Guide to giving the unique gift of creativity

No matter the celebration we have gifts for everyone on your list

Gift for Grandma KEEPSAKE BOX High quality wood box with felt lining and 4.25 inch ceramic tile. A gift giving favorite for grandparents! Gift for Grandpa MOUNTED CERAMIC TILE Mounted 4.25 inch tile for a wall or tabletop. Stand included.  Gift for Dad IPAD CASE with COVER Super Slim Black Polyurethane Smart Cover With Hard Case. Removable insert showcases artwork! Gift for Mom PENDANT NECKLACE One inch square pendant featuring artwork with a 24 inch ball chain.  Safe for children too! Gift for your Child YOUTH RINGER TSHIRT 100% cotton white youth with colored neck and sleeves.

How to create a Squicker Wall of Fame

No time to hold an art show?

We have a quick and easy way to display student artwork that is sure to pump up their self-esteem! What a great way to motivate families to participate in the elementary school art fundraiser!

Think about it!

How much do your students love their free gift of Square 1 Art Squickers?

(20 custom stickers of their very own artwork that they receive free upon their school participating in a Square 1 Art easy to run art fundraiser)

Plan ahead and create a Great Wall of Fame with each child's artwork.

Follow these three easy steps to creating a beautiful wall of art!

This idea was created by: West Bradford Elementary, Downingtown PA

Step One

Dress up your bulletin board.

Use butcher or kraft paper to create a dramatic back drop. Cut out shapes or letters to outline the stickers. This will keep the stickers in place upon applying.  Do you want your shapes or letters to appear 3-D? Use foam core board as a backing for the stickers.

Many stores in your neighborhood typically are willing to give away scraps.  When I was in art school I would go by the interior design shops and retrieve their old fabric samples to use in my art.

Step Two

Apply the Squickers.

Upon receipt of your custom catalogs and squickers that showcase the student's artwork, pull one sticker off of each sheet and apply them to the bulletin board.  Another fun idea is to involve the students in your creation.  Have them apply their own stickers.  They could also sign the back drop as they are choosing the perfect squicker location.

Step Three

Reveal the completed Squicker Wall of Fame

Hold a parent night and have the students present the wall. You could also showcase the wall during morning announcements or a pep-rally.

This is just another fun and easy way to showcase your pint sized Picasso's beautiful art masterpieces!

Do you have a picture of your Great Wall of Fame? Share it with us! #square1art or @square1art

How do I order Square 1 Art with additional artwork?

Was your child unable to participate with the school's art fundraiser?
Would you like to order additional products with a different piece of artwork?

My daughter's school is participating in this fundraiser, but I was wondering about sending additional art. We would like to send 32 addition art pieces to be made into quilt squares. Is this something we are able to do. If so what is the process, time limit and how do I obtain paper. I really appreciate your consideration as my grandfather passed away this year and we would like to make my grandmother a quilt.

Hello, I am a mom with five children. My two oldest children's art teacher did this fundraiser at their school, then that teacher moved. My two youngest children are doing this now at their preschool. I was wondering if I could do a project with my middle son so that we could buy the same items with his artwork. He will feel very left out when his four siblings' artwork is on display on our walls and none from him. I hope that you will consider letting me do this for my middle son.

You can order individually with new art using our
Retail Order Kit

Follow the steps below:

1. Read over the Art Requirements sheet for best practices on creating art for Square 1 Art Products.
2. Create colorful artwork using the art template paper.
3. Fill out the order form.  Print legibly.
1. Pay by check, money order, or credit card.
2. Send artwork, order form, and payment to:

Square 1 Art - Retail Division
5470 Oakbrook Parkway Suite E
Norcross, GA 30093

Questions? Chat with us live on our website
or dial (888) 332.3294 option 2 for Customer Care

Please note that we hope to provide you with an upload option on our website soon.

Helping young Artists through their art-making anxiety

Here at Square 1 Art we do everything we can to make our fundraiser process more convenient for Art Teachers, Coordinators, and parents alike.

But what about when our actual Artists are having trouble?

Even something as exciting as our lesson plans can give your student performance issues. And some Artists are so free-spirited that the most awesome lesson plan can, to them, feel like cramping of their artistic style. Some stories from our customers have helped round out our perspectives on our processes.

While art in general should allow creative impulses to run free, Square 1 Art has our ‘Art Requirements’ in place due to the technology we use to turn those impulses into fun and memorable products.

We have been making artwork into keepsakes for thirteen years; we have a good idea of what works out best! Just like there are rules in the classroom or the art room, our guidelines are there to assist our Artists in achieving a final result they’ll be proud of. So it’s with reason that we have our requirements, and we hope your students will be able to work within them with this thought in mind.

