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We keep buying sketchbooks and she keeps filling them up. We finally bought two sketchbooks and two sets of colored pencils – one for her room and one for the kitchen so we wouldn’t be constantly hauling them back and forth. Much of her sketching is done in bed after stories, prayers, goodnights, and one more cup of water, so every few days, I stop to thumb through the pages and take in all of her creativity. I’ve been looking for a simple, inexpensive way to display her growing collection – a way to easily rotate the drawings without removing frames and mats, but something more uniform than wire and clips. I also wanted to scan the artwork, rather than removing the drawings from her sketchbooks. I wasn’t sure this would work, but it did and she was tickled pink to see her own little gallery on the wall. You could easily whip up a few of these in an afternoon.
P.S. Yes, the top picture on the left is inserted a bit crooked. I realized this after I photographed them but we have had sick little people and have been in survival mode, so for now, it’ll just have to be crooked. Priorities!
MATERIALS:
scanned prints of artwork (we cropped ours to 4×4 using Picmonkey)
1 art canvas (ours is 15 x 30)
acrylic paint
craft knife
ruler
HOW TO:
Select, scan, crop and print your artwork.
Arrange your prints on the canvas. I found it helpful to use a ruler and draw a line straight down the center of the canvas before arranging the prints. I didn’t try to make them perfectly symmetrical, but close enough.
Trace around the corners of each print lightly with a pencil.
Remove the prints.
Using a straight-edge and a pencil, make a small triangle in the corner of each “frame”.
Using a craft knife, slowly and carefully slit along the base of each triangle to form frame corners, cutting a little past the outside edges of each frame that you drew (if not your print will bow and buckle).
Paint your canvas. Dry completely.
Insert prints.
Hang and enjoy!
Love this idea and love the art!
ohhhh! I like this one! I might not cut the corners though. We don’t have a standard set of papers the boys use. Might make the canvas and just put up the drawings and the like with painters tape. xo
That is so wonderful that you work so diligently to encourage your children’s artistic energy. . . I love seeing stuff like this. And such a creative way to display their art. : )
What an adorable way to display the art!! =) When I have kids I imagine I’ll have collages like this everywhere! =)