I've been asked by a few readers how I store and organize my children's artwork. I will share my own method at the bottom of this post, but first I want to show you some of the creative solutions I've seen around the web.
Tonya from Create-Celebrate-Explore had the brilliant idea of creating a photo book of her kid's art projects. What I love about this idea is that it allows you to record large items and 3-d projects in a small amount of space.
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| via Create-Celebrate-Explore |
Jen from A Thousand Words created a completely amazing duvet cover from her son's doodles. This might be one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
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| via A Thousand Words |
And Jen from I Heart Organizing created this filing system for her children's school papers, but it would work equally well to store artwork.
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| via I Heart Organizing |
I ruthlessly edit our collection of masterpieces to consist only of the works that best reflect our life and my kids' current skills, then I mount those on a piece of cardstock in a page protector and display them in my scrapbook. I make a little label that includes a title and the child's name and age. In true Imperfect Homemaking fashion I'm showing you the most embarrassing drawing I could find: A drawing of me, when I was 8 months pregnant with the twins.
It's really quite an accurate portrayal....
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What is hiding under your armpit?? hehehehe
ReplyDeleteI love the photobook idea!! =o)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the sweet shout out! <3
ReplyDeletexoxo,
Jen
What a very sweet picture :)
ReplyDeleteYou are always so creative! I found your blog about a month ago and I check it everyday to see if you have posted something new. I'm single and don't have children yet, but I hope I can be as thrifty and creative as you when I do!
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't save very much--mostly because my oldest will be going to high school and I realized LONG ago that children generate WAY too many works of art to even attempt to keep them all.
ReplyDeleteI have scanned them or photographed them and then saved the images to CD. Some I just THROW AWAY. (nothing bad will happen if you get rid of their artwork. I promise.) I do not keep 95% of their art as it will just disintegrate over time. Construction paper does not last, folks!
I really like the idea of taking a picture of it and making a photo book of it...that's really cool!
ReplyDeleteThe picture you're daughter drew cracked me up.
I love how you are honest!
Thanks for posting this! I love all your ideas! I like how you keep the pieces that matter most and are relevant to a memorable time period. I know it is difficult to throw away beloved pieces. I would love to accomplish this with a drawer that I've been throwing artwork in for years. Now it's pretty full and I need a more organized solution for them. This way my children can look back through them like a scrapbook!!!!
ReplyDeletehahaha oh that drawing is the best! I love how down to earth you are Kelly, I am always so encouraged reading your blog. how fun it would be to have a coffee and chat with you!
ReplyDeleteMy aunt would cover her kitchen table with kids' drawings, then cover them with a large piece of vinyl like a tablecloth. The vinyl wipes clean and the pictures can be changed out frequently but everyone feels their work has been properly admired...
ReplyDeleteMy plan: I display everything for a short while (rotates out with each new piece), then at the end of the year I'll pull out 3 of the "best" to keep, take a photograph of the rest (not individually but sort of spread out collage style) and send bits of the rest off to family members to share the love, grandparents and great-grandparents in particular. They can peruse through them and then do what they want with them. When she graduates high school I'll compile the ones I kept into a book for her.
ReplyDeleteSplendid idea. Thanks for sharing it. Silvia
DeleteWow, LOVE the idea of scanning and making a photo book of the art. My girls would be so proud of that! Lots of work, though, I can't even get my photos into albums like that.
ReplyDeleteAlso I love that picture of you at the end when pregnant with twins. I looked about like that too by the end of my twin pregnancy!
Just discovered your blog via pinterest and will definitely be back. Your organization is so impressive! I really need to work on it around here!
Love the art book. I use the kids' best art to make a gallery in a little bathroom in our house. It's the bathroom that guests use (and also the only bathroom on the first floor), so it's a high traffic place. The kids love seeing their work on the wall and it's always fun to hear people compliment them after seeing their work. I posted pictures here: http://shewhodelights.blogspot.com/2012/05/what-to-do-with-their-art.html Thanks for the great post!
ReplyDeletegonna do this. thanks for the ideas. i was wondering....what are the dots in the corners? is that how you mount it?
ReplyDeleteYes, I use colourful brads to mount the paper to the cardstock.
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