Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Decoupaging A Box With Kid Art

Now that Clara’s old enough to hold a tiny paint brush, get down with some Mod Podge, and rock out with a nail gun (just kidding about that last one), I thought doing the occasional project with her would be a good time. And I’m not gonna lie, this project is still fun without a kid (and can definitely be done with adult-made art or even some awesome decorative gift wrap or wallpaper), so let’s slap a “no children necessary” label on this baby.

Box Proj First Image

As for the how, first my trusty assistant and I perused some of the art that she made at school (she loves to paint) to choose the one that she liked the best. Her winner was the one closest to the camera below (with yellow and orange and red in it).

Box Project1

Then we grabbed one of those very lightweight wood craft boxes that we picked up at JoAnn (I think they’re also at Michaels). Clara watched intently while I laid the art under the box lid with both the art and the lid facing down and cut the corners of the art like this, so they met up with the corner of the lid:

Box Project2

This allowed me to wrap the painting around the box as if I was gift wrapping it, and I used some decorative washi tape (it was a gift, so I’m afraid I’m not sure where it’s from, although I’ve seen similar stuff at Target) to hold it down on the inside of the lid.

Box Project3

I repeated this process on each side of the box as Clara watched attentively from her chair nearby.

Box Project4

Then I ran some of the tape around the side of the lid, just because I loved how it looked with Clara’s painting so much, but if you like seeing the art wrap around the lid instead of adding a tape border, you can leave it as-is.

Box Project5

Oh and you’ll notice in the background of that picture that Clara and I had gotten down to work and painted the bottom of the box red. She loved helping with that step, and it took a few coats (with drying time in between) so we went off and played with a few other things and got dressed and all that good stuff in between coats.

After all the paint was dry, Clara also enjoyed helping me slap some Mod Podge all over the top of the box, to seal her painting and protect it for the long haul.

Mod Podging Box

So to anyone who loves doing projects with their kid, there are actually three steps that Clara enjoyed. The first one of course was making the art in the first place, the second one was helping me paint the base of the box, and the third one was applying some Mod Podge to the top of the box to seal things – so I just did the harder stuff like cutting the paper and taping it into place on the lid.

Box Proj 7

I think the finished product is pretty cute, and I love how fun it was to tackle with Clara. What kid crafts have you guys been doing lately? Don’t you love finding ways to incorporate their art into your home so you can enjoy it instead of storing it away in some box that you never open? Clara’s teacher says when they paint in class she stops and steps back and looks at the paper and then steps forward and paints a little more and steps back and looks at it again and then dives back in. Is that cute or what? She’s my little Van Gogh.

Comments

  2. julie g. says

    I love this! Any suggestions related to how to use the kids’ art and make a keepsake is appreciated. This will be a perfect project to work on for the upcoming Mother’s/Father’s Days as well. The grandparents will go crazy for a useful DIY item from the kids.

    Another idea I have been wanting to do is use one of the photo collage specials you get in email, Living Social or Groupon and scan the kids’ artwork in instead of photos. This way you have an abundance of art all on one canvas!

    Reply

  3. andrea p says

    Love this sweet project!
    Just wondering what you guys do to corral all of Clara’s art/school projects (and keep the clutter to a minimum)?
    Thanks!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I have a box that slips under the bed in the guest room (like a big lidder tupperware one) where I put favorites that we don’t hang up (we have a bunch of those around the house in frames too). I try not to keep every last scrap and choose ones she loves and I love :)

      xo
      s

  6. Sarah Clark says

    Thank you for the news about the mobile device thingy going on with your site. I am not all that tech savvy and could not figure out what I had done! Hated it though. Awful. I was trying to figure out how I was going to read your blog without giving myself a headache.

    Reply

  10. Susan says

    I’m a bit of a washi tape addict and I’ve seen that one at michaels if anyone is frantically looking for it! They have some great patterns, chevvy chevron & ikat-ish ones. Happy taping!

    Reply

  11. Cheryl says

    Her art technique sounds like what you do when styling a bookcase, mantle or the open shelves in kitchen.

    Reply

  12. Shannon says

    I LOVE this idea! You could even mod podge (sp?) print outs of family pictures. Will definitely be using this idea!

