Too Much Art?

Question, dear blog readers – what do you do with all the art your kids bring home from school, Girl Guides and so on? This is the question I’m currently grappling with as the two little artists in my home are currently going through quite a prolific phase.

When they first started doing art – you know, those adorable crayon scribbles they produced when they were just wee – I would lovingly put the masterpiece on the fridge and then later place it in a plastic sleeve in a binder. By the time my budding artistes started going to a super crafty daycare, they started coming home with masterpieces DAILY. And now that they are in school and extracurricular activities like Sparks, we are starting to run out of room in our homegrown Musee des beaux arts.

So I’m left to ponder what to do with all the art. Some of it I have scanned, with every intention of one day reproducing in a photo book. A few pieces I have even framed in some elegant Ikea (i.e. cheepsies) frames. And for a while, I kept EVERY SINGLE PIECE of art they brought home in a box in the basement. But there is just much too much of it. So now, sometimes, I – gasp! – put some of their work in the recycle bin after a few days. Mind you, I bury it deep, deep, deep in the recycle bin because they’ve caught me once or twice and I’ve had to feign a humble ‘Gee, I don’t know how that got in there.’

So, yes, I feel guilty about returning some of their masterpieces back to mother Earth. But what else can I do? What do you do with all of your young artists’ masterpieces?

By Mary, GGC staff (with Artwork courtesy of Ella and Malcolm)

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8 responses to “Too Much Art?”

Caitlin A

May 16, 2011

Collect the art for a week or two then have the kids choose their favourite piece of art to put in the frame for the next week. Everything else could either be recycled, OR saved somewhere special to be used for wrapping paper or cut up for birthday cards. If the girls can’t choose just one to put in the frame try putting up a bulletin board in their room where they can have a few favourite pictures showcased!

GirlGuidesCanBlog

May 16, 2011

Excellent ideas Caitlin! Let’s the kids learn about resposiblity and also avoids having them grow up to think that every piece of paper needs to be saved (hoarded!).

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Stephanie Nash

May 16, 2011

I’m a horrible mother and throw it out. I display a favourite piece for each child (3 of them) for a week, and the rest gets put in recycling.
Like you, I used to save every piece or scan it with the intentions of doing the photo book; but I know I’ll never actually do that.
So as guilty as it makes me feel, I do send their art back to Mother Earth 🙁

Jess

May 16, 2011

I keep the most ‘defining’ bits of art in a scrapbook- things like, when so-and-so started to draw people that LOOK like people. That way I don’t have 300 mostly identical drawings. I also keep ones that just look cool. As for the ones I throw out, I just tell the kids I can’t keep everything, and they have a bit of say in what gets kept in the end. Almost everything gets it’s one month of fame on the fridge regardless 🙂

kerry

May 16, 2011

I do throw a lot into the recycling bin…and hide it so the kids can’t find it. There is only so much you can save. But I do keep a lot. I have large manilla envelopes and when the kids bring something home that I want to save, or a little more advanced from the last piece I saved…I put it in the envelope. The envelopes are large enough that I can put several months of school/art work in. I then label the months and year that’s in the envelope and seal with painters tape and store in a file box. This way someday when I am old and don’t have anything else to do I can go through and sort the work for them to store if they want. 🙂

Tracey

May 16, 2011

Keep all the years art in a tote and after a year have your budding artist choose the very best and keep them. I hung and still have my 16 and 18 year olds art work in our laundry room as our decorating touch.

Callista

May 16, 2011

I display some, then take it down to put up new ones. The old ones, I recycle most of them. The cool ones I photograph and keep in a file on the computer. The only ones I actually keep is the first time they write their name or first time they draw a person and such.

My two girls do art SO much that most of it doesn’t even get displayed on the doors/fridge because I’d have to alternate them so much, we’d never see any of them. They produce over 5 pieces of art a day, each. Sometimes way more.

GirlGuidesCanBlog

May 16, 2011

We love the comments that keep coming in! Personally, I’ve kept a lot of what my daughter does in art class. I try to recycle what I can – (un)fortunately, she has moved away from the flat 1-dimensional artwork, to diving through the recycling bin to find pieces for her 3 dimensional artwork. Now try to figure out how to store that!

Caitlin A

May 16, 2011

Collect the art for a week or two then have the kids choose their favourite piece of art to put in the frame for the next week. Everything else could either be recycled, OR saved somewhere special to be used for wrapping paper or cut up for birthday cards. If the girls can’t choose just one to put in the frame try putting up a bulletin board in their room where they can have a few favourite pictures showcased!

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1. GirlGuidesCanBlog
  
  May 16, 2011
  
  Excellent ideas Caitlin! Let’s the kids learn about resposiblity and also avoids having them grow up to think that every piece of paper needs to be saved (hoarded!).
  
  Loading…
  
Stephanie Nash

May 16, 2011

I’m a horrible mother and throw it out. I display a favourite piece for each child (3 of them) for a week, and the rest gets put in recycling.
Like you, I used to save every piece or scan it with the intentions of doing the photo book; but I know I’ll never actually do that.
So as guilty as it makes me feel, I do send their art back to Mother Earth 🙁

Loading…

Jess

May 16, 2011

I keep the most ‘defining’ bits of art in a scrapbook- things like, when so-and-so started to draw people that LOOK like people. That way I don’t have 300 mostly identical drawings. I also keep ones that just look cool. As for the ones I throw out, I just tell the kids I can’t keep everything, and they have a bit of say in what gets kept in the end. Almost everything gets it’s one month of fame on the fridge regardless 🙂

Loading…

kerry

May 16, 2011

I do throw a lot into the recycling bin…and hide it so the kids can’t find it. There is only so much you can save. But I do keep a lot. I have large manilla envelopes and when the kids bring something home that I want to save, or a little more advanced from the last piece I saved…I put it in the envelope. The envelopes are large enough that I can put several months of school/art work in. I then label the months and year that’s in the envelope and seal with painters tape and store in a file box. This way someday when I am old and don’t have anything else to do I can go through and sort the work for them to store if they want. 🙂

Loading…

Tracey

May 16, 2011

Keep all the years art in a tote and after a year have your budding artist choose the very best and keep them. I hung and still have my 16 and 18 year olds art work in our laundry room as our decorating touch.

Loading…

Callista

May 16, 2011

I display some, then take it down to put up new ones. The old ones, I recycle most of them. The cool ones I photograph and keep in a file on the computer. The only ones I actually keep is the first time they write their name or first time they draw a person and such.

My two girls do art SO much that most of it doesn’t even get displayed on the doors/fridge because I’d have to alternate them so much, we’d never see any of them. They produce over 5 pieces of art a day, each. Sometimes way more.

Loading…

GirlGuidesCanBlog

May 16, 2011

We love the comments that keep coming in! Personally, I’ve kept a lot of what my daughter does in art class. I try to recycle what I can – (un)fortunately, she has moved away from the flat 1-dimensional artwork, to diving through the recycling bin to find pieces for her 3 dimensional artwork. Now try to figure out how to store that!

Loading…