My daughter took a children's sewing class awhile back. The project was to draw a creature and then using old t-shirts, turn your drawing into a stuffed animal. The end product was adorable and she got to have a great introduction to sewing. These would be a fun project to teach your child to sew or for you to take a favorite drawing and make a friend for your little one.
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Don't want to throw away your children's artwork? I cut up my 2 1/2 year old twins artwork they made on posterboard into bookmark size strips and laminated them.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
What do I do with all of my children's school artwork? I don't want to just throw them out in the trash! I do hang them for a while on the kitchen cupboards, or fridge, etc. Anyone have any suggestions on storing them, or preserving them in a binder, or frames?
I kinda got into scrapbooking awhile back, not too seriously though, I also had to find a way to deal with my sons mounting pile of school art work. So i display the lasest one on the fridge, I toss out most of the school worksheets, but i keep the nicest peices. I made a scrapbook to hold his pictures. I have one for kindergarten, on for 1st grade, etc.
It is soooooo hard to think of throwing away anything created by your child, but do we really need EVERY piece of paper with a crayon mark on it?! I scan their creations onto my computer and then periodically burn them onto a CD-R for safe keeping. When I have time, I organize them into a digital scrapbook and burn a CD for each child and one for us to keep as a memory of each year. (It is also an easy way to share gifts and memories with relatives out-of-state). Also, my mother-in-law gave us very large portfolio folders, personalized with each child's name, for safe keeping of our favorites.
Putting the pictures in a big photo album would probably work. Also, framing some of them would be nice.
My sister also uses the porfolio that ceceh mentioned above.
I also found this article that was kind of interesting.
A lady I worked with told me that she would go to a pizza place and buy several large pizza boxes. Then she would make a box for that years worth of artwork for each child. She could then store them in a closet out of the way.
I like this idea.www.blanketworx.com/
www.psd267.wednet.edu/
In Family Fun magazine, they suggested shrinking artwork on a color copier and then using the small pieces for magnets, cards, etc. Or just to display.
My sister-in-law kept hers (or at least some of them) and had them laminated. She then places them by season inside her cabinets. It's always a pleasure to open her cabinets and see their little Christmas outfits or art work they did as children.
Make them into greeting cards that you or your children can send to family sand friends
These cards slao make great gifts for grandparents
I am only saving a few things from ea year. We'd be overrun with the stuff by the time they graduate otherwise. I don't think every little thing they do in school needs to be saved.
We have a bulletin board in the kitchen. It's fairly large and I like to keep a calendar on it, hot lunch menu, school calendar, pictures of the kids and some of their artwork which rotates as they bring it home. We enjoy it for several weeks or so and then unless it's something I decide to save, then it goes in the trash.
I got my kids ea a nice thing called "School Years Memory Keeper"....it goes from Kindergarten to 12th grade. The front has places for their school pictures and then ea grade has a pocket and places to write in info such as the school attended, teacher's name, favorites, etc. I put a few pieces of artwork in the pockets plus some of their schoolwork....just enough stuff to get a sampling of what they did and what they were like at a certain age.
I really don't know that when kids grow up they are gonna care to look at and keep a huge mountain of artwork they did as little kids.
I purchased large 3-ring binders in the coordinating school colors. I hole punched their report cards, certificates.....but for the artwork, I hole punched large zip lock bags and put the artwork in them. I also used dividers for each grade and one binder for each school.
Our oldest son graduated last year and I presented him his albums. It was a suprise and he/we enjoyed looking back at everything that was written/made.
I don't have children but do have friends whose children make artwork projects for me. One thing I would recommend is to make sure you at least put the year in some hidden away place just so you would know their age.
For me - I put each child's artwork in a manila folder and place it in a hanging file.
Tonya
I am a graphic designer and work for a company Petite Picasso. It's founder Donna Gryboski started the company in 2007. We specialize in preserving children's artwork by creating books of their work. It's a great idea and makes a nice gift as well. Keeping the originals can get a little crazy after a couple of years...where you going to store it all!!! Check out www.petitepicassobooks.com. We are going to be adding a lot of services soon such as calenders, paintings and also merchandise so keep that in mind. The website will be updated this month.
My sister and her friends are crazy about the ART:archives. They are your digital solution to preserving and showcasing your child's artwork. They take professional photographs and create a digital slideshow set to classical music. It allows you to then eliminate the clutter and the guilt of throwing it away! It's just the solution that all moms have been waiting for! Check out www.theartarchives.com.
www.petitepicassobooks.com/
This is the best in preserving children's artwork. You Won't be disappointed. It is awesome idea with awesome books. I just received my books for my 3 children and I am thrilled with them!
They are so beautiful. Now I can get rid of all of the originals that are going to be faded in a few years anyway. I highly recommend it.
Checked out both services that the other women posted, the art:archives and the petitepicasso. I also saw the art:archives thing on the mamabirdsdiary.com web site. I like the DVD solution better because it is a digital. I am so done with all the clutter and although the book is nice, I will have 5-10 books for each kid by the time they hit high school. Too much clutter and by the time my kids are older they will be so into the tech world that I think this is cool. I emailed them and they said that they will include a back up DVD and the CD of the photographs of the kids artwork in my order at no extra charge. This is not on the web site yet but they said they were changing their pricing structure to be more family friendly. They also gave me a 5% sibling discount.
I checked out that site the art:archives and I don't understand what all the hype is about. Their prices are not that great for what you get. Honestly, you can tell that the people creating the slideshows are not artists in any way. They are very simple and I feel that anyone with computer sense could create them. I am an artist myself and feel that I can create something so much more than what they do. If you are going to pay that price why not preserve it in a book instead. It will last longer and I guarantee more people will look at it. Who wants to sit and watch paper float around? That's my opinion. Its a nice idea but not really worth it. That company Petite Picasso is a better way to go and at least they have real designers who do the work!
My company SouvenarteBooks makes beautiful hardcover coffee table books of your children's art. Each book is professionally designed and then printed on archival paper. Each book comes with a beautiful glossy dust jacket --
Please visit our website www.souvenartebooks.com to learn more about our books. We would be happy to meet with you and show you some sample books. We are the only company located in New York City.
Check out www.weedoodlestudio.com they turn the art into all sorts of things. The pillows are my fav. plus when they are taken to a friends house for a sleep over there is no question which pillow is for your kid and it was customized with my daughters name I also like the button super cheap and my daughter wears them on her bookbag and gives them to her friends. Anyway I love her artwork I just don't want to store it forever
