Before the kids break out the screens, inspire hands-on creative play with a series of 3D pen projects to encourage skill building and creative exploration.

Drawing and coloring are timeless activities but now kids can take creativity off the page with a 3Doodler 3D pen. Transform your ideas into tangible, three-dimensional masterpieces, letting kids (and adults!) create anything they can imagine.

Jump start summer fun with a few ideas to get those creative gears turning!

Your Summer’s Creative Sidekick

As educators, you know first-hand how important it is to offer options to encourage creative play and reduce summer learning loss. Introducing 3D pens to inspire learning at home, can help in many ways.

Oodles of 3D Pen Doodles

Miniature Beach Scenes:

Create tiny palm trees, surfboards, flip-flops, and even little crabs or fish. You can then assemble them on a base to make a personalized beach diorama.
Pro Tip: Use blue filament for waves and clear/translucent for water effects!

Get the Stencil

Custom Keychains & Bag Tags:

Design personalized keychains with names, initials, or summer-themed icons like ice cream cones, popsicles, or suns. These make great gifts for friends or mementos of summer adventures!

Get the Stencil

Nature-Inspired Art:

“Draw” flowers, butterflies, or even intricate spiderwebs. Go on a nature walk and collect leaves or twigs for inspiration, then replicate them in 3D!

Get the Stencil

DIY Room Decor:

Craft unique picture frames to display summer memories. Design small decorative sculptures for shelves or desks, like abstract art pieces or geometric shapes. Create personalized pencil holders or small organizers for their summer reading nook.

Get the Stencil

Wearable Wonders:

With adult supervision, create unique earrings or pendants for necklaces. Design fun glasses or headbands for a quirky summer look (think oversized sunglasses or flower crowns!).

Get the Stencil

Bust summer boredom and embrace the world of three-dimensional possibility. 3Doodler 3D pens are a gateway to creativity and hours of screen-free fun. So, grab your pens, a rainbow of filaments, and let the summer doodling begin!

The post Doodle Days of Summer: 3Doodler’s Guide to Creative Adventures first appeared on 3Doodler.

Whether you’re looking to boost collaboration, or offer up a creative outlet for your students, we’ve got you covered.

These heartwarming Valentine’s Day classroom activities will have your students full attention, while teaching communication and problem solving skills all while using their 3D pens!

Add a touch of whimsy to your classroom and dive into STEM with lessons about flowers, their function, and a plant’s lifecycle. Explore the different shapes and sizes or how they attract pollinators. There’s so much to explore and a fun 3D activity to accompany the lesson!

Spring Flowers

Students can explore their artistic style and develop one-of-a-kind 3D or multimedia art projects. 3Doodler’s 3D heart-shaped balloons are easy to design. Use them as pendants, key chains, or even added onto a card for a whimsical greeting. Follow our tutorial or explore your creativity with more complex patterns, swirls, or multiple layers!

Balloon Hearts

Add a tasty and personal touch to Valentine’s Day celebrations with custom cookie cutters students can create and use at home! Explore our tutorial or encourage students to come up with their own designs. The project could involve students collaborating as they brainstorm ideas and share 3D printing techniques. Students might want to give the cookie cutters as gifts for friends and family once finished. It’s a sweet hands-on project your classroom is sure to remember!

Cookie Cutters

The post Surprise Students with 3 Sweet Valentine’s Day Classroom Activities! first appeared on 3Doodler.

Styles come and go quickly these days. That’s why creating custom charms, bike bling, or friendship bracelets could be the ticket to staying one step ahead of the trends and on budget.

Making unique 3D summer accessories or adding custom details with 3Doodler is easy. Check out our tips, and imagine what else you can create!

Fresh Fruit Clog Charms

Summer is right around the corner, so it’s the perfect time to create DIY clog shoe charms to celebrate the season. We took inspiration from summer fruits that will soon be available in farmers’ markets and fresh fruit stands. Design a lemon slice, strawberry, watermelon, grapes, or avocado following our tutorial and stencil. There’s no end to the amazing shoe charms that people design. Find more inspiration and create new versions to reflect your style!

Design Clog Charms

Bike Bling

Customize your bike with classic details or vary it up to personalize the look of your ride! Created in the 1980s, spoke beads or spoke dokes, as they are also called, add a bit of nostalgia to any bike wheel. The original beads clip to the spokes of your bike and often make noise as the beads travel up and down the spoke while the wheels are in motion. The faster you ride, the more noise they make. Follow 3Doodler’s tips to make decals you can add to your wheels, handlebars, and more. Check out 3Doodler’s earlier blog on bike accessories for more ideas!

