March Featured Space: Kids - Where "Art" Thou Clips

So, I may have mentioned a couple of times that I am a big fan of my kid's expressing themselves through art.  Yes, I condone them getting down and dirty with paints, crayons, markers, clay, mud.... And better yet, IHeart to show off their stuff!

That being said, I am a freak about hanging stuff on the fridge.  Can't stand it.  Anything I do have hung on the fridge, like my meal plans and cleaning checklist, are on the far side of the fridge far from visibility to anyone wandering through our homestead... which means, rarely does it get covered with kid's creative masterpieces... {I hear you booing, quit throwing things at your computer screen!}  So, I wanted a fun and creative way to display their art.  I have some more ideas up my sleeve for the play room as well, but I started off in the kiddos bedroom, where the room now really reflects them and their art!

This post is a complete example of a typical day in my life... yes dear readers, I look around for things to create with what I have.  And when I stumbled across a perfectly cut piece of 4 ft. length trim, the wheels started spinning....

Once the spinning in my head stopped, my first step was to run to my laundry room and snag a big bowl of clothes pins:

Then, I placed them on the piece of trim I found, and figured out how many I wanted to attach {for hanging kiddo's artwork of course!}:

Then I took off the springs and laid them on some cardboard to be painted:

I just used some cheapo craft paint:

 And about 3 coats for good coverage:

Then, I used the same brown paint that I used for molding in the kid's bedroom:

to paint the entire 4 ft. piece of trim in a dark brown color:

Once the trim and the clips were dry, I used a tape measure to mark with a pencil, the exact locations for the clips to be evenly spaced:

Then, I snagged some wood glue and glued the clips to the board:

Once dry, I used some teeny tiny nails to secure the clips to the board:

I did split about 3 clothes pins in the process, having to start over and repaint a couple of times which was frustrating... my hub later lectured informed me that I could have pre-drilled a mini pilot hole... oops!

Once nailed in, it looked like so:

I also added a dab of paint over the nails so they wouldn't be visible:

And then my job was done!!

However, my amazing man's job was just beginning.  He was going to hang it for me... so he did the ultra important "pre-drilling" step:

Leaving the board and hole to look like:

Fancy stuff right there.....

And then he just used some screws to secure it into the wall:

And then it was done:

So I thought... After I hung up some artwork, I couldn't bare to think that I could still see the screw heads:

So I dug through my craft closet to find some adorable star shaped brads, and used a dab of hot glue to cover up the nail heads, problem solved!

And then we were really done!  The kid's hung some freshly painted artwork up, to not only dry, but to keep on display in their happy space:

And that was that.  In a quick couple of hours, I had a totally free and fun project completed, and it was already being useful holding up some fantabulous artwork... gotta love a story with a happy ending like that!

I have also since seen something similar over at fellow DIY amazing lady blogger, Ana's blog: Knock off Wood!  I like to say, "Great minds think alike!"

Anyone else out there have a similar story to share?  Did you stumble across something that was just screaming at you to create into a useful piece or decorative piece, just using what you have laying around the house?  Totally a hobby of mine, shopping within my own home for things I can switch up or move around or re-create!  It's tons of fun, give it a whirl!