project life: adding your child's artwork

today i thought i would share how i incorporate my children's art, drawings and writings into my project life album.

adding these elements is truly one of my favorite things about project life.  i would love to be able to see  what i drew or wrote when i was 2 or 4.

add it directly...

makes sense, right?

i basically just add what ever i find lying around directly into my project life album.  for this one above, it didn't quite fill up the whole page, so i added some little tags and backed it with a 4x6 card.  perfect!

photograph a group of artwork...

my daughter is super obsessed with mermaids.  one day she painted a whole slew of mermaids and wanted to hang them above her bed.  so i took a picture, left some "white space" for a title and added it right to the album.  so simple, but so dramatic!  plus, it captures every one of those paintings that are way too large for our album.

photograph a single drawing or painting....

i really like to do this.  this was actually drawn on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper.  i just snapped a picture of it with my camera and printed it roughly 3x4 to fit into the pocket.

photograph art in action...

i love to take pictures looking down.  i love what it captures.  yes, i love getting my daughter's beautiful face on camera, but what i love even more is her hands.  and how she always has nail polish that is chipping off.  and how she has a little callus where she still sucks her thumb.  yes, i see her painting and the words "i love you", but what i really see are the memories of this moment.

add writings....

i love how my daughter writes her name.  and i love that she loves to write her name.  for the pocket above, i used a large heart punch to punch out her name.  i thought it added a nice "peek-a-boo" touch to that page.

add drawing and writings...

more of the same basically.  sometimes i add little embellishments here and there on the drawings, but i like for the actual drawing/writing to be the main focus.  here i added the little heart and a tabbed card from elle's studio.  perfect for adding a little bit but not too much.

more photographs looking down...

same as above, but i wanted to show how i got both my son's and daughter's paintings in this picture.  i love how different they are and i love how it shows their ages and personalities.  i love action shots like this.

(i just wanted to note that my son spends a lot of time drawing, coloring and painting.  he's a little bit messier than my daughter ever was, so i usually have both hands ready to stop him from painting the walls rather than taking his picture.  i'm sure i will add more of his artwork, drawings, writings as he gets older.)