Create Bike Decals

Friendship Bracelets

Friendship bracelets are a classic simple craft that never falls out of fashion. If you are a lucky Taylor Swift fan who scored tickets to the Eras Tour, you’ll likely see attendees exchanging bracelets at the show. Learn how to make a friendship bracelet with your 3D pen using our free stencil, or try the more advanced charm bracelet to test your design skills. Find plenty of inspiration at 3Doodler to help get your creative ideas flowing!

Make a Friendship Bracelet

The post Make 3D Summer Accessories That Shine first appeared on 3Doodler.

Disney’s live-action version of The Little Mermaid will be out in theaters later this month. Hear how it inspired Connie and discover the techniques that enabled her to bring her vision to life!

Diving Into an Underwater World

Mermaids and mermen appeared in folklore with the upper body of a human and the tail of a fish. These mythical beings appeared in many different cultures and were considered magical creatures who loved music and often sang.

Early stories about merpeople suggested they brought harm to humans in the form of floods, shipwrecks, or other disasters. However, mermaid and mermen sightings exploded during the early 1500s as explorers took to the seas and made their way across the ocean.

In fact, as early explorers traveled through the Caribbean they claimed they saw mermaids. It was likely manatees that they were spotting in the ocean, but the legends continued.

In 1873, Hans Christian Anderson wrote The Little Mermaid as part of a collection of fairy tales for children. The story shares the journey of a young mermaid willing to exchange her life in the ocean to gain a human soul. Over the years, the tale was adapted to theater, film, ballet, and even opera. The most well-known adaptation is that of the animated Disney film that was released in 1989.

“I loved the character of Ariel. She’s such a curious, lively girl, who loves to explore, to learn new things, and expand her horizon,” said Connie. “What intrigued me the most, though, was that beautiful underwater world. It was a completely new world to me, as was ours to Ariel.”

3D Design Process Explained

In sketching this latest project, Connie explains that her drawings continue to evolve throughout the project, and the final design may differ slightly from the original sketch. The next time you sketch, consider using a 3D pen to create a scene or add detail to a particular project.

“Once I start, the ideas start to flow,” said Connie. “As you draw one thing, another crosses your mind, but it doesn’t quite fit with what you’re sketching at the moment. Then, there’s a second idea, and so on.”

She explains that creating is an ever-evolving and living process. Sketching is an essential part of the process. Connie describes it as taking notes and putting them into a picture. That picture quickly becomes a 3D design as the process unfolds.

Connie draws from various angles to help in her three-dimensional planning. This process enables her to firm up the design’s dimensions, proportions, and details.

“The result is often a mixture of different ideas, but seldom just one specific sketch I made previously,” said Connie. “Even though the sketch is important to the design process it doesn’t determine the final result. It mostly serves as a visual note.”

Surprising Details & Techniques

Connie admits that creating something truly unique can take time and patience. Some elements, like the scales, were planned, prepared, and applied. But others, like the pearls and bubbles, were added as a finishing touch.

“The result is so rewarding,” she says. “I love the light reflecting on the multi-colored scales. I like the varying hair color. The details breathe life into things.”

A surprising material created the look of the skin on this mermaid. Connie used wood filament to make the skin and body. She doodled the pieces and then used the flattening tip to smooth them and create an even surface.

“Wood is such a good filament for sculpting,” said Connie. “If you use the angled tip, you can carve into the filament, as I did for lips and eyes. If you want to speed up the process, change the setting from PLA or Wood to ABS. It makes a big difference, but you need to be careful not to press too hard or the filament will melt away.”

Regarding the new live-action Little Mermaid, Connie is excited to see how Ariel’s sidekicks and the underwater kingdom come to life on screen.

“I’m really interested in all aspects of the story,” says Connie. “I’m mesmerized by modern film technology and enjoy seeing what artists are capable of creating. Entire new worlds to literally dive into!”

The post Dive Under the Sea with a 3D Pen Mermaid first appeared on 3Doodler.

Discover all that libraries have to offer during National Library Week, April 23-29, 2023! Libraries provide a space for community events, guest speakers, crafting classes, STEM activities, and book clubs. In addition, librarians are there to help you find what you need. They lend movies, musical instruments, games, and museum passes. At a library, you might be surprised to find courses that support local businesses, job seekers, or entrepreneurs.

This week, take a moment to explore how libraries support the local community with tips we rounded up. While you’re at it, use your 3Doodler tools to design a flipbook or trace your favorite storybook character. Read on!

