Crafty Schmafty Fridays 4

 

Happy Fridays,

dear friends!

Time to gather for some

Crafty Schmafty Fun!

I am absolutely thrilled to find you here . . . this, our 4th installment of the "Crafty Schmafty Fridays" series.  I'm really focused on the creative front, my dears, and joyfully look forward to sharing a project with you each week. So, let's not delay!

This week, I am sharing with you (and giving you a sort of sneak peek!) at one of the classes I am going to be teaching at the Park District this coming summer. The class is called "Fridge to Canvas", and the idea behind it is pretty awesome . . .

I have been a keeper of the art work both of my girls have brought home from school, and while I've weened the piles down slightly through the years . . . I still have a stack of precious works that I just can't bear to throw away. What was frustrating to me, is that these papers just sat in a bin in our storage area . . . just . . . waiting . . . for absolutely nothing.

I decided to turn them into . . . something. A work of art, so to speak. A collage, to liven up a play room, or game room, or hall way. So, I started with a stack of artwork, a large canvas (I used 22" x 28" - Michael's has canvases on sale this week - so it was a bargin!), a bottle of tacky glue, my scissors, and a large binder (to store any additional papers and reports that I want to keep going forward.)

Little by little, I started tearing, cutting and laying out the projects on my canvas.

I layered, tore, layered some more, cut out, and arranged all of the work into an eye catching piece of art, and then glued everything down on the canvas as such . . .

Once all of the art work was intact and I was happy with the placement of everything, I painted the side of the canvas black and hot glued a decorative ribbon all around it. Next, my handy dandy Mod Podge came into work, and I sealed the entire canvas in the gloss.

Here's is Ella's finished piece. I love that this whole canvas is ALL ELLA! From two years of Preschool through Kindergarten, we'll forever have these wonderful projects to look at and enjoy. The canvas is hanging in our upstairs hallway, right outside of the girls rooms. When they wake in the morning and step out of their bedrooms, it will be the first thing they see . . . THEIR art. And I love that!

I'll be starting Katie's piece next, and can't wait to see how it comes out. (I'll be sure to share it with you here when I am done.)

All in all, I think I used about 25 different art pieces of Ella's art through the years. I then saved any papers that were important to me in the binder, and then threw out the rest of the items I had been collecting. It was a great exercise to really clean out all the papers I've kept through the years.

The New Lenox Park District will be offering this class "From Fridge to Canvas" three times this summer. It is a 3 hour class, and I will be there to offer collage ideas and recommendations, along with helping you make those hard decisions of what to include (and what to possibly leave off) in your art piece. If you are local, I'll keep you posted on the class dates and times once the catalog is out.

If you are not a local friend . . . the project really is quite simple and one that I am sure anyone could do. So if you have a stack of your child or grandchilds art work that is driving you crazy . . . consider making it a work of art! It will be a wonderful memory you will cherish for a long time.

That's all for this week's "Crafty Schmafty Fridays", my friends.

Remember to grab one of my "Crafty Schmafty Fridays" buttons on the right of this post, and share it on your blog. If you have a crafty post to share with us, please link below! I'd love to stop by and visit your craftyness!

Wishing you a crafty weekend, my friends!