Messy Kid Frames

Who’s ready to get messy?  

At my house any time the kids are in on the crafting fun–it’s a messy time!  Every once in a while I embrace the messy and we turn it into art.  

These Messy Kid Frames are a simple project the kids and I did for our playroom.  

I love how colorful they turned out and that they combine the messy craziness of the kids and a few orderly details from mom.

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 a little kid, 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 paintbrush 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, a matte finish.

Once the frames were finished all I had left to do was add some pictures.  

Again, these are messy kid 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!