Love Deeply & Create Freely

How rad is it to be able to foster creativity in our children? It's profound to just sit back and watch as them in their world of discovery and imagination.

 

 This is especially true when it comes to how they express themselves artistically. Which is probably why I'm such a sucker for my kiddos artwork and can't help but keep every scribble and drawing they have done since they were in diapers (not too offensive beings that one Picasso is still in diapers).

After going through the gigantic totes of art in the garage, we narrowed it down to a few faves that we wanted to frame.

 

Next was creating an art wall to display their creations. Why not designate a whole wall like this one? 

Since I'm obsessed with stripes it got a dose of character with some good ol' gray and white stripes (with the help of my big 5 yr old). The best part is we already had the paint leftover from when we transformed our laundry room not too long ago.

Progress...

And the final art wall!

Yes I am a dork and I am smiling =)

For the largest frame, we got all of our favorite pieces downsized and printed into 4x6 sizes on glossy paper to fit the matting (thanks to office depot for just over 3 bucks).

My favorite part is the saying that my hubby and I brainstormed up and had printed out on 8x10 (rainbow and sparkly paper for the girly girl in me shhhh). I already had the perfect frame but it was black so I spray painted it yellow to give it some color.

 Unlike the other frame, this one did not have matting so I improvised by creating my own by using the cardboard backing and my fabric cutter.  Did I mention I was improvising?

 Next, I painted the "matting" black. It was a touch that added dimension and it doesn't hurt that it didn't cost anything to do!

So if you see me aimlessly staring at the wall...you will know why! Reminds me to be a little more childlike and embrace the scribbles and imperfections that make us who we are. Ok that was cheesy. But true.