Mask Making Workshop

You can explore feeling while working with your hands

A few months ago, I had a magical afternoon with my two daughters and my two nieces creating these colorful, expressive masks. We gathered paints, pom-poms, tulle, googly eyes, shredded paper, and anything that caught our imagination — and dove into a world of color and self-expression.

The inspiration came from Expressive Arts Therapy, where art becomes a way to explore emotions without words. The goal wasn’t to make perfect masks — it was to let our creativity lead the way. Each of the girls chose colors and materials that felt right to them in the moment. Some masks looked joyful, some mysterious, and others wild and full of energy. We didn’t wear them afterward, but we spent a little time talking about what our masks “felt” like — what they might be saying if they could talk.

What I love most about this activity is that it reminds us there’s no right or wrong in art. Just honest moments of imagination, emotion, and play — and a lot of laughter along the way!

Here are some of the materials we used...

Have Fun Creating

💛 Try It at Home

Next time you need a creative family afternoon, try this project. Ask your kids what their masks might be feeling — and watch how art opens the door to beautiful conversations.

Thanksgiving Gratitude and Thankfulness Garden

Kids dive into colorful projects that spark imagination while practicing gratitude. An expressive art activity for exploring thankfulness and gratitude.

Family or Classroom Fun

Families bond while crafting seasonal decorations, sharing laughter and stories in a welcoming space. This creative mixed-media art project invites the whole family or students to express feelings of thankfulness and gratitude through a colorful, layered “Gratitude Garden.” Each flower or leaf in the artwork represents something meaningful to them — things they’re thankful for today, and things they feel grateful for in a lasting way. Age Range: 5–12 years

How to do it

1. Begin with a short mindfulness moment — ask participants to close their eyes and think of someone or something they appreciate.
2. Paint or color a garden background with sky and soil.
3. Create flowers and leaves from tissue or scrapbook paper. On each petal, write or draw what they’re thankful for today. On each stem or soil section, write what they’re grateful for in life.

4. Glue pieces together to form a unique “Gratitude Garden.”
5. End with a reflection circle — discuss what gratitude means and how it feels.

Educational and Emotional Benefits

• Supports Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and self-awareness
• Strengthens emotional vocabulary by exploring “thankfulness” vs. “gratitude” • Encourages empathy, mindfulness, and connection
• Builds creative confidence and emotional expression

This activity helps children cultivate awareness of everyday joys and deeper appreciation. It’s an uplifting, inclusive way to celebrate the Thanksgiving season and reinforce positive classroom culture.

Duration: 45–60 minutes
Materials: Mixed-media paper, paint sticks or markers, tissue paper, glue, and scissors.

A Vegan Thanksgiving

Kind Turkey Tksgiving Craft

🦃✨ A Compassionate Thanksgiving: The “Kind Turkey” Gratitude Collage

Honoring gratitude, creativity, and kindness toward all beings

At The Art Nest Studio, we love using art to help children explore feelings, stories, and ideas that matter — and Thanksgiving is the perfect time for that!

This year, instead of focusing on the traditional turkey at the table, we’re celebrating with a “Kind Turkey” Gratitude Collage — an expressive arts activity that inspires empathy, gratitude, and compassion for all living beings.

We’ll be pairing this project with two of our favorite picture books: A Thanksgiving for the Turkey by Lotus Kay, and That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals by Ruby Roth. It’s a gentle, beautifully illustrated story that invites children to think about how kindness can include everyone — people and animals alike.

🖍 Materials

• Construction paper or cardstock

• Scissors

• Glue sticks or Mod Podge

• Magazines or scrap paper for collage

• Markers, colored pencils, or crayons

• Optional: leaves, feathers, or other natural textures

All materials can be vegan-friendly and cruelty-free — for example, look for non-gelatin glue sticks and recycled or FSC-certified paper when possible!

🎨 Instructions

1. Read together.

Begin by reading That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals (or a similar story like Turkey’s Thanksgiving). Talk about how Thanksgiving can be a time to celebrate life, gratitude, and compassion.

2. Imagine your turkey.

Invite your child to imagine a turkey who is thankful, happy, and free.

What does this turkey love about life? What are they grateful for?

3. Create your collage.

Draw or cut out a big turkey shape. Fill its feathers with magazine clippings, drawings, or nature finds that represent gratitude, joy, and kindness.

4. Add your gratitude words.

Around your turkey, write or collage words and images that show what you and your family are thankful for this year — friends, family, nature, pets, playtime, creativity, and more.

5. Reflect and share.

Talk about your turkey’s story. What makes them kind? How can we show kindness to animals and people every day?