Pride in your achievements is what we want to stress, so our Artists don’t stress! No one is grading or competing, but since our products and the artwork on them can last for a long time, it is important to be happy with your work. Some of the best advice I was able to pass along was, “Do something you'll be proud of. Artwork that you want to hang on the wall, point to, and say: that there is my artwork, I did it and I'm proud of it.”

My own mother is an art teacher, and she will tell you that following the rules is indeed important, but you’re the first person who needs to be proud of what you've done. We want to make sure that everyone involved with a Square 1 Art school fundraiser has the best experience possible.

Please let us know about your stories; we’ll be able to help each other out along the way!

Post by:

Julie Branch

Customer Care Representative

"J-u-l-i-e, Branch like a tree, that's me!" 

Keys to a successful school art fundraiser!

Promotion through Communication = Successful Fundraising!

Communicate the school art fundraiser to students and parents.  Remember, through our online ordering option parents may share their child's artwork with out of town family members!

The sky is the limit with Square 1 Art Fundraising!  

 Create excitement by showcasing sample products at your school.  Create billboards and use the posters we provide to decorate hallways, lunch rooms, and the front office. 

 Allow students and families to view, touch, and feel the quality of Square 1 Art products.  You will make a great impact if families see the products in person.

Photos courtesy of Kristeen Jahner, Art Specialist at Horizons Elementary

Additional ways to promote 

• Reward students
• Sweet treats
• Parties
• Extra recess
• Reward parent volunteers
• Thank you cards
• I owe you coupons
• Luncheons
• Principal spreads the word
• School wide email
• Voice mail call out system
• School Marquee
• School newsletter
• Classroom newsletter

Link to Square1art.com from your website.

Use the code below, it's that easy!

< a href="http://www.square1art.com" target="_new"><img src="http://www.square1art.com/css/images/logo.png" alt="support your school fundraising ideas by purchasing your child's art on unique keepsakes "/> </a>

Check out Mendon Center Elementary School's PTSA website.  This a great way to reference the Square 1 Art school art fundraiser on your website!

We've created an attention grabbing video that is sure to pump up the students and get them talking about the unique Square 1 Art fundraiser.  We ask that you show this during your morning announcements and/or in the classroom.

Need more ideas?  Contact us at

(888) 332.3294

We are available to customize a promotion plan specific to your school!  Our mission is to ensure that you have a successful school art fundraiser and we take great pride in what we do!

Take a tour of Square 1 Art, easy to run school art fundraiser

Square 1 Art is an innovative school art fundraising company that sells custom and unique products that display children’s artwork.  We manufacture all of your products in our own facility.

Welcome to our Home

Take a photo tour of our facility and see where all the magic happens!

Friendly Reception

Beautiful Great Wall of Art

Customer Care and Account Management

Team is responsible for customer service and managing school accounts. Individuals are responsible for fulfilling customer concerns about product orders, and general questions about our fundraisers.

Happy Gram

Company-wide we have implemented many different programs to recognize hard work and achievement.  Our Happy Gram program allows employees (not just managers) to recognize their peers for a job well done.

Human Resources Center

Team is committed to equal opportunity employment and encourages applications from people of diverse backgrounds.

Information Technology

Team is responsible for the development, installation, and implementation of computer systems applications.

Art and Order Receiving

Team is responsible for accurately organizing children's art into folders and crates for handling by other departments. Inspect art for problems and correct illegible or non-conforming art. Other duties may include opening packages of art and order forms for customers and art care as needed.

Data Entry

Team is responsible for the data entry of customer and order data.

Print Production

Team is responsible for performing artwork capturing, image editing, printing, organizing of catalogs and product transfer materials.

Production and Match

Team is responsible for the manufacturing of custom products. Duties include paper trimming, heat press operation, product packing and quality control.  Along with pick/pack and quality control of catalogs and customer orders.

 Finance

Team is responsible for asset management along with printing fundraiser checks for our school partners.

Did you know?  Within the last 10 years, we have given millions back to our school partners to use towards their fundraising goals!

Your time is important when choosing a school fundraiser

When it comes right down to it, the most important thing to keep in mind when choosing a fundraiser for your elementary or private school is time! It's the one thing most of us lack but want more of.

We recommend that you look for an easy to run school art fundraiser when comparing your options.  This will give you more hours in the day to do the things you love like spending time with your family.

How do you know it's going to be easy?

