Children's Art...what do you do with it?

after posting in on the door I saved it I have beautiful original artwork from the 70s

I used a binder and top loading sheets to try and keep as much as I could. Everything from art to cood papers to "Devin was sent home from school today because..."
Once we get to stuff to big to put in a binder, I will probably do like my mother and keep them in a draw of my dresser.

Mine aren't even in school yet, but we do art at home and daycare. So we hang some of it on the fridge with magnets. Most of it get re-cycled to the trash when something new comes. But some things I keep and post them in a scrapbook whenever I get the chance. If I saved everything our house would be too crowded!!!

I like taking a digital picture of it and keeping a copy of the pictures that way. It takes up less room. The actual picture usually gets hung on the wall for a while until it gets messed up.

I don't have any kids, but I have seen the frames that have room behind the first picture to store old artwork.

Good question and excellent timing. Besides the fact that school just started. It's National Keep Kids Creative Week (Sept. 23-29).

My son is 23 now, but he still does some art work now and then. :) He did his first real piece of art at 18 months with poster board and magic markers and classical music playing in the background. We framed it and put it on the wall, and our first visitors afterwards asked if they could buy it. My ex still has that one.

But later on, we had our son's most recent pictures on the refrigerator and others on the walls (floor to ceiling) in our hallway. If anyone new came to the house, he made sure they saw his hallway art gallery.

We updated the wall about every 6 months, tucked away some artwork in a drawer, some in a scrapbook, and some we sent off to other relatives - grandmas and special aunts and such.

I think my son's dad and I each have about 3 boxes of his early art. Figure some day if he's famous it will be worth a bundle. But I also had someone suggest something I liked just the other day. Making a quilt of his best pictures. I guess it would require transferring them to material, but that can be done now pretty easily. I liked that idea a bunch.

what great ideas...keep them coming!!

I post new art on the frig....I keep some of the special art work in a file folder...one for each child...the rest gets sent to grandma and grandpa as the packing material when I send packages...

when my kids were young, my entire kitchen was covered in artwork.... 2 whole walls - right down a back hall.... and the fridge, of course ....and the playroom walls.....

oh what a great idea....I bet grandma & grandpa love that, jax

Good question.

My kids stuff goe son the fridge. It it survived there. Than it gets placed in a big plastic tub. Unless one of my kids really like it. Than it goes up on their wall in their bedroom.

Some stuff I would love to put in a folder. But the artwork is way to big for that. I haveoften thought of taking a picture of it and making a scrapbook with it. That way I can add a caption under it. But have never gotten around to it. But I think it would be cool to do.

I hang them up. I bought different colored embroidery floss (craft stores) and fun colored push pins, and I found these adorable teeny litle different colored clothes pins.
I hang the art work from clothers pins on the floss that is tied to the push pins. When it gets too full I take a picture of the art work and take them down and put the ones I just HAVE to keep in a rubbermaid container - the rest I toss (so hard to pickk I admit) then start all over again.

I also saw an article in a magazine once that was cute - take a picture of the art project and then hang the pictures around the perimeter of the kids room or playroom like a chair-rail/border.

Hang it for 6 months and then create a special scrapbook of it so that you can share it
with them as they get older.

I think I would take pictures of them or scan them and save them to disk to use for any number of projects....but I am a packrat and I still have cards from when I was in grade school

On another forum that has nothing to do with moms or kids, someone just interjected this idea. Take your child's art work and use it to resurface old outdoor patio tables. Lots of clear coating, of course. The person making the suggestion said she saw it on one of the home TV shows.

My kids are in their 30's and they love it when I open the old trunk, which is stuffed with old artwork and keepsakes they made as kids. They giggle and laugh and remember....and I have heard that they have boasted to husbands and wives that "My mom kept everything I ever made!" Well not quite everything...but I think it made them feel that their efforts had value.
Now I am saving grandkids 'artwork'!

So many neat ideas! I had fun reading this question and comments. Thanks!

Well, i dont have kids, but i can speak for my own mother! She had my brother in '69, and still has all his stuff in one lock up box in her closet. now me, she had me in '87, and i was the artistic one. she has a filing cabnet full, 3 big draws in her dresser full, 4 draws in the kitchen full, and 5 boxes put up full. she even has my clay stuff put up in the china cabnet in the dining room! and even the early ones.. like my popcycle house with clay people... and i mean the little kid color clay.. lol. i'm ony 20 and she still keeps it all... even my office referals and my baby books and my pictures and my "i love you mommy, this is for you" artworks... i think over all the years she has spent pretty well over $1,000 of art supplies like crayons, map colors, ink, paper, etc.

I save one great piece per onth and put them into a chronologically-organized, waterproof, sealed bin in the basement. I just can't save it all and it seems that everytime I have to get rid of some, there's tears and disappointment. So we talk about them, wat they mean, what went into making them, and we choose a favorite to keep. Of course, if there's one we particularly like and it's beyond the one or two piece limit, we'll keep it. I'm not strict about it. But I just cna't keep them all!

Those are some great ideas. I have done some of them as well. I have some of my kids stuff in a 3 ring binger in those clear sleaves and a couple really special pictures have been turned into place mats. Another good idea, I am about to do this one. Take a magnetic stip and put it on the wall in the kids room. Then they can hang their art work in their own room with magnets. No thumbtacks required.

Good luck!

I like the binder idea. I have kept some of the "best of the best" stuff, report cards, some schoolwork, some cards, etc.
I think taking a digital photo of your child holding the larger posters and projects is a good idea. You have a memory of the item without the dusty item filling up a closet.

I like what Monica & Teresa said...my mom kept all 5 of her kids artwork & school work & she had a huge storage of all of this & so I don't want to do that cause we didn't really care much. Now there are things that I will keep like hand prints & even if something took them a long time, but for the most part I don't keep stuff. I like the take a picture thing cause really that lasts longer & it doesn't become waste. (not that their art is waste, but sometimes there is so much of it!) :o)

I saw a story on tv addressing this problem with artwork. They suggested scanning it in to the computer and then using it as either a background or a slideshow screensaver.

I save some of it in a box (one for each child) and put some in my journal (smaller pieces). We send extras to various relative and close friends (godparents and others who are involved in our children's lives from a distance). We use some art as wrapping paper or to make cards or invitations or gift tags. And we've taken digital photos of each child posing with the larger projects or with an assortment of smaller ones.

I post the nicest stuff (meaning either a) the coolest or the best looking or b) the ones the most effort went into around the house. Fridge, bedroom doors, etc. My daughter just brought one home that I'm going to frame for her -- it is friggin' awesome. Some projects are too big or bulky to save. Have your proud child pose for the camera holding the item and snap a pic! I keep a file in the filing cabinet with each kids' name on it for report cards and special writings or drawings they do. I clean it out maybe once a year -- I don't need every other spelling test. It also helps to wait to toss anything until they are in bed or for slightly older kids, getting them involved in cleaning out their backpack. "Do you want to keep this or toss it?" Makes them feel like you respect their hard work.

Oh yes, I also use those plastic page protectors in my photo albums for sliding in something special that won't attach easily to a sticky photo page, like a neat card they made for us.

wow, this is an old post, but it just showed up while viewing another one. I have 3 ring binders with page protector sheets. I slip the artwork in there (if it fits) and they love flipping through it and looking back and their previous artwork. I put their name and date on it as well.