What to do with preschool art?

November 15, 2007 4:40 PM

My 3 year old brings home artwork 3 times a week from school. I am not creative at all. Any ideas for a creative and easy way to preserve/ save/ display these items. Right now, they are just in a pile on a shelf.
posted by beachhead2 to human relations (17 comments total)

How large are they? You could get some laminate sleeves and put them into a big binder. This would preserve them, keep them from spilling all over the place, and provide a way of displaying them.
posted by quin at 4:49 PM on November 15, 2007

Laminate them for placemats! If you end up with a ton, give sets of four (or six, or eight) as gifts.
posted by thehmsbeagle at 4:52 PM on November 15, 2007 [2 favorites]

I love the placemats idea!

Also, you will start accumulating a looooot of these as your kid gets older. I'd suggest going through them every year or so, picking out your favorites, and tossing the rest. It doesn't make you a bad parent!
posted by radioamy at 4:54 PM on November 15, 2007

hang the best one of the week on the fridge, like everyone else.
posted by kanemano at 5:00 PM on November 15, 2007

I staple my kids' artworks all over the walls and keep rotating them. The fridge is covered. Some are in frames with or without glass. Staples leave very small holes that a coat of paint will easily fill in, if you're concerned about that. It's not for everybody, I know--many people are more interested in their decor than their kids. Live your life, love your kids, show off their work.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 5:03 PM on November 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm guessing the paper/paint/pencils/crayons are far from archival, so if you scan it, you'll have it forever. Scan it, then use it for computer wallpaper, print it on photo paper and frame it, print it on those iron-on transfer dealies that you can run through an inkjet and make your own t-shirts or pillow cases, upload it to Zazzle and do any number of things.
posted by ersatzkat at 5:05 PM on November 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

The front of the refrigerator, held in place with magnets. Each time a new one goes up, an old one comes down.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 5:06 PM on November 15, 2007

We're running out of the prime fridge real estate, too.

One idea I've been kicking around is to scan them and then upload to Photobucket. From there, you can go to their partner site Qoop and create either posters or calendars or photobooks of all your kiddo's artwork. What's cool is that they have a softcover option for the photobooks, so they're not crazy expensive.

It also makes a cheap and original grandparent present. ;)
posted by dancinglamb at 5:07 PM on November 15, 2007

some ideas:
children's artwork jewelry
lil davinci storage frame or kids artstor
vinyl sleeve gallery
revolving display wall
posted by logic vs love at 5:36 PM on November 15, 2007

In terms of storage, I saw something the other day that was kind-of genius - rolling them into poster tubes and putting the year on the outside, then storing them in an umbrella stand. Apparently you can get archival poster tubes as well.
posted by pomegranate at 5:44 PM on November 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

See if you can find a scrapbooking store in your neighborhood. Those folks are pretty nutty about this sort of thing, and you'll get some good ideas even if you don't end up buying anything.

For short-term display: Get ten or more cheap mis-matched 8x10 frames at garage sales or Goodwill (make sure they have glass in them). Then spraypaint the frames all a lovely glossy white or black and run the glass through your dishwasher. Put your kid's recent work in them and hang 4 or 5 on a single wall. When you're ready to swap out the art, you can just replace the frames on the wall with 4 or 5 different ones.

For long-term storage: You can use 3-ring binders (also cheap at garage sales and Goodwill) with some heavy-duty clear sheet protectors.
posted by danblaker at 5:51 PM on November 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

Awesome posters at Kid's Art project. Upload your own scanned images, they make them into gorgeous posters with your kid's name on them, etc. You can even do tiled posters with 9 or 12 of the pieces. Super cool.
posted by barnone at 6:36 PM on November 15, 2007

You've got some good suggestions here, but I doubt that you want to keep every piece of artwork your child makes forever. So in the event that you do want/need/have to throw some of it away, take digital pictures or scans first. My mother did this with my sister and I (back then she used slides). It's a whole lot easier than trying to store years and years of childhood drawings but still gives you the memories.
posted by youngergirl44 at 7:36 PM on November 15, 2007

Depending on your family situation, once a month you can select some favorites to send to each of the grandparents or other doting relatives who would appreciate your child's artwork.
posted by metahawk at 10:17 PM on November 15, 2007

Seconding scanning.

That's what I'm planning on doing once my kids get bigger. You probably don't own a large-format scanner. You'll probably need to scan them on one. Kinko's and their ilk usually have a large-format scanner at their store you can use. I'd call around first.
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 4:32 AM on November 16, 2007

Post everything on the fridge. When it's full take a picture of the child in front of the full frige. After the picture, take the artwork down. Take another picture once it's full again. Rinse and repeat. Unless you have a burning desire to scan everything individually, a compilation picture is good enough.
As an added bonus, it's a good way to see how much the child's artwork has changed as they grow up. Kind of like a unique growth chart.
posted by enobeet at 9:30 AM on November 16, 2007

My mom saved all of our school stuff in boxes in her closet. One for every grade.

Now that we're adults, every birthday we get a new instalment of our artwork, etc, in a BIG D-ring binder, with everything in plastic page covers.

It's a nice exercise in self-awareness, and I know my mom has fun putting them together too.
posted by sunshinesky at 11:00 AM on January 11