Child's Art Work

Roll the entire pile between an old poster ect. Display a collage under a very large pict frame. The 3 dimensional, box it, or take a phot of it for her Art album, and toss it. At 4 everything is precious, but clutter does add up fast, wait until 2nd grade.

My idea will only work for flat artwork, but so far it's all I've needed for my daughter's things.

With 3 sheets of poster board, stapler (& staples), and masking tape, you can make a portfolio!

Fold one sheet in half, with the fold going down the long side. Put the other 2 sheets together & the folded piece over the top of them. Leaving one half of the folding piece loose staple all around the other 3 edges of the full-size poster boards (you will also go through the 2 short sides of one half of the folded piece). The staples only need to be about 1/4" from the edge. Then use masking tape to tape the long side of the folded piece to the full-size piece, and also tape over the stapled edges (cover the staples). Voila! Portfolio :)

You will have one pocket that is full poster board size, and one pocket that is half-size, and then a flap to keep it closed. Your daughter can also decorate the outside of the portfolio!

I hope all that made sense. Send me a message if you have any questions!

I have four daughters who love their art from school... My 8 year old is especially in to art too, and wants me to save every little shred of paper. We have a space where we hang the favorite piece of the moment in our house. Then I got a small set of those plastic scrapbook drawers from WalMart (you can stack them to make 12 inch high set, or separate them and they fit under a bed). I said, "when they're full, decide what to recycle. Until then, keep everything you want!" It's worked wonders and we don't argue about whether I'm keeping everything anymore!

For my kiddo's artwork (2d) we store it in an artists portfolio. For his 3d stuff... it's either in a plastic storage container or hanging in his room/ around the house.

I got some new pizza boxes (the large / supreme size) from the pizza place. I mark one each year - going by school year dates. In that year's box I put report cards, art work, notes from teachers, cards they made for me, etc. I have one for each child. I try not to save anything with food items (seeds macaroni, etc) on it. The preschool years I think I just have one box mainly with artwork in it. They store flat in the tops of their closets.

HI JC,

I'd put the small flat pieces in a photo album (with non acidic paper) and keep it and the three dimensional stuff in a plastic tub that seals shut. You can even let her decorate the outside of the tub if you want to keep it in her room or yours. If it's airtight (to keep the dustmites out) then it should be fine in the attic as well.

M.

i took a picture of all her artwork and went on walgreens and made a little book of all her years art, even included a few extra pics like her first day and birthday celebration at school and other school related events. i only saved a few of the best ones in a box....enjoy!

This isn't the best advice on storing it but it was a great display at the time they brought it home. We hung much of their art work on the walls of our garage. Every time we came home from being out, they could see their art work displayed proudly whenever we entered our home. Unfortunately, much of it has faded with time but their art work from those years is still hanging in our garage.
Joanie

I store mine in a rubbermaid tub. I make sure I put the date on the back and her teachers name, etc.

Take digital pictures of them, you can use them as screen savers on your computer, you can make prints of them and use them as gift cards to relatives.

We have started putting my son's artwork into the plastic storage containers and then making a point of going through it every couple of months. Things are really cute when you first bring them home- six months later... not always. The other thing we have started to do is to scan them into a folder on the computer. That way we have them stored for later viewing, but they don't take up space!

Try www.ShareMyKidsArt.com - I love this website! It's free and lets you store and organize your children's art. The thing I like it about the most is it has these little buttons so that you can email or upload to your facebook wall pieces of art; this is really nice for us because we live in California and my parents live in Hawaii and my wife's parents live in NY. If one of our children create something we want to share with the grandparents, we simple press a button.

The only thing is you need to scan or photograph the art, which seems like a hassle but it's actually fairly easy. Good luck!

My favorite way is to use a digital camera and take pictures....I don't develop the pictures but have them all saved to a folder on my computer....this way you are keeping the memories without the clutter!!! Good Luck!!

I sell Avon and end up using the boxes to store the kid's artwork and I use a drawer of my filing cabinet for their school pictures.

Nanc

Take digital photos of the art work then upload them to a site such as Kodak or Snapfish and have an art book made. This can be done at the end of each school year. You will have quite the art collection without taking up so much space!