Make a Bag for Nature Study

Just recently, I bought the girls some new quality paintbrushes and blank notebooks for nature journalling.

I only bought some new B and 2 B pencils, and 3 different quality paintbrushes each ~ a medium pointed brush no.7, a thinner no.3 and a fine pointed brush no.0. The spiral notebook is new too, but the rest of these art supplies are our existing stock.

If you need to know what to buy for your children’s art supplies, check out Barb’s excellent Art Supplies for kids Squidoo lens.

I always recommend moms to buy a few quality things now and then. Before long, your art supplies will be quite established and it should not cost too much.

What do we take on our nature journal outings?

- B or 2 B pencil and soft, good eraser
- Notebook or journal or a clipboard with blank paper
- A black fineliner pen
- Watercolours, brushes and bottle of water
- OR water-colour pencils
- Some toilet paper to dab messes or clean brushes
- Sun hat, sunscreen and smiles!
- Mom sneaks in some small reference books – a bird book, flower or veld grass, insect reference books

As we carry our art stuff around the garden and farm, we needed dedicated bags for our outdoor studies.

I was inspired by Suzanne of Just Another Hang Up‘s beautiful lined Lil’ Girl Springtime Tote and the zipper pouch from Stephanie at The Crimson Owl and I adapted their tutorials to make each of us a nature study bag.

I lined each bag and made several customized pockets to hold water bottles, paint boxes and our nature journals.