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What do you do with all that artwork?
Do
you ever feel like you’re drowning in drawings? The sheer volume
of art and craft that a creative youngster can produce in one month can
be absolutely staggering.
I recently posed the question what do you do with all that artwork?
and received responses from parents around the world who all face the
same daily bind – "I don't want to throw away your artwork but..."
If your home is awash with kid's art, do not fear! Read through these
great ideas from Kids Craft Weekly subscribers and be inspired.
1. Create a kid's art gallery
Establish a dedicated gallery space in your home where kid's art is
displayed and admired. Replace older works with newer ones on a regular
basis and use this as an opportunity to sort out which pieces will be
kept and which will be culled.
- "We
string up fuzzy interesting wool yarn and clip it on with clothespins.
We have three 'clotheslines' going now with art three deep to a
clothespin!" – Sally
- "We
have a large front hall closet with sliding doors, and we put our
artwork up there, along with a teacher-style calendar. At the start of
each month, we take it ALL down, set up the calendar for the next
month, and I keep a few choice pieces for the scrapbook. The rest go
into envelopes and get mailed to grandmas and grandpas who enjoy them
immensely." – Andrea
2. Put together a portfolio of work
Make and decorate your own portfolio (or buy one) in which to keep
artwork. Alternatively, store artwork using plastic sleeves in a
ringbinder or paste into a project book.
- "I
take the best of my daughter's work (the pieces of which she is the
most proud, and the pieces I adore) and keep them in a portfolio case.
When we have visitors, she does an "portfolio review" with the them,
sitting and proudly showing her artwork. It is a great icebreaker for
her when she doesn't know the visitor well." – Susan
- "I
have a huge portfolio for each child for each year. During the
year everything gets put away at the top of the cupboard and in the
January holidays we go through the pile and decide what is important
and what isn’t. By doing this we have culled the portfolios to a
small but impressive sample of all those drawings and writings and
paintings and stories they collect." – Amanda
3. Take photographs
If you don't have space in your home to store large amount of kid's art, capture it on camera.
- "Once
things are taken down from the kitchen wall I take pictures of them on
our digital camera and save the pictures on a special disc." –
Angela
- "Temporarily
hang all the artwork on a wall, floor to ceiling. Then have your child
stand in front of the wall and take their photo. That way you
have a record of their creations without the bulk." – Sharna
- "I
take digital pictures of everything. I have a directory for my
screensaver with all of the pictures of all possible art. When my
computer goes to screensaver mode, we all get a slide show of art."
– Kathy
- "The digital camera can help save everything and with something like Picasa
you can tag and organize too. You can set up beautiful shots gallery
style (with or without the artist in the photos) and in 5 years you'll
still have something! If you've tried storing manilla paper and
newsprint objects for very long you'll know that it is not the way to
go! " – Patty
4. Scrapbook it
Creating scrapbook pages can be a great way to celebrate your child's creativity and to chart their artistic progress.
- "We
have the occasional piece that is extremely impressive, that is
photographed and then my children (or me) scrapbook it before it is
framed, given away or filed. There are other items of artwork
that are definitely not significant (to me!!) that the kids despair of
throwing away – so they are allowed to photograph it themselves,
with a digital camera and then keep and scrapbook the photo." –
Amanda
- "I
don't do a page about everything that is made, but the special ones do
get added to the scrapbook. It has worked really well for us." –
Darlene
5. Blog it
Keep an online record of your child's creative endeavours to share with
friends, family and anyone else who is interested. Check out subscriber
Gwyn's blog, Art and Kids, for a great example.
6. Keep it safe:
Store extra special works of art in a safe place to enjoy in the future.
- "I
try to put one or two pieces of artwork a month in to our New Year's
Eve Box. Among other things it is fun to look at what my children
have created in the past year come NYE." – JB
- "We laminate special pieces and turn them into placemats." – Gwyn
7. Re-use and recycle
Use large scale works as wrapping paper. Smaller pieces can be cut up
to use in other crafty endeavours. Also, send pictures to family and
acquaintances or anyone else who may appreciate it.
- "We
take our kids artwork and make it into cards to take to our local
assisted care facility. To make the cards we use craft punches to
cut out shapes for adding to the cards, or sometimes use the entire
page to fold into the card. My kids love doing this!" –
Sharna
Something to add? Please let me know.
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