F rom the first time your first child scribbled a mark on a piece of paper, you’ve probably been enthralled with their artwork. However, when you feel compelled to save every little piece of your child’s handiwork, it’s easy to become buried under an avalanche of papers. You’ve probably wondered how to display kids art in your home.
So what do you do with all those masterpieces without feeling guilty or hurting your artist’s feelings?
1. Make a calendar. Scan the pictures that your children have drawn. Then, use a photo-printing site to make calendars with the pictures. These would make great Christmas gifts for relatives.
2. Laminate it. Laminate your child’s larger pieces of art and use them for placemats. It will give your child a sense of pride and grace your dinner table with nostalgia in years to come.
3. Make cards. Use kid-art to make greeting cards for grandparents, aunts, and uncles or brighten the day of a nursing home resident, shut-in, or sick neighbor or friend.
4. Make puzzles. With your child’s permission (because it could be a disaster without it), glue their artwork onto heavy cardboard or cardstock. Then, cut it apart to make homemade, personalize puzzles.
5. Frame it. The Canada goose drawing that won Brianna 1st place in the National Junior Duck Stamp contest 6 or 7 years ago still graces our workout room wall. There was a drawing I did when I was in 6th grade that hung on my parents’ den wall for decades.
It doesn’t even have to be the really spectacular stuff. Kid art is whimsical, colorful, and wall-worthy in all its imperfection. Don’t hesitate to frame it and use it to add a special, creative touch to your walls.
6. Take photos of it. Since it’s not feasible to keep every piece of art our kids ever draw, taking photos can be a great space-saving solution. Have your child pose with his work and a card showing the date and/or his age. What a fun keepsake to look back on when they’re older!
7. Cull it. When my kids were younger, I used to save all their creations in a copy paper box. Whenever it got full, I’d go through and cull it – saving my favorites or the pieces that had some special memory attached. It worked well and I’ve got some great artifacts to sift through in years to come…but not enough to land me on an episode of Hoarders.
8. Bind it. If you’ve got many pieces of similar size, consider having them comb- or spiral-bound. If they’re sturdy, you can bind them as is. If not, laminate them first. You can let your kids make their own art book cover. Be sure to include their name and age.
9. Turn it into bookmarks. If you’re anything like us, you’re always using bookmarks. I think it might be a universal homeschooling thing. Choose some of the narrower pieces to turn into bookmarks. Gluing the art to cardstock and laminating will make a great, sturdy bookmark – and another great gift idea for relatives, nursing home residents, or shut-ins.
10. Share it. If you sponsor a child through an organization such as Compassion International or you pack shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, encourage your child to share her artwork with a child oversees.
I hope these ideas help you come up with some creative ways to preserve your children’s art. What suggestions do you have to add?
This post contains affiliate links. Linked to Top Ten Tuesday.
I love these ideas! Thanks for sharing.
I never thought of the bookmark thing! I should definitely do that one….we have more framed pieces than I know what to do with at this point.
Eddie – The Usual Mayhem recently posted..Weekly wrap-up: Good news, stress, and chaos
These are some great ideas! I also scan or take a picture of my daughters’ art, save them in a specific folder and set them to scroll through a slideshow as my screensaver.
Great idea!
These are great ideas, Kris! And they are much better than what I’ve done a couple of times: secretly deposit a drawing into our real recycle bin. YES! I admit it!
I’m pinning this!
Ellen, the Bluestocking Belle recently posted..Weekly Happenings: A Week of Quiet
I’ve done the recycle bin thing, too. Shhh…we’ll never tell! ;-)
I have a budding artist, and my husband goes bonkers when the fridge door is full of paintings and drawings! I love these ideas. Seasonal/Holiday artwork would be perfect for the calendar idea.
Brittney recently posted..Tot Schooling – Unstructured Style
These are truly great ideas! I love the make a calendar one. These are awesome if your are new to homeschooling or have been around for a while suspect.
Stephy recently posted..Dr. Ben Carson Gives Speech at 2013 National Prayer Breakfast
I comb bind all of my kids artwork into a book at the end of each year. They love going back and looking at their stuff. We recently moved to Germany and I’m going to start having them send more of their artwork to family members, and they can recycle them!
Cari recently posted..Olivia’s first week
These are great ideas. I’ve spent two hours searching on the internet for something to do with my kids’ artwork and this is the first one website that actually has good (usable) ideas. Thank you so much!
That makes me smile. Glad I could help!
Wow, I love your ideas. I have 5 kids, and have compiled multiple folders of their precious art work over the years. I think I’ll try the calendar suggestion!
Jennifer recently posted..How to Teach Your Child to Read
Great ideas – this is always a challenge.
Great ideas. I have eight kids and one on the way – the amount of artwork I have collected is absurd. I tried an app on my phone that takes pics and adds info so it creates a portfolio but it was taking too long to punch in all the info. But your ideas are great – make a book mark, frame it – share it! those are ideas the kids can do themselves! Thanks so much for sharing.
I like the scan and save idea. You could then put them on a memory card and use your digital frame to display them all as well. I have a 26 yr old as well as the 10 yr old I am now homeschooling. Thanks for the awesome ideas!