The Artful Parent

More Ways to Display Artwork

I wanted to share some more ideas for displaying artwork besides just framing.

Here's a great picture hanger over at Kirsten*Can. She glued some wooden clothespins to a piece of wood, painted the whole thing red, and hung it in her son's playroom.

Okay. This one is a frame, but it doubles as storage. The Dynamic Artwork Frame opens to store up to 50 other pieces of art. When you are ready for a change in artwork, just open it up, and switch the current framed piece with one in storage. A very nice Artful Parent reader sent this tip a while back, and I have to admit I don't remember who. Sorry!

Cookie magazine's Nesting blog has some more ideas for displaying children's artwork, including the one above. The drawing is mounted in a shadow box lined with colorful fabric. Thanks to Mrs. Bear for sharing the link.

And, here's a fun idea I found on SallyJean's Celebrate February list. She talks about how to make your own postcards in number 13. Scan a work of art and upload it to PsPrint. You can have 50 postcards printed for $15. I'd love to try this with one of Maia's paintings... Or maybe I'll make our next b-day party invitation with postcards.

Half a Cake for a Half Birthday

Yesterday morning Maia and I were reading Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever! for what seemed like the 100th time this week. This time she pointed to the birthday celebration on the holiday page and said she wanted a chocolate cake and blue balloons.

I thought, well, she's been sick with the croup all week, is feeling yucky, and hasn't seen any of her friends in a while, maybe we should do something fun. And then I looked at the calendar and realized it was her half birthday! That settled it. I made a half chocolate cake and bought three blue balloons while she was napping.

Harry's been home sick as well, so we all celebrated Maia's half birthday together.

Framing Maia's Art

I have to admit I have a thing for frames. I collect them the way some people collect shoes. I buy frames at Goodwill and TJ Maxx. I pick them up on clearance at other places. My husband hints that I have a problem.

But I don't, really. (Deny everything, right?) I just like the way art looks when it's framed. The fingerpainting above is one that Maia did at 1 1/2 years old. Almost all the others that I framed were from age 2.

Maia painted both of these (above and below) using tempera paints.

I loved the brushstrokes in this one (above).

These are four watercolors (above) in acrylic box frames. She painted three of them during the Toddler Art Group and the project of the day was a masking tape resist. She put a couple pieces of masking tape on the paper and painted over it, then pulled off the tape. You can see the square blank space in the lower right hand painting. I think with the others she ended up painting more after pulling off the tape.

Here's a drawing I framed in an acrylic box frame. I love the dots and dashes!

And here are two of her colorful drawings that I framed with hand-me-down frames and inexpensive pre-cut mats. Now I just have to hang everything!

By the way, I buy pre-cut mats at Michaels or AC Moore for standard size openings, although they're not usually archival. I used to mat and frame stuff for a museum and realize I should use archival everything, but also realize that I'll probably just never get anything framed if I insist on archival. I don't have the materials to cut my own mats anymore and don't have the money to take everything to a frame shop.

I have ordered custom-cut mats online for odd-sized openings. I forget the name of the company I used, but MatShop.com is one inexpensive place to get custom-cut mats. And, of course, you can go to the framing counter at places like AC Moore or Michaels for custom-cut mats.  

Update: I just remembered the name of the company that I ordered custom-cut mats from: Frames by Mail.

Some of Maia's Art from Ages 1 and 2

As I said yesterday, I enjoyed going through Maia's old artwork and took photos of a bunch of them. Here's a montage of Maia's Art from age 1 (above) and from age 2 (below).

The artwork runs the gamut from drawings with marker, crayon, and slick stix, paintings with fingerpaints, watercolors, and tempera, and collages.

Thanks to threesneakybugs forsending the link on how to create the photo montages!

Tomorrow I'll share the art that I framed, but for now I'm going to read books and play games with my sick munchkin...

Organizing and Storing Maia's Art

I am just back from the doctor with a croupy little Maia and we have been making banana bread with our over-ripe bananas. I wanted to share my current big organization project that I've been working on over the weekend. I opened up the overstuffed and ripped portfolio that I talked about here, and sorted all Maia's artwork into two big plastic bins.

Flat storage is a lot better for art on paper, especially long term, which I knew but I still didn't get around to putting together a flat storage system until now. So for now I have one bin per year, but I imagine that I'll consolidate at some point--maybe have one bin for ages 1-3 and one for 4-6, etc.

I loved going through all her old artwork (most of which I hadn't seen since she first made it!) and took pictures of my favorites and also framed several. I'll probably post more about them soon, especially if I can figure out how to use those cool flickr montages that I've seen on other blogs.

As for progress on the rest of the studio organization project, there is some, but not too much. I've cleaned up the studio and started using the new bins I bought at Target. I decided I want to install shelves on one of the walls and so need to wait for our tax refund before heading to Home Depot for brackets and wood. I'll keep you posted...

