i love this idea for baby and very young toddler art work. however, were i to paint a "house" for mommy and she turned it into an elephant, i would be highly offended!

What a way to break a kid's heart! Baby art work maybe, but who turns a baby loose with finger paints? I think this is terribly sad.

I think this idea is intended for all the crazy artwork your YOUNG toddler does where the main goal is the fill the page. Children at this age are not trying to draw a "house" or any other inanimate object; they are simply experimenting with color, texture and the result of their actions, which we equate with art. Besides, it is not necessary that you cut up your child’s art; you could simply overlay the template. Needless to say, I think this is great! Those hundreds of "scribbles" slated for the circular file could be resurrected as something new.

As a parent of a very prolific artist we have a collage box where she puts some of her completed artwork to be "recycled" into new creations. Think Eric Carle or other children's book illustrators that use collages to create the images for their books. Now that her work is becoming more representative it is harder to get her to do this--but we still cut out parts of volcanos, trees, islands, houses and make new pieces of art. Other things we have used her art for include wrapping paper and making cards for friends and family.

I also wanted to add I think this would be a good way for a big sister or big brother to get to help decorate a room for a new baby.

I think this is a great idea! I am in the process of re-doing my daughter's bedroom, and I think she would love to do a project like this.

For those concerned about hurting an older child's feelings, why not ask them to create something specifically for this? You could also ask them if they have any older pictures you could use. I think there are a lot of ways to do this without hurting a child's feelings.

An alternative I did with my niece and nephew was to print a couple of pictures of their favourite things/people in black and white and get them to colour those in.

My niece is still proud of her purple polkadot grandparents... :)

Hello Friends...

This activity was meant to be done together WITH your kids. I did the cutting of course, but THEY picked which animals they wanted to create. We even framed it together and hung them together. They loved every second of it! You can read more here:

http://sarahjanestudios.com/blog/index.php/2009/03/02/making-an-art-gallery/

I love this idea! The templates look great. The bird is especially pretty. But, and I am not ornithologist, isn't the bird a swallow, and not a sparrow? I don't think sparrows have deeply split tails, do they? In any case, I love it!

I love it! Sweet, beautiful, practical idea. Thank you.

I understand some of the concerns posted here, but, like Sarah Jane herself says, there are ways you can approach this project with sensitivity.
I think it's a beautiful idea and something my daughters would love to do.
A project I did with my kids one time was to photocopy a line drawing of something meaningful and have them paint it with watercolors. In this case it was a drawing of the school where my husband works (taken from a 1930s yearbook). I framed the painting and the girls gave it to him for Father's Day:
http://pennycarnival.typepad.com/penny_carnival/2008/06/daddy-day.html

I run a kindergarten school and I think this is a great idea for the school kids.

My daughters and I followed Sarah Jane's instructions and we're thrilled with the finished products. You can see them here:
http://pennycarnival.typepad.com/penny_carnival/2009/04/meal-planning-and-fabric-hoarding.html

We added a whippet to the mix in honor of our dog.

Thanks again for this great idea (Sarah Jane) and post (Ohdeedoh).