fundraising art projects for schools

Now taking bookings for the school Christmas card project 2025 .

Free to take part, register here. Get crafty and raise funds now.

For Personal Art Cards please see the Home Project page.

love art.   celebrate creativity.   let us help you raise school funds.

ART GUIDELINES

If you are a project coordinator interested in running one of our fundraising projects, you can review this web version before project registration so that you can decide if our projects are suitable. After your booking confirmation, we will be sending you a Digital Art Resource which you must forward to every teacher running the art lesson.

FOLLOW THESE GENERAL DO’S & DON’TS

1.
Do give children of all ages strong support from start to finish. For our fundraising projects, they art is intended to be made as part of a closely guided lesson; please be fully aware that most parents will only support your project if the pictures are inviting and in good quality, combined with effective promotion strategies.
2.
Do not begin your picture until you review our Media Guidelines to see what you can and cannot use. This important section exists to help you choose the most suitable media and medium applications for an effective reproduction.
3.
Do choose appropriate art paper most suitable for your application; never use poor quality or thin office papers as template, use at least 120gsm good quality white papers and at least 160gsm for heavy painting and hand printed art with a bare background - see Media Guidelines for full details.
4.
Do fill your template with bold or proportional graphics to convey a sensible well composed picture; understand basic picture quality and types can help you set a strong foundation. For novice, keep pictures simple but not bland, only include graphics with easy contour, and never make busy pictures, doodles or include graphics that cannot be finished effectively.
5.
Do avoid adding greeting text on your picture unless it adds substantial design element, mis-spellings can be embarrassing when printed onto the end product. Most children will add text to their picture when they don’t know how else to fill the template, unfortunately, aside from mis-spellings, the text graphics are usually finished in ways that either do nothing to improve the picture quality or spoil the entire picture altogether.
6.
Do make your finish vibrant, rich in contrasting effects of tone, depth and textures. Pictures with colouring-in finish, dominating flatness or heaviness, lack of contrast such as flat-on-flat, dark-on-dark, pale-on-pale, same-on-same are the least effective and will most likely return a poor reproduction. Fundraising projects with a sample return cannot be finished like a colouring-in at all.
7.
Do paint to succeed, it is the most effective medium for promoting tones, depth and textures vital for reproduction. It can be applied alone or with other mix-mediums, requiring the least skills to use well.
8.
Do not use pencil crayons, they will reproduce very poorly due to their dullness.
9.
Do fix pastel / charcoal drawings with a fixative to avoid smudges during the production process.
10.
Do outline your graphics to increase definition and contrast; alleviate pale-on-pale with a fine tip black marker pen, alleviate dark-on-dark with a gold or silver oil based marker pen.
11.
Do not stick random bits of paper onto your picture to patch mistakes (even white on white) unless it is part of a collage design; reproduction will show as dark lines where papers join. Any details you leave will be part of your final print
12.
Do not use unsuitable material under any circumstance - including any medium containing glitter; fine, gritty, coarse, or flaky particles; overly bulky items over 2mm; metal, sharp or abrasive objects. Ensure to review Media Guidelines under COLLAGE for a comprehensive list and also learn how to apply collage effectively. Pictures over 2.5mm thick or with similar material we specified not to use will not be scanned by us, but you are welcome to send us a digital file following our spec if it is a Personal Home Project.
13.
Do ensure your medium application is compatible with the surface it is applied onto. Incompatible medium applications will cause flaking paint or smudges and we cannot scan pictures with such defects. For example, do not apply poster paint or tempura paint over / on top of an oil surface such as wax crayon, oil pastel, or coated paper. Wax-resist application of water over oil is fine as long as it is watercolours or diluted ink over wax crayons or oil pastels onto appropriate papers. If unsure, always run a thorough test, or seek advice from an art expert.
14.
Do handle your art with care to avoid a disappointing reproduction or costly retouching. All bends, folds, wrinkles, dirty marks, smears from wet paint / glue will show up in the final print.
15.
All faint, pale or fine lines and shadings are difficult to reproduce well & rarely look good in the final print; do increase pressure to compensate when using wax crayons, and always use the correct medium most fit for purpose. The most reliable output for thin or fine lines are permanent markers or high quality water based pens such as Triplus Fineliner by Staedtler.
16.
When using any paint to make shading or brush mark type colour-mixing effects on any less bold area, ensure effects are highly visible showing strong contrast; you also need to be extra vigilant if tones are similar, your paint type is heavy, or your colour scheme is dark. This is because when the reproduction inevitably decreases your graphic scale, the effects you see on the template will be radically reduced and may even diminish altogether.
17.
Our digital reproduction is not meant as an exact replication and may differ from the original, hence colour match is not guaranteed for all mediums and especially colour media; some materials may even deliver negative effect.
Do not use reflective material, especially against a dark background.
Yellow can return the most unpredictable reproduction.
Yellow on white do not reproduce well, choose a gold tone instead.
Colour media is unpredictable; do not use it largely to dominate a picture, the reproduction will also be flat, dull and even poor.
Mediums with the following characters will not replicate: fluorescent , neon, shimmery , pearly, metallic, best to use standard materials instead; you will get more true vibrancy with strong primary red poster paint than a neon version.
If using gold, silver, colour metallic paints, dilute well and apply sparingly to avoid heavy thick pasty finish especially on large areas. Metallic poster paint by Jakar appears with some varying degree in change when applied softly but looks acceptable; gold, silver markers by uni or sharpie and some wax crayon /pastel have returned reproduction with some minor change.

