Wednesday, November 2, 2011

39 Reader Space: Crazy for Cool Artwork Displays!

As a mom, it's never easy to decide which pieces of artwork are worth keeping around or what to do with the incredible amount of masterpieces that your little one{s} create.  I struggle with this often, as I know the importance of keeping only what I LOVE, to avoid an excessive build up of clutter and papers.  No matter what, it's never easy to say goodbye to anything a little sweet pea creates, however, there are great ideas and ways to cherish their work for years to come.

  • Keep an art box for each child where the best of the best are stored and saved.
  • Take photographs or scan in their artwork prior to recycling it.  Take it a step further and turn those photographs into artwork memory books.
  • Display artwork from clips or in frames and switch it out frequently.

Today's reader, Jen from jengrantmorris.blogspot.com, took the idea of keeping her little one's artwork, to a whole new level.  I was floored and in LOVE with her ideas and I am certain you will be also!

For project number one, she started out by taking photos of her boy's artwork and turning them into a collage using photoshop:



Then, she had some pictures of her boys printed, along with the photo collage that she created, popped them into some frames, and WOW.  The most perfect way to cherish and display their creativity!



But she didn't stop there with the incredible ideas.  Jen really appreciates her kid's artistic abilities, and it is so incredibly clear where they get their talent...

For project number two, she worked with her son to pick out his favorite sketches... {no easy task I am sure}


And then scanned them into Photoshop, where she turned them back and white:



And printed them back out on standard pieces of paper.


Next, she used a black fabric pen to trace the artwork onto a white duvet cover!





In progress, hours later....


But the final result is SO worth every second of time spent on it!


I just love that she found such a brilliant way to keep his talent on display at all times!  It gives his room a custom look and the best part is that it's HIS artwork!


It turned out AMAZING!

Thank you Jen for letting me share your incredibly unique and inspiring ways to cherish your children's projects!  I love that you took the idea of displaying their work to a whole new level!

For those of you who haven't seen Jen's blog yet, be prepared to fall in love, especially if you adore crafting and organizing as much as I do.  She has many more posts on the subject, like this pantry organizing post:


And this ring storage post:


And many many more!

Did that help some of you moms out there, struggling with the purging of kid's artwork?  Did it help you feel OK with finding ways to preserve their masterpieces and letting go of the original?  What other ways are you able to purge the pretty projects and keep the memories of them?





ATTENTION!!  Want to be featured in a Reader Space edition?  Have an awesome organizing story to share?  I am looking for projects that have made a positive impact to your life.  Please send your story and photos to iheartorganizing@gmail.com and I would heart to feature them right here, on the blog!!  Photos should be high resolution and unedited.  Please include a description of the project, including any costs, inspiration, and how it has changed your life and routine for the better!  Oh, and no worries my friends, we will NEVER judge "before" pictures because that just wouldn't be nice!  Only love goes on at this blog!  More info HERE.

39 comments:

  1. wow! i haven't had time to do anything quite that involved and amazing (still have little ones hanging on each leg!)....but that is so fun and amazing!!! i too have struggled with what to do with my children's wonderful artwork....i just posted in my own blog about an easy way to display it. if you're interested in reading, here's the link:

    http://besimplyorganized.blogspot.com/2011/10/simply-one-day-diy-art-string.html

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  2. I am in total awe of her son's art and the stunning way she chose to preserve and honor his work. Marvelous!

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  3. Love the idea of putting it in a collage. That looks amazing. I struggle with this too though. I am in the process of putting away preschool things and making a bin for kindergarten. At the end of the year I will go through with my daughter to keep the special items. The other thing we did was make an inexpensive art cable for our playroom. I rotate the artwork on there and got so many compliments on it.

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  4. That duvet BLEW MY MIND! I am going to make the time to do this for my daughter for Christmas. She will love it. Great find, Jen!

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  5. Wow !! The Duvet is AWESOME !!!

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  6. While cleaning my Mom's house, I came across dress patterns from across many years. I selected the ones that were great as pictures. I found diploma frames on sale in packs of four. I also bought a pack of cardstock in a variety of colors.

    I now have a row of great patterns on my sewing room wall. The actual pattern has been tossed. I have plans to switch out the pictures as the seasons change and I continue to cull through the family history stuff. For example, combine pictures of past Christmas with the old Christmas cards.

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  7. You are right, I have a little creative mind running around and producing tons of artwork everyday and I have to find a solution for us as well.
    I totally adore the duvet cover that Jen made ... doesn't it remind you of the new Ikea fabric (http://www.ikea.com/de/de/catalog/products/80208609/) - only that Jen's son's artwork is a LOT more creative! It's awesome that boy designed all those funny creatures!
    He's going to be a designer in the comic industry .. think of "futurama"... ;)
    Jule

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  8. OMG, that is crazy amazing! I love the artwork and I would have never thought in a million years to actually put the art on the bedspread...Incredible. Definitely going by to check her out...thanks for sharing Jen:)

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  9. I'm blown away by that duvet, thanks for sharing! I bookmarked this post and I hope I'll remember it when my girls are a bit older!

