Finding the heat this summer overwhelming? Staying indoors doesn’t have to be a bummer when there’s art to be done and badges to be earned! From murals to watercolors, photography to jewelry making, these activities for all ages will take your girls on a colorful adventure through the Girl Scout Artist Legacy badges and beyond!

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Daisy Petals with Artistic Opportunities

Daisies may not have an Artist Legacy badge, but the Vi, Tula, and Clover petals are all amazing opportunities for your girls to bring out their inner artist. Create a mural about Girl Scouts from around the world to earn the Be a Sister to Every Girl Scout Vi petal, create an art gallery to celebrate women who are courageous and strong to earn your Tula petal, or upcycle old magazines, photos, and postcards to collect your Use Resources Wisely Clover petal. Not only will your girl’s vest or tunic look amazing with three new colorful petals on it, your community, classrooms, and refrigerator doors will be more beautiful too!

Brownie Badges: Paint and Shape your World

Vincent van Gogh earn your Brownie Painting Legacy badge! Visit the Legion of Honor to learn about famous European painters, hike out to paint plein air landscapes, and test out all the different ways to apply paint to a surface, from brushes to leaf stamps! Pull it all together with a project to beautify your school or neighborhood, splashing color around your community.

Rather roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty? Explore the wild and wet world of clay with the Brownie Potter badge! Start with a simple pot made any way you want: coil, pinch, or slab, and work your way up to the potter’s wheel. Marvel at the beauty of glazes and make your masterpieces shine. Finish off your badge work with a visit to a local studio like Heath Ceramics to find out how the pros create their works of art.

Junior Badges: Sketch, Forge, or Strum

Are your Juniors drawn to drawing? The Junior Drawing Legacy badge is the perfect opportunity to sharpen their skills (and their pencils!) Experiment with different materials, styles, and subjects: draw landscapes in colorful pastels, sketch each other in pencil, or even pick up your crayons for a nostalgic still-life. Bring those drawings by learning about animation at the Walt Disney Museum, where experts walk the girls through professional and career applications of their artistic talents with their program designed especially for Juniors!

Drawing isn’t just for fun—put their artwork to work for your troop by designing a troop logo to use at your cookie booth, or a troop t-shirt design to stand out at Golden Gate Bridging! And don’t forget to host an art gallery of their new creations so friends, parents, and volunteers can admire their newfound skills.

Are sparkles more her style? The Junior Jeweler badge will not only make her (and any lucky gift recipients) look fly, but she’ll pick up amazing skills that go back to ancient times! Find a museum exhibit or research ancient necklaces from Egypt or hairpins from ancient China and recreate them with modeling clay. Visit local craft and flea markets to discover hidden treasures to get inspired to make your own pendants, bracelets, rings, and more from leather cord, wire, and beads. She can even learn to cast metal safely at The Crucible!

The Junior Musician badge can help her get in tune with the musical side of life! Explore different genres and instruments from around the world, from Tuareg folk music from Mali to hymns from medieval Europe—then make some music! Write your own song to perform with your troop, or build DIY instruments like a tissue-box guitar or ukulele. Then finish off your musical adventure with a trip to the opera, a concert, a musical, or the symphony!

Cadette Badges: Carve Your Own Path

Let her art pop with the Cadette Comic Artist Legacy badge. Create a superhero story, focus on manga and anime, and learn about how to tell a story with expressions and framing. Visit the Charles M. Schulz Museum to study comedic timing with the pros who created Snoopy and learn about what makes comics such a powerful medium.

Or, if she’s more into power tools than pencils, pick a project and get building with the Woodworker badge! Build picture frames, cabinets, bird houses, and bookshelves and learn the tools and tricks of the trade by leveling up your skills with the Crucible’s woodworking classes!

Senior Badges: Weave It All Together

Pull the pieces together in a mixed-media masterpiece with the Senior Collage Artist Legacy badge! Mix and match photos, magazine clippings, found objects like leaves, twigs, or receipts with stickers, washi tape, and glue to make a themed collage: record a week in your life, collect and collage everything you find that’s red, or make a piece that will help you remember all the good times she’s having—she’ll be graduated before you know it.

Get tangled in the fantastic world of fabric art with the Senior Textile Artist badge! Visit the de Young’s Costumes and Textiles exhibit and experiment with the different materials available, whether that’s needle and thread, warp and weft, crochet or embroidery before testing her new skills in a project like a t-shirt quilt or knitting a hat. You can even go one step further: earn funds for your troop by selling your beautiful crafts (refer to the Money-Earning guidelines on Volunteer Essentials) or donate blankets or scarves to a local homeless shelter.

Ambassador Badges: Photo Finish

What better way to celebrate all you’ve accomplished in your years of Girl Scouting than to earn your Ambassador Photographer Legacy badge! Whether she wants to develop her own black and white film, learn the ins and outs of a DSLR, or snap photos with her phone, she’ll capture her world with photography. See how shutter speed can affect a shot by photographing an Oakland A’s game, or capture a time-lapse of the stars on an overnight camping trip. Have the troop take portraits or LinkedIn headshots of each other, or level up her self-portrait game at these perfect selfie spots.

Not only will these artistic endeavors cover her uniform in well-earned badges, but they encourage every girl to stop and appreciate the beauty of the world around them. With a little exploration and encouragement, every girl can discover her inner artist.

What to do next:

• Looking for a related read? Check out our other blog posts for more badge activities.
• Art doesn’t have to be done indoors—take your girls outside and explore the world’s natural beauty with the Outdoor Art badges.

Katie Mock—Katie is the Marketing Copywriter for the Girl Scouts of Northern California, where she writes everything from tweets to Trailhead articles, and makes sure everyone dots their ‘i’s and crosses their ‘t’s. Although she was a Girl Scout for only a few years, her experiences with Girl Scouts, combined with attending a single-sex high school, gave her a profound appreciation for the power all-girl spaces have to change girls’ lives for the better. Katie moved to the Bay Area after graduating from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Linguistics; when she’s not diving into writing with a red pen, you can find her geeking out about the latest sci-fi novel, cooking anything from traditional Japanese Cuisine to pizza, or cuddling her two cats.