FOLLOW THE TEMPLATE GUIDE, APPLY THE 5 MM RULE

Do not draw a frame as a solution
Place important graphics at least 5mm away from all 4 edges of your front & back template
Some picture and graphic type may require more than 5mm

Card front picture - position all important foreground graphics inside the imaginary frame; background graphics such as sky, snowflakes & ground can be outside the frame.

Card back design - position any photo and signature inside the imaginary frame as part of a design, do not scatter aimlessly without consideration for composition; for signature only, write it boldly in the box centre, never beyond the imaginary frame.

Do not make frame type design
Do not colour the background, keep it bare white
Use a permanent marker for vivid output, not a pencil or pencil crayon
Avoid using yellow ink pen, not enough contrast against white in most cases
Dirty template can be covered with a single sheet of white paper on the entire area if so desired, approximate size 14 x 8.5 cm

Please carefully observe the illustrations below for various picture types, from template to reproduction . . .
Both red & white frames indicate where the image will be cut off; details outside these imaginary frames will not appear in the final print. Unless you understand the 5mm Rule theory and apply it accordingly, our reproduction will spoil your picture and may even make it completely insensible.

My Image

Except for the bottom, all other main graphics including the signature are positioned too close to the template edges
The red frames indicate where the image will be cut off; details outside these imaginary frames will not appear in the final print. Unless you understand the 5mm Rule theory and apply it accordingly, our reproduction will spoil your picture and may even make your picture completely insensible.

My Image
signature is no longer legible
text on the card front is cut off
moon is no longer circular
right hand is missing
repeating graphics like the partially missing snowflakes won’t spoil the picture
My Image

SMALLER MAIN GRAPHICS ALONG BOTTOM

Main subject Baby Jesus is almost completely missing due to the placement.
Both lamb and donkey are half missing.
Picture no longer appears sensible
My Image

Best & easiest way to eliminate defects . . . add a shapely ground line
It will also instantly enhance picture composition, add meaning, and fill the template constructively.

My Image

Solutions to tackle main graphics along bottom

Add a shapely ground line, place main graphics above it
Increase scale or height of main graphics
Do not allow novice to make busy pictures or small scale main graphics
My Image

Nothing is lost in this reproduction other than a bit of background graphics such as the sky and ground, this won’t spoil your picture.

My Image

CLOSE-UP SUBJECT

left finger is partially missing
right finger is butted right to the card edge
tail is partially missing
picture quality is reduced
My Image

To see background + entire subject . . . leave at least 1.5 cm gap

My Image

Solution to see the entire subject as expressed in the original picture

To see some background + entire subject in the final print, you must leave at least 1.5cm background space surrounding the most protruding part of the subject perimeter. This solution is similar to reducing the subject scale.

please do not draw a frame as a solution, very counterproductive.

My Image

You will need to be cautious when making your sketch or medium application to ensure all your important graphics are inside this 1.5mm imaginary frame.

My Image

CLOSE-UP SUBJECTS IN PATTERN COMPOSITION

all 4 apples are butted right up to the card edge showing no background
red and orange apples are partially missing
picture quality is substantially reduced
My Image

To see background colours surrounding each subject . . . leave at least 1.5 cm gap around each subject

My Image

Solution to see all subjects entirely + surrounding backgrounds

You must leave at least 1.5cm background space surrounding each subject. This solution is similar to reducing each subject scale

please do not draw a frame as a solution, very counterproductive.

My Image

This type of picture composition is the most tricky to work with, you will need to be extra cautious with your graphic scale and placement to ensure all your subjects are inside this 1.5mm imaginary frame.

discover the difference.. let us make your art shine

discover the difference.. let us make your art shine

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Fundraising Art Projects for Schools • Christmas Cards for Schools • Bespoke Personal Art Cards