Ideas........what Do You Do with All of the Arts/craft Projects!?

one last thing...

i have a MOM WALL...that wall has all of the kids work and projects that i put in protective covers of all 7 kids...and let me tell ya...the kids know if something has been moved...now i don't have every single thing they have made on that wall...but there are special things...like the very first thing they made...EVERYTHING they made for mothers day...awards...anything else...yep we have one of those boxes...each child decorated their own...and they keep it in their rooms...to add too..

anyway just another thought...I LOVE MY MOM WALL!!!!!

This is just a thought but may help you. My daughter was quite the artist as well. When the fridge ran out of room, we decided to decorate one of the walls in her bedroom with her art. She loved it! Whenever anyone would come to the house she would bring them to her bedroom and show off all of her drawings/paintings etc. It made her feel really good about herself and she still today at 8 yrs. enjoys hanging a good piece of art on her wall for all to see!

Good luck

Hi A., My son is 36yrs. old and a cartoonist, actor, writer in LA. Ever since he was 2, all he ever wanted to do was draw. Give him ream of copy paper and black Bic pens and he was happy! As the years went on, well it was everywhere! My daughter who is now 21ys. old is the same way, so I told them, I can't keep all of this, we need a solution. So, we made an album & took pics of all the really neat stuff along with dates & comments. We had the best time and I got rid of BOXES of stuff! Your son is young so you could start it now (you may have an artist on your hands!)I had one frame on the fridge & changed art every week. And you know what ,A., even though they are adults, they loved the idea I kept there stuff & told me it meant so much. Anyway, hope this helps, C.

I know what you mean about all of the "stuff" they bring home. If it is handprints or something like that, keep it in a box marked with the year. At the end of the year, go through it and only keep the best. As he gets older and brings home stuff he "made", just keep what you can actually tell he made (not the preschool teacher, babysitter, etc.) If you want to display a lot of it (I have three kids bringing home "stuff") string a line along a wall (our's is in our playroom) and clip the artwork along the string with clips or even colorful clothespins. Again, at the end of the year, I put my favorites in a box and mark it with the year. I have found this to be the best way-since I cannot bear to throw it away! Good luck!-SueB

I am making albums for my boys' artwork. I let them choose one work of art a week, and as long as there is nothing perishable on it (ie candy!), we put it in a large binder filled with clear plastic page protectors. If it's 3D, I take a pic and sometimes remove a flat portion to include.

you could make him an I LOVE ME BOOK and put all his work in there. just a binder with clear protectors.

It's hard to dump anything the kids made. It's all precious, and even if it's not, the minute you toss it, they will ask for it! I've still got some of those from my 23 and 21 year olds!

I did several things. For the 2-d art (paintings, drawings), I found cheapie frames at michael's and made a gallery wall (hallway, basement, wherever). Ultimately, I ended up with two such gallery walls - the elementary school wall and because my girls kept doing it all the way through high school, a high school wall. For the sculptures and other stuff, what I didn't have room for on shelves or in my bathroom, etc, we created a special "gallery" on the top shelf in a big closet. I took every other thing down from the shelf, put up "gallery lighting" (a clamp-on lamp) and put all the sculptures up there. When we wanted to visit the gallery, we got out the step stool!

I am now back to building a new elementary school wall in the basement for my second family - three budding artists!

You've already gotten lots of ideas that I might steal, but here is another...We save all artwork for a year then filter out and keep only the most cherished pieces. Those creations get scanned into the computer and printed out into a scrapbook page, since they are too big to place the original in a scrapbook. We store all the cherished pieces in an artbox, but we can still see the creations and share them with family by viewing the scrapbook.

I also saw an idea in Family Fun magazine this month. A mom saved all her son's self-portraits through the years. She glued them artfully on one large painted canvas and hung it in his room as art. She scanned the art pieces and made a guide on one sheet of paper using a small image of each creation and writing the corresponding age next to it. It was really neat to see how his drawing style had changed and improved over the years and how he saw himself as he created his own image in different mediums.

Have fun!

How about taking the paper projects and decopouge them on a chair, toy chest, etc?

I haven't done this yet, but I am planning on doing an art wall in my open stairwell, which is about the only open wall space I have left. I am curious to read your responses.

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!

I heard a good idea once in my teaching classes... Start a big binder with page protectors to slip the projects in. Once it is getting too full, have the children decide which were their favorites and get rid of the rest. My child is not old enough for projects yet and I am a pack rat, so I will probably have a hard time with the last step, but it is just an idea. Hope it helps!

A.,

I just saw a cute idea for childrens artwork in a catalog for The Container Store. They tacked a string to the wall, kind of zig zagging up and down and then used clothes pins to hold artwork to the string.

