Part 2: Storing Children’s Art Work

Look at all the happy faces! I love surrounding myself with my children’s art, craft and drawings. However, there is a question of number. I don’t have enough walls in the house to display all my children’s art work. The masses of artwork my children’s produce can turn into quite of a nightmare actually, with art coming home from school as well as as work produced at home. So here are my tips for storing kids art work.

If you missed the first post in this series, you can read it here: Creating an Art Space (when you have no space). 

1. Fridge & Cupboards

The kitchen is an obvious place to display art work, being the place where my kids constantly hover around waiting to be fed.

Fridge:

Use blu-tack, not magnets.  Believe me, magnets just don’t work well (the art work falls off and drives me nuts). Kids can use blu-tack as a moulding material too {read post: We Play Blu-Tack}.

Cupboard:

Use Blu-Tack to attach pictures to the pantry cupboard or other kitchen cupboards.

2. Removable Wall Frames & Decals

Use stick on frame decals to surround art work so they become a wall focal point.  My absolute favourite is this wallpaper from Graham Brown. You could use it on an entire wall or only a section and fill the funky frames with chilren’s art work.

Corner Frames are cheap and ideal for pictures of any size.

Wall frames (below right) are a fun, eye catching option.

If you have a dedicated art space in your home, you can paint frame shapes directly on the wall like the ones featured here: Childhood 101: Sharing our Kids Art Space.

3. Notebook Cover

I adore this idea from Quince & Quire: Using and Storing Children’s Art. Sarah sewed her daughter’s picture to a moleskin note book to create this beautiful cover. Doesn’t it look adorable? Read more…

4. Bulletin/Memo Board

I searched high and low for a nice looking (large) bulletin/memo board which would be ideal for the kitchen or living area. Then I came across this idea from Rachel. She uses a huge memo board to display artwork.

1.Visit the The Frame Shop and decide on a frame size/colour/material.

2. Choose the cork board as the base option.

3. Hang and enjoy!

5. Hanging Line

My sister uses an Ikea curtain line to hang her children’s art work. This makes it easy to remove old artwork and replace it with the new.

1. Ikea Curtain Wire with Clips $9.95

2. Ikea Bygel Rail $1.99

3. Ikea Kroken Cutlery Caddy $3.99

6. Framed

Colourful frames are a cheap and fun way to display artwork. This is an ideal way to brighten up a dull room.

You can buy frames like this at discount shops, Kmart, Target, Big W or the pictured frames from Ikea.

7. Feature

Professional framing:

My daughter produced this piece of art when she was 8. It’s incredibly special and I wanted to have it professionally framed so I can enjoy looking at it everyday.

I asked her if the self portrait had a meaning and she said:  “I’ve got my own personality. I have my own style.”

Good for you girl. x

Mini gallery:

The Art Eater preserves and frames children’s artwork into a mini gallery of up to 30 pictures! This is a great way to feature many pieces of art work into a stunning feature you can put anywhere in the house.

8. Art Book

Here are 4 ways to turn children’s drawings into art books:

1. Gather a pile of drawings and staple down one side to make a book. Ask the child to tell a story with the pictures and add words to each page.

2. Buy a display folder and fill the plastic sleeves with drawings. It’s easy to add/take away pages and move them around.

3. Purchase a large scrapbook and glue artwork in to make a book.

4. The Art Eater  can turn children’s art into professional art books.

9. Laminate

For the Wall:

Laminating children’s art work is a wonderful way to preserve and protect special drawings.  It also allows the art to sit flat on the wall.

For Toys:

After laminating the drawing, cut out figures for children to use as toys. Read more…

10. Picture/Plate Stand

Canvas and laminated pictures can be displayed using a picture stand on a dresser.

11. Computer

Take pictures of the children’s artwork and set it as a screen saver or use in a digital frame.

12. Clothes Hangers

In our playroom, I use clip hangers to display artwork on the wall.

13. Recycle Kids Art

I can’t keep everything my kids create; I admit to sneaking a lot into the bin. However, I do try and recycle as much as I can. Below are two ways to recycle children’s art:

1. Keep one-sided drawings in a box so the children can come back and draw on the other side.

2. In part 1 of this series, I showed you my useful box. Old box crafts, along with other useful household  items, often end up here to be recycled into a new creation. My children sometimes pull this useful box out and utilise the items to  play cubby house.

How do you store your children’s art work?

Be A Fun Mum Links

Part 1: Create and Art and Craft Space for Children

Paper Clip Crafts & Activities

Make a Flower Head Wreath