Kids Wall Art

Today we welcome Jade from The Letter 4! Thanks for guest posting with us!

Well hello! My name is Jade.

You can learn more about me and my sisters here!



 I remember back before we even started our blog, I would come check out what was happening over here at Lemon Tree Creations.  I would come when I felt the urge to do a project, when I needed to be inspired, or when I just wanted to see some awesome women at work.  ;)  Truly, these four women are so creative and its surreal to me that I get to share an idea with them and you here today.  Thank you ladies for having us, another set of four, from ...

The Letter 4

Optimistic.

Walk with me down memory lane for a minute.  The VERY FIRST finger painting my little girl ever painted is still hanging up.  I love it and I can't part with it.  She is amazing.  I think she might be the next Leonardo da Vinci.  :)

Thanks to my wonderful mom, I can't stand clutter, dust on the floor boards, the bed not made, or (even though I love them dearly) my little girl's paintings hung up all over the fridge and walls.  (Notice, I didn't say these things do not exist in my home.)  Clutter, dust, and sheets I can deal with easily, however, the piles of precious art turn into more piles...and more....and more...

 "Don't let your kids see you throw away their projects, you'll never hear the end of it."

I heard this plenty of times before I had kids, and always just kinda thought, "Eh, my kids won't care, and I won't care because I hate clutter."  Let me tell you, the first time I did throw something away...I cringed while doing so...and my sweet daughter saw it in the trash minutes later and with the most innocent, sad, betrayed voice said,

"MoooOOOOm!  WHY did you FROW DIS away?!"  

Oh my gosh, I ---  FELT --  SOOOOO --  BAD!!  You know the feeling?  I ran over and took the picture out of the trash, straightened it up, HUGGED it,  kissed it,  kissed her, and repeatedly apologized and hung it up on the fridge where it stayed for weeks.  HAHA.

Well...I had to figure something out because the fridge could not be used for this kind of thing permanently.  Sooooooo here's what I came up with!  There are probably plenty of cute ideas out there and maybe some similar to this, but as I have mentioned in previous posts, I gotta stick to the budget.  I found materials around my house and found a system that allows me have a tidy home and a collection of my mini  Da Vinci's masterpieces!

You only need these three things:

1)  Wire or string cut to desired length

2)  Two fun push pins

3)  Some type of hanging clamp (clothes pins, ect.)

  

Tie a knot at each end of the wire or string leaving a loop.  Push the pins through the loops on each side of the wire, into the wall, and start hanging any and all of the projects and pictures they bring home!  They love to see them displayed.  Self confidence builder and home organizer in one! BOOM BABY! 

(*REMEMBER:  I feel stupid saying this, but I feel like I need a disclaimer or something.  Haha.  Be sure and hang this high enough so your kids can't pull it and play with it!)

Clothes pins.

A different kind of fastener hangy thingy...I really have no idea what its called.  Help me out here...

Once you get them hung up, I know, I know, more come...then more come...it's basically hanging the piles on the walls, right?  Well, here's where THE SYSTEM comes in...it's the secret that makes it all work.

Every once in a while when it gets too cluttered, we have a picture taking party where we take one down at a time and snap a photo of the project alone, or of the child holding it.  My little girl parts with the projects much easier after having a fun photo session with them.  

THEN, put the pictures in an online album so you can print them in a book.

Here are some we have done through Smilebox! 

Her first drawings of faces!  I'm so glad I have these!

This little girl is so fun!  I'm so I blessed to have her!

And taking pictures of these things is a really fun activity to do too!  She didn't get bored!

Take a note of what they were doing while they were creating.  I CHERISH this memory of Chloe singing "You're never fully dressed without a smile!" while she was painting.

After you are finished compiling the pages, organize them by season, or school year, or whatever works for you,  then print out a book.  It would be called something like "Chloe's Masterpieces 2011."  Your kids will never get tired of looking at...and one day maybe their kids will look at it too!

Art is such a FUN way to create and preserve memories, don't ya think?!

"You're never fully dressed without a smile!"

What a fun project and great post! Thanks again for posting with us today. 

If you would like to guest post with LTC, please email your unpublished submissions to ltc.guestposting@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.