There’s More to the Story

It’s easy to participate in National Library Week! Explore these suggestions and discover something new at a library near you.

Storybook Projects

Libraries are also an excellent resource for STEM/STEAM clubs and maker spaces. In addition, you may find tools you can borrow, like a 3Doodler 3D pen or activity clubs, that you can join for weekly project ideas.

No need to delay. We’ve got a few project ideas that will get you started as you celebrate National Library Week. So enjoy these creative projects you design to support your love of reading, storytelling, and more with 3Doodler!

3D Flipbook

Create a small book with a series of images in different positions to create the illusion of movement when the pages flip quickly.

Make It

Bookshelf Doodling

Bring storybook characters to life! Use a favorite book from home or check out new books at a local library. Once you’ve settled on your favorite, we’ll teach you how to take any picture book and create a stencil for doodling!

Try It

The post Celebrate National Library Week! first appeared on 3Doodler.

We’re sharing how creators celebrate the planet by upcycling everyday materials to create impactful art. Turn ordinary objects and things around the house into cool, one-of-a-kind creations with 3Doodler project ideas.

Working for the Environment

The celebration of Earth Day began in April 1970 to push the federal government to tackle environmental issues. The response from the public was overwhelming, and in just a few short months, Congress authorized the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The EPA serves a vital mission to protect human health and the environment. The agency does so by developing and enforcing regulations, giving grants, conducting research, creating partnerships, and educating people about the environment.

In seeking to educate the public, the EPA provides several resources for teachers and students to explore. For example, there are tips on conserving energy at home, becoming a food waste warrior, understanding our connection to groundwater, or even making a disaster readiness plan.

These resources are a fantastic way to bring environmental issues to the forefront and bring about change.

Repurpose & Reuse Everyday Items

3Doodler is committed to inspiring creativity while working with the environment, not against it. Our filaments promise outlines our work to ensure our filaments are completely safe to use. 3Doodler Start+ filaments are eco-friendly, and ALL of our filaments are certified as recyclable.

Now that you know the materials you’re using are safe for you and the environment, let’s get doodling. This round-up of projects encourages you to reuse or repurpose things around you as you create in 3D.

Give New Life To An Old Planter

Plants and greenery are a natural way to contribute to environmental efforts. Adding them to your home can add a beautiful natural element. Pick up an old pot or vase and give it new life with a 3D design. Add simple flowers along the outside or trim with polka dots, vines, or other creative symbols. It’s a wonderful opportunity to refresh an older item for a new use!

Repurpose a Pot

Turn Cardboard Scraps Into Speaker

Cardboard is an amazing material to work with to augment your 3D creations. It’s recycling in action. Find a few pieces of cardboard and make a DIY phone speaker that rocks. Use your 3D pen to add details to the speaker in colors that complement your space. It’s a unique way to reuse cardboard and amplify the music on your phone. Time to turn up the volume!

Make a Speaker

Transform Leftover Filament

Collect doodled scraps as you create and learn to make new art with a few quick tips. From coasters to bowls and other eye-catching creations, there’s no end to what you can come up with using your filament scraps. It’s a fantastic way to make the most of all your filament. Play with different color combinations for your own truly unique recycled creations!

Create Beautiful Decor

The post Upcycling for Earth Day! first appeared on 3Doodler.

All 30 teams will play in 15 games which will be the first time since 1968 that every Major League Baseball team starts the season on the same day!

Opening Day will mark the start of the 162-game regular season played over 213 days. So as you’re preparing to root for the home team, grab your 3D pen and doodle a team baseball hat!

America’s National Pastime

The National Baseball Hall of Fame explains that while Abner Doubleday – a decorated Union Army officer who fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter at the start of the Civil War and later served at the Battle of Gettysburg – is credited with inventing baseball in 1839 in Cooperstown, NY, there is still debate about the origins of the game.

Regardless of how baseball started, it evolved with the country and became known as America’s national pastime by the last half of the 19th century. Through the years, baseball played a role in the two world wars, civil rights, equal access and opportunity on and off the playing field, and much more, as described in the book Baseball: The National Pastime in the National Archives.

Even if you can’t travel to Cooperstown, you can explore the sport’s rich history through several online exhibits. Check them out and understand more about the players, the uniforms, and critical events in American history!

Swing, batter, batter!

Babe Ruth Batting, courtesy of New York World-Telegram.

By 1870, the cost of employing professional ballplayers became challenging. As a result, the Cincinnati club’s board elected to refrain from fielding a team for 1871. Instead, many of the players left Cincinnati for Boston. They formed the Boston Red Stockings, who went on to win four straight league championships (1872-1875) before becoming part of the National League. Today the franchise is known as the Atlanta Braves.

