Do you have piles of crafts, taking over your dinning room table? Or perhaps they have a special place, you know, on the fridge, and they all fall down every time someone walks down? Avalanche!!!!! Well, I do. And the kiddo hasn’t even reached two years old yet. We do a LOT of crafts around here.
So, what do you do with all of these beautiful little creations? Here are some of my favorite ways to capture them for a lifetime.
Formia Design (Mia Van Beek) takes your child’s original artwork and turns it into jewelry (thanks to Little. Lovely. for introducing me to this). I want this for Mother’s Day. Or Easter. Or Saturday. Saturday is a holiday isn’t it?
Have an empty wall or two? Hang it up! Make and Takes has some creative ways of displaying your kiddo’s artwork. My personal fave, the magnetic wall. This is a must do for my house.
Create a beautiful wall collage using frames of all shapes and sizes. 2modern design talk takes you through the step-by-step process for creating a successful collage.
What if the unthinkable happens? That precious art work is all over your walls. Wonder Time has a great suggestion, just tape off the wall and use it as art work. You can use something like the Do-Frame, or just paint on a frame. And, take a deep breath. It’s only the wall after all. It can be repainted if necessary.
How do you display your kids (or grandkids) artwork? Is it gathering dust on a shelf, taking over the fridge or has it found a new home in the (gasp!) garbage? Which idea would you use in your home?
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I can’t possibly keep ALL the artwork and crafts the kiddos do. I have some wall display and a box for each child of the true keepers. But most things get a picture with the child and new home in the garbage can (when the kid isn’t looking, of course).
@Charlotte, That’s a great idea to take a photo of the project with each kiddo. I’ll have to remember that one.
I love the jewelry idea! What a sweet Mother’s Day gift.
amber´s last blog ..Seventeen Years of Discovering the World Together.
@amber, That’s my fave too. I’m hoping that Dad-oo will see it and get the hint.
I’ve seen on many the home clean up show that a great way to keep the artwork without the clutter is to take pictures of it (super close up so when the photo is developed it looks just like the artwork, not the artwork on the dining room table!). Then, when you have a certain amount (let’s say, since I’m a teacher, 3rd grade artwork), upload the photos to a site like Shutterfly and make a photo book of all the artwork. You can do photo collages on some pages, or each page can be one piece of art. If you pay attention, photo sites often have discounts on photo books (they can get expensive).
A completely different idea: turn the artwork into a puzzle. Cut it into pieces and store it in a Ziploc bag or small container. You can also do this at websites with a photo of the artwork (I just don’t remember where I’ve seen this exactly).
@Angie, Great ideas. I’ve done the puzzle thing with photos from magazines, but I didn’t think about using artwork.
My son comes home with at least 3 or 4 pages of artwork every day. Sometimes he’s eager to show it to me, sometimes he’s just OVER it. I post as much as I can on the fridge, leave it up for a few days and then I’ll be honest it hits the “green” filing bin. I do keep bits and pieces, for example when I see that his art skills have “evolved” for example when he clearly started to colour in the lines, I kept that. I also keep anything holiday related (i.e. Mother’s Day gifts, Valentine’s Gifts) and anything that used a body part to be made, so if it has a handprint, I’m keeping it. So far they just sit in a drawer, but that won’t be forever.
Christine LaRocque´s last blog ..Lessons on growing up
@Christine LaRocque, I think I need a designated art storage area in my house, to keep all of the special art pieces. Right now, it’s our fridge, and the pile falls down and explodes at least once a day.