When Chloe first started coloring and doing crafts, we cherished every one and found somewhere to display it. With two preschoolers in the house suddenly we are overwhelmed with artwork and creations. While I still take time to admire each one, I no longer want to keep them or display them all. So what do you do?

Designate an area (or areas) for displaying art.

The Fridge – We have one grip clip on the front of our fridge for each of the children and they can display one thing on that clip. If they want to put up a new creation, the old one has to come down. This helps keep fridge door clutter to a minimum.

The Bulletin Board – In our laundry room, I also have a small bulletin board. On it I have a few verses and inspirational quotes and a few pieces of art. We also have a small board in our downstairs powder room. They can each display one thing on there as well.

Magnetic Board – We also have a magnetic board on our wall in the play area. We don’t display pictures on it but rather have our magnetic letters etc. on it to keep the fridge free. A magnetic board is a great option if you are concerned about tacks and push pins. Ikea has some really great, inexpensive magnetic board options.

A Clothesline – In Chloe’s room we have a little DIY clothesline that she loves to display art on as well. John doesn’t have one in his room as of yet. He isn’t as interested in displaying his work as Chloe is.

Chloe’s bedroom art clothesline

Frames – There are those special creations that just beg to be framed. Choose them wisely. Something that is a big hit with our little ones is our Ikea rimless frames for finger painting creations. They’re larger and easy to change out. We could have them hang on the walls but for now they just sit on the top of their book case in their rooms.

There are lots more great ideas for displays if you look around online. Using fabric and ribbons you could make a pin free message board etc.  What do you use?

Determine Capacity

Once you find something that will work for you, determine it’s capacity and then stick with it.  One picture, five, ten? Decide the limit and then enforce it. Once it reaches capacity, then something has to go before a new creation can come in.  You could first one in, first one out or choose your least favorite, oldest etc. to replace. As your tots get a little older, enlist his or her help for deciding which pieces are display-worthy.

Storing

Binder – Artwork on display will most likely be “un-displayed” at some point. Most of these creations you will part with (see below) but a few really will be worth saving. It’s good to save a few pieces (or more) each year so that you and your child can look back and see the progress they’ve made. I don’t remember where I first read about the idea of binders but Chloe was a year old when I implemented it. We have a 2” binder for each child. It has several page protectors in it. When we have a piece we’d like to save, I write the name, date and any descriptions that Chloe or John have given me on the back and then either hole-punch it (coloring pages) or slide it into a page protector (like her first ever craft – a paper bag cow puppet) in the binder. This binder is ALL the artwork I plan to save for them in their life so we’re selective. Again, for our family this is only a few key pieces each year.

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Take a Picture – Taking a picture then making a photo book with your pictures may be a good option for your family. Or put it on CD. Both take up much less space.

Bankers Box – If you have a lot of crafts you wish to save, perhaps a study box is the way to go.

Art Portfolio – My husband keeps his collected art in a portfolio, you could do the same for children’s work too.

Scrapbook – you could scrapbook it. I have no talent in this area but perhaps this is your area of talent?

So many options but I think they key is labeling, dating and moderation! If you have a good storage idea, I’d love to hear it!

Parting with Artwork

You’re likely to have a whole lot of spare artwork. Chloe especially has a very hard time if she sees her artwork in the garbage or recycling bin. We’ve started doing a few things that I’ll share today.

Recycle it – Though if you have an emotional little person like me, I suggest you do this secretly.

Give it to relatives – Nana is great and always seems excited to be the recipient of artwork. Whether they trash it or recycle it, it’s no longer your issue.

Mail it to seniors – we have a couple of “shut-in” seniors in our church. We try to send out little notes and cards to them and it’s always nice to add in some artwork too.

Make it into Christmas cards, gifts or ornaments. Using Popsicle sticks you can made a little frame, trim artwork to fit, add a ribbon and hang on your tree or give as a gift. So many great ideas…what do you do with yours?

Final Thoughts

Remember that you aren’t parting with the memories of making these crafts with your children, just the crafts themselves. It doesn’t mean you don’t love your child or appreciate his/her hard work. Also remember that everything you keep, your child will some day be saddled with. Make sure it’s worth it!

