kids artwork

[twins4mimi]

I need suggestions. I have twins that are three and just started preschool. First day they bring home their wonderful artwork for the day. I want to know how everyone displays their kids art work. Where do you store it? I need suggestions... I want to keep them but do I need to go ahead and start on an addition to the house?

 

[lucigo]

I have a tote for each child that I keep the most important stuff in. As for the rest I suggest you take a picture and file it in the circular file

It may sound harsh but you don't want it to be so full there isn't room for the college diploma in it!

 

[disykat]

The neighbor's trashcan makes a great file for the artwork you can't keep. There's nothing more horrible than the moment junior discovers some of his artwork hidden (not well enough) in the trash can!

 

[ChristusG]

Yeah, my four year old refuses to let me get rid of any artwork....so I have to do it when she's not looking. I keep the best ones. I try to remember to take a photo of the others, but I dont always do it. Especailly if she just hurriedly took a crayon and scribbled a few lines on a coloring sheet. No effort, but she still wants me to keep them LOL.

 

[dougsmom98]

You will end up with more artwork than you will ever be able to keep. I have a box for each child that I keep some of the best things. When my kids were in preschool, they did a lot of artwork related to the seasons, so I would display it on the fridge, on the walls, on the windows or on the fronts of cabinets or doors for that season. When a new season came, I replaced it. I put the best of it in each child's box and the rest was buried deep in the recycling. When my kids have found their artwork in the recycling, I just explain that there is no way I could keep everything and then I show them what I have kept. They are okay with it. I also keep a few key pieces of writing each year. If you are in love with something, frame it. I have wanted to do this, but I haven't followed through.

 

[momofbcs]

I keep all the cute stuff until the end of the year and then keep the best and toss the rest.

 

[Northstar]

Welcome to the period of life when your fridge is festooned with magnets and kid stuff. The fridge door belongs to the kids for artwork display.

A great activity for clearing out the accumulation of treasured creations is to stage and photograph an art gallery! Pull everything you've saved out, work with the kids to hang a whole wall with their creations, photograph it carefully with them standing in front of it. Then, when it's time for the show to come down from the wall, most things can be thrown out. It eases the pain of parting with their creations and it's fun.

 

[debbido71]

My children's elementry school belongs to a website called artsonia.com.
The art teacher scans all of their art work before she sends it home. It is wonderful. We keep their projects for a few weeks at home but I don't feel guilty throwing them away when I know they are digitally saved.

Maybe you could scan them first or take a digital photo and store it electronically.
We also have picture frames that go up our steps and each child has artwork represented in one frame. We can change the artwork when we want to.

Other ideas are: Making place mats by laminating the artwork.
Use the back of the artwork to write letters to relatives and send it in the mail...

If you have a playroom, you can hang a clothes line across the room and display the artwork with clothes pins.

If I think of any other ideas I will post them.

 

[twins4mimi]

Thanks for the great ideas!!! I am going to take pics of them for certain. I Love the idea of the frames for each child to display the work. We do have a play room so we can give a wall just for the art work... and I like the idea of the clothes line! What wonderful ideas.

 

[TotalSnowWhite]

Let me start by saying how sentimental I am about this stuff, but it's just not feasible for us to keep everything, so...

-Filter some out to grandparents
-Definitely scan, take pictures
-We put some of the more unique things on DS's wall near the ceiling as a border
-Frame some of the favorites, they look really nice as actual art
-Use those digital images to make personalized tote bags, playing cards, etc. on a site like Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc. I'm considering making a photo book of all of DS's art until now. If you're on a budget, just print it out on transfer paper, and you can do some DIY bags, pillowcases, etc.

Have fun!!

I do end up tossing some of the regular projects (how many collages do we really need? ). It's heart-wrenching, but you're right, you'd have to build a new wing onto your house to store everything your babies made!!

 

[twins4mimi]

Let me start by saying how sentimental I am about this stuff, but it's just not feasible for us to keep everything, so...

-Filter some out to grandparents
-Definitely scan, take pictures
-We put some of the more unique things on DS's wall near the ceiling as a border
-Frame some of the favorites, they look really nice as actual art
-Use those digital images to make personalized tote bags, playing cards, etc. on a site like Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc. I'm considering making a photo book of all of DS's art until now. If you're on a budget, just print it out on transfer paper, and you can do some DIY bags, pillowcases, etc.

Have fun!!

I do end up tossing some of the regular projects (how many collages do we really need? ). It's heart-wrenching, but you're right, you'd have to build a new wing onto your house to store everything your babies made!!

Great ideas about the book and the tote!!!!

 

[camouseketeer]

My refridgerator isn't magnetic, so I hung three of those ribbon Memory boards on the wall in my kitchen. We put my DD's art work there. At the end of every month I had the girls stand next to it and I took a picture. I took it all down, kept maybe one piece per month, and tossed the rest.

I also framed some of their art for their bedrooms and the playroom.

 

[DVCJones]

I am a Mom and an Art Teacher so I am very sentimental when it comes to my children's art.

I have a portfolio for each child. I got them at AC Moore and they were not expensive. I do keep the "good stuff" and recycle the other stuff. (when they are not looking of course)

I also have a couple of large plastic magnetic frames that we rotate artwork in and out. Every week we put a new "special" piece for display on the fridge.

 

[dis75ney]

Since DS is a budding artist, we've taken pictures of or scanned his best creations and then made calendars for the grandparents and great-grandmothers' Christmas gifts, and DH and I also make on for each of our offices. DS will say something about each piece of art and that becomes the caption for each page. We get rave reviews every year, and since it's now the expected Christmas gift, it forces us to clean up the piles of art on a yearly basis...

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

We put those removable hooks up on the wall and strung a piece of fishing line across them then use clips (plastic clothes pins) to hang some of the work. Easy to change out as new pieces come in. Works best if you do three hooks--one on each end of the fishing line and one in the middle.

I saw someone used a curtain rod with those rings that the curtain clips to for this, but that requires drilling holes in the wall.

Each day I sort out the best pieces. Some go on the wall, some get mailed to grandparents. The rest must get tossed.

I have taken digital pictures of some things too. Remember in your decisions about how to preserve this stuff forever that construction paper fades and disentegrates pretty quickly.