My February Ten

Here's a list of ten things that make me happy in February and that keep me going through a long and rather dreary month. This list is inspired by Montessori Mama, who was in turn inspired by SouleMama. Thanks to both of you wonderful Mamas!

1. The first of my bulbs, little iris danfordiae, flowering and bringing bright yellow happiness to our corner of the world.

2. Cuddling with my munchkin first thing in the morning before any of us are fully awake.

3. New art supplies, especially fresh tubes of watercolor paints and new pads of paper.

4. A list of new art projects to try. I love lists! (in case you hadn't noticed) Just about any kind of list will do it for me, really. Even a list of cleaning projects around the house, although I dislike cleaning. I make lists for the day, for the week, for the year. I make lists of recipes to try, lists of things I'd like to do, and many, many lists of books I'd like to read.

5. Tea parties with Maia and her animal and doll friends.

6. Chocolate. This one will be on my list of ten (or even my list of one) every month of the year. Guaranteed. Especially milk chocolate, and sometimes paired with caramel. Mmm...

7. Getting out my sewing machine for the first time in a long, long while and covering a stain on one of Maia's favorite shirts with a heart and also sewing a fabric transfer drawing onto another shirt.

8. Exploring the western North Carolina mountains with my little family. We drove up to Hot Springs earlier this month and walked around and found a playground with a merry-go-round and a four-way seesaw. I didn't even know they still HAD playgrounds with merry-go-rounds! Of course we all had to try it. And the seesaw.

9. Friends who give hugs and bring apple bread when I'm having a bad week. Thank you!

10. And last, but not least, homemade cherry pie.

A Thank You from MaryAnn F. Kohl

I wanted to share the comment that MaryAnn Kohl left after reading everyone's comments at the end of her interview.Â

"The warmth â€" acceptance â€" appreciation â€" care â€" of the comments following my interview have inspired me to continue on in my focus of art for children!!! Sometimes it seems like a battle that cannot be won, with government and administrators taking away art, music, drama, and even recess. Thank you, everyone, Jean especially, for the chance to spout my fire! But more, thank you for the comments that have made me feel so very very good today. Even my own daughter snuck one in there. Talk about “feel-good”. I would love to do another interview sometime on ‘great artists’ or “great illustrators’ and how we can introduce kids to their amazing gifts. Thank you, everyone! I had no idea that this interview would bring peace and joy to me…it’s nice."

MaryAnn Kohl

An Artful Day

Maia and I had a wonderfully artful day yesterday. Lunch turned into a tea party with her animal and doll friends. I have to say it wasn't entirely her idea. She wanted to share her food and tea with Polar Bear (who is sitting on a chair next to her, and not pictured), and I suggested bringing her other friends to the table as well for a full-blown tea party. You can see Mama Bear wearing Maia's lavender playsilk. This one playsilk of hers gets so much use that I really want to make more!

After her nap, we fed the birds and walked around the garden checking on all the bulbs. The dwarf iris danfordiae are beginning to bloom! And the crocus, grape hyacinths, daffodils, and alliums are sending out their leaves. I love spring!

Later, while I was doing some laundry, Maia wanted to paint. So we got out the paint bin and she tried her new Elmer's Squeeze 'n Brush Washable Paint Pens that I bought at Bobbi's recommendation.

Maia had a hard time squeezing the paint out, even with both hands, and kept asking me to help her squeeze. She enjoyed using them though and I imagine she'll be able to squeeze them easily soon enough.

And later, she drew on her dog chalkboard (which I bought for her on half-price clearance at a local toy store) after going around the house first and collecting all of her chalk.

Some days are so completely un-artful (like the day last week when I had to call the police not once, but TWICE, to get Maia out of a locked situation!), that I really cherish the artful days.

And the Winner is...

                          Â

Congratulations go to #23 Julie for winning the drawing for MaryAnn F. Kohl's book, Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Masters.

Julie, I will contact you via e-mail for your mailing address.

And for everyone else, I recommend that you check out MaryAnn's books at the library or bookstore, if you haven't already. She has great ideas for everyone, from one-year-olds to older kids.

Mixing Colors with Mouse Paint

I recently checked Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh out of the library. It's a simple and fun picture book about three mice who find some paint and learn about mixing colors.

The red mouse stepped into a yellow puddle and did a little dance. His red feet stirred the yellow puddle until...

'Look,' he cried. 'Red feet in a yellow puddle make orange!'

The illustrations are made with paper collage and are bold and effective. Maia and I have both been enjoying this book. I'd like to try some color mixing with Maia soon. Of course she mixes colors on paper (and in the paint bowls) when she's painting, but at this point the haphazard color mixing usually ends up a muddy brown. I'm thinking of a more specific color mixing project, perhaps with just two colors at a time.

Perhaps we'll try an activity like Gwyn's at My Kids Art. She put yellow and red paint into a plastic bag and let her boys squish it around until it made orange. She said they had lots of fun with it!

I've also read about filling an ice cube tray with water and giving your child a dropper and some food coloring to experiment with color mixing.

Any other color mixing activity suggestions?