Think about whether or not it’s fair to keep everything they’ve ever done and then pass it off to them when they are grow, with the knowledge that their mother has saved this for years and years…

What tips to you have for displaying, storing and parting with children’s artwork?

• This post links to Works for Me Wednesday

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Jenn is wife to one, mother of three and above all, a humble servant seeking to honor the Lord with her life. Displaying, Storing and Parting with Children’s Artwork is a post from Beautiful Calling.

Wondering how to display artwork in your child’s room without a bulletin board or traditional methods? Why not a clothes line? I saw Work of Art Clips at Land of Nod and thought I’d do my own spin on it.

Cheap and Customizable

A little string, some embellishments from the buck store or your local craft store and you can completely customize your own art display. Whether you want to display it on the wall, under a shelf etc. you can make it as big or small as you need for anywhere in the house!

Hiding it under a shelf:

Using a little string and a few decorated clothes pegs from the dollar store, we strung it across the bottom of her shelf {thus avoiding holes in the freshly painted walls!}. Chloe was delighted and immediately chose four pictures to display. I figured four was a good number because it fits the space. Also, she happens to be four years old. She can display whichever four she wants but in order to hang something new up, an old creation has to go. This also helps her decide which ones are important to her.

I was taking a picture and Chloe asked to get in on it. She’s pretty excited about her new clothesline and proud of her artwork!

A clothesline art display works for me! Next week I’ll be sharing how else we display, store and save artwork as well as some ideas for what to do with it all. You can’t keep and display it all!

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Jenn is wife to one, mother of three and above all, a humble servant seeking to honor the Lord with her life. DIY: Easy Art Display Clothesline is a post from Beautiful Calling.

When the post Salt Dough Ornaments by Happy Housewife  popped up in my reader, I knew this was something to add to our holiday to-do list. The littles enjoyed it and now we have lots of personalized gifts for friends, teachers and family. Her recipe was simple with ingredients we had on hand. Simply roll out, cut with cookie cutters, bake to try then paint and decorate! I was surprised at John’s (29 months) ability to put a little tiny jewel on a dot of glue. Talk about working on hand/eye coordination and fine motor skills!

Thanks to Homeschool Creations, we have tons of fantastic activities to go along with our new Usborne Book: The Gingerbread Man. We’ve read the book several times, the littles chiming in to sing the catchy little, “Run, Run as fast as you can…” I do wish the poor gingerbread man didn’t meet such a sad end but the littles thought it was funny. {Is that bad? LOL} Some of the printables were a little too advanced but we enjoyed doing many of them, printing off only the ones we wanted.

 Download your own Printables here

We also spent some time outside this week of course, despite my aversion to cold, and wind. I don’t mind snow, I just don’t like to be cold. Anyway, Chloe was delighted with making snow angels on the drive since they were so much more visible than making them on the lawn. I scraped together as much snow as I could to make a snow hill for John to climb. He seemed happy with it.

We went to walk down to the mail but were hardly on our way at all when John was crying about the snow in his eyes. To be fair, he’s only two and it was pretty blustery. We headed back to the house where I dug out our Baby Jogger bike trailer/stroller. With it’s giant wheels, I find it perfect for pushing around the neighborhood on snowy, icy sidewalks because sometimes there is too much snow/ice for the regular stroller but not enough for a sleigh. The other feature I like is that it can zip right up so they are cozy and protected from the wind and snow. Only mommy froze on our walk to the mail.

All in all, a busy week. This week will be filled with painting the children’s rooms, making cabbage rolls, doing some baking and above all, celebrating Christ’s Birth! What are you up to this week?

• This post links up to Tot School and Preschool Corner– linkups of ideas for you and your tot!
• Chloe is 48 months, John is 29 months
• Week #10

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Jenn is wife to one, mother of three and above all, a humble servant seeking to honor the Lord with her life. Tot School: Salt Dough Ornaments is a post from Beautiful Calling.

Painting

This week we did some painting. We painted some with brushes and some with our fingers to see (and feel!) the differences. They came up with some really great stuff.

