Your kid’s art projects are priceless works that you’ll want to keep and display for years to come. Not to mention, they provide timeless memories that you’ll be able to look back on every time you see them. However, sometimes it can be hard to display kid’s art in a way that matches your home’s décor. If you are looking for some fun projects that you can do with your kids while finding ways to make them look beautiful in your home, we’ve got you covered.
We reached out to artists, crafters, and studio owners across North America, from Columbus, WI to Victoria, BC, to give us their best projects and display ideas. From circle doodles to watercolor paintings, keep reading what they had to share.
14 kids art projects you can do at home
1. Create decoupage coasters, covers, and jars
Decoupage (meaning “to cut out” in French) is a fun and versatile project to do with kids. Cut out shapes from paper, fabric, or wood and attach them to a surface using Mod Podge to glue it down. Ceramic coasters, journal covers, candles, mason jars are some ideas for Decoupage. All you need is Mod Podge, a brush, brush basin, scissors, scraps of paper, napkins, and fabric. – Jera Arts and Crafts
2. Create circle doodles
Here’s what you’ll need to create a fun kids’ art project called circle doodles – 1 sheet of 8 ½ ” x 11” white paper or larger, a pencil, and markers. First, choose the orientation of your paper, it can be landscape or portrait. Then use a protractor to create various circles, you can draw them first in pencil or opt to create them with a marker. Next, create as many circles as you would like, but try to leave some white space. Lastly, create lines, curves, swirls, and any other shape/design you would like inside your circles. With that, you have fabulous artwork that you can display in a book. – Express Yourself Studio LLC
3. Make toilet paper roll critters
For this kid’s art project all you need are some cardboard toilet paper rolls, markers, and scissors. You can start by drawing a face on your toilet paper roll with a pencil and then coloring it in with markers. If you want to get fancy you can cut ears out of the top, fringe for hair, feet out of the bottom, or even octopus legs on the bottom. Be careful not to cut away too much of the toilet paper roll or it won’t stand up. They can easily be displayed on a windowsill or a mantel. – Outside The Box Creation
4. Do a paint by numbers kid’s art project
Kids can develop and improve their motor skills by painting their favorite animals or character by following the numbers on the canvas. Many companies provide DIY kits using both painting and diamonds that any kids from age 7 can do alone or together with you. After that, hang the final painting to show your appreciation of their hard work. – Craft Ease
5. Get creative with a watercolor painting
Place an 8”x10” or 11”x14” watercolor or heavier drawing paper on an inexpensive washable placemat and tape all the way around the edges with masking or painter’s tape, overlapping the paper about a ¼-½ inch. Draw with markers, crayons, or oil pastels, lightly spray with water, and then paint with watercolors. Gently peel off the tape when dry to reveal a white border. Clip it on a line to display or for a real visual boost place it in any standard 8”x10” or 11”x14” sized mat or frame. – Harbor Creative Arts
6. Create a stunning tree project
Give your young artist a 9×12 piece of construction paper and cut pieces into different shapes (for example a background wavy circle, triangles for trees). Have your child glue down the background piece, then add as many trees as they’d like. Using a marker, have them draw tree trunks and branches. For the finishing touch, add white snow by allowing your child to paint with q-tips. – Artfully Creative Education
7. Design a DIY canvas painting
We love DIY canvas paintings because it showcases a child’s imagination. To make it more fun, create a 3D version with paint, glitter, cut-outs, and a personal photo. The best part is that it’s easy to make, supplies are readily available – one can design the painting as simple or dramatic. The canvas is a unique keepsake that displays nicely on a shelf or wall. – Plan A Day Out
8. Trying floating donuts
One of our favorite art projects is Floating Donuts, created by the fabulous Nic Hahn of Mini Matisse. Kids of all ages love getting to play with different art materials and the end result of this project is a saturated and vibrant painting. It looks great framed, but if you already have enough artwork on the walls, you can take a picture, and show it off on adorable products like mugs, magnets, jewelry, and key chains. – Art To Remember
9. Make a keepsake quilt
Create a family project to preserve as a keepsake. Place all your mini quilts in rows and tape them onto a larger piece of felt backing then hang your timeless décor on a wall in your home or use it as a table decoration. – Kids & Art Foundation, an organization providing supportive art programs for children with cancer and their families
10. Involve the whole family in your artwork
Create a family handprint by pressing each family member’s painted hands onto a piece of paper layering each handprint as you go. Alternatively, trace family members’ handprints on paper, cut them out, and glue the handprint layers one on top of the other. This creates a classic keepsake, a snapshot of your family’s hands in time, and is perfect for displaying in your home. You can hang it as is or make your artwork even more durable by transforming this handprint craft into a durable adhesive wall decal or window cling. – Arts and Bricks
