Do you remember this post from way back when? Gosh, it was like two years ago...so Addie and Ian were only 2 and 3 years old. I had all this art that my babies had made (finger painting art to be exact) and I didn't know what to do with it. I'd read blog post after blog post on how to store your kids art, digitize it, etc. But I wanted to USE their art, but didn't know how. SO I came up with this ART GALLERY idea. I drew up stencils and traced them onto their finger painting art, and cut them out. Then we framed them, hung them on the wall, and had an instant art gallery of my kids work. Every time people came to visit, they always commented on our Gallery wall. It was so fun to look at! And since then, it's become the most downloaded post on my blog (maybe cause I don't have that much to download....working on that!)
But, I bring this up, because Chicago's local news station did a demo of how to make your own ART GALLERY with your children's art, and they used my blog post and templates for the demo! (Sorry folks...I couldn't figure out how to embed the video, but you can watch the clip if you click here. The demo is the second half of the program at the 2:31 mark).
It was kinda surreal to watch someone half way across the country share with local Chicago viewers, something that I came up with with on a whim while two toddlers crawled all over me on a normal wednesday morning....and I just thought, "Hey, this would be fun to blog about." It just made me realize that the normal things that we do each day can help inspire someone else to find more enjoyment in their daily living. That's what I love about blogging. To me, cutting out animals onto finger-painted paper was just another thing to do on a quiet wednesday morning. And it was! Not that spectacular. But to someone else, that's an idea that they might not have ever had if they didn't go read about it. And so I guess it makes me happy to think that somewhere in Chicago there's another mother cutting out finger-painted paper, while her toddlers climb lovingly all over her, to create a little art gallery from her own children's precious fingers. It really made me think about how far reaching the little things we do each day can be. I love how this world turns. And I love sharing in the turning.
To find the templates to make your own, click here.