My youngest son’s drawings of Frosty the Snowman, and our Christmas tree
Children have a knack for creating some of the most beautiful and vivid pictures imaginable. From finger paints to watercolors, oil crayons to colored pencils, their mediums are endless.
While drawing with my little ones recently, I noticed just how many pictures of snow men, snow flakes, stars and Christmas trees that they had created. Feeling tired of just relegating these beautiful drawings to the refrigerator, I decided to make a small collage of their work using embroidery, both theirs and mine. This seems like a perfect way to capture their creativity, while also providing us a collection of seasonal artwork to hang around our home.
There are many ways to capture a child’s art on fabric. You can have your child draw directly onto the fabric with a fabric marker, and then you or your child can embroider directly onto the design. If your child is drawing directly onto the fabric, make sure tho adhere all four corners to your work surface, using either painters or masking tape. You also want to make sure that you cut your fabric large enough to fit into your embroidery hoop. Draw an outline of the exact size that you want the picture to be, and than ask your child to stay within those lines while drawing their picture.
If you already have a drawing of your child’s that you would like to transfer, simply use carbon paper (found in most local craft stores) to transfer the design directly onto the fabric.
Once the design is on your fabric, place in your embroidery hoop and embroider in anyway that you choose.
Once you have completed your embroidery, iron it flat and place it in your frame. Now you have a wonderful piece of your child’s art for years to come.
Heather Fontenot lives with her family on the Front Range of Northern Colorado. She has a passion for natural and creative living, and spends as much of her time outdoors as possible. She loves to knit, sew, garden, photograph, read and home school her two sweet little ones. She writes the blog, Shivaya Naturals, where she chronicles her life as a mother, artist, and gluten free baker.