    Reply

  16. Dusty says

    Okay totally off subject but I have been watching a Cities calendar and one just sold today on ebay for $431.82 wow!

    Reply

  17. Karen F says

    cute project! I have so much artwork from my kids that I just have no idea what to do with it… *wheels turning in my mind*

    also, I spy the “no John cuts” scissors ;)

    Reply

  18. Roxanne M says

    LOVE this! So cute! I don’t have kids (somehow I don’t think my dogs could do this..) but I might have to send some boxes to my nieces and a copy of this post and hope I get a surprise one day…

    Reply

  20. Amy says

    Be careful, though, I mod-podged over my kid’s watercolor art and it totally smeared. I think because of the moisture in the mod podge combined with a water-soluble paint? Anyways, just a word of warning. The spray sealer from mod podge ended up working well to seal it, but I suppose then it’s not so kid-involvement-friendly.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Great tip Amy! I worried it might smear, but perhaps it’s safe with acrylic or thick water-based paints but more dangerous with watercolor? Always a good idea to test a small area first :)

      xo
      s

  21. Kelsey says

    What a sweet idea. I’m a teacher and I’d love to do something like this with my students. I think we’ll do this the last week of school so the kids can use their boxes to hold their most prized work from the year, notes from friends who will be moving away, etc. Thanks for sharing this!

    Reply

  23. Bonnie says

    Although I was able to disable the mobile site, I appreciate your quick response in removing it. Your standard site downloads quickly and is very user friendly. Thanks!

    Reply

  24. Hera says

    So Clara’s a lefty, huh! So am I. Are there any other left-handers in your family? The boxes are cute. My daughter loves to draw and paint (she’s 10 now). Years ago I told her (when we were becoming overwhelmed with her art) that there was no date on her picture so we couldn’t save it. Guess what? She now dates everything! Dang.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      So funny! As for the leftie thing, my dad’s a leftie too (along with my BFF, but although she married John’s cousin we’re not genetically connected :)

      xo
      s

  25. Whitney says

    I will be covering all kinds of boxes with my daughter’s art now! This is such a beautiful and easy project, I just love it. Thanks for inspiring!
    Whitney

    Reply

  28. Whitney says

    The covered boxes in my house will be endless! What a beautiful and easy craft, love it! Im feeling inspired to do something like this in my preschool class too. Thanks!
    Whitney

    Reply

  29. Jenny says

    We have recently discovered the Crayola line of Colorwonder products and they are definitely Mommy approved. I think toddlers especially get more satisfaction out of using markers for coloring because they don’t have to bear down as hard to get good results, and I love them because they only color on the paper that comes with them. Definitely worth the higher cost to keep my furniture, carpets, and walls in good shape.

    Other than that, I love playing with play dough with my son. He makes endless snakes and balls and I really enjoy playing with the play-dough, too. I haven’t tried much in the way of more permanent pieces that we’ll keep forever, because I’m not that organized, but our Parks and Rec department has great crafting classes for little ones and I’ve really enjoyed some of the things they’ve made together.

    Reply

  30. Kelly Lynn says

    Call me crazy but I LOVED the new mobile site, it was so much easier to read and to quick flip through recent posts :( I hope you are still looking into other mobile website options. I love my blogs that have them, especially for the blogs i read with lots photos.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It was a bit of a fiasco (over 50 complaints, comment bugs, no way for people to get to our family blog through it, loud flashing ads, etc) but we’re always open to new options if they’re less glitchy and more inclusive of all the functions people already have on the desktop site :)

      xo
      s

  31. Lauren says

    They have Washi tape at Michael’s as well. I used it to wrap around miniature clay pots and put dirt pudding in them for my daugher’s first birthday :)

    Reply

  34. Annette says

    This is super cute! And what a great idea to “use up” the endless stream of kiddy art. I do have one question, though, as a mom of 3 (5 1/2, 4 and almost 3 years old): How on EARTH do you do art projects without covering your table and Clara completely? Maybe it’s because my oldest 2 are boys, but that paint and mod podge would be all over the place. In fact, I make my kids paint outside so I can hose everything (and everyone) off. I’m thoroughly impressed by how neat Clara is.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I just think it’s her personality – she’s such a detail oriented girl (she’ll find a stick or one of my hairs and hold it up and examine it for ten minutes). Who knows, we might have another kiddo someday who won’t slow down for a second (and gets paint and mod podge everywhere) so I’m trying to soak up my little scientist and her fastidiously neat ways while I can :)

      xo
      s

  35. Donita says

    That is so cute!!! Love the bright colors! That is so precious, the way she paints at school. You need a video of that. ;-)

    Reply

  37. Lindsay B says

    I love the idea of displaying your kid’s art in different and creative ways! My much younger sister used to paint these adorable watercolor pictures for me, and I always scanned them in and used them as my computer background. It always brightened my day to see it!

