I’ve gone years collecting and agonizing over the artwork that my children have produced, the good and the bad pieces. It gets displayed in the kitchen for awhile and then put in a bin that collects dust. I just can’t bring myself to throw it away. I feel like I’m throwing away a piece of their childhood. I’ll never get it back, I’ll never remember it. Do you remember ever seeing a picture of your child in a pair of sandal’s that brings you right back to that great vacation or happy summer? I do! Sandals, clothing, artwork, all of it triggers certain pleasant memories of my children. I have pictures of my children throughout their lives wearing those clothes to refresh my memory but if I throw the artwork away I’m going to lose it. So the artwork began piling up and I had nothing to do with it. Clutter and I don’t get along so as you can see this problem really bothered me.
So I started taking pictures of each piece of artwork, printing the pictures and cutting them out to collage them in a scrapbook. Now, don’t get intimidated. I love scrapbooking but we also don’t get along either. I am creative but too particular about my page so I get bogged down in the process and lose hope when I am not producing pages quick enough, so years have turned into a decade of pictures not being scrapbooked ~ and I don’t have that kind of time anymore . However, scrapbooking my children’s artwork is certainly do-able in a short period of time. This is a project to do together with your children during hunting season.
This is how I do it:
My kids help layout each piece of their artwork on the floor. They like to reminisce over their accomplishments while I take pictures.
Large pieces of artwork get a picture all by itself. Small pieces of artwork are laid next to each other and taken together I print one copy of each picture I cutout each artwork image around the outline ~ kids can help I adhere pictures to scrapbook paper with quality scrapbook adhesive ~ kids can help. I use black paper for all of my pages for simplicity and consistency.
Here is how some of my pages look.
I usually make a collage. Special pieces get a page all by themselves.
What I have found is that there is a lot of artwork from Pre-School (daily) to third grade (weekly) so those years have a lot of pages but it does get sparse from there.
I also like to include a picture of a spelling test, awards, accolades, writing pieces as well their backpacks, lunchboxes and winter coat. Their entire year is together in one place and it is a good feeling when it is complete.
THEN, I can throw away artwork without the guilt! I do keep special pieces but not many. My kids just love to look through their artwork scrapbooks. It is really special for them and I conquered the clutter!
I also have to share a special little idea that works for me. As I already mentioned clutter and I don’t get along, so I found myself having to part with items that I wasn’t ready to part with because it evoked a special memory of the gift giver or the event or the special day. I was running out of room and had to make some tough decisions over my belongings as well as some of my children’s belongings. So I took the photograph approach again and applied it to our belongings. I take pictures of it before I donate it and my guilt is no more.
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