Cool Tips to Preserve Your Child's Artwork

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post mentioning a unique way of preserving your child’s art by creating a mosaic collage. It got me thinking of other ways to organize all your little Picasso’s works of art that may be accumulating in a box at the back of your closet (that would be me). These are a few ideas to get you started:

Photo Books: Take pictures of their art to include in a photo book. This one comes from Pinhole Press. I wrote a post a few months ago about about my favorite photo books. Not into digital? Scrapbook it.Frame: Kids just love seeing their masterpiece framed and hung with pride. You don’t have to pay a fortune for frames. Pick up vintage frames at a secondhand stores and just paint—super easy and super crafty.

Image from Pottery Barn Kids

Hang: You can get creative displaying your art with a DIY banner or clip ropes.

Magnetic Paint: Paint a large square on the wall using magnetic paint. You and your child can switch up the art monthly, so it’s always fresh and new.

Image from Better Homes and Gardens

Three-Ring Binders: A no-brainer—buy a binder, some page protectors and label them with the age of your child and the date.

Wall Decals: I love the decals at Butch and Harold. You can get the look of a frame without hammers, and it won’t hurt your walls. Genius!

Wallpaper: I’m crazy about this wallpaper filled with blank picture frames that your kids can draw on.

How do you store/display your child’s artwork?

http://hadesarrow.com/blog Meagan

I just wanted to comment on the magnetic wall suggestion. It’s a lovely idea, but people should keep a couple things in mind. First: magnetic paint is obscenely expensive. Painting a section of wall that large would add up fast especially since, Second: magnetic paint requires multiple coats. And by multiple, I mean I’m not sure how many, because I gave up after 3. At three coats my small panel was minimally magnetic- a strong magnet showed apparent attraction, but not enough to hold it’s own weight. Once I painted a color (blackboard paint) over the magnetic layer, it lost even that minimal magnetic property, and you couldn’t tell I’d spent the whole of the previous day magnetizing it.

Just something to keep in mind. I love all the suggestions I see for magnetic paint, but I often think getting a sheet of thin metal would be more efficient! Good luck!
http://www.fromthewestvillage.com Johanna

Good to know! Thanks so much for this very useful tip Meagan. I love it when our readers share their experiences.
Adam

I have never seen that wallpaper with frames shown above.
My wife and I will be adding this to our DIY projects for this summer.
I hope that this product is available in Canada.
Looks like fun adn the kids will love it.

Cheers,

Adam
Leona

I am a huge fan of the binders for each of my kids. Because they seem to follow similar patterns in their art development, I worry that when they are grown, I won’t remember whose is whose. So I love the binder idea. For more than the everyday-I-am-bored-so-I-will-draw work, I also frame and put them around the house (bathroom always has room for art!). And we do our own version of the wallpaper as well (although the age difference between my girls makes some of the wallpaper tricky because one is “more sophisticated” than the other:) Haven’t tried the hanging art yet–love it. Will do that next. Thanks for these great and inspiring ideas!
Jenny

LOVE that wallpaper! That’s such a great idea! Even for older kids!
Martha

I love the clip rope idea – allows for a rotating gallery!
Sharon

The artwork accumulating in my home is overwhelming. I cannot seem to throw any of them out and I am not sure what to do. It makes sense to take pictures of them as they are stored digitally, but then that adds to the hundreds of thousand pictures I have in my iPhoto. Any ideas in how to store and organize photos stored digitally? I know Mac does a pretty good job, but any tips on prioritizing choice pictures?

S
http://www.charlottedesigns.co.uk Sarah Hodgkins

This is a great idea that I did for a client of mine, the art work can be changed as the child grow and tates change! Just another way that a personal mural can provide children with those special memories that they never forget. http://www.charlottedesigns.co.uk/gallery/Childrens-Rooms/Girl-s-Bedrooms/52.html
http://www.fromthewestvillage.com Johanna

Hi Sharon! I’m in the same boat is you. I try and delete the pictures I don’t like to help me cut down on storage space. If you find a digital photo organizational site, please drop me a note and let me know. I’d love to share your findings with our readers.
Carly

I love the digital archiving or photobook idea. One of my friends started doing this with her kids’ art, and because she wanted to get the physical artworks out of her apartment, but felt too guilty throwing them away, she started sending them to grandparents, aunts, uncles, close friends etc!
Jennifer

Magnetic paint! Very clever!
http://www.tat-ology.com Fox

These are all wonderful ideas. I love the DIY banner the best. I can see a few of them strung over a wall filled with artwork. Great post.
Leash

If it’s a really great piece of art (that will be a keeper) that’s on very thin paper or paper that will fade over time, I actually laminate it. This not only helps protect the actual piece of art, but will stop fading, tearing, etc, over time but will also protect it whilst it is hanging up on my walls. Also, you can easily store it in a binder / file when the next big thing needs that wall space!
Kate

Great ideas!
My daughter has recently stared taping up her pictures all over her room, and it is making me crazy. I was all set to say something to her when she said “Mom doesn’t my room look beautiful now”. I think it is definitely time for me to implement one of your ideas.

Also, does anyone know where to get decorative magnetic frames for the fridge?
Leslie Renner

Magnetic paint? Cool stuff. These are some cool ideas that I haven’t thought about. Keep up the good work and keep em coming.
http://www.thecreativeorchard.com Renee – the Creative Orchard

Here is another idea recently from Make It Love It: Turn Child’s Drawing into Stuffed Toy!

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2012/03/turn-childs-drawing-into-stuffed-toydoll.html
cornelia

Love the post! I am obsessed with the wallpaper. what a great idea! Think I might try it!
Amy

Really great ideas. My kids NEED that wall paper. We framed some of my older child’s artwork and I love it. When I see his first real painting of his first fish in his room it always makes me smile. We made the rope thing and decorated clips with wooden animals together and I just noticed today that he put up new artwork. I like that with this one he can decide what he wants to display. I used these great books from an art store in NY where the pages were plastic sleeves–that was good too. GREAT ARTICLE!!!!!!!
Maria D.

LOVE that wallpaper!!

I like photographing my daughter’s artwork with my handy, dandy iPhone:)
Amanda

Great ideas!! Love them all, I tend to keep special art work in a storage bin for each child along with school photos, report cards, etc. I really like the binder idea! We have a wire hanger and clips for the kids art work and we got it from Ikea, cheap and so useful!
Pingback: Artwork for Children | Project Nursery
Magaly

There are so many great ideas here. I seriously have a pile of drawings at home and have been thinking about how to start organizing them. I love the binder idea- so simple but I never thought about it till your blog! Can’t wait to go out and buy one to start finally putting that pile away!
Thanks!
http://www.bestorganizingtips.blogspot.com Evelyn Cucchiara

I just paint funky frames directly onto my walls – especially the stairwells. See a pic here: http://bit.ly/vkLDLC
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http://www.ilovemykidsart.com Eliana

Love all the ideas! Here is another one if you have a very special artwork: kids’ artwork into masterpieces @ http://ilovemykidsart.com. Here you can customize your artwork background and get it printed on museum quality canvas or poster prints. Also, consider to donate all the artwork you don’t want to keep to Kids’ Art for The Cure program. All selected artwork will be transformed and printed in different products to be sold to the public. 100% of the profit will go to cancer foundations to help find The Cure.
http://www.facebook.com/marcy.stoeven Marcy Stoeven

LOVE THIS!!!!!
http://www.littlesketchers.com/ Cheena

Great ideas! Would love to see some of these masterpieces on littlesketchers.com too!
Thanks!

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Cool Tips to Preserve Your Child’s Artwork

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