I've listed some important features to look for below :

• Organized
• The artwork and orders are sent back organized by class and student for easy distribution.
• Easy One Time Artwork Shipment
• The art fundraiser provides an easy way for you to ship artwork by including shipping labels.
• You don't have to put in the work of uploading artwork because the company photographs all of the artwork for you.
• The school fundraising company keeps the artwork in their database for orders after the fundraiser is over.
• Ideal Order Experience
• The art fundraiser provides a family friendly shopping experience by providing three easy ways to order: Paper order form, online ordering, and phone orders.
• One woMan Show
• The company prints the school, student, and class information on the school fundraiser take home documents and fundraiser orders to ensure that you could run the fundraiser by yourself or possibly with one other parent volunteer.
• Excellent Customer Service
• The company should provide you with 100% customer satisfaction.
• Their commitment should be to offer you excellence in school fundraising programs and ease of use.
• The art fundraiser should have an 800 number with a customer care department that is available to answer your questions during the fundraising process.
• Some companies only allow you to deal directly with one representative and you should not have to wait for only that person to respond to your question.
• Your inquiries should be answered in a timely manner and shouldn't take more than 24 hours for a response.

Have you had the joy of experiencing the key features above for your easy to run school art fundraiser? 

Please feel free to connect with us at (888) 332.3294.

We welcome the opportunity to speak with you in more detail about how we offer a true fundraiser partnership with school parent organizations just like you!

Request more information

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The school art fundraiser Square 1 Art is a huge hit!

The Square 1 Art school art fundraiser has been a big hit at our school (Jamestown Elementary)!

Products students are excited to use

Our students have absolutely loved having the opportunity to create art that they will see

reproduced professionally on products! Each student receives their own group of stickers with their art on it for free so that no matter what the student’s financial background, everyone gets a professional product that they are excited to use!

Parents love to continue the tradition

Parents have wanted to ensure that we will continue the program year after year to help them with gift ideas for family.

Extra cash for your art budget

Of course, we as art teachers, have been so excited to have extra cash for our ever-diminishing art budget. Square 1 art has been a Win-Win all around!

Successful Kid Art Lessons Plans

In choosing the projects that would be most successful for each grade level, we tried to choose iconic images that are easy for all students to draw, images that are easy for all ages to connect to, and subjects that could be individualized according to the student’s interest and talent.

Some examples of subjects were: self-portraits, hearts, fish, hands, suns, moons, etc. Every grade level had at least a couple of choices of subjects, with freedom growing with grade level. 

With our upper grades, we allowed them to bring in a sketch if they had an alternative subject idea. With all grades, we just emphasized the things that we teach daily: balance, warm/cool colors, emphasis, pattern, lines, drawing large and filling the page, overlapping, etc. We also placed many examples on the board to get their creative juices flowing!

Kids were so excited to get started, couldn't wait to receive their stickers, and had such enthusiasm while brainstorming who they wanted to purchase a gift for.

We look forward to repeating the school fundraiser next year!

Courtesy of guest blogger:

Denise Teitsma, Art Teacher, Jamestown Elementary

Jamestown Elementary Art Blog

Jamestown Elementary Art Lessons for the Square 1 Art Fundraiser

In Demand Careers - What's art got to do with it?

Great News!
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that art careers will grow as fast as average in line with other occupations. 

According to Artbistro,
listed below are the most
In-Demand Art Careers

• Graphic Design
• Multimedia Artist
• Photographer
• Fine Artist

You're sure to succeed if you pursue a technical art field.   I am also a huge advocate of school art teachers or art specialists as they are often called.  Being a former art teacher myself, I know first-hand what it's like teaching elementary school art lesson plans to children.  I can't describe the amazing feeling you get when you see a child's face light up as they express themselves through their artwork. A great way to get students excited about creating unique artwork is through Square 1 Art.  This easy to run school fundraiser gives them a reason to be creative and support the arts at their school.

How does one become creative?

That's a great question! Creativity isn't something that is learned.  Everyone has the ability to be creative.  Creativity and personal expression must be fostered in children for it to flourish in adult-hood. Some adults think to themselves, "I cant even draw a stick figure" therefore I am not creative. 

Did you know?

There are six art developmental stages that children experience before the age of 16.

When you were young did you ever have a chance to watch the clouds in the sky?  Weren't they the most magnificent masterpieces that you have ever seen!  Those white fluffy poofs of air would turn in to all sorts of grand characters!  As the clouds would move slowly so would your imagination and you would find many more animals in clouds!

You are born creative

It's learning how to use that creativity in adult-hood that becomes the struggle.  The great Picasso once said: "Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."