The New York Yankees started in 1903 as the New York Highlanders. The Yankees have won 27 World Series titles and 40 American League pennants. However, the team wasn’t always this successful. Their stroke of luck came when they acquired Babe Ruth in 1920 from the Boston Red Sox.

The history of the sport is long and storied. Explore the origins of your hometown team — you might be surprised by what you learn.

Seventh-Inning Stretch

Cheer on your favorite team and take a creativity break by making a custom baseball hat. So naturally, with 3Doodler based in New York City, we created a Yankee’s hat and a Mets’ hat using the 3Doodler Start+ and Create+ 3D pens.

With a few simple tips, a 3D pen, filament, and our free stencil, you’ll be on your way to creating baseball hats for all the MLB fans.

Use your DIY baseball hats as decor for an office or bedroom shelf or perhaps as a cake or cupcake topper. 3Doodler’s tutorial and stencil library is full of fantastic sporty designs from soccer to football or basketball. The choice is yours!

Make a Baseball Hat

The post Gear Up for Major League Baseball’s Opening Day first appeared on 3Doodler.

Established in 1961 by the Art & Creative Materials Institute (ACMI), the creators sought to emphasize the value children derive from art education. Today Youth Art Month is coordinated nationally by the Council for Art Education (CFAE).

3Doodler is delighted to support the visual arts and inspire young creators to use their imagination and bring their ideas to life. Explore Youth Art Month activities and learn how to engage with 3Doodler’s community to celebrate the visual arts!

New York Youth Art Month Poster

Your Art, Your Voice

This year participants will recognize the month through the theme “Your Art, Your Voice.” In addition, participating states host various activities, from a state flag design contest, local and state Youth Art Month proclamations, and art shows at state capitals and legislative buildings.

The celebration is intended to bring attention to visual art’s value in developing critical thinking skills, raising multicultural awareness, and encouraging technical, communication, and expression skills.

The Texas Art Education Association kicks off Youth Art Month with a Big Art Day, where grades K-12 participate in art events across the state. Big Art Day will take place on March 2, 2023, featuring 1,000 art activities.

In Illinois, students participate in a statewide art show hosted by the Illinois Art Education Association. The submissions are reviewed by a panel of judges who select 45 participants to feature in a statewide slide show that travels across the state.

Visit the Council for Art Education to learn more about Youth Art Month events and activities in your state.

Inspiring Young Artists

3Doodler looks to inspire young artists in the classroom and at home through lessons, projects, stencils, tutorials, and more. All these resources are readily available in the 3Doodler resource library and the 3Doodler App.

The 3Doodler App is a great way to encourage budding artists to expand their ability to draw and create in 3D. Through the app, young artists will find stencils, tutorials, and other art prompts to jumpstart their creativity. Plus, they can share their latest doodle creations with the community via an online gallery. The photos featured are from Doodlers like you. In addition, fellow artists can comment on shared designs and offer support. It’s a fantastic way to build community and celebrate art.

Explore Your Creativity

Get started by creating one of the following projects to celebrate Youth Art Month!

Collage Display

Get Started

Action Figure

Get Started

Keepsake Box

Get Started

The post March is Youth Art Month first appeared on 3Doodler.

Science, math, and technological literacy help us engage in engineering and solve problems to help those around us. So let’s learn more about these fields and see how we can contribute with 3Doodler tools as an early introduction to 3D printing, creative problem-solving, and breaking down how things work.

Change Makers

Engineer’s Week began in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) to highlight engineers’ critical role in society. The week coincides with President George Washington’s birthday, as he is often described as America’s first engineer. But engineers go much further back in history, and their contributions are vast.

Look around you and imagine for a moment all the things in your life that engineers have played a part in creating. The list is endless. Engineers have contributed many ways to improve lives, from electricity to the telephone, cars, airplanes, and computers.

Meeting an engineer is one way to help demystify the field and learn more about what engineers do. DiscoverE, the organization that sponsors Engineers Week, hosts monthly Chats with Change Makers to speak with a real-life engineer and learn about a new field. Explore past episodes or join the next one live to learn more about technology fields.

Creating the Future

In addition to meeting engineers, young people can explore the various engineering disciplines at school or home with easy-to-follow lessons. This week we’re sharing a few challenging and fun engineering lessons to build and test designs in 3D.

