Art wall

I don't know if I've ever mentioned that one of my favorite blogs it Meg Duerksin's Whatever blog that can be found here http://megduerksen.typepad.com.   It is sort of a photo journal of her family's every day life.  and is very honest and real and she makes us feel like we know her because of our common ground of experience as moms.  I love this photo of the art wall in her house and the fact that she admits that she feels no guilt in throwing away pieces after they have been displayed.  I find that I am saving less and less as time goes on.  Each one of my sons has a box in which I put the most treasured pieces.  I make sure that I purge the box every couple of months.  The only way to keep a home clutter-free in my opinion is to edit, edit, edit.  You'll be glad you did.

Cute girl's room

I found these pictures of a cute yet sophisticated ten year old girl's room on one of the blogs I follow.  I love the rug and bedding from Anthropologie, the blue Farrow and Ball paint color, and most of all the white Pottery Barn frames filled with illustrations done by the little girl herself.  To find out more about this room transformation go to:
http://brookegiannetti.typepad.com/velvet_and_linen/2010/10/leilas-room.html

More ideas for displaying kids' artwork

A photo gallery wall is one of my favorite things to see in a house.  If done well, it speaks loads about the homeowners and their likes and interests.  Lately I've seen a few pictures of great gallery walls done in nurseries or kids' rooms and just love them.  I like the idea of buying the frames that you can switch the art in and out of easily.  Here are some more ideas about what to do with all of those little pieces of artwork that you don't know what to do with.

Family activities expert Dr. Bra Vada Garrett-Akinsanya looks at various ways to create, store and display children's artwork.

• A great way to store children's artwork is to make a three-ring binder as a personal art book for the child. After you take the artwork off the refrigerator, put it in the binder. Be sure to label and date the artwork.
  
• To show your child how much you appreciate their artwork, have some of the favorite pieces framed and hang them in the office or at home.
  
• To clean up that cluttered refrigerator look, cut mats (the cardstock used for borders in frames) with openings slightly smaller than the standard sheet of paper. Attach magnetic strips to the back of each mat. Put on the refrigerator for an organized look, whereby the focus is on the artwork, not the clutter.
  
• Place artwork and photos under glass on a chest of drawers in your child's room.
  
• Mount a piece of flat trim molding on the wall at eye level. Every eight to 10 inches, attach one leg of a spring-loaded clothespin to the trim with small nails or screws. Then you can just clip the top edges of the artwork into the clothespin. It's easy, and the display can be changed often.
  
• Making a collage is another way to hold onto your child's artwork. Glue the favorite parts of random artwork onto a piece of poster board. Laminating it will be sure to protect to work forever.
  
• Make magnets to give to grandparents and family members. Cut out various items (flowers, dun, kites, clouds etc.), and have pieces laminated with hard plastic. Trim off excess plastic, then glue pieces to small magnets. Give the magnets away to family members as gifts that remind everyone that they are all connected.
  
• Create an in-home art gallery by purchasing several inexpensive frames from discount stores. Find a wall or table that can be dedicated as the "gallery." Help older children come up with titles for their artwork, and label their drawings. Otherwise, younger children can simply identify what they’ve drawn with a word or two (a bird, a dog etc.). When guests visit, your child can treat them to an in-home exhibition of his/her artwork.
  
• You can also make laminated place mats from your child's artwork for a wipe-able surface that family member can enjoy for years to come. Try to collect six to eight pictures, and glue the pictures onto an 8-1/2 x 14-inch sheet of heavy cardstock paper. You may also glue pieces of cloth to the back of the paper for a reversible effect. Have the mats laminated in medium or heavy plastic. 
  * Note: If cloth is added, be sure that the plastic is cut at least 1/4 inch beyond the matting to prevent the edges from fraying.
  
• Have your children's artwork turned into a calendar.
  
• Gifts for family members and friends can be made by your artistic children. Have your children paint on flowerpots or rocks (these make great paperweights) or have them make personal stationery.

Art time capsule

I found this extraordinary creation on Decor8 that feature interior designer Jan Eleni's work.  She essentially constructed a grid of hand-cut miniature images of her child's best illustrations and paintings and framed it in a large white frame.  Wow!  She doesn't give specific instructions on how to do it, but I think it is amazing and just goes to show that there are endless "out of the box" ideas out there of how to use your child's artwork.  Check out her website at janeleni.com.   You can actually order one of her collages, but I am sure it will cost a pretty penny.   I love that she is a self-taught designer whose strength comes from being able to find unique pieces that create a home with unique character and style.  She is known especially for her creative design of children's spaces. 

Scrapboxing

One of my friends told me about an article she read in February's Martha Stewart magazine about scrapboxing.  I've always loved looking at scrapbooks that people have created but never have gotten into the art myself as I see it as a daunting and time-consuming task.  I've taken to creating digital scrapbooks by using the great on-line programs designed for this and have decided that I will make a book for each year and give it to my family at Christmas.  However, I think it is nice to keep just a few mementos from your family's history and scrapboxing is a great way, in my opinion, to display them as well as an inexpensive means to have interesting wall art.  Darcy Miller, who is the editorial director of Martha Stewart Weddings, has her scrapbox gallery on exhibit at Partners and Spade in NYC.  She basically has taken family mementos and creatively displayed them in shadowboxes.  I love the idea of displaying a grouping of them in a child's room, office, or playroom.  My friend is currently working on a few of her own and I hope she will send me a picture of them!! Pictures are from February's Martha Stewart Living Magazine.

Simple Art Gallery

I am stealing this post from oohdeedoh.  Ideas about how to display kids' art really interest me.  I have done a couple of posts on this.  This mom created this salon-style art wall during her child's nap time.  She had found the frames at a thrift store, spray painted them a gold to unify them, and the framed her child's watercolor paintings in them.  How's that for modern art?!  Image from oohdeedoh.com.

Art scrapbook

I am always looking for new ideas for saving (or not) kids' art projects and have made a few posts about this in the past. The last few days have kept me home nursing kids with the flu, so I've had a bit of time to complete a couple of projects I had meant to do over the summer. When my kids come home from school, if they have a piece of artwork I might display it on our mudroom bulletin board for a week. After that, if it is worth saving, I place it in a box in their room that is meant to store these kind of things. Over time, I whittle the pieces down until I have what I consider real treasures. From here, there are lots of possibilities--the easiest would be just to keep the art in the box. However, I have found that looking through the collection in this form gets messy. So, I decided to buy one of those old fashioned scrapbooks with paper pages and I glued the art in it. Will helped me with the gluing showing me that he has pretty much mastered this skill for the most part. Some people like the idea of taking digital photos of the art and then making some kind of digital photo book. I love this idea, but I also like having a tactile experience with the originals. This project only took me about an hour and by the end I had a collection of all Will's art from the preschool years. A good number of pages are left in the scrapbook so I can probably eventually glue in his stuff from kindergarten (so far he comes home with much less worth keeping). I will do the same for Julian when he is finished with preschool.