The Mom I Want to Be

Hit the High Wire

Choose one picture each month and mount it with previous selections along your child’s bedroom wall, timeline-style, to chart her artistic development. Design catalogs sell sleek steel wall-mounted cable systems 6 ($34, westelm.com) to which you can clip artwork and photos; DIYers can approximate these with yarn or wire and clothespins or binder clips.

 

Get Digital

Memorialize selected works— your child’s blue period, say, or her armless bodies phase— by scanning them into your computer and creating cool keepsakes. To make a glossy poster, scan 4 to 16 pieces, then visit shutterfly.com or snapfish.com for the poster design and printing (about $20 to $25). If you’d rather not handle the technical aspects, try a print shop— just call first to make sure they do scanning. Once the items are scanned, all you need to do is decide how you want them to look on the poster and choose the background.

 

Live Large

FedEx Kinko’s will turn PDFs of artwork into large-format prints 1 on foam core (around $80 and up).

 

Go Mobile

Commission your artist to cut up her old art and create a simple mobile with a wire hanger and thread, or use Fotofalls’ mobile photo clip. ($21, umbra.com)

Make It Magnetic

Updating the artwork on display isn’t difficult if you create a magnetic gallery. Use four coats of magnetic primer (Magic Wall, $36 for 32 ounces, kling.com), then cover it with the wall color of your choice. Mount artwork with super-strong magnets (regular fridge magnets won’t hold). Shape-Up! magnets from Three by Three Seattle ($8 per 4-pack at fridgedoor.com) are too big to swallow and come in a variety of colors and shapes such as stars, birds, and arrows.

 

Blow Up

The hardest part? Inflating the frames — so let the artist do it. Then slide the work-of-the-week in the pocket and hang. (Instant Masterpiece Blow Up Frame, $10, Brooklyn5and10.com)

 

Tape It Off

If your child should happen to draw directly on the wall, don’t panic. Incorporate it into the gallery by surrounding it with Do-Frame Tape. It works for pieces he made elsewhere too. ($15, chocosho.com)

 

Frame It

Lil’ Da Vinci frames ($29 to $37, dynamicframes.com) swing open and store extra artwork (can you say spacesaver?). Or showcase your rotating collection in tried-and-true acrylic box frames. ($2 to $23, archivalusa.com)