Thursday, March 25, 2010

7 March Featured Space: Kids - Color Your World

Crayons - check.  Markers - check.  Color Pencils - check.  IHeart them.  I truly do.  Two easy peasy reasons why.  1.  They encourage kids to be creative through art!  2.  They make fantabulous room accessories, on the cheap.  Gotta love when a room accessory actually doubles as something productively useful!

When I posted information about our playroom, I focused in on some cheapo crayon storage, in the form of $1 white Ikea planters:


It got me thinking, I have crayons and markers in all of my kiddos spaces, organized in adorable matching decor.

For example, my youngest son, little P age 3, doesn't get big kid coloring objects, but he does have a bucket of Crayola Color Wonder markers:


Color Wonder markers are so funtastic because my wonderful little man can "accidentally" color on his walls, floor, furniture or self with one of the markers, and it WILL NOT SHOW UP!  Every mom's dream right?  Making them perfect candidates to be displayed in his room, in this super fantastic red bucket with a star shape cutout.  Little P and I snagged this bucket-o-love from Goodwill for a buck.  And it matches his color scheme and decor to a giant T:



And finally to our Middle P and Master P's room.  They are 5 and 8, and completely capable of making good decisions and staying in the lines when they color, so they have markers, crayons and color pencils at their disposal.
I wanted to give them an inexpensive way to keep their supplies handy, while also matching their room decor, so I did a little quick and easy art supply DIY project...

I started out with some empty quart sized paint cans that I got for little to nothing at a local home improvement store {it was a while ago now, sorry I don't remember the exact amount of clams I shelled out}.  I also had a glue gun, $1 wooden letters, craft paint, paint brush and scrapbook paper:


Using some hot glue, I covered the empty paint canisters in the decorative scrapbook paper:


Already cute, and I could have stopped there.  But I always have to take things a bit further...  I busted out the wooden letters, which not so coincidentally spelled out the word, "ART", and I painted them orange with some craft paint:


I went back to my trusted hot glue gun to attach each letter to the front of the scrapbook covered canister:


Of course, the project wasn't complete until they were placed into the boys space!  They looked pretty incredible in their new home!


And my boys are constantly encouraged to snag their workbooks or drawing pads and let loose... which IHeart!

Of course, we have LOADS of other kid's craft supplies, however, I keep those tucked away in spare bedroom craft closet, which I will reveal at a later time, so stay tuned!


Maybe it's the fact that next to math, my favorite subject was art in school, making me a tad crazy when it comes to encouraging my kiddos to heart art as well!  Not sure, but whatever the reason, we couldn't be happier having it be a part of all of their personal zones.

Any of you have amazing booming artists out there?  What fun and creative ways do you encourage your little ones to let their imaginations run wild in the form of art?  How about quick and easy DIY craft storage we can inspire from?


7 comments:

  1. Great idea and so fun! Can't wait to see your craft closet :-)

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  2. Love this playroom! Your little men are truly lucky!!! This is fabulous!

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  3. I know this is an old post but I just found your site and have been reading through it all day long--I love it!!!! Anyway, I'm bookmarking this post because I'll be homeschooling next year and this gives me some great ideas (that are also fun and cute!) to store the tons of items I'll {inevitably buy} in my small space. Thanks!

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  4. Nice! What about crayons? What container would you use for it? Baby food jar is too small...for 46 crayons or so.

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    1. Hi Shanny! I always look for leftover packaging that works good for crayons, wipe bins, pencil boxes, frosting tubs, etc.. are all good options.

      xoxo!
      Jen

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  5. I love the idea of redecorating cans! So thrifty!
    And those scrapbook papers are so nice!!
    I made my own version of with a leftover shopping bag with beautiful patterns! Love it :)
    I used double sided tape to stick it on the can though.. still new to the glue gun gang!
    Thank you for the inspiration!

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  6. I just wanted to say, I recently started working for a non-profit which provides a safe, educational play-space for children of all ages and they desperately needed some organization. My sister directed me to your blog and now I am just bursting with ideas of how to make the craft area and all other areas of the storefront more inviting and more organized! Thank you so much for having all this information available! =)

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