Turn Your Kid's Art Into Something Presentable: the Transformational Value of Painter's Tape

You don't deserve this. No one deserves this. Make a different kind of memory that won't give you the shakes every time you recall it.

Maybe you've been privy to a scene like the one here. A wild child running rampant through a room of your house on a Saturday night yelling, "I painted somfin' special fer you, mama!" The little darling doesn't understand that mama and daddy will be on their hands and knees with everything from rubbing alcohol, bleach, and vinegar to make that floor right.

So, a couple of things here. Number one, keep the paint out of the reach of your kiddos. We are telling you this from experience. Next, if you plan to allow your kids to run ape wild with the paint, invest in the biggest tarp on the face of the Earth. If they cannot paint outside due to weather, spread that tarp across every inch of the floor... maybe just refloor your house with painting tarp.

Kids love it when you save their art, hang their art everywhere, and Lord have mercy, do they ever notice when you don't hang it up or when you take it down. So instead of freaking out about huge messes and loading up your walls with "baby's pretty paintings" utilize painter's tape to help them create masterpieces. Trust us when we tell you — it TOTALLY works!

We were squirreling around the Interwebs when a YHI Team Member found this amazing article about using painter's tape for kid's paintings, and it's kind of amazing that no one else has thought of this before. So here's the basic gist, and it is VERY basic — plus it creates actual artwork you can hang on your walls without sighing afterward.

Step One: Throw down that tarp the size of Belize

Ahhh, that's more like it! Image courtesy of RobinEggBlue on Blogspot

Step Two: Grab a couple of 20 by 24 canvases per kiddo. BEFORE you hand them out, use the painter's tape to create cool geometrical shapes across each of them, as seen in the photo here (this is the finished product, but you can see where the parent placed the tape — use this theme for your shapes or think up your own ideas, like diagonal stripes, triangles, squares, and so on.)

Step Three: Strip those kids down to their chonies or put them in clothes you absolutely don't care about whatsoever... because there is going to be paint everywhere.

Step Four: Let loose the dogs of war. Paint war, that is. Allow your little wild things paint with brushes, their fingers, sponges, their feet, whatever.

Step Five: Don't let things get too out of hand — at the first sign of paint on the canvases starting to get muddy and no longer have distinct, vibrant tones, grab those rug rats and throw them in the bath. Keep in mind, this is a two-parent, two-bottle-of-wine job. So while one parent scrubs down the kids and throws them in their jammies, the other parent will grab all the canvases, set them somewhere safe to dry, and take the Belize-sized tarp outside and hose it down.

Step Six: Wait for the paintings to dry completely. This will take 24 hours. (HINT: DO NOT USE OIL PAINT!!!!) Once you've waited 24 full hours, gently remove the painter's tape to reveal sweet patterns and designs, like the ones you see in the image here from Robin Egg View Blog.

Step Seven: Now you have beautiful art made by your kids. These are so cool because if you have your children make enough of them, you can actually hang them super close together to make one gigantic collage for their bedroom or play room, nursery, or even your living room if they're cool enough.

Once the canvases are complete, you can add wire to the back using these simple directions, making them easily hangable with one 10-pound Sexy Metal Hook from your YOUHANGIT Designer Kit.

Once you've done a couple of these, be sure to upload pics to the YOUHANGIT Facebook page or tweet us your images @YOUHANGIT. We can't wait to see what you all come up with — all thanks to good, ol' fashioned painter's tape!