GOT KIDS WITH AN ARTISTIC STREAK? 7 CREATIVE WAYS TO STORE AND DISPLAY THEIR ARTWORK
With the new school session starting afresh, be ready for your little ones to churn out piles of artwork and cute little craft items almost every day. Initially, you may want to put them all up on the refrigerator doors and even the wardrobes, but soon the growing pile will start worrying you and you'll be forced to keep the best, and dispose the rest with a heavy heart.
Who wants to do that? It's like throwing away precious childhood memories. Even if you keep a few, how do you store them all safely?
Fret not! A little organization from your end will help you brace for the incoming stream of creative art and crafts of your little ones. Here are 7 great ways to preserve memories and keepsakes of your kids while eliminating clutter from the house.
1. HANG THEM UP
An easy way to achieve the combined motive of storing your children's art work creatively and ensuring everyone has an access to your young Picasso's work is to hang them. This super easy way of displaying your kid's art can be achieved by using tension rods and hanging the artwork with the help of paper clips. For a more creative look, you may hang them using children's hangers with colorful beads on them. The best part of using them is that you can place these rods in any place where you have thick moulding, like hallway doors. Let the world see your young artist's masterpieces.
2. BOX THEM UP
Bins, boxes, or envelopes, use whatever makes it easy to stack them and store the precious art works safely. You probably have big plastic boxes in your home. Store your kid's artwork in them neatly while enjoying the advantage of using less space, and being clutter-free and extremely quick. You can even collect your child's work according to the standard and categories inside colored files and then put these files in the boxes. This way, it is easier to find the ones you would want to see over and over again.
3. BIND THEM
Whether it is the letters to Santa or the test sheets they bring home with special stars, every sheet of paper kids brings home is memorable. If you're one of those parents who likes to store everything your child puts on paper, then binders will work best for your collection. You may have separate binders for test papers, letters, homemade birthday cards, artwork, and so on. When storing, be sure to date them. This way, you'll always remember when was they were made, and your child will be forever thankful to you for storing his juvenile memories.
4. MAKE CORKBOARDS
An inventive way of displaying your kid's artwork is to hang corkboards, beautifully framed on all sides, as wall decor. You can monogram the first letter in your child's name on it if you have more than one kid. This way, guests can acknowledge and compliment the right artist for his/her work. You may change the artwork on a weekly basis or as and when anything new arrives, and store the older ones inside. This is a great way to show children that you appreciate their work. It is a great motivation for them.
5. CREATE AN ART WALL
This idea works best for parents who are selective in preserving their children's artwork. If you feel some of your child's works stand out, get them framed and put them up on the wall. You may use the walls in his room or in your hallway and dining area. Use your creativity and get the art framed in different styles to give the room an abstract look. For parents who store all the artwork, if you come across something that really has touched you, frame it.
6. SCAN, SHRINK AND PRINT
You can turn your kid's favorite art pieces into a single poster by scanning them, shrinking them in size and printing them together like a collage. Once printed, you can either frame the collage and hang it on the wall, or roll, name and store it inside. If you loved this idea and want to do this for a lot of your child's artwork, simply shrink them in protectable cover sizes, and print and bind them together. Doing so will save your child's memories while delightfully saving a lot of space. On special occasions, you can even hang these posters using simple plastic hangers or clip hangers on walls for everyone to see and appreciate.
7. SNAP OR SCAN TO TURN THEM INTO DIGITAL PHOTO BOOK
An easy clutter-free way of preserving your child's memories forever, the digital photo book is inexpensive and a beautiful way of storing some of your young artist's best work. Put your smartphone to good use and click striking pictures of your child's artwork, upload them and get an attractive photo book made online. These photo books allow you to select the space you want to dedicate to the artwork. For example, you can make a book of collages of various artworks or dedicate an entire page to each artwork which you think is exceptional.
Other Fun Hacks to Store and Display Your Child's Favorite Artwork
- Often, some of your child's favorite art pieces may be too big to fit in binder protector sheets. In such a case, trim them down to fit the size in a way that they don't destroy the picture. It is better to store a small-sized drawing than to throw it altogether.
- Take help of technology to store and share your child's artistic adventures. Plenty of apps allow you to maintain a timeline for your child and share his artwork with your friends on social media.
- To help you hang the artwork, clothespins can come in handy. You may want to color them to add vibrancy to the display.
- If you're short of space to display the child's artwork, you can snap and upload them to your digital photo frame and keep it in the living room for everyone to see and admire.
CONCLUSION
Creative efforts of your children deserve to be displayed, shared, and archived. They're your precious memories that must stay with you forever. But the stacks of paper that come from school and the ones your child makes at home can be difficult to handle collectively. It is mostly a bittersweet moment as on one hand you want to store all the artwork, but on the other hand you're wary of all the clutter it will create. By using the above-mentioned tips, you may easily organize your children's artworks and be ready for more.