Wednesday, March 3, 2010

DIY-Kid's art portfolio


finished books

Here is a fun project to make with your kids. It's great in two ways: 1) they get to enjoy making mini masterpieces with different mediums and 2) you get to document their growth as mini-Picassos. Also, as your children grow and continue to create, you can add to their portfolio and it will grow with them.

The Mediums:

My creation
1. pastels 2. acrylic paint 3. archival ink 4. watercolors



The Supplies:

portfolio supplies

1. background paper: I used black for E's portfolio and white for S's. This paper is also the title page of the portfolio.
2. stickers for the cover, to spell out "art".
3. archival water color paper: we used this for all of the mediums. I also precut the paper and hole punched it so the girls would know how much space they had to work with.
4. transparency paper: to insert between the photo and the artwork.
5. gluestick and holepunch
6. black and white photos of the artists-printed the same size as the artwork
7. albums: I used a modern acrylic album, you could also use chipboard or an album with page protectors
8. and, of course, the masterpieces


The Process:

My creation
Remember to take lots of photos of your kids as they make their pictures.
When they are finished with their piece ask them to give it a title. Go with whatever title they choose; it doesn't matter if it makes sense, let 'em own it!

The Assembly:

assembly-e
assembly-s

Step 1: cut your photos and backing paper to same size as the artwork
Step 2: attach title to front page
Step 3: attach photo to back of front page
Step 4: attach artwork to second piece of backing paper
Step 5. insert transparency between photo and artwork
Step 6: Attach next photo to previous artwork backing.
Step 7: repeat steps 3-4

Finished Portfolio!
Sit down and look through it with your little artist.

porfolio-e

Thanks for reading, and let me know how this project goes with your kids!


Edited: I added this to the list of other great craft ideas over at

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great idea! I still have an album I could use for this.

Kimber-Leigh said...

such a cute idea :) have i mentioned that i miss dreeves design albums?!?!?!?

holly said...

Really beautiful! I get so inspired by your website!

Lee Ann said...

uh. Just about the cutest idea ever!

Holly said...

Here's a question for your creative mind. I am so annoyed my my black frames. I am trying to decide a way to add a little style and variety without buying new frames. Do you have any suggestion's or ideas?

nicole said...

This is something you will love to look back on as the kids grow older- I mean REALLY love! Great idea and beautiful finished product.

diane said...

Thanks for all of your sweet comments about the portfolio. It really is such a fun project.

diane said...

Holly, I am planning on doing a post about updating frames in the next week or two.

Thanks for stopping by.

Verity {belle bébés} said...

This great idea was featured on belle bébés today http://bit.ly/xTkKj8 :)

Anngela said...

Hi! What rings and cover and clear protector pages did you use? Can you share where you got them from and the size/shape that they are? Thank you!