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A child's painting of two people holding hands, with scissors, a binder and scrapbook paper nearby.
Print Recipe

Creatively Use and Store Children's Wall Art Drawings

Creatively Use and Store Children's Wall Art Drawings that quickly pile up in your home. Save, display, use favorites in fun projects & gifts!
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time2 hours
Total Time2 hours 30 minutes
Course: Craft, Project
Cuisine: Craft
Keyword: best way to store art, children's artwork storage, children's drawings, children's wall art, framed art storage, scrapbook artwork, storage artwork, storage for artwork, store children's artwork, wall art storage, ways to store artwork, what do do with kids' artwork
Servings: 1 artwork scrapbook
Author: Shelly
Cost: $50

Equipment

  • Scissors

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Many kids make artwork every day. 
    A lot of daily art is “disposable”, like coloring book pages or doodles. These are wonderful things for a child to do to occupy time and develop creativity. But usually they are not art pieces to keep.
    Throw what is possible to throw right away. Face it, we can’t keep everything!!
    Some of these pieces could be placed on the front of the refrigerator with a magnet just for the day. This way it can be celebrated for a bit of time then replaced the next day. The next day, replace them with new doodles and thrown others away.
  • It works really well to have a gallery wall or space to display children’s wall art drawings that are more special. 
    Tip: Put a name and date on each piece of artwork. Better yet, get your kids in the habit of doing this themselves! Later you will know who and when this masterpiece was created.
    Put up selected pieces on the gallery wall to enjoy!
    The display wall can be in a public area or your child’s room.
    As you take them off the gallery wall either throw the pieces away or place them in a tub or container to sort through at a later time (described below).
  • For those extra special pieces of art, why not make a nice grouping of framed art?
    These groupings are real conversation starters with guests I might add. Plus they add a real pop of color and interest in your home.
    Purchase a set of frames to put up artwork as wall hangings.
    You can make a grid of frames that are all the same size and type. Or you can collect a variety of frame types and sizes to mix and match in a grouping.
    The number of frames depends on your wall space.
    Change the artwork in the frame occasionally, to update the display with current artwork from your growing artist.
  • There is a special type of frame that opens on the front and makes it easy to change the artwork inside. In this interchangeable frame you can just place a new piece on top and keep the older work stored inside the frame. 
    This would work as nursery wall art, kids wall art, well it would be good for kids of all ages. I think these would be especially nice in a kids' room but could be used anywhere in your home. 
    Tip: Framed artwork makes nice gifts for others. Don’t forget that option!
  • As you cycle through the year, keep the child’s artwork in a container to review later. 
    You can put all of the artwork for a child in a tub or bin as it’s taken off the gallery wall or out of frames.
    At the end of the school year or the end of summer, you or you and the child go through and keep the favorites. 
    Before starting, decide on a number of art pieces that will be kept. This is a number of pieces that can go in a scrapbook or into a digital scrap book. 
    It’s hard deciding on your favorite things but is a good exercise for your child (and for you)!! 
    I recommend saving 20-30 pieces depending on your comfort zone. Of course this is only a recommendation, please feel free to do as you want. 
  • My recommendation for keeping artwork long term is a scrapbook of some sort.
    There are a several options for scrapbooks. Decide what you want to do and don’t look back.
    The first option to consider is a scrapbook with plastic slip in full pages and slip in photo pages. You can trim or fold pieces of artwork to fit in the pages. 
    It looks nice if all of the scrapbooks look alike. You can use a colored 1-3" thick notebook for this.
    The photo pages are where you can slip in pictures of the artwork that you can’t keep in a scrapbook, like 3-D art.
    There were a few art pieces that I took pictures of with the child holding it. That was fun.
    Here is a link to a post about creating a scrapbook art portfolio: DIY Art Portfolio to Save & Share Your Child's Artwork.
  • For a digital scrapbook, take pictures of the art work and make a digital book.
    You can do this yourself with a company like Shutterfly. 
    Take pictures of the selected artwork and upload them into the template of choice. The printed book would make the perfect gift as a birthday or Christmas present for the child.
    Tip: These companies run specials where the books are discounted in price and/or have extra pages for a lower cost. I’m not sure when in the calendar year this typically is but it is something you can watch for and cut your cost substantially.
    There are also companies where you can box up a number of pieces and they will put it into a book for you. This is more costly but may be worth it for you to bypass the upload process.
    Here are two companies offering this service:
    Artkive- send artwork to the company in a boxScribble- upload your pictures of the artwork
  • Lastly, there are art projects that can use some of the artwork to make gifts and usable items for yourself and others. It is so fun to upcycle art pieces and bring joy to the lives of others! 
    Tip: You can scan and print artwork and use the copies in your projects if you would like to save the original.
    Here are some ideas for using some of the extra children’s wall art drawings. 
    Making cards and envelopes: 
    Fold the artwork in half to use it as a card. Or cut your favorite part of the picture out in a square or rectangle and glue it to the front of a blank card (white or colored paper). 
    My daughter has done this a few times and I have saved some of those cards with my grandkid’s artwork on the front. So cute!
    Here is a link to a post telling how to make envelopes. Make them out of artwork to make the envelope colorful and unique. Handmade Envelopes 3 Ways.
    Making paper origami
    Instead of using origami paper, use artwork to fold your origami. Origami Father's Day Shirt Card.
    Torn Paper Mosaic on Canvas
    Use the artwork to tear apart and use in a torn paper mosaic. Torn Paper Mosaic Art
    Use artwork as a background for other artwork
    You can mount a piece of artwork on another piece of artwork which will act as a backing. This adds interest to the new piece of art and gives new life to an older piece of art that would be discarded otherwise.
    Making placemats
    Take your child’s artwork to a printing shop that offers a laminating service. Laminate the artwork and use it as a placemat on the table. These can be changed out during the year.
    Note: This will work the best with larger sized artwork.
    Use as gift wrap
    For small gifts paper artwork could be used as giftwrap. How special!
    Artwork on a physical product:
    Use a picture on a gift item that you then order from Walgreens or an Office Supply Store that offers this service.
    Make a t-shirt, mug, book bag, plate, ornament, poster, canvas prints, or mouse pad from the child’s artwork!
    Can’t you see this type of products providing a wonderful gift for a grandparent?

Video

Notes

Ideas for a gallery wall are found in the post.