I hadn’t thought of this activity in years, but it was one of my favourites when I was a kid.  My friends and I spent hours, sprawled out on the rec. room floor with a stack of magazines and a box of crayons, performing something we called magazine make-overs.

We were quite a bit older than the hooligans are.   We were just starting to take an interest in make-up and fashion, and we would practically pounce on any magazine that anyone cast aside, pouring over it, and pulling out any cover-girl photos that we’d come across.  

We would then transform the models with our crayons, adding eye-shadow, lipstick and blush, and adding jewellery and embellishments to the models’ clothing.

When I presented this activity to the hooligans today, I set out Sharpies instead of crayons, and instead of adding “make-up”, I encouraged them to add things like moustaches, freckles and eye-glasses, and suggested that they transform their models into pirates or animals or super-heroes.

Whether they took my advice or not didn’t matter.  I just wanted to throw some ideas out there to spark their imaginations.

And I think it worked.  They really loved this activity.  They spent about 45 minutes carefully and methodically decorating their pages.

I love how each child has his or her own distinct style.

One added very bold, geometric designs to her pictures, and I think they’re really interesting,

while the other took a more laid-back, loose, artistic approach.

This is a really simple activity way for your child to have fun while expressing himself artistically.  And it can be done almost anywhere with very little prep!