I am going to do it in my 2 1/2 year olds room because I thought it was so cute.

D.

A.:

I use to just keep switching those little treasure's out one for another, and then place the ones that have already hung in a scrape book for later memories. My son is now 25 and has every little treasure he ever made when he was young to show to his children someday. They don't have to hang forever just long enough to show your pride in your child. It's just an idea good luck and enjoy they grow up so fast, before you know it they won't make those little treasures anymore.

Take pictures of them. Add captions (with a title, name of child and date) to each with a photo program. There are free programs at sites like ZDNet.com. Download to a digital picture frame. Add new ones as you get them, remove some to a flash drive or cd for storage.

We have had the same problem. What I do is put all his artwork on the fridge for a week. When the fridge gets completely full, he gets to pick his favorite one. And that is the one I keep. I put it in a box or sometimes I keep it on the fridge. The others that were not chosen go into a bag. I let my family pick one out if they want one and those projects not chosen go into the trash. This was a heartbreaking decision at first, but I started to think about my art projects as a kid. My mom kept them, but I certainly don't want them. So what are the being saved for? I keep the one I/he wants and that is it.

maybe if they are small enough paste them onto construction paper or cardstock and put them in a binder with the plastic page protectors.

Hey A.,

I have a 5 1/2 year old son and a 2 1/2 year old daughter who are always bringing home art/crafts pic. and stuff from church and my son brings them home from Kindergarden I have started hanging them up in there rooms on the walls and stuff they think that is the coolest thing, I also have a 21 month old daughter who is soon to start bringing home stuff from church so the walls in there room and the living room are a great place to hang there pics. I hope that helps.

try framing some of them. i have alot of my girls art work framed all over the house, but know when to say when. you cant keep it all, well you can, but trust me, youll run out of room! LOL what i dont display, i have in a folder tucked away.
hand and foot prints framed would be a cute gift for grandparents too!

A.,
Hello and Good Morning. When Oue Daughter was little, she was a very fast learner and she was doing all these little art pictures and spelling and other things that we as parents just really want to keep.Then, when she did start to school, there were more than ever coming everyday.
So, what I did was, I went to a Yard Sale and bought a big suit case. It wasn't nothing fancy, just something to put under the bed. Then each time she brought a new piece home that we needed to display for a while, I would take one down and put it in the suitcase, and put the new one on the fridge.
You said that your little one enjoys arts& crafts, Let him decorate this suitcase to suit himself, and explain to him that his is his "Project Suitcase", so that you can keep all of his projects.
He will enjoy this, and you will be able to keep all of his things that mean so much to you. Years from now you can look back, with him and remember what he has done.
C. Dawson

My 5 year old is in Kindergarten and brings home about 3 projects a day. She also loves to do arts and crafts at home, the grandparents, her fathers and at play dates. And they all come home to me.
What I do is: we have a designated box or tub for all the art projects. That way when her grandparents visit from Florida we can show them what she's done and explain all the projects. When the box is full we sit down together and pick out our favorites and put in a scrap book that has pockets and throw the rest away. Of course she wants to keep more than what I would like her to, but I tell her we only have so much room in the pocket so we have to pick our absolute favorites. I also tell her that she will be making more in first grade and so on so we can fill the rest of the pockets. It's actually fun to look at all the stuff she's done. I have my favorites that I keep too.

hi A.
maybe you could make like a portfolio of sorts. put the age he is/was and grade stuff like. it would be something he could or you could look back on later in life and either laugh or love or both. who knows you may have a famous artist on your hands and if not hes atleast famous to you. hope this helps. W.

I take down the projects as I get more. The ones I take down go into a plastic organizer bin/tub so I an pull them out later on when he is older to show him. That way I don't feel bad taking down the old ones to keep, and the new ones get to go up then.

Hi A.,
I have four children and we have alot of papers that are constantly coming home. I often allow my children to keep some that I am able to let go of to do what they wish with them. They often put them in their special places, purses, or do more cutting on them and such. I also allow the children to compile their art works and use them for wrapping paper for their family members on special occasions.

Others I have a box for each child that I keep important papers to save for each of them. I have also taken digital pictures of some of the bigger projects that I am just not able to keep. That way as they get older they can see just what they had done as children. I can also suggest that a special spiral notebook for their work can be kept for the child as well. Other papers that come home usually get put aside for when the kids are at school and every few days or so I do some "filing" of the papers that are not desired to keep. If the kids do not see me throwing out their papers, the papers often fall out of their minds. I do allow them to put papers on their bedroom doors and every so often I take them all down so that the kids can be creative and decide what pictures they want to be up there again. Good luck! It is hard not keep each and every thing about our kids as momentos. Sincerely, T..