11. Design a watercolor galaxy
Watercolor paint is a great medium for kids to work with because it is very experimental and you can have a lot of fun with it. Using a cup, pencil, watercolor paint, and good quality watercolor paper, we created a circle and painted different constellations and a galaxy within. To jazz things up a bit, salt can be used to create an effect where the paint does not blend in, and so you can see how the tiny salt crystals left white areas in the galaxy painting below depicting stars. Mount your artwork onto a hard panel with spray adhesive for a more natural look, or frame it with glass. – Little Ashcan Art
12. Build holiday ornaments
Get ready to decorate your house for the holidays by repurposing a CD into an ornament. Take a photo, card, or even an old calendar with an image you like. Trace around the CD, glue the image onto it, and finish with ribbon or yarn through the hole to display your art. – The SCRAP Gallery
13. Use different mediums
Fill your home with love, color, and joy with this super fun abstract art project for artists of all ages. Step 1: Fill one side of watercolor or mixed media paper with abstract marks, shapes, and colors using different materials (crayons, pastels, color pencils, watercolors). Mix and match materials to create great textures and patterns. Step 2: Once the page is filled with colors, let it dry (if applicable), then flip the page over and draw heart outlines of all sizes. Cut out all the hearts. Step 3: Choose a sheet of construction paper to match your décor or find a color that compliments your heart cutouts. Arrange the hearts and glue them down. If you would like to display in a shadow box display, you can let the hearts come off the page for a 3D effect. – Essem Art Studio
14. Draw your breath
Each child gets an Etch-Sketch. With their hands on the dials, students breathe in and breathe out drawing lines for each breath. During this whole activity, students will not take their hands off the dials, making their own lines, shapes, and creative artwork. After about 30 breath cycles, parents can hang their work on a wall as a reminder to breathe mindfully. As a bonus, this activity can be repeated again and again. All you need is an Etch-Sketch and materials for hanging. – Empowering Education
6 ways to display your kid’s art projects
1. Create a rotating art gallery
Choose a designated spot in your home- a bulletin board, the back of a door, or even the side of the fridge. Tell your kids it’s a rotating gallery, once new art arrives, an old piece comes down. Kids will love to have a special spot to celebrate their artwork and you will love to keep it contained and not overwhelming the rest of the house. – Creative Hearts
2. Attach with hooks and stretched canvases
There will always be special, favorite art pieces that you display seasonally or permanently, but it’s important to also display your children’s most recent works. One great way to trade out art regularly is to use 3M hooks to create a gallery wall of 8×10 stretched canvases. These canvases are affordable, easy to hang, and easy to change to highlight your children’s newest art pieces. You can reuse the old canvases by painting over them. – The Workshop Columbus
3. Use similar floating frames to display your kid’s art projects
As the mom of three boys who came home with armloads of school art projects, my favorite solution is choosing a few of the masterpieces from each child each year and framing them in identical floating frames on one wall. The benefit of using floating frames is it can make irregular-sized and different-sized artwork all look coordinated when hung together. Our current kid’s art wall now has 4 rows of 5 framed artwork pieces and the most common comment from those who visit are, “I would have paid for that art.” – Holly Homer, Kids Activities Blog
4. Hang pictures from metal clips, bulletin boards, or frames
Displaying your children’s artwork in your home is a great way to not only make them proud, but it can also brighten up a room and add some personality. Some of the traditional ways of doing this are hanging pictures from a string with metal clips, bulletin board displays, multi-frame room dividers, or in small frames on a picture ledge. Other more creative ways to display the artwork would be to transfer the images onto household items like blankets, pillows, and bags by utilizing Print-On-Demand (POD) sites. – Pixie Art Studio
5. Incorporate your kid’s art into your home’s function
Parents and children can create a timeless functional DIY project together that can be used to display their child’s artwork from school, along with their backpacks and coats. Have your local home improvement store cut lumber to a size that will fit your space, purchase some coat hooks, clothespins, and a small can of stain. Assemble together at home by staining the wood, adding the coat hooks, and arranging clothespins as needed for future school artwork. Then hang it vertically in high-traffic areas. Coats/backpacks can be hung and the artwork they bring home can be displayed right away on the clothespins. – The Craft Factory
6. Use twine to hold up your kid’s art projects
Here’s a fun way to display your kid’s art projects and have a project for the kids to do too. It is easy and will look awesome in any room. All you need are clothespins, paint, brushes, glitter, a ball of twine, and a couple of thumbtacks. Have the kids decorate the clothespins with paint or glitter, hang the twine with the thumbtacks and use the clothespins to hold the kid’s art projects. – Art & Music Center
Originally published on Redfin.com