Using a couple Clips Rimless Frames from Ikea, we framed their favorites and put them up in their rooms. John was very specific about his painting, “he a bad shark and he going home for noon nap” (it really looks like a shark!) while Chloe’s was a more abstract.

Worth the Read

During the week, we also spent time with a lot of read-alouds, including the book Two Little Trains by Margaret Wise Brown which we found at our local thrift store. (You can pick up the paperback version here pretty cheap with free shipping!)A wonderful story, first published in 1949, is a story of paralell journeys of two trains heading West. They have many similarities but upon closer inspection, one is the real thing and one is a toy having a journey through the house. The story is a poem really and flows rythmically. I’m not sure John (2) understood the difference in trains but Chloe (3 1/2) picked up on it right away. This is definitely worth the read!

We also did a trip to the library. Would you beleieve they choose Usborne “That’s not my…” books? We have quite a few in our home library from that collection but they found some we didn’t have and were drawn to them!That’s not my Pirate has captivated John this past week. I think we will pick it up for his stocking this Christmas. The “That’s not my… series are fantastic quality, interactive and vibrantly colored. They come in all sorts of subjects, sure to please any little one. My friend introduced me to them when Chloe was a baby. We’ve collected many since then. My friend, who’s children are a little older than Chloe, told me they are fantastic books for learning to read. How nice to have a board book that serves a purpose past the baby years!

Play Time

After reading Two Little Trains, Chloe and John “made” their own train on the stairs, collecting blankets and passengers. What fun they had. The following day, we lined the dining room chairs up in the hall for a different kind of train. {No picture, sorry, didn’t  think of it till after}. I loved that as a child. Mom would line the chairs up in the living room while washing the floor. I’m not sure she thought much of it but it seemed so exciting to me as a child and those fun (simple!) times are forever burned into my memory.

Of course they played with their building blocks (when don’t they?) and this week they seemed to make a lot of “tracks” and drive their pretend trains {cars} down them.

• This post links up to Tot School and Preschool Corner– linkups of ideas for you and your tot!
• Chloe is 47 months, John is 27 months
• Week #6

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Jenn is wife to one, mother of three and above all, a humble servant seeking to honor the Lord with her life. Tot School: Finger Painting & Trains is a post from Beautiful Calling.

This year daddy got a pretty special gift; Teva Sandals. I know that he enjoyed those however the real gifts were the coloring pages, artwork with poem and the special herb garden we planted for him. Daddy loves cooking so the herb garden will bring him great joy this season. We planted basil, rosemary, silver thyme, lemon thyme and Italian parsley. I think that covered the basics don’t you?

Chloe also made a super great bear craft for fisherman Papa. We all celebrated Father’s Day at my parents on Saturday with a lasagna dinner, swimming and a yummy DQ cake. I’m so blessed to live near my parents. We also wish Papa Gilles a Happy Father’s day!

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Did you have a good Father’s Day? Leave your comments and links!

• This post links to Magic Marker Monday

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Jenn is wife to one, mother of three and above all, a humble servant seeking to honor the Lord with her life. Happy Father’s Day is a post from Beautiful Calling.

GG arrived last week. We wanted to make her arrival special. We made some welcome banners, drew some special pictures and made a “vase of flowers” to greet her when we picked her up at the airport.

Egg Carton Tulips

Cut out the egg holders into 12 little cups. Then cut “V”’s out of each cup to make a tulip head. We used Elmer’s squeeze and brush (a birthday gift from her friend) and it worked out awesome. You could also use markers, crayons or anything really. Then we (mommy) poked a small hole in the bottom and put in a pipe cleaner stem. By making a little twisty bump in the end of the pipe cleaner then it will stay. I had a couple jam jars and used tissue paper wrapped in the bottom to hold them in place.

Chloe was really happy with how they turned out. We made a jar for gram as well as for GG. We have a few more people to make some for. What a perfect spring time craft!!

• Magic Marker Monday @ 5 Minutes for Special Needs

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Jenn is wife to one, mother of three and above all, a humble servant seeking to honor the Lord with her life. Craft Time: Egg Carton Tulips is a post from Beautiful Calling.