What do you do with your children's art?

Well, title says it all. I'm stuck and apart from covering my walls with my DD's art and writing, I really don't know what to do with it all. I can't bear to part with it, only keeping the really good bits, but I know that I can't keep it all. I try to give grandparents bits and pieces here and there (but not the best pieces!). Basically looking for some ideas on how best to tackle the mound.

How do you display your childs art?

How do you store your child's art?

What do you keep / throw away / give away?

Thanks in advance

I read somewhere recently about taking photos of your kids art and ditching the originals. That way you have the memories but without the mound to go with it.

HTH xo

I purchased a File O Frame. You can store some art in it and put up on display the 'good' pictures for them to look at . I have one up on DS1's wall that he did in Kinder. They are great.
I purchased mine online from File O Frame..it can also be a fundraiser for a creche, kinder or school.

-Scrap book and paste the best ones in.
-Like Winter suggested taking photos of the art.
-Use as wrapping paper for gifts for others.

Photo's of the bulky stuff that's hard to store. Post-it Tubes for all other artwork, one for each child (you can do one for each year if you so desire).

I'm going to buy a pretty (good sized) box for each of my kids and file them away after writing the date and maybe what the kids say about the peice on the back. I will display a few of the really meaningful or pretty peices then either store or give away the other things. I use some of it as wrapping paper or cut it up and make cards with it sometimes. My mum loves this, she's always so careful not to rip it and keeps the paintings, lol!

I have a few ones I particularly like - these tend to be the ones that Pip has a 'story' about. The rest we have rolled up and use as wrapping paper for gifts.

I take all Ben;s school work etc into a bin and at the end of the term. I go through it all with him and we get to keep 3 things. At least we keep special things and he learns to toss some things as well.

I post a LOT of DD's artwork. We have aunts, uncles, godparents, greatgrandparent, great-aunts, great-uncles, old family friends - they all get new pictures or creations every few months! TBH I don't keep a lot. :redface: Preschool keeps a great portfolio of her work in a scrapbook. I have heaps in a pile though, so some of these ideas are good for our house too!

At the moment, DD is 2 and just scribbles. I keep a few that I think are nice (eg: pretty coloured scribbles) but usually I just look at them and throw them straight out - she doesn't know or care at this age. I do feel bad for doing it, but I don't see the point at this age.

Thanks so much for the ideas ladies. Some things I hadn't even considered.

Photos of art are such a great idea. Preserved for life, and wrapping pressies (a huge saving and really personal).

I'm definitely going to do the scrapbook thing and possibly the post tubes later too.

I'm off to check out the file o frame now.

Thanks again

Great thread, thanks for all the tips!

DD has just started to enjoy scribbling, and I already have hundreds of loose papers all over the place lol :)