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  10. Fabulous idea. Love LOVE the duvet. I could use a black and white floral duvet for our spare room. *bookmarked*

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  11. Those are brilliant ideas! My children have tons of artwork, but unfortunately it is all stored in folders and not displayed. This would be great.

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  12. These ideas are just awesome, and what a great mom!

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  13. I loved her space. I want to move in. :-)

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  14. Those are AMAZING ideas!! Thank you!! I just read on another blog the other day about scanning or taking photos of artwork and then putting it on a digital frame. That works too!

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  15. oh. my. gosh. headed to her blog now!!!!! =) The monster printed sheet won me over! absolutely fabulous! and pretty darn genius too!

    xoXOxo
    Jenn @ Peas and Crayons

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  16. I have seen her work before with her photoshop creation and LOVE it. I would love to do something like that with my children's artwork, though I'm not exactly sure how to use my photoshop program like that. Thanks for featuring her!

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  17. That duvet is amazing! What an awesome idea!

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  18. Wow I love the ring storage. Such a unique idea, and so creative.
    I love your reader spaces!
    xxoo
    Kerri at HollyMuffin

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  19. Wow! I had seen her original way to organize artwork on Pinterest, but the duvet?!?! AMAZING! AMAZING! AMAZING! Thank you so much for sharing this.

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  20. I LOVE this duvet! omg! such a brilliant idea!

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  21. Thanks so much for the feature, Jen! It's an honour to appear on your blog. And thanks to the kind readers who left such lovely comments here and on my blog :)

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  22. Wow, I love the duvet cover idea! My son makes so many small people drawings, this is a great way to display them without having to choose which one is best. I have my kids display their favorite drawings in a frame on their wall. At the end of each school year, they update their frames with their favorite work. I also have a shallow 5 inch high bin for each of my kids and at the end of the school year, they go through their drawings and the drawings from previous years and decide what they want to 'keep or toss'. We collect their artwork in a drawer for each kids throughout the year and then purge at the end of the school year. I have used this method with my clients and they like the fact that they do not have to decide right away, they just need to sort by child and their kids can decide once a year. Thanks for posting these great creative ideas.

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  23. Another "Jen"ius idea!!! I am so thrilled with that duvet inspiration...my kids draw all over the place. To make it easier on me I could just give them the duvet cover and the markers and let them go for it ;) Really fabulous inspiration Jen Morris! Love it!

    A fellow Jen ;)

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  24. I absolutely LOVE that duvet idea! What patience she has :) I love that it's something you can keep forever, though. What a memorable thing to have in college or for your own child down the road.

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  25. Forgot my email hmboconnell@gmail.com

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  26. I have followed Jen for a while now and am never disappointed! She is amazing! Thank you for sharing her work!!!

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  27. Amazing! What wonderful ways to save & cherish art by the kids. I especially love the duvet cover!

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  28. Truly inspiring!

    One thing that we do with the "extra" artwork that is destined for the trash is to use it for wrapping paper. The kids love seeing their paintings used for a special purpose and the recipients love getting handmade paper!

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  29. Ok, so I was reading along thinking this was pretty cool. And THEN I go to the monster sheet. Holy cannoli, freakin' best project ever with kids art!!!

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  30. I just uploaded a pic of a paper quilt to my blog - I think this would be AWESOME with a kid's fingerpainting:

    http://www.hardlyhousewives.com/2011/11/goodness-gracious-papers.html

    If you got them to fingerpaint a few different papers in different colors, you could cut up and combine. Maybe a project for a few kids to contribute to together.

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  31. I absolutely love this idea! My daughter is a complete lover of art, and draws/paints/builds constantly. I have no more room to store her growing collection of notebooks, paintings, collages, etc of beautiful artwork. I feel like the worlds WORST MOM when I think of letting some of her treasures go. The duvet cover and wall collages are brilliant! I am going to start on that project immediately....my daughter will be thrilled to wrap herself up in her drawings :) Thanks for this one!

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  32. WOW! Both ideas are so incredible. I'm really blown away by the duvet cover especially. I have an enormous box filled with all of my daughters' artwork and I've been looking for a creative way to display it all. My husband and I have also been unhappy with our current bedding, so this project beautifully solved both of our dilemmas in one fantastic swoop! So glad I saw your post on Pinterest!
    Jenn/Rook No. 17

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  33. That quilt is amazing! And great idea to make a framed collage of artwork for the wall!

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  34. Love this! So creative, I am going to try this out with my kids!

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  35. That comforter/duvet is AMAZING!!! I LOVE IT!! What a fabulous idea. I can't wait until my son is older (he's only 2) and maybe I can try it.
    I've been wanting to do an art wall with frames, but I've been looking for a cool piece to center it all around - now my wheels are turning.

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  36. Ho.Ly.Mo.Ly. I love both these projects, but I think the first one is my favorite. Unfortunately, my eight-year-old only doodles epic battle scenes with Flames! and Mayhem! and Ninjas!.... not exactly the best subject material for his duvet cover!

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  37. Nice creativity! i like it! thanks for sharing wonderful pictures.

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  38. Love!!! A bit daunting for me in terms of size/time, so I think I'll start with a pillowcase for each of my little ones. Thank you!

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