paint cut paste

do you ever pin like 3,000 things and wonder when you’ll ever get around to them? welcome to my pinteresting world! i was kinda psyched that i finally implemented two inventive and artful tips last week that i had pinned. both were great ideas so i wanted to share. i’m usually in this mode when i’m on pinterest:

(this is from a pin, too)

the first one i undertook was simple. i finally bought a date stamp (yep, like old school libraries used. it was about $7 at a mom & pop office supply store) and i am using it to stamp the date on art work. it’s great for me since N produces zillllllions of pieces and i get so overwhelmed by this task each week. (this idea was originally featured in the now-defunct cookie magazine. who else out there misses cookie?)

since this little artist cranks out about 30 pieces per day (and i’d say at least half are “keepers”) now i just need to figure out if i should stick with the large 3-ring binder method i began last year to hold these works or if i should just start a bin (with monthly separated tabs, maybe.) what do you do?

the other pin-tip i undertook was to wind my embroidery floss around clothes pins. (on pinterest this links back to heather’s life blog, but in her entry, she sites finding the idea on pinterest. the wheel keeps on turning and turning and turning…)

anyway, the idea is simple, cheap, and helps keep it from knotting up. i marked the clothes pin with the number of the DMC floss, to keep track of what i’m using for a project (since that paper tab will be tossed.)

it’s also colorful and cute.

and extremely satisfying to look at when finished.

what clever pins have you tried out in your home?

one year ago, when N was 26 months old, we went to a spring festival where they offered many crafts for the kids. this is an easy and fun one that N enjoyed making — clothespin butterflies! all you need are a few household items: a pipe-cleaner, a clothespin, and a coffee filter, as well as some markers.

first, let your child’s imagination run wild in coloring all over the coffee filters with the markers. if it is raining when you do this – you know those spring showers can be an artistic blessing – then put the colored (with a water-based marker) filters onto a cookie sheet outside for a minute to let the colors bleed, then dry them out before proceeding. you can see that effect from when we made coffee filter flowers last year. even if it’s not raining, the butterflies can be lovely. just let your child color away until his or her heart is content.

then bend a pipe cleaner (or half of one, actually) into an antenna shape. crinkle your coffee filter in the center and clip that into the clothespin along with the pipe cleaner. and there you have your winged springtime friend…

flutterby - ours got a bit wrinkled, but you get the idea

as you’ve witnessed, N and i make a LOT of art. she has her own portfolio where we keep her works, and we have also been hanging them on the fridge and on walls. when we moved into our new place in northern california, i decided to create an art gallery for N in her bedroom, where she can proudly display her masterpieces!

el museo de N

i realize that pottery barn kids (and the like) sell a lot of cute, pre-fab art display kits, but that’s just no fun for us DIY girls in my household. so i got some kitchy-cool, assorted cabinet knobs (somehow i have a bag of these around the house, waiting for a special occasion such as this) and some picture wire from michaels (framing section.) thin rope and yarn would probably work, as well. we strung the wire up on N’s wall with the knobs screwed into the wall at the endpoints. for longer wire, eye-screws work to keep things lifted along the way.

knobs anchoring the art wire

then i found the bag of plain old clothespins i had at home, and decided they needed some gussying up! i modpodged pretty papers (a few are even pieces of N’s paintings) onto some of the clothespins. from this, i learned that modpodge doesn’t adhere to wood, so i had to glue it down in the back first. i painted others. then i craft-glued shells, buttons, figurines, and assorted fun things from around our art studio to the bottom part of the pins. (if they were glued to the top, pinching the pin might get hairy. this is why i did this as a mommy project instead of involving a 2.5-year-old.) kids even just a bit older might have the dexterity to decorate their own clothespins.

decorating clothespins

here’s a set of 18 that i whipped up during N’s nap today:

fancy!

after the wire was hung and the clothespins were fancy, it was time to hang the art! N chose her favorite pieces to oh-so-proudly display, and we made her bedroom into a museum!

wall of masterpieces

some other fun ideas for storing and displaying your kids’ art that i’ve run across:

• install curtain rods on walls, and string curtain rings or shower curtain rings/hooks on them with which to attach art
• laminate your favorites to use as placemats
• create a yearly calendar with 12 of your favorite pieces to give as a holiday gift (and keep one for your house!)
• use art as gift wrap and for greeting cards
• hang small pieces from a photo mobile (amazon sells one that’s shown below)
• frame favorites in simple frames with white mats. hang in your playroom, kids’ room, kitchen, hallway, anywhere! rotate new pieces into the gallery periodically.
• use fun clips that you find at target or office supply stores (even chip clips or paper clips) to attach art to colorful rope or yarn strung along a wall or the ceiling
• print your kids’ art onto anything on moo.com or cafepress.com
• blissfully domestic has some great ideas for framing your child’s art, too!