💛 Expressive Arts Therapy Focus

This project blends emotional expression, creative storytelling, and mindfulness — all core elements of expressive arts therapy.

• Empathy: Imagining what the turkey feels helps children connect to compassion.

• Mindfulness: Slowing down to create with intention fosters calm and awareness.

• Self-expression: Using color, texture, and words allows emotions to be safely expressed.

• Gratitude: A tangible reminder of what truly matters.

🌱 Extending the Experience

• Display your Kind Turkey on your wall or dinner table as a reminder of compassion.

• Start a “Gratitude for All Beings” jar where your family adds notes of thanks for humans, animals, and nature.

• Pair the activity with a plant-based Thanksgiving dish your kids can help prepare — something colorful and kind!

🦃 In the Spirit of the Season

This Thanksgiving, let’s fill our hearts and homes with gratitude — not just for what we have, but for all who share this planet with us.

Through art, empathy, and creativity, our children learn that being kind feels just as good as making something beautiful.

Happy Thanksgiving from The Art Nest Studio family to yours! 🍁💛

A simple expressive arts activity to bring calm, gratitude, and connection

At The Art Nest Studio, we love projects that blend creativity with heart-centered reflection. This Thanksgiving, we’re slowing down to create Gratitude Stones; a tactile, mindful art ritual that helps children (and adults!) express thankfulness in a tangible, beautiful way.

It’s simple, grounding, and deeply meaningful! Perfect for a cozy afternoon with your family.

🌿 Materials

• Smooth river stones (found in nature or purchased)

• Acrylic paints or paint pens (I linked my favorite)

• Paintbrushes (You can opt for an all inclusive kit)

• A small bowl or basket to hold your stones

• Optional: Mod Podge to preserve them

🖌️ Instructions

1. Set the tone.

Gather your materials and take a few deep breaths together. Talk about what “gratitude” means: the feeling of appreciation for people, animals, or moments that make life bright.

2. Choose your stones.

Let each person select a few stones. Feel their weight and texture. Notice their color, temperature, and shape.

3. Paint your gratitude.

On each stone, paint a word, symbol, or image representing something you’re thankful for — “Family,” “Laughter,” “Nature,” “Pablo,” “Art,” “Home.”

(For young children, you can help them write words or draw simple images.)

4. Let them dry.

Once dry, you can seal them for lasting color.

5. Create a ritual.

Place the stones in a bowl or basket on your table. Each evening or during your Thanksgiving meal, take turns picking a stone and sharing why it’s meaningful.

🧠 Expressive Arts Therapy Connection

Gratitude Stones are more than a craft — they’re a sensory mindfulness exercise.

• The smooth texture of the stones helps regulate focus and calm.

• Painting symbols deepens reflection and emotional expression.

• The ritual of sharing turns gratitude into a shared, embodied practice.

This project fosters grounding, mindfulness, and emotional connection — three powerful outcomes of expressive arts therapy.

🌱 Kindness in Practice

We love using vegan, non-toxic art supplies and ethically sourced materials whenever possible. Gratitude grows stronger when it’s kind to the planet, too.

🕯 Optional Extension Ideas

• Add your stones to a “Gratitude Garden” outside.

• Make a new set each year and watch your collection grow.

• Pair this activity with a mindful moment from a favorite book, poem, or quote about thankfulness.

💛 Closing Thought

Through art, we remember that gratitude is something we can feel, see, and hold.

Each stone becomes a tiny reflection of love and reminder that beauty lives in the smallest things.

“Plant-Powered Feast Collage”

A Compassionate Thanksgiving Art Project

A simple and mindful craft for kids using old magazines + a gratitude twist

“Instead of tossing those old magazines into the recycling bin, invite your kids to slow down and explore gratitude through a mindful collage. In this ‘Plant-Powered Feast’ activity, children cut out images of fruits, veggies, grains, and plant-based dishes to build their own Thanksgiving feast — one filled with color, kindness, and creativity. This simple art project opens conversations about gratitude, food choices, and compassion while giving new life to materials you already have.”

PS: You can adapt the theme according to the type of magazines you have! Work on "Things you are thankful/grateful for"!

Why this idea works incredibly well:

• ♻️ Upcycling angle: “Before you recycle your magazines… make something beautiful first!”

• 🌱 Vegan/plant-based tie-in: Celebrates abundance in a gentle, positive way.

• 🎨 Expressive arts therapy element: Kids explore values, joy, and identity through images and color.

• 🙌 Parent appeal: Low cost, meaningful, calm activity. It keeps the whole family entertained for hours in such meaningful way. When you work with your hands you free your mind to access deep feelings. It is part of somatic engagement. The pictures you find if the magazines help you and your whole family to express those feelings with or without words!

