and collaborating with other students. They can gain a wide range of knowledge of different art mediums and skills to manipulate them while creating deeply personal and one of a kind artwork.

Choice-based art allows unique students to truly blossom and find their voices as artists. Offering choice means modifying the process, content, and/or product in art class, so every student can work at their own pace and ability level. That means each student naturally can feel successful and included.

Other Free Printables on this Pre-Art level

Developing Pre-Art Skills for Little Ones and Special Needs Children

Adaptive Aides and Materials for Special Needs Artists

Becoming Ready, Willing and Able to Teach 

Recipies For Sensory Fun-Homemade Supplies

Smashing Playdough Ideas

"Create With Me" with Collage and Printing

Easy Collage

Fun Holidays to celebrate

You do not needs special skills to guide our Art

"Create with me" 100+ Anyone Art Ideas and Open-ended Painting

Super Easy Process Art

Oodles of Possibilities With Choice Art Made Easy

Making Drawing Fun

Tracing and Drawing Worksheets
Anyone Art- Artistic Adventures in Sensory and Fine Motor Development   Part 2

These resources are written for all ages. The artist should be able to hold a large pencil, marker or crayon and properly sized scissors unless you plan to scaffold or prep the activities accordingly. I had to do that for Hope when she was little because there were not tools for her little hands. Crayola has since then developed a "First Tools" line that is awesome. I had to cut for her forever it seemed. Until I discovered that felt projects were reusable.

The pages of this book contain engaging ideas and directions to encourage your artist to experiment and explore the mediums and tools used in art. Creativity means having the power to express yourself in your own way (Lagoni et al., 1989). By sitting nearby, observing, and taking pleasure in your artist’s creation, you are providing all the guidance he needs. By providing educational and inspirational skill building lessons we want to help artists explore;

• How to use various art materials and tools in a more polished manner
• How to use music with art to improve sensory and fine motor skills
• How to communicate respectfully and work cooperatively with those of various ability and age
• How to strengthen visual acuity and eye-hand coordination
• How to strengthen sequencing and short term memory skills through art
• How to express creativity and individualism with confidence
• How to joyfully engage and interact with the world around them and the people in it.

Becoming Ready, Willing and Able to Teach Anyone Art

Recipies For Sensory Fun- Homemade Supplies

Smashing Play-dough Ideas

Making beautiful art without Drawing Skills- Hope's techniques that she uses

Easy Collage

You do not needs special skills to teach our art

Fun Holidays to Celebrate

100+ Anyone Art Ideas and Open Ended Painting

Super Easy Process Art

Oodles of Possibilities with Choice Art Made Easy

Making Drawing Fun

Tracing And Drawing Worksheets
Grade 2 and up
Creating Expressive and Exciting "Groovy Art"    Part 2

Your artist is ready for this book when you see your artist clearly planning what he/she will create. You will also see more detail in their artwork, more skilled in the way your artist handles the tools in the use of more colors.

This stage is all about discovering more creatively advanced ways to use whatever you have been using. Its a great time to introduce engaging new techniques with new materials. Let your artist experiment and explore. Creativity means having the power to express yourself in your own way (Lagoni et al., 1989). By sitting nearby, observing, and taking pleasure in your artist’s creativity and their creation, you are providing all the guidance he needs.

You do not need special skills to guide or teach Art

Becoming Ready, Willing and Able to teach Anyone Art

Expressing Emotions through Creativity

Fun Holidays to Celebrate

100+ Anyone Art Ideas and Open Ended Painting

Super Easy Process Art

Oodles Of possibilities with Choice Art Made Simple

Making Drawing Fun Pt. 2 with Design your Own Drawing Project

Skill Building Drawing and Doodling

Finish the Drawing Symmetry worksheets
"Creating Joy" with Anyone Art and Activities- Coming Soon

Studies confirm that art can affect adults and mature artists in positive ways by inducing both psychological and physiological health. Studies have shown that participants involved in art had decreased rates of loneliness and depression, higher morale, better dexterity, improved mood, and more confidence. Artistic expression has also been shown to:


-Improve communication and socialization skills
-Help with anxiety, depression, and relaxation
-Reduce boredom
-Encourage humor and playfulness
-Boost self-esteem
Improve cognition
Offer sensory stimulation
Reduce stress

By providing the disabled adults and the elderly with another way to express themselves, the creative arts can serve a cathartic purpose and allow elderly persons a way of communicating to others. By painting, crafting, molding, or otherwise creating art, elderly people are able to continue to leave their mark on the world.

Art for our 50 plus or minus Artists 

Becoming Ready, Willing and Able to Teach Anyone Art

Links for 150 pages of fun and easy crafts of all kinds

Anyone Art Links to Process or Open-ended Art- Most Anyone can do these adventures in Art

Doodling and Easy Drawing

15 Minute Collage Activities

15 Minute Crafts For Any Age

15 Minute Stamp and Stencil Art for Any Age

Creating Painted Papers for Painted Paper Collage-

Creating A Love of Painting

Fun and Easy Collage

Fun Holidays to Celebrate

You do not need special skills to teach our Art

100+ Anyone Art Ideas And Open Ended Painting

Super Easy Process Art

Oodles of Possibilities with Choice Art Made Easy

Making Drawing Fun with Design Your own Drawing Project

Skill Building Drawing and Doodling

Finish the Drawing Symmetry Worksheets
Benefits of Using Music with Art  Teaching Notes and Tips by Type of Art 
Acknowledgements

These books are an educational collection of artistic ideas and information that I have gathered during my career, at workshops, and on the internet. Some of this collection came from handouts of information that I have saved in my files or random ideas that I saved on my computer for leading art activities in my work with children and for therapeutic art for the special needs community and elderly.

I also want to recognize some books that have heavily influenced my artistic adventures with Hope and my writing.

The first books that I used for Hope were the Tot-line publications. I went to several workshops based on Jean Warren’s open ended art so everyone could feel successful with their best effort. Without her comroadary, I would have really struggled with introducing art to the many children and adults that I have worked with throughout my life.

I already had some books from working with children at the YMCA in Denver that were published in the 80’s. My favorite author of art books was Marjorie Frank because Hope loved the rainbow colored pages and Mrs. Frank made every art project look like an adventure on the pages of her books even though she never used photographs or color of any kind on her pages. As Hope grew and advanced, we moved into Walter Foster’s Beginners art books to learn about how to use new mediums and techniques.

Hopes favorite Book, once she started creating art on her own,
was Usbornes “Big Book of Things to Do”. It contained alot of the smaller books that we already had all in one binding. She loved that.

From there we started using the internet and buying books from various authors. It was pretty expensive to buy books. They are often written by subject rather than skill level and I often only found a handful of projects for her to use in each book.

Finding projects that are sorted by level on the internet is next to impossible. It can be a long and grueling task to find projects that you want to do with your artists on their level. The layers of advertisements that pop-up can be so frustrating.

The internet links and information in this book are from tutorials that are free of charge. I tried to pick sites that don’t use a lot of pop ups to feature. Each level will feature various websites