Updated on January 21, 2016
What To Do With All Those Art Projects
The Heir started preschool last fall, and with that came a flurry of preschool crafts. Before that, he was home with me full time, so although he coloured a fair amount with me, we didn’t really do a lot of art projects. On his very first day of preschool he came running out at the end of class holding the most adorable necklace shouting that he’d made it just for me. My heart nearly burst and I loved it (it’s still on display on the fireplace mantle), but that was far from the end of his crafting. There’s something to bring home almost every time I pick him up from school. From necklaces to paintings, sculptures to plates of spaghetti, rhythm instruments to Christmas ornaments, there is a never ending flow of crafts and art pieces entering our home. I think it’s awesome, but I’ve also been at a loss as to what to do with them all! I haven’t quite figured out what to do with all of it (yet), but I’ve got at least one use for all those paintings!
The paintings are by far the most frequent pieces of art to cross the threshold of our house. Every time I drop The Heir off at school, I check the sign in table and rifle through the pile of paintings there. Without fail, there’s always one with The Heir’s name on it. I love that he’s getting a chance to paint at school, and I always ask him what it is he was painting that day. Some days he tells me he painted a Ninja Turtle, other days it’s Indiana Jones or Batman. Now none of the paintings I’ve picked up look like those things to me, but I love seeing him expressing his creativity and using his imagination to get his favourite things down on paper.
For a long while, these masterpieces were just piling up on a desk in the basement. I wanted to do something with them and absolutely wanted to keep them. But how? Keeping them in a pile in the basement or in a storage box somewhere doesn’t allow me to really enjoy them. Of course I look forward to being able to show him his art work a couple decades from now, but in the meantime it would be really nice to be able to display them. I do put the latest ones up on the fireplace mantle, but they come so frequently that I don’t get to see them for very long before they’re being switched out for the latest creation.
This is where King Dad comes in. You see, King Dad is about a hundred times more artistic that I am. He has an eye for design that I just don’t possess. So while I was piling up preschool art, he was thinking of ways to get it on display for me. With the help of The Heir, he selected three of the best or perhaps most unique pieces to date, cropped them down, and had them framed. I love the way he’s cropped the art pieces. It never would have occurred to me to display them in anything but their entirety, but this is so much better! I’ve put them up on the wall of our living room so now I can enjoy them every day. Better yet, our friends and family can enjoy them too!
As The Heir progresses through the rest of his school year, I know there will be more art coming home. I can’t wait to see what other creations he comes up with. I might even switch out the framed art for new paintings as the year progresses. It’ll be a fun way to change up the art in our house! Now if only King Dad could figure out what to do with the plate of spaghetti and the porcupine.
How do you display your children’s artwork at home?
Oh my gosh–we are DROWING in art projects over here, too. it has gotten so bad that i purposely do not put my kids in after-school or summer art programs since they already do so much art in school…and i can’t handle any additional projects coming home! i love the idea of framing art. i’ve also really, really been wanting to try one of those services that puts pictures of your kids’ art into a book.
I like this idea! For the physical pieces (not paintings) you could take good pictures and rotate those as well. That way too, the photos of the art could be a part of scrap book or photo album so he can look at the art when he wants to and see progress through the years 🙂
I love the display your husband made! Luckily, the amount of artwork decreases drastically when they reach Kindergarten. We had tons from preschool, but in Kindergarten they work on one project for a few weeks. I’m definitely going to frame his creations too.
I love the finished product! We have a clothes line type thing in the playroom where I hang the kids’ art. They love seeing it displayed 🙂
This is a very cool idea. We do two things for all of our girls amazing artwork, we have one big frame that opens like of like a cabinet (the front pops open) and that gets new pieces every once in a while and I am also saving it to make a book at the end of the year. Easier to contain everything. Very cute!
I love this idea! I also have a clothesline that displays their artwork and I have an app downloaded where I can take pics and store their art without physically keeping it forever!
I love this. Everything my son has is in a box in the craft closet waiting to be scrap booked or something!
My mom saved a lot of my “cuter” ones and made a scrapbook with photos, etc, when I graduated. I’m sure it was a lot of work, but it was appreciated!
What a cute idea! And yes, definitely switch them out as the kids get older. Try doing it without telling them and see how long it takes for them to notice. My parents used to surprise us by displaying our artwork in random places and it always made us so excited to find them. Love those frames by the way, very classy.
I love these ideas! they’re sure going to be handy later on 🙂
Love the idea King Dad came up with! I’ll have to do that with my kids’ pieces! I have a wall dedicated to their art- just a simple bakers twine, nails and little clothes pins to display their latest projects. I switch them out every so often, especially with the change in season/holiday.
I love the frames! we have a 12yr old and a 5yr old and they each have a wall on the way to the bedrooms where they can display their favorite pieces. They do get rotated every once in a while, when a new “this one HAS to go up on the wall” piece comes home, and we all get to enjoy it.
Great idea!! I’m also thinking of making a book since I have way toooo many that I kept from my oldest daughter.
I love this idea! I also kept my daughter’s school art work in a folder. Only the ones she wants to keep that were special to her.