Take It Easel portable kids' easelMy kids are what you might call serious artists. No they aren’t selling their paintings for thousands, they just can’t leave the house without a bunch of arts and crafts stuff–just in case inspiration hits in the minivan, I suppose.

Fortunately, one of our favorite brands for neatly-designed, high-quality kids’ toys has come up with a portable easel for an artistic playspace on-the-go

Long-time CMP favorite B. Toys’ Take it Easel—gotta love their creative product names—pops up to be a two-sided magnetic easel with a whiteboard on one side and blackboard on the other.

Hooray for families with two kids who can set this up in Grandma’s house, and give each child a side to draw on when they start to get restless.

Both sides are magnetic as well, so you could also bring along magnetic paper dolls (have you seen our paper doll tutorial?) or refrigerator magnet letters for younger kids.

The Take it Easel also comes with a set of washable markers, a couple pieces of chalk and a chalk eraser. The only thing I wish is that the easel had a clip at the top to hold a piece of paper so the kids could draw pictures to leave behind for grandma, though your own clip or a piece of tape will do the trick just as well.

And when it comes time to go on your next big adventure, store all the art supplies in the bottom of the easel and fold it up into an easy-to-carry case. The nice thing about the way it folds is that the chalkboard still faces up so one child can continue their drawing with the easel in their lap while driving down the road. Hey, an artist’s work is never done, right? –Christina

Get a great price on B. Toys’ Take it Easel at Target.com. **note: currently available in-store only though check back later this week for stock updates. If you want to order online, One Step Ahead is currently offering 20% off orders over $100 and has the Take it Easel in stock.