Art Gallery

My older kids have really gotten into coloring and drawing. Every work is, of course, a masterpiece but my fridge does not have that much room. So instead I came up with a way to rotate their "art." I made cardstock frames and glued page protectors on, then strung them up between some pushpins so we could display their work on the wall of the playroom. This way they can pick their best work to display and decide when and what to rotate.

This is the method I thought worked best:
Use a standard 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper to shape your frame around and glue the pieces together. I found it best to use 12X12 sheet protectors (scrapbook size) so there's enough overlap for gluing but you could use a standard size protector and make a backing on your frame to hold it in. For the 12X12 use hot glue to glue the edges of the frame to the protector (careful the side for inserting doesn't get melted shut). On the side with the holes, I only glued between the holes so I could use the holes to help me string up the frame. Cut off the extra paper and sheet protector. Decorate frame. Hole punch the corners of frame (I used eyelets). Use yarn or other string to string through the frames and use pushpins to attach to the wall. It helps to roll some tape around the end of your yarn to make the yarn easier to insert in the holes.

OR for a much easier gallery you could string up yarn between pushpins and use clothespins to attach the art. You can use buttons, ribbon, and paper to decorate your clothespins. Or just write your child's name on the pins.

Another way I de-clutter on artwork in our house is art archiving. When my children make something I write any explanation (Emma usually has a story for her art), the child's name and the date on the picture. Then I take a picture and load it onto my computer. You can have a file of artwork for each child. This also makes it easy to send art to family. I e-mail pictures, cards, and letters to grandparents (easier and cheaper than the envelope and stamp deal). Then I can throw away the paper (don't tell my children).

What displaying and archiving methods do you use for your child's art?

Picasa

So we all know that Google is awesome! Great e-mail, blogs, web browser, etc. Did you know they also have a great photo editing program? It's called Picasa, it's free and it's pretty cool! I don't take great pictures but I can make them look pretty good using their editing. You can crop, striaghten, sharpen, change to sepia or black and white, highlight, lighten, etc. You can also create a web album to share with your friends, e-mail pics., or upload them directly to your blog! It's user-friendly and fun to play around with. Check it out.

Create sepia photos and decide the shade

Brighten pics.

Crop and make black and white

Tint pics. to create a different color

Sharpen images

Personalized Frame Gift

I feel guilty I've been a lousy blogger, so here's a craft for ya! This is a frame we made my mom for Mother's Day. There's supposed to be a heart in the middle so it says "We [heart] Nana" but the heart fell off during it's trip and wasn't glued back on in time for the pic. We have pictures, handprints and name stickers for each of the grandkids (the "Happy Mother's Day" slot was filled with my nephew's pic that had to be mailed seperately). This would make a fun Christmas or Birthday present for a mom or a grandma! If you only have a couple kids you could do full-sized pics. in some slots and foot/handprints in others.