Turn Toddler Paintings into Wildlife Art

If your children are anything like mine, then you probably have heaps of artwork hanging around the house.

You know the ones, they’re cute and oh so lovely but they’re filling every nook and cranny and you just can’t keep another one without them all tumbling out of the top of the cupboard.

So, what do you do with all those toddler paintings?

I’m a little ashamed to say this but I now throw most of them away.

When I stumbled on this idea from Sarah Jane Studios I decided I would reduce the guilt of throwing many of them away and start displaying some on the walls. I was determined to make something lovely out of my twin daughter’s colourful morning activity. This one wasn’t being shoved in another nook, nor in the bin!

I used the same templates from our Colour with Nature activity. You can download them here. There’s also a kookaburra and cricket too, so it gives your child a bit of choice on the final outcome of the artwork.
And, it’s very easy to do!

Let’s turn those toddler paintings into wildlife art!

Let your child paint

Let your child paint what ever they like. My girls still like to move the paint around the paper, so I wasn’t worried about offending them when I cut it up (plus they paint all the time). For older children, I would certainly ask first.

Cut up your child’s painting 

I then cut out the animal template, pinned it onto the painted paper and then cut around the template. Don’t throw away that animal template yet! (see below)

Frame your child’s painting

I stuck painted animal paper into some white paper and put it in a frame that’s been sitting in our cupboard waiting for a beautiful craft activity like this.

I hung this one up in their cubby house.

Use the Left overs

Next, I cut up the remainder of their paintings into little bits and put it in a container. Using the same animal templates, I set up a glue station and let them stick their painting pieces on the animal. They really, really enjoyed this activity.

Using toddler paintings in two animal crafty ways! Brilliant! (even if I do say so myself).