Today’s ‘Works For Me Wednesday‘ theme over at wearethatfamily is reaching out to readers to ask for help. So, can you help me?
With a house full of creative kids I need some ideas on how to use their masterpieces. The fridge is covered already (and the walls, and the doors…) so can you give me some other suggestions for ways to display or re-use their paintings and drawings? Please post a coment with your idea.
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let thewm use them to cover artbooks, scrapbooks etc. Or make cards for friends and relatives?
I had to smile because a friend recently talked about how she threw away lots of her kid’s art. I love the photographing and scanning idea (an option that my mom didn’t have in the 70’s!) but the idea of making cards caught my eye.
It might be worthwhile seeing if a charity organization would like some of the cards, or places like a senior center or hospital.
Some drawings could be made into a puzzle (the big 6-sided cube type) or each year, 10 or so drawings could be printed on fabric and be made onto a quilt (which could be kept or be given out as a gift).
Fortunately, by the time I was 5 or 6 I began to help my mom out by letting her know what could be thrown away 🙂
i collect a bunch under the bed in a box for a while.. and then take pictures of all of them.. and then print them up in a photobook from winkflash… 2x’s a year they do a deal where there is a 100page book fir 20.00
The art makes great wrapping paper too. I’ve also picked some favorite pieces & saved them in a 3 ring binder.
I use them to make cards. And not just from my kids either. If I have to send a Thank you, card or something, I will just grab something older from the fridge or where ever, crop it down and make it into a card.
We also take stacks to my husbands office. she loves to pass them out to “his work people” Most of them are older, so they think it is fun to have a kid drawing on their desk. And then they can throw it away with out guilt when ever they want.
I’m with Amy–I assigned a bin to collect all the artwork. Well, not all. I pitch a lot. A LOT. And I try to mark it somehow so I know, twenty years from now, why I chose to keep this weird-looking scrap paper sculpture.
I have this problem with four children all home educated, we are drowning in paper art!
Recently I have taken to cutting out “good” pieces and putting them all in a basket which the kids then re-use for scrapbooking or other projects.
Each year I also make a plea on freecycle for a suitcase for storage, which I steadily fill throughout the year and then archive in our garage.
I am also lucky to have lots of relatives to post creations to! Grannie S looks forward to her weird and wonderful packages I’m sure….
Thanks everyone for all your suggestions – great idea to use them as wrapping paper as I never have any of the real stuff when I need it. And I’d never have thought to print it onto fabric and make a quilt. That would be a lovely keepsake. What this space!
Some really good ideas here – I started a blog a few months ago dedicated to the subject of children’s art, how to use, display, enhance and create it, so I may include some of these ideas at some point! Off now to explore your blog further!
I also take photos of the art (in the hopes of making an album one day), and we used a lot of it for wrapping paper at Christmas. We also send it to family members every now and then – they love getting a note from us and a drawing from our daughter!
We bought little portfolio cases that the art goes in seperated by month. Then we scan or photograph the best pieces to put in a digital book. We use some covered in clear contact paper as placemats. We use it as wrapping paper, cards, and for those ones that aren’t all good but have nice areas we cut those out and make gift tags for christmas time.
I also send them in to work with my husband. His coworkers also have grown children but no grandkids yet, so they really appreciate it.
For Christmas 2010 we’re making books for family and friends featuring stories the children have helped write, journal entries about interesting things we’ve done, photographs from throughout the year, and the children’s illustrations. I think it’s a great idea because the grandparents will love it as it’s about their grandchildren and the young relatives and friends will enjoy it too because it’s full of stories and pictures.
I love the Christmas present idea. I’ve been thinking of making some story books written by the children too – we made a photo story of them playing Lollypop Crossing Ladies last summer which was fun. I’ll post them when they’re done for you to see. Thanks for your comment.
Maybe put it all into one Big clip frame together.. Or, bit of an extravagance, if its possible try and find somewhere that could copy it and turn it into wallpaper-could make for an amazing feature wall(s) in the loo?!
Emily – the wallpaper is such a fun idea!