Activity Instructions (Kid-Friendly + Mindful)

Materials:

• Old magazines/newspapers

• Scissors (I'm linking my favorite one, but it is not for kids 😉)

• Glue stick

• Construction paper or cardstock (We like to do it in our Art Journals - adding the link of the one I use)

• Optional: Acrylic markers for details

• Music for a calm atmosphere

Steps:

1. Set an intention:
   Ask, “What foods make you feel grateful? What meals remind you of love, family, or kindness?” Or if you want to be more general "What are you grateful/thankful for?" or "What makes you happy?"

2. Treasure hunt:
   Kids flip through magazines hunting for colorful photos of fruits, veggies, grains, herbs, soups, desserts, etc.

3. Cut & arrange:
   They build their own “feast plate” or “Thanksgiving table” by collaging their images.

4. Mindful moment:
   They choose one dish and share why it feels special or meaningful.

5. Add details:
   Use markers to draw steam, sparkles, utensils, or thankful words.

About the Examples:

My 9 years old daughter was being funny and decided to show her appreciation for shampoo. But she also expressed her gratitude for traveling, deserts, the baking show, health, out pet chicken, dog, cat and bird!

My 6 years old daughter truly appreciates her toys and was obsessed to try Starbucks Pink Drink. 🤷‍♀️ She also expressed her gratitude for traveling with us Note how she drew all of us between Mikey and Minnie! She also loves our pets, all the animal in the world, and she wrote gratitude words towards her favorite teachers and best friends.

She even walked us trough her process ❤️ We all shared about our collage as a family!

I truly get in the zone when working in a collage. I love that we can find similarities between our collages when it comes to traveling as a family and the love for our pets.

Lastly, my 2026 collage made specially for this post with all delicious, vegan, earth, heart felt food we can eat for thanksgiving and year round. Added some words with markers for a final touch!

This is a very basic craft and you probably have everything you need at home for a successful session. But I am sharing some links just in case you need to restock!

🌼 Family Gratitude Mandala

A Beautiful Thanksgiving Art Project

A mindful, nature-honoring activity that invites families to create together.

✨ Overview

This collaborative art project encourages families to slow down, connect, and design a circular mandala that symbolizes gratitude, harmony, and togetherness. Children and adults work side-by-side arranging natural and painted elements into balanced patterns, creating a meaningful keepsake for the season

🎨 Materials

Start by going to a nature walk to collect some materials.

• Cardstock or a round cardboard base (from the recycle pile)

• Natural items: leaves, small flowers, seeds, twigs (collected respectfully)

• Painted paper scraps or fall colors construction paper

• Drawing compass (for circle guides)

• Scissors & paintbrushes

• Mod Podge or glue

• Optional: markers, acrylic paint pens for details

• Small bowl for “gratitude words”

🌀 How to Make the Family Gratitude Mandala

1. Create the Base

   • Use a drawing compass to lightly sketch concentric circles on your cardstock or cardboard. These serve as “guiding rings” for balance. I have an adjustable circle cutter that was very handy for this project.

2. Gather & Sort Materials

   • Invite everyone to sort the materials collected by color, shape, and texture to help with the mandala’s symmetry. (It's a rainy day, so we improvised with our dinning table flower arrangement 😅 )

3. Share Gratitude Words

   • Each family member contributes 3–5 things they are grateful for.

   • Write them on small painted paper pieces or tiny leaf-shaped cutouts.

4. Build the Mandala Together

   • Start at the center and move outward, placing natural items and gratitude notes in repeating patterns.

   • Encourage everyone to take turns adding pieces.

   • Pause to notice the colors, textures, and rhythm.

5. Seal & Display

   • Once complete, use Mod Podge (or vegan glue) to secure pieces.

   • Display your gratitude mandala as a symbol of family harmony.

🧘 Expressive Arts Therapy Element

• This project encourages shared rhythm, co-regulation, and creative attunement.

• Working in a circle supports feelings of unity and calm.

• Repetition and symmetry in mandalas can soothe the nervous system and deepen emotional connection.

• Gratitude words help children articulate feelings while seeing how each person contributes to the whole.

🌱 Everything used can be natural, found, or repurposed. This reinforces caring for the Earth and choosing materials that align with compassion for animals and the environment.

🔗 Affiliate-Friendly Mentions

• Compass set

• Adjustable Circle Cutter

• Paintbrush set

• Mod Podge (or vegan-safe alternative)

• Paint pens or watercolor palettes (This set comes with 2 regular paint brushes + a water fillable one)

Family Art Time

Not available

Mixed Media Magic

Not available