What do you do with your child's artwork?

[Celebrationoflifebooks]

I have lots of my son's artwork around the house. Does anyone have any ideas about what i can do with it? What do you do with your child's artwork?

What do you do with your child's artwork?

bin

I put some pictures up on the wall (walls I don?t care about). The very very best (eg fave painting they did at nursery) I frame.

Othewise I keep piles of it and every so often go through and weed out all but the best. The bits I keep I put in big boxes and store in the loft. DH despairs of me (but then he keeps all his football programmes!)

My top tip on this topic is to get the camera and take a piccie of child and artwork (esp if it is a large model of a rocket, fab knight costume made of cardboard etc.

That way you have it saved forever without having to keep the actual thing. Plus you can use the pic in a holiday scrapbook or similar.

I used to bin some. Then there was an article in the paper by someone wittily talking about how she didn't want to put up her kids' artwork on the walls of her new kitchen because she wouldn't be able to see the lovely Farrow and Ball paints.
The following week, there was a letter on the letters page that simply said:
"I also installed a new kitchen with Farrow and Ball paints. I covered it in my daughter's artwork. Then my daughter died. I don't give a toss about the kitchen, but I cherish the drawings with all my heart".

Haven't thrown one away since because I can't get that last sentence out of my head. Silly I know and would never blame anyone for binning them. They do pile up and many pre-school ones are half produced by the staff anyway.

Keep the best and put it in a massive scrapbook from John Lewis.

Recycle the rest asap. Unfortunately dd saw some in the recycling bin the other day on the street. I had to tell her that the din men thought she drew so well that they wanted some of her drawings.

occassionally we cull it as there is tons of the stuff..he keeps them mostly in drawing books stacked in a plastic toy crate,so at least they're all in one place..every so often we go through them together,choosing the things we like best. This is drawing done at home..school things were stuck on the wall generally and taken down once they got a bit tatty or faded. You can't realistically keep everything.

Keep the best stuff in an old A4 box file (plundered from an office clearout). Throw the not so good stuff in the recycling bin. Put a date on each one that is kept. Really good stuff is bluetacked onto the kitchen cupboards.

Can i just say that you shouldnt throw any painting or drawing your child has done ....
yes some maybe messy and that but soo what.. your child will have them for the rest of their lifes they cant just turn back time to the age they was doing them ...get some scrap books for the ones u dont wont to put up but dont throw them away even if u end up with about 20 scrap books and for the person who said bin thats just wrong .. your child work is their way of expressing thier feelings and what they see around them
thanks

I put some up until i can be bothered to take them down for a while, then bin them. Others go in the bin straight away.

I scan them and save them to discs. That way they can always be printed again, or just viewed on the pc.

Although i do have a few boxes of the originals in the attic.

DS1 is now into writing songs (he's 8) for the 'band' that him and his friends have started. Need to go buy more discs.....

I bin most of it, mind you I should have kept it, would have come in handy for insulating the loft.

A few landmark drawings and paintings have been framed, some go into one of those 10 x A4 display thingies from Baker Ross and the best of the rest go into a file. Remainder get recycled.

why throw ur childrens art away for ???

rember they cant turn back time can they

... because at the rate my child turns out masterpieces, we will have to have the foundations strengthened just to ensure the floorboards don't give way. I am very sentimental and keep lots, but there just isn't the space to keep every piece of paper covered in paint, felt pen and glitter!

Mind you, am loving the idea of archiving on disk ...

Keep the best and use the others as 'interesting paper' - cut into strips to make paper chains, use stencils to cut out shapes to stick onto plain cards for birthdays, cut into little squares to use for mosaic pictures ... that;s what we do with unclaimed masterpieces at school.

i make the distinction between pictures which are to be kept, and some which were created for the pleasure of the artisitc process alone. Eg. my son went through a stage where he just wanted to smear paint on the paper with his hands. And would do it all day. No way can I keep all that painted paper.. So we would put up a few of the nicest ones for a week, then recycle. Or the time when all he wanted to do was scribble blue pen on paper, creating about 30 "pictures" per day...
But I keep all the ones where he tells me what he has drawn (eg. this is a bird with red feet").

I do also recycle his "scribblings" as interesting paper like racingsnake said, and use them as backgrounds in card making etc.

That comment about the farrow and ball paints and the letter writers daughter dying is desperately heart breaking

I have to admit some goes in the bin,except stuff he really likes which we laminate and stick on wall.I really should keep it but our loft is converted and where the F7&&& can you keep a 3 ft high toilet roll creation 6 months after it was created?Drawings/paintings are stuck on bedroom wall.

Having seen Lingles post I now feel guilty!

I got silver and gold lengths of cord with wee tiny pegs in Asda last Christmas for our cards. I ended up keeping them up all year round and putting my sons art up. I rotate it now and then or hang up notices. One day if I ever get around to decorating the house, they might come down but by the time I have the money kids'll probably be too big anyway. I often thought it would be a good idea to send them off to grandparents who live far away, every so often, but never get round to it.

I cover up the shitty bits in the plaster with it

Oh lingle thats so sad.
I display them, give them to grandparents (who display them!) or student neices and nephews (who think they r cute on the walls of their studenty pads), some do get recycled but the rest are stuck in their art scrapbooks, from their first scribbles thru to now. They love looking at them and reminising! lol

Digitally photograph them. Back up your computer's memory often! Keep 3-4 bits per child, put on the wall til the next ones come along, secretly bin the rest.

I kept DS1's Reception stuff. Some got damp, the paint cracked off others, glue failed, colours faded. In the bin it all had to go.

I also photograph or scan random pages from their exercise books when they get brought home at the end of every school year.

They have gorgeous brightly coloured frames in Ikea, I pop art work in them and have a gallery in the kitchen, we swop and change them around with new ones, and the rest we put in a folder in the filing cabinet

I always look forward to my DC coming out of the school gates, clutching their junk modelling. Particularly when it's 6 feet tall, and they burst into tears when they hand it over to you and it collapses.

I used to feel guilty about recycling my child's artwork rather fast, and having read this thread, much less so - I have never been interested in seeing my own artwork from 1973 tbh. I do keep the odd piece, send some to grandparents, and tape some together for wrapping paper (although ds's permission for this is becoming more grudging, so will have to stop soon).

Taking photos of the best bits a very good idea.

I make a collage of the best bits in a poster size frame once a year, keep some others in a box and throw away the ones which DS & I have decided together needn't be kept. On the back of the frame I write which year he was in, who his teacher was and a bit about the pictures included as I am bound to forget.