I was not the sort of parent who saved every drawing that our boys generated. The refrigerator door was their gallery space. Most of their 'art work' ended up in the recycling bin rather than in acid-free boxes to be saved forever. I'm not sentimental about that sort of thing and luckily our boys are happy not to have to deal with boxes of paper from their past.

Children go through drawing phases. I noticed this with my own boys and now with my grandchildren. At some point, what they draw can be interesting. And by that I mean interesting to someone who is not genetically related to them.

I did save a very few of my own kids' drawings. Some I've even had framed, like this portrait that Jeff drew of Steve. Jeff was 7 at the time and he captured his father perfectly! Even though I'm his mother, I think this is pretty good…

What made me think of children's drawings today is a post found on DesignTAXI. Reddit contributor, Tatsputin, started coloring his kids' drawings! (Side Note: Isn't it amazing how inter-connected we all can be online?!)

Click here to see the post on DesignTAXI, where you can see more of this collaborative artwork.

It's making me look at Jack's current drawings a bit differently…

I'm not particularly fond of coloring, but these could easily be applique patterns! They would also make wonderful embroidery patterns. I'm not sure when I might be able to use this idea myself but if any of you take this idea and run with it, let me know :-). 

FYI: You may have gotten the newsletter I just sent featuring a present idea… mouse pads made with photo transfers. Not a new idea but I had never really noticed them before. We quilters have the tools that make it easy to make them at home (good irons, fusible web, presser sheets, and rotary tools for trimming.) I put up a page with instructions. I've got mouse pads and EQ Printable inkjet fabric sheets online if you don't already have them.

I made mouse pads with photos, but it would also be fun to scan 'artwork' to put on a mouse pad! I'm beginning to wish I needed more than one mouse…