How to Display Your Child's Crafts

Other than displaying your child's artwork on the refrigerator, have you ever thought about providing a special place in your home to display her accomplishments and creations? What an ego boost to have her very own shelf in a prominent part of the house where everyone can see what she and you are proud of. Pack up some of your knickknacks and see if you can make a spot for each child (or family member, for that matter) to exhibit the things they've made. You might put the person's picture on their shelf as well.

Another way to show off crafts, depending on the size, is in one of those coffee tables with a glass-topped display case built in. Change the display monthly and share new craft projects with everyone who visits. This type of display-case coffee table would make a good furniture-making project for an adult.

If your child's favorite craft usually takes the form of something flat, make a place to hang things on the wall and rotate with new versions as they come along. A large clip-and-glass frame (the kind made of two pieces of glass pressed together and held by clips) can accommodate different-sized pieces.

Or how about a large bulletin board or a bulletin board border? Using 12-inch cork squares applied directly to the wall with an appropriate adhesive, create a border at about eye level around an entire room or along one wall. This would work well for a play or rec room. You can even band the cork border top and bottom with wallpaper trim. Now you have plenty of space to exhibit your child's latest works of art or anything else you'd like to show off.

Paper cutouts look beautiful on a window. Share them with the whole neighborhood. When my kids were little, they made some pictures, set up a table at the end of the driveway and made a big sign that said "Art Show." A few neighbors even stopped to look and one offered to buy a couple.

Why not have a neighborhood Arts and Crafts Show and Exchange? It could be held in someone's yard or garage and kids and adults could show what they do. We used to have a similar event where I worked. It was a Family Day and employees and their families brought in their hobbies to show. Consider this for your church or community organization.

Ask the staff at a local nursing home or hospital if they might like to borrow some colorful crafts to display at their facility. They may even want your child to come in and explain how the project was done. Combine bringing the crafts to display with a visit with some residents. Bake some cookies for the occasion.

Perhaps your child wants to preserve the memory of a project, but you don't have room to keep the project itself forever. Consider making a scrapbook. Take a picture of the project and incorporate it into a scrapbook, which becomes another craft project in itself. This can become a kind of portfolio and record you child's progress and changing interests.

If a lack of space is a consideration, how about scanning the picture (or having it scanned) into your computer and keeping picture files of projects? Take it a step further and put up a family Web site where you and your child can share crafting experiences and results with other families.

Look for ingenious ways to hang things. Using the same kind of hooks you would use to hang a houseplant, suspend a three-dimensional project from the ceiling. Again, a special corner could be reserved just for this in a room shared by the family.

The seasonal tree mentioned in Crafts For Every Holiday is a great way to display smaller items like beaded eggs, dough sculptures, or felt creatures. Just put a hanger on the item and suspend it from the branches. If seasonal themes are used, the objects can tie in nicely with the purpose of the tree -- but it can be used to display things at any time.

Another way to display items is from a line (like a clothesline) using S hooks. This can be strung close to the wall if you are displaying smaller or flatter items, further away for bulkier ones.

Shadow boxes are useful to display three-dimensional objects. These can be made or bought. Compartmentalized shadow boxes, great for showing off smaller objects, are available from Northwood Products. A shadow box kit is available from Keepsake Frames, S&S Richards (Web site: http://www.yourhobby.com/keepsake.html).

Smaller lightweight objects can be made into a mobile. Origami crafts work well for this, as do small clay pieces or fabric shapes that have been stuffed and decorated or stiffened. Crocheted snowflakes that have been stiffened with starch can be hung for a wintry mobile. Mobiles are very adaptable.

Let's Play Interior Decorator

I always thought it would be cool for a kid to be able to decorate his room using his own crafting talents. Depending on your child's crafting interests, this could be an interesting project that could evolve over several months. He can pick a theme to tie it all together, such as Tropical, African, Country, Sports (or a particular sport), Dance, Garden, or anything else that appeals to him.

Scour magazines and books for ideas that could be adapted to your theme. Consider all the different aspects of the room, from ceilings and walls to floors, window treatments, and accessories. You and your child can change the entire room by refinishing old furniture using various painting techniques or decoupage. You can also build simple pieces of furniture from scratch, paint murals, sew accessories, and create mobiles or collages. Let your child design and create his own living space. This is something that would especially appeal to older children. There's a show on Home and Garden Television called Awesome Interiors that has some very simple and inexpensive ideas for decorating that could easily be adapted to a kid's room.

All the different crafts I've covered in this book will give you ideas for decorating and creating accessories. Paper projects could be framed for walls, or you could make a pierced paper lampshade together. Fabric techniques could be used to create bed coverings, window treatments, and pillow covers. Your metalwork projects could be used as embellishments for wooden furniture. Etched or stained glass could be used for windows or lighting fixtures. You could craft leather accessories. Poured molded plastic has an infinite number of possibilities for room decorations and desk accessories.

Stenciling techniques could be used on walls, ceilings, and furniture. A store-bought rug or pillows can be stenciled with fabric paint. Build boxes for storage, or cover existing boxes with creative fabrics and designs. Paint and decorate, use faux finishes (finishes that look like marble, stone, metal, wood, and so on but aren't), or cover surfaces with fabric or marbled papers that your child has made. These can then be covered with a coat of clear acrylic to help preserve them and make them easy to clean.

Try sponging or marbling both objects and surfaces. There are products on the market that give you all the tools, paints, and know-how in one package. Use needlework to decorate accessories or create them from scratch. Make frames or cover existing ones with fabric or decoupage. Use decorative painting techniques on furniture and accessories. Handmade baskets can also be used for decoration and storage. Make a wooden shelf or a rack with hooks to hang hats or jackets. Make a rag, needlepoint, or hooked rug for the room. Make a bed quilt together.

Add interesting details, like handcrafted pulls for the shades or drawers, a miniature room your child can set on a shelf or hang from the wall and change with the seasons, a small wreath on the door that changes with the holidays or seasons, even a miniature holiday tree.

Let your child's room be a virtual showcase for his talents and interests, even if it may look a little quirky sometimes. As long as he likes it, that's what counts. You may find that the more of himself he's allowed to put into his space, the better care he takes of it. It makes sense.

Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Crafts with Kids © 1998 by Georgene Lockwood. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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