When my oldest son Conner was in preschool, he came home with tons and tons of beautiful “creations” that we used to hang up all over his room.
Tip — Best wall decor around: hang up your kids’ artwork. It costs you nothing extra and they love it. When Conner was three we lived in an apartment and had very few material possessions and even less disposable income. I covered his room with his colorful preschool paintings. People used to comment on how great his room looked. And it did! Very bright and comfy.
Anyhoo — those “creations” eventually got stored away. Ten years and four moves later, I got an idea (from Oprah, yes I must admit) (but it was Peter Walsh on Oprah. Remember “Clean Sweep”?) of what to finally do with this container full of artwork that hadn’t even been opened for at least two moves.
(I know this because of the various movers’ stickers on the tape that sealed it shut. You military readers will know what I’m talking about.)
Conner and I pulled the container out from under his bed, and lo and behold! Those papers were pretty crisp. Our cat sure loved the crinkly crinkliness of them and immediately made himself comfortable.
Really, not a good idea to keep artwork — especially painted artwork — unless you have a plan to preserve it in storage. It could be that the three years we spent living in the desert especially dried them out, but if I had waited much longer to do this project it would have been a struggle to lay them out properly to get the pictures I needed for the photo book…
Which I made online using digital photos that I took of each piece of art work. I also used a photo of Conner creating one of his “masterpieces” to put on the cover.
Book Cover
I used Snapfish, but I’m sure Shutterfly would work just as well. The main difference I have noticed between the two is that Snapfish photo books enable you to print a caption on the binder, whereas Shutterfly’s do not.
Book Binder
I was also able to choose a photo for the back cover — you may notice it’s the finished version of the one he was painting in the front cover photo!
Back Cover
It may be a little small here for you to see, but I love the connection between the progression of the front and back photos.
Okay, so maybe it doesn’t take much to get me excited.
You have a plethora of choices online for designing the layout of the photos. But for artwork, I recommend three at the most on one page. Here are some samples from inside Conner’s book:
Inside Pages
This 20-page book costs about $20 plus shipping and handling. Keep an eye out for specials, such as free shipping or half off photo books, which Snapfish and Shutterfly will both advertise if you register on their sites. Prices for books will vary depending on the size (this book is an 8×11), how many pages you include, and what type of cover you choose: suede; leather; etc.
The best part? Now we have a book that we can keep out to share and page through and enjoy. Conner especially loves that he has his very own art book that he will be able to treasure forever.
We did recycle all the paper. But now I am hearing that painted paper is not recyclable? Anyone know anything about that?
For more decluttering projects, visit Happy Housewife and her Itch to Pitch series! She’s even giving away prizes. I won last week’s! W00t for me!
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
great idea!
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what an awesome idea, so glad I stopped by!!!!!!
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Um, that is such an absolutely fabulous idea I want to shut down my computer and immediately start taking pictures of my kids' artwork! Great job!
Toni
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I did just this. It was a wonderful idea and then I didnt have to feel bad about getting rid of all the clutter..
I love your blog. I am now a follower.
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That's a great idea! Even if you don't follow through with the book-making part, I think just taking pictures of excess stuff you're hanging onto for purely sentimental reasons could help tip the scale in favor of purging. You can still look at the pictures and enjoy the memories created by the item. I will have to keep this in mind as I work on my decluttering projects.
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What a cute idea!! I still managed to hold onto some cute art work for both of my kiddos. I am going on snapfish right now.
Kim
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Great idea. You can make Kids' Art books at Inkubook as well: http://inkubook.com/PhotoBook/KidsArtGallery.aspx
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Julie,
Don't thank me, thank Peter Walsh. *wink*
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Wow that is a great idea! I have recently just discovered those online photo books (made some for Christmas gifts) and never thought to do this. So timely as I am in the process now of going through the kids' homeschool work from last year and just hate tossing any of it but dread storing it as well. And yes, I know what you mean with the military moves lol. Thanks for the idea! Great job.
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