Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Fridge Frames

My kids are not even in school yet and we seem to have an endless supply of art projects that they do at daycare. Thus far they have either been piled up in the closet, floating around the house or car...or crumpled...or lost altogether. I wanted a way to display the art without having to visit the framing department at our local Michael's store, and also did not want to just tape them to the fridge...and then have to re-tape every time a new masterpiece came home. So I came up with Fridge Frames.

I started with a layered 11x14 mat that comes in a picture frame or that you can buy separately for a couple bucks. Next, I attached a clear 8.5x11 sheet protector over the 8x10 opening to make "glass" for the frame. Then I cut some foam core board into 1/2 inch strips and attached them along 3 sides of the mat, being careful to ensure there was enough room for a 9x12 piece of paper (the size of construction paper) between them. Finally, I attached a piece of thin cardboard to the three strips of foam core and stuck on adhesive magnets. I also made a little cutout in the cardboard backing for easy access to the inserted works of art.  Now my fridge will always be decorated for the season!

Fridge Frame

Here's the first Fridge Frame I made for the lil Rooster. I will be making another one for the Chick and I will update this post with step by step photos and instructions.

Time Saving Tip for this installment: I worked on this a little at a time while cooking dinner, chatting with the Daddy Rooster, and while doing my taxes.  Isn't multi-tasking great? :)