The engineering design process offers a way of thinking that you can apply to solve a problem. Each step provides new information about the situation and encourages you to think critically about how you might solve it. Engineers often repeat the process to come up with the best possible solution. Working as a team, you can share ideas and find new perspectives by involving others.

The Engineer Girl offers a simple way to think about the engineering design process. It’s also a great place to start exploring careers in engineering and learning more about the field.

Design Like an Engineer

Working with friends has never been better as students explore STEM-focused design challenges that span sports, architecture, and design. These 3Doodler lesson plans will inspire critical thinking and opportunities to apply the engineering design process.

Grade K-2: STEM Doodle Hockey

Get the Lesson

Grade 3-5: STEM Doodle Engineering Challenge

Get the Lesson

Grade 6-8: STEAM Design Challenge

Get the Lesson

The post It’s Engineers Week! first appeared on 3Doodler.

She’s a highly knowledgeable 3D pen art community member who shares her doodling tips freely. Connie’s design approach turns fantasy into reality. You’ve no doubt seen some of her incredible Doodles on our Instagram. In addition to the content she posts on her Instagram, she’s also shared some incredibly detailed and helpful tutorials on her YouTube channel that explore creative tips and tricks to test out with a 3D pen.

This week we’ve partnered with Connie to reimagine the Pisces symbol from an artist’s perspective. Learn how she designed the piece and explore her 3D pen art tips and tricks!

Finding Creative Freedom

As Connie explains it, designing in 3D offers her artistic freedom. She can create anything she can dream up. And, if she’s working on a project and doesn’t care for something or is struggling to get the exact look she wants, she finds the filament is easy to heat and remove to remold.

“Creating in 3D gives me infinite freedom. There’s just no limit,” said Connie. “You can draw lines into thin air if you like drawing, you can design pieces flat and assemble them if you’re into modeling and architecture, you can mix techniques, you can bend the filament pieces with hot air, you can smudge the filament with your pen’s nozzle, or you can bake and melt it into sheets. The creative possibilities are endless.”

Connie also likes to see where the process takes her. While designing, she never knows what might happen. So she takes every opportunity to try a new idea or test a new technique.

“I look forward to seeing where the experience will take me, and what I’ll discover next,” said Connie. “I love to delve into small things, try not to overlook things, and create pieces that give my audience many things to discover.”

Pisces Design Inspiration

Connie doesn’t follow zodiac signs closely, but she enjoys reading her horoscope from time to time. She’s an Aries and enjoys reading about the traits related to her sign to see if any match her personality, and some do.

“When I began working on the pisces piece, I looked up the astronomical sign and when I saw it was a fish I immediately had something colorful in mind,” said Connie. “I envisioned a fish with long fins, to show the floating, waving, weightlessness of those animals. I imagined them swimming in the air just like they do under water.”

Connie thought about using a coy or betta fish. When she was younger, she had a betta fish and was already familiar with it. Bettas also have long fins and come in a wide variety of colors. Connie knew she had a winner!

Aspiring Doodlers Take Note

Connie is a phenomenal 3D artist whose techniques and creativity inspire a community of Doodlers. Her suggestions for anyone looking to gain skills with a 3D pen are pretty simple.

“Work with the 3D pen. Seriously, if you browse my Instagram, I posted one of my first creations there, said Connie. “It was a clumsy little birdie, made with the first 3Doodler 3D pen. I was so extremely proud of it that day.”

Connie explains that working with hot filament and getting a feel for a 3D pen can be daunting. But, the more you work with it, the less afraid you will be about what could go wrong and the more intrigued you become to see what more you can do. She recommends starting small by picking something simple or something you can try to recreate.

“It’s really important to use the 3D pen,” said Connie. “The more you use it, the more comfortable you are with its shape in your hand, the way it functions, the filament and different filaments. You’ll gradually find the technique that suits you best.”

Once you become comfortable with the pen, Connie recommends trying the nozzle set. She used it for this project to create the fins and scales. Next, she attached the scales by melting them onto the body with the hot pen tip.

“For these fish, I used the angled nozzle to draw those ultra-thin, almost see-through fins, and the shiny scales,” said Connie. “The nozzle set is a great way to spice up your projects, if you find yourself looking for something new!”

As far as what to expect next from Connie, she’s happiest when experimenting and learning something new. In addition, she enjoys creating hyper-realistic pieces, like giant butterflies, and makes a nice piece of fan art now and then.

“Currently, I am working on detailed, monochrome pieces,” said Connie. “I’m mixing plants with animal traits and supersizing small things. My artistic style is always evolving as I learn new things.”

The post Artist Spotlight: Cornelia Kuglmeier first appeared on 3Doodler.