Things to Make - Three Creative Uses for Old Photographs

PROJECT 1 - LUNCH BOX NOTES

Last week F asked me to start leaving notes in her lunch box. I thought lunch notes would be the height of uncool, but apparently I was wrong on this one. (By the way, have you seen this HYSTERICAL post on Pottery Barn lunches? ). So after preschool last week, T and I decided to make some lunch notes. Then I remembered - I am not an artist. How many googly hearts and exclamation marks cane one draw before feeling like a bore? (Not many, for those of you who thought this was a serious question).

But I do like to take A LOT of snapshots. Thus, we have several boxes of 4x6 photos scattered throughout the house. I decided to start writing lunch notes on the back of photos (using Sharpies). Then I ran out of things to say. Luckily, I found this site and this site. I copied several of the jokes and facts and printed them on the back of the photos.

Then the real magic occurred. T HATES to write any letters (including his name) and (sadly) his handwriting is, well, awful (how is it possible that F could read at the age of 4 and T can't even write? Something about a third child . . .). Anyways, T started signing the cards too, saying "wow, mom this is so fun, like we're playing post office." And the early afternoon moved itself along.

As you can tell by the snarkiness, I'm a little embarrassed about the cheesiness of this "things to make", but at least I didn't pay pottery barn to write notes for me, right? And F did actually ask for the notes . . .



PROJECT 2 - PUPPETS

Unlike F, P wasn't a huge fan of lunch notes (apparently 1st graders and 2nd graders do not agree on what is cool). But P did like looking at all the old photos. So one weekend, P and her best friend asked for popsicle sticks, scissors, and glue to start work on a puppet show. I was a little nervous that some cruel jokes would occur once we all became reduced to minature figures controlled by young kids, but the show was nice and tasteful (though I'm not sure it really had a plot). The girls also used photos of plants and animals to make odd "creatures", like the talking tree monster (?).



PROJECT 3 - PAINT & SHARPIES

Since the whole photo theme seemed to be working out well, on a rainy day a few weeks ago I decided to cover the kitchen table with newspaper and give the kids sharpies and paint to create with (we used biocolor paints, so the colors wouldn't all blend to grey). Some of their designs turned out really awesome (F made rainbows in skies, smiley faces on bridges, etc.). But then the paint became messier and messier until it was one huge finger painting operation, which was all fine and good, but a little "much".
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Any other good projects for old photographs? I thought it would be fun to make collages, but the kids still seem to prefer using magazines.