Showcase: Framing Family Memories

source: Elise @ Organizing for Everyone

Elise @ Organizing for Everyone shared this beautiful artwork and the story behind it with me, and I wanted to share it with you as well as this week’s showcase:

A few years ago, there was a “Parade of Penguins” in our area. Local artists decorated giant fiberglass penguins and they were placed throughout the county. The local newspaper printed a checklist of locations, and my family and I had a great time finding the penguins and check marking the ones we located. We saw some in our regular travels and spent a Saturday driving around to find more. By the time the event was over we had seen many of them. Ultimately, all of them were displayed at one time in the nearby mall. We made a point of going to see them. We all had a favorite, of course! (Eventually they were auctioned off to raise money for area charities.)

We had a ton of fun looking for them and were inspired by the artists who had created so many different looks for the penguins. So I decided we needed to create our own penguin art!

I started by finding a simple coloring page picture of a penguin on the Internet. I traced heavily over the edges of it, using a pencil. Then I flipped it over and placed it on the art paper we used for our final piece. (I used art paper because I had it on hand and wanted to use something that would hold up, but other paper would work). I could see the outline of the penguin through the back of the paper and again traced the edges, pressing hard with the pencil. Now I had a faint outline of a penguin on the art paper. I did this four times, one for each of us.

Then we colored them, using markers. There were no rules — everybody did their own thing. When we were done, we each signed and dated our penguin. I framed them in an inexpensive frame with a matte that had openings for four 4 x 6 pictures. Our four individual penguins became one piece of art. It’s one of my favorite pieces and I often get compliments on it. I love it because it’s beautiful, but also because it’s a wonderful memory of a fun, family activity.

What a great way to remember a family activity – and so much more beautiful than a cheap little trinket that will just get broken and forgotten!

Do you have a piece in your home that embodies simplicity and beauty? If you’d like to share it with us in an upcoming showcase, email me at simplenestblog@gmail.com!