    Reply

  40. Sandra says

    How super cute is that?! Definitely going to remember that one for when all the art is coming along! I was also going to get a digital photo frame and scan the art to rotate them in there. Hopefully they’ll increase in size just a littttle bit soon!

    Reply

  43. Joell says

    I LOVEDDDD the mobile site! It worked so well and looked great! I was super sad when it was gone when I just logged in. :(

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      So sorry Joell! There were lots of glitches (couldn’t comment, couldn’t visit the family blog from it) and many folks were complaining that it just spun and never loaded for them along with super giant flashing ads. Wish we could have made it work, but it needed to at least have the capabilities of the original site (commenting and accessing Young House Life) so we had to switch back :(

      xo
      s

  44. Tahlia says

    Cuuuuute idea! Such a modern way to keep your child’s artwork, I wish my mum did this. She kept absolutely everything (I mean everything)and some of it is quite embarrassing…I was a weird kid.

    Reply

  45. shannon says

    Great craft idea. My kids are now teenagers but, when they were little, I had them make a different christmas ornament every year for us (my husband and I) and their grandparents. I think they enjoy taking them out every year as much as I do!

    Reply

  46. haley says

    I loved the box before I even saw it was Clara’s artwork. I love this idea!!! I cant wait for my baby to be old enough to do artwork.

    Reply

  47. lisa says

    Cute! I would write her name and the date on the under side of the lid or on the bottom of the box. Always fun to look back as they get older and more “skilled” with painting. :)

    Reply

  48. Anne says

    So cute! On a kid related/house note – we just bought a new house and have an 14 month old who is on the cusp of walking. I’m wondering if you guys could do a post (or maybe you’ve done something?) on kid proofing your home. You are on “the other side” of the get into everything toddler days (I think?) so maybe you have some good tips to share. I know a lot depends on your child, but I’d love to get your insight on what you secured, what you put away, and what you changed while Clara wobbled around your home. Thanks!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, I definitely think it depends on the kid! We had every intention of putting door guards on everything but then Clara decided to not mess with any kitchen cabinets (of course we moved the cleaners and sharp things up high just in case, but we never needed to use locks because she had no interest in the doors). So the extent of kid-proofing in our house was pretty much just moving breakable or pointy/glass things up high where Clara couldn’t reach them (ex: the mantel, the built ins) and using outlet covers everywhere. Oh and for a hot second we had bite guards on her crib, but she outgrew that weird teething habit pretty quickly, haha!

      xo
      s

  49. Mel says

    Hi Sherry, did you guys realize that you’ve had a pretty big and somewhat inappropriate ad showing up on your site right near your family portrait? I took a screen shot of it that you can see here: http://i.imgur.com/TQBRlZ4.jpg

    It’s a woman (and guy) in underwear, clutching her bare breasts. It kind of shocked me and definitely wasn’t something I’d expect to see on your site (which I sometimes read while I’m on break at work. yikes). I’m guessing you guys don’t really control what ads show up on your blog but I figured you might want to know about it.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Argh! We’ve tried to block that add multiple times – it’s so annoying! We’ll put in another complaint and hopefully it’ll be gone by the morning. So sorry about that!

      xo
      s

  50. Johanna says

    I have a post suggestion… Toddler clutter… How do you keep your house from looking like a daycare all the time? It always looks so organized, without looking overwhelmed by primary colors…. And what are some of Clara’s favorite toys? My daughter will be one soon and I’ve been doing alot of research in keeping the toy clutter to a minimal… Some of the baby toys will be getting put away soon and I’m curious about some toddler favorites, especially from none other than the famous Clara P :) Anywho, that’s my suggestion :)

    Reply

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