What better way to remain an artist than to become one professionally!  Explore art careers in demand or...better yet...incorporate creativity into your current career!

We want to know...

How do YOU incorporate creativity into your career?

Leave us a comment.

Paint for a cause and make a difference

Painting in the park for a cause

I am originally from Honduras, a small and very tropical country in the middle of Central America. When I was in High School, every Saturday afternoon I used to meet in a public hall with other artists. We would paint, inspire and critique each other so that we could grow our talents.  We would bring our canvases, paint and brushes to the gatherings and paint all day. We were a group of all ages that shared the same passion; to create art. (Even my dentist attended, she was a pretty good artist.)

Raise funds by creating art awareness

Honduras is a third world country.  Therefore, it is in great need of the visual arts.  In 2000, we only had one public school of fine arts and it was located inside the installations of a museum. The school was in need of its own building and we needed to do something about it.  Unfortunately, running a school art fundraiser is not an option. That’s when we realized that we had to raise awareness and raise funds for the arts in Honduras.

Show off your art skills

Our group was led by a very well-known newspaper cartoonist, Dario Banegas.  After much thought and collaboration, we decided the best way to raise awareness for our cause was to paint in the central park where the public could see us create art. The day of the show we were surprised to see that many well know Honduran painters had joined the cause; we were even joined by the Honduran President at that time!

Educate to create awareness

We painted in the central park of San Pedro Sula the whole afternoon and many people came up to us very interested in viewing the works of art that we were creating. We discussed the arts and educated people who were completely unaware.

My artwork

As for me, I painted a small cottage in a country setting with big trees and a cloudy blue sky. I paint with a spatula because I love the 3-D effect of the paint on my canvas. The night was a complete success and it was a blast!

You too can make a difference

I wanted to share this experience with you because even though art is very popular in the United States, in my opinion, it is not as appreciated in other parts of the world.  We are the ones who can make a difference and spread awareness of the arts!  Whether its paint, pottery, sculpture…whatever your passion may be, the time has come to make a difference!

Blog by:

Stephanie Coplan

Account Manager at Square 1 Art

View her artist portfolio

The Art of Symbols

Symbolism

Using symbols in artwork and language has been a tradition for centuries.  Symbols date back 20,000 years ago to the cave paintings in Lascaux, France.

Easily communicate your thoughts and ideas 
Symbols provide meaning and help humans communicate.  Even language is a form of symbolism.  Every letter that we write or type is considered a symbol representing something.  Every doodle or drawing that we create is a form of communication.  We are expressing our thoughts and ideas through lines and shapes.

O say can you see?

One of the most famous and recognizable forms of symbolism is the American Flag.  The white stars against the blue background, along with the red and white stripes, portray freedom and independence from the kingdom of Great Britain on July 4th, 1776.  Today we refer to the holiday as Independence Day or the 4th of July.


How does the star spangled flag make you feel?

I feel independent, proud, and joy for my country.  Symbols can bring out many different types of feelings.  These feelings relate to your life experiences and your history with that particular shape.


Yowsers! Really?!


Your turn...




How do you feel?
Scroll through the artist renderings of the american flag below and write down the first feeling that comes to mind.

Artist: Keith Haring, American (1958 - 1990)
Title: American Music Festival - New York City Ballet
Year: 1988
Medium: Serigraph Poster

Source Rogallery

Description: Three Flags by Jasper Johns, 1958.

Displayed in Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Source: http://www.newyorkartworld.com/images/anycphoto/JasperJohnsFlags-400x263.jpg

Peter Max

"American Flag with Heart"

1999

Works on Paper (not prints)

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Paper

Source: http://www.artbrokerage.com/Peter-Max/American-Flag-with-Heart-34486

125 pound fiberglass American Quarter Horse sculpture

Gary Ward 

Source: http://www.pantex.com/news/blog/Pages/Horse-sculpture-reflects-site's-patriotism.aspx#sthash.i48WdaZ3.dpuf

Leoma Lovegrove

10' x 18' canvas

Remember 9/11

source: http://pineislandnews.com/Pine_Island_News_Blog/content/lovegroves-mammoth-art-exhibited-prime-area-rsw-airport

Pierre Riche

"Melting Flag"

2007

source: http://intlaffairs.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=132129525

Great job!  Bravo!
Take those feelings that you wrote down and contemplate them.  What life experiences contributed to your feelings? Now, incorporate them into your own artwork.  Post your art where we can see it on Facebook/Square1Art.  Go one step beyond and write up some children's art lesson plans about symbolism.

Your thoughts...
Do you have any creative ways that you teach symbolism to your kids or students?  Leave us a comment below.