The Art Of Storing Art

So it is on its way whether we like it or not, the end of the school year. This means many things in our household including Christmas Pageant, Ballet Concert, Dress Rehearsals and the inundation of Artwork.

My daughter is in Kindergarten this year and their teacher has done a beautiful job of decorating their classroom with all their lovely artwork, it is plastered from wall to ceiling...literally. So I know that when this starts to filter home there is going to be alot of it. The artwork is beautiful and I am very excited to get it all home and store it. I guess you are wondering how I do that?

Before I start let me say that this is just what works for me, there are a myriad of ways in which to do it. I like to sort my daughters artwork by age. So I have albums for each age, and in some years multiple albums. My daughter is a little artist so I have lots. I am lucky that my daughter is a December baby so I can really do it by calendar year which is great.

I like to use the A3 albums, I usually buy them from Officeworks, but I have found them in my local Hot Dollar store for an even better price. I then stick the artwork in the album and label it. The label usually just states what the artwork is. Because I have to print off labels for every piece I tend to do it once a term as it is just easier. Until I am ready to do this I file all the pending art away in a folder.

This is the type of album I use

I label the front with my daughters age at the time and the number art album it is (for years that have multiple albums)

Here is some examples of inside

 

This is my folder which I keep artwork in until I am ready to sit down and collate the album

* Please excuse the quality of the pics, my mum has our digital camera with her on her trip to Thailand so my phone was the best i could do

Some people might find something better to work for them, but this works for me. I personally like that I can keep the artwork together and that we can view it whenever we like. Some people do not like the idea of having the artwork stuck in a book and may use plastic sleeves to slip the artwork in instead, which is fine. This way is what I like. To me it's a keepsake for the future and I am sure my daughter will love it one day.

But the inevitable ends up happening. They scribble on a piece of paper and its just not quite worth keeping if that doesn't make me sound like a bad parent. I am all for keeping my daughters artwork but some pieces are just not album quality. I tend to put all the artwork we are not albuming in a pile and I then put this in a cupboard. After a few weeks if it is not asked about I will gift onto the grandparents and some pieces well.... they are just "recycled". I am all for keeping the important stuff but you just cant keep everything.

So this is what works for us. I am a real album person, I have scrapbook albums, photo book albums and artwork albums so this system works great.

Take this as some inspiration and find something that works for you and your kids. My advice, which coincidently is the same as my advice for someone wanting to scrapbook, start now!. It so hard to catch up so it is so much easier to start when they are young. As playing catch up is hard.

So that's my system, hope it helps someone.