Childs Art to ART! 18 Pictures into 2! {{tutorial}}
February 22, 2010 by Alison
Child’s Art into ART!
Display your child’s art!
How do you display your kid’s art? I absolutely love it when my kids draw, color, and create. Some pictures hang on the fridge or are stored in a file, but I wanted something classy {{less cluttered}} to display their best projects. I know there are hundreds of fantastic ways to display art. Missy is actually going to do a post on more ways to display kid’s art tomorrow morning:) If you’ve got an idea, send it over and we’ll include it in the list (as long as you aren’t selling anything).
Here is my tutorial on 18 pictures to 2…
1. I loved this picture that my 5 year old drew. The shoes and the long hair… Anyways, watch for her and see her shrink!
2. I scanned her in. If you don’t have access to a scanner, Fred Myer has some in their electronic department that you can use. Just drop your kids in their play land and scan away! It costs about $4 for a CD and it will hold a ton of scans!
3. Here she is on the screen:) If you have photoshop or some other picture correction program, now is the time to use it! I did increase the saturation colors a little bit so it didn’t look washed out.
4. I shrunk the pictures down to 1 x 2. A tad larger than a thumbnail. 
5. I scanned, saturated, and shrunk 9 of my favorite pictures that she created. I even had her write her name and added it to the bottom just like a real artist would do:) {{Can you still see the black haired beauty?}}
6. The size I needed to fit my frame would print on one normal paper…so here’s a picture of my printer doing what she does best!
7. Here is another one of my favorites…in class they needed to take the letter ‘u’ and make it functional. She made a flower bed. LOVE IT!!! How could I throw that away?
8. I did it with my other daughter’s art projects too. Wahoo…18 into 2!
**For a gift for their Grandparents we put all 18 pictures onto one and ordered a 16X20. We found a big frame and the girls gave it to them…they loved it…I even thought I saw a tear in Grandpa’s eye!
Fun Stuff!
One more reminder about the list for tomorrow…we’d love to see or hear how you display your kid’s art. Send over a link by shooting us an email or leave a comment on this post.
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I love the way you displayed the artwork! Great job!!
We created an “art line” out of clothes line and fun binder clips to display my son’s art. The line stretches around his room and creates a gallery feel. He can switch out the pieces as he sees fit.
Here’s a link: themillermix.blogspot.com/2009/12/wfmw-display-kid-art.html
This is such a GREAT idea!!
What a cute idea – love the simplicity! My daughter has a whole wall of art I’d like to try this with so we can make some room for even more art!!
LOVE this way to display art!! So fab and I’ll be featuring!
I love this idea! As soon as we get our scanner set up, I am going to do this for their toyroom.
We display several of our favorites on his door (using painters tape so it doesn’t hurt the finish) or the fridge. When it’s time to take them down I might put a few away for the scrapbook and he gets to pick some to send to his Grandparents who live out of state. They love getting a little something from him.
Oh I’m SO doing that this weekend!!! Love it!
Brilliant! Thanks for the tip about Fred Meyers. I had no idea!
Oh I love this! What a great idea. I’m doing this next.
Cute idea! Will remember this for my grandchildren – when I get them!
I hope you’ll swing by AtticMag to tour my home.
Allison
Great idea. It’s so hard to part with those fun pictures. I’ll pass this along to my friends.
After my 4 yo decoupaged 15 artwork pieces to the fridge with a gluestick when we weren’t paying attention (we had been complaining about them being all over the floor because the magnets fall off) we decided to get her a binder so she can put all her art together and we can keep it nice. I love the painter’s tape idea! (And I took a pic of the decoupaged fridge…when she wasn’t looking. Can’t reward undesirable behavior but that had to be documented for posterity!)
Acckkkk….how do you do it. One brilliant idea after another. I triple heart love your site.
That is so precious – thanks for sharing! I need lots of ideas for inexpensive artwork for my son’s room
I love this idea. I will definitely be telling people about it and your site!
What a great idea! My daughter is constantly drawing pictures and I never know what to do with them all! I’m going to try this for sure!
I do something very similar! I call it a gallery-poster of kids artwork. Mine would be for the less DIY types like you, since it’s a “service” I offer! I include a place where kids can write (or parents record) what they were thinking when they made this artwork. Truly, so important to display their masterpieces! We also did a grandparents one.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/simplycreate
Terrific idea! I always intend to scan/photograph the best artwork, but maybe this will propel me to actually get it done!
Love this! I never know what to do with all my kids stuff. I usually sneak their art into the trash and the kids get upset.
I’ve hung my kids art all over my garage walls and it’s great – especially for oversized pieces! Makes a drab space come alive & since we use it as our entrance though most of the year, it’s very nice. Now that they’re teens, we still have work up that they made in elementary school – fun to look at.
I wish I had heard of this idea when my kids were little!! Maybe I will grab some of my favorites and still do it – I think they would like to get one of these framed collages as a gift.
Thanks for the idea!
This is such a G.R.E.A.T. idea. I will keep in mind for when this little one is older. Will have to print else where to fit a 12 x 12…
Love this idea! Such a great gift for the grandparents!
-Tiff
i just made one of these using my step-daughter’s drawings. thanks for the great idea. i can’t wait to hang it up
I love this idea! I have boxes and boxes of artwork from my boys (with loads more to come down the years as the younger ones grow up). This is such a great project.
Hi. We recently posted about something similar, and I’d love to post your tutorial! Please let me know if you have a problem with me posting one of the photos and linking to your tutorial. Thanks.
What a fantastic idea! Thank you!!!
What a fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing!
I featured this on my Friday Favorites!!!! Love it!!!
http://lilbitofus.blogspot.com/2010/03/happy-friday-everyone-have-i-told-you.html
I just love these… brilliant idea!
I just love this. I had thought of scanning my son’s art, but I would never have thought of creating such a beautiful framed piece. Thank you for the great idea!
In our playroom I used some old metal thin curtain rods that we no longer had use for. I attached them to the top of our chalkboard wall and purchased curtain ring clips for each side. I attach my kids art to the clip and change them around as needed. It just adds to the playroom.
Hi. I LOVE the kids’ art picture idea. I want to do the larger one but do not know where to have it printed or how. Can you steer me in the right direction?
Thanks!
Amyjoy
Try Vista Prints or Costco:) I did both and loved it!
What a great idea. I can’t wait for my daughter to start producing more works of art so that I can do this! Thanks.
I have two grown children and one still in high school. I had kept a great deal of their art work especially in elementary school, but I was running out of space. I took pictures of the each artwork and made a photobook with all of their work in one of them. So, I ended up with three photobooks, one for each child. I look back at each one and remember it in a loving way and the age they were when they created each piece. The teachers always had them sign their names along with placing the date on the front. I loved the way that they turned out. Bonus, I got rid of three large boxes and have 3 small 4 by 5 albums.
I love this project. How do you merge the pictures in photoshop or and editing?