Craft For Kids: Painted Picture Frames

Crafting with kids can be an unequaled joy–it can, however, also be an unequaled mess.  Let’s be real, when crafting with kids there is only one thing you can count on–there will be a mess.  Honestly, sometimes the idea of the mess that will follow is enough for me to just avoid crafting with my kids.  But, they love crafting.  So with this painted frame craft for kids, I decided not only to embrace the mess, but to celebrate it.  Kids are only kids for so long and often times the mess that they create really is beautiful!

Supplies needed to make your own painted frame craft for kids:

• Unfinished 3 x 3 Wood Frames
• Acrylic Paint (in a variety of colors)
• Kid-Friendly Paint Brushes
• Sliver Cord or Thread
• Silver Metallic Paint Marker
• Mod Podge
• 4 x 6 Picture of the Kiddo Artist
• Scissors
• Kids (really, this is the key ingredient in this project!)

The first step in this craft for kids is the messiest!  Remove the inside elements of the frame, lay down some newspaper, get the kids in old t-shirts and let them paint those frames however they’d like. Go nuts!

Since I have little kids, I found the best way to paint is to simply pour out puddles of different colors of acrylic paint all on a single paper plate.  Then I hand each kid a wide paint brush and they just grab and smear the paint.  In the end you have a colorful painted surface–and a mess.  While the frames dry you’ll have time to clean the room, floor and kids!

Next up, it’s time for mom to get a little crafty.  See, I love the messy look of my kids’ art projects, but I really love the look of mess with a little bit of order–or a craft that both my kids and I were a part of.

To contrast the messy painted frames, I took some silver cord and wrapped it around 2 sides of the frame, securing it on the back with tape, as shown in the picture below.

After that was done, I simply took a silver metallic paint marker and wrote each of the kids’ nicknames on the corner of the frame they painted.  Since these craft for kids frames are meant to be hung in our playroom I thought it would be fun to have their nicknames there.

And finally, I sealed the whole thing (including the thread) with Mod Podge, matte finish.

Once the frames were finished all I had left to do was add some pictures.  Again, these are messy frames, so I thought it might be odd to have formal, staged pictures inside of them.  Instead I thought it was an awesome opportunity to display some of the thousands of pictures on my phone. I picked a few fun ones, printed them as 4 x 6 prints and used the back of the frame as a template for the size to trim the picture.

I popped the picture in the frame and I was done with this fun craft for kids.

And I was very pleased.  Can’t wait to get these cute, messy, fun, wonderful frames hung up in our playroom!

This was a fun craft for kids project for me and my kids.  Isn’t that when crafting is the best–when it is something you can share and together be proud of?!?

All the best and happy crafting!

Nancy

Nancy is the play-at-home mom of 3 little ones, ages 3 and under. When she gets a chance she blogs at dosmallthingswithlove.com about the intersection of motherhood and creativity. She has a special passion for embroidery, something she has been doing and experimenting with since she was a girl. A farm girl at heart, she now lives in Minneapolis and enjoys gardening, reading, stitching, traveling and painting. Most any day you can find her with a baby on her hip, barefoot, chasing her kids around the yard and eating beans fresh out of the garden.