You might smile now at your kid’s arts and crafts but you’ll grimace when it’s cleaning time. The thing is, do you have the heart to clean it up? We don’t think so. As parents, guardians, or teachers, it’s hard looking at their eyes when they ask where you hide their stuff.
When your child is looking for their masterpieces, what do you say? What will you do with it in the first place? So, here are ideas on how to keep
Display their artworks
Do you want to make your kid proud and happy? Display their fun crafts and it will tug their hearts to see mommy and daddy appreciating it. And don’t you know by hanging those drawings on the wall, it can inspire them to make more art?
• Clip in strings. Hanging artworks in strings and clipping them can give a chic look in any kid’s room. Pick a nice wall in the house and set up your display area. Secure the strings to avoid any slip-ups. Additionally, You can rotate your child’s artworks whenever he or she has a new masterpiece.
For 3D or sculpted works, hanging these crafts would make them look ethereal. Did your munchkin create an animal-sculpted clay? Let it hang on one part of the room or on your child’s bedside table.
• Place in stylish frames. No need to buy expensive and sleek-looking frames for your kid’s art. You can use woo, Washi tapes, cardboard, and more. Hang the artwork on a wall or place it on a side table for decorations.
• As refrigerator magnets. Do you want to place your children’s sketches for refrigerator magnets? Laminate the artworks and attach a magnet at the back of the piece. For sculpted projects, attach the magnet on the back. You can place your family reminders with the picture pinning the notes. How about encouraging your child artist to draw things about chores or reminders at work?
• Clipboard art. You can attach or hang your kid’s arts and crafts on walls or tabletops with a clipboard.
• Have it canvassed-printed and hang in your kid’s room. Let their artworks be a wall decor! This can be expensive, so choose one that best suits his or her room. You can also give the artwork to local galleries or kid art exhibit groups within your area. Don’t have one? Then, make one. You can set up your own backyard art display with all your mommy friends.
• Wallpaper. You can make these crafts for kids into a wallpaper for a certain time. Tape the drawings or photos of the artwork into a wall or barrage in your house. Do it on special occasions like when the family is celebrating a reunion or birthday party.
Here’s an idea: place a blank white wallpaper instead and let your kid draw all day long.
Bonus:
• Digital display. Archive your kid’s arts and crafts on digital platforms like Pinterest or Instagram. You might discover a community of mothers trying to do the same thing as well! You can meet up with them or discuss what else you can do with your children’s art.
Too simple or common for you? More kids art display tips here:
• Piece them together to make a curtain entrance
• Hang with a wind chime
• Make little label stickers and place them on cars, notebooks, and more
• Glue on cabinets openers
• Placed on a hanging ledge
• Pin it on corkboards
• On little blackboards at home if you have one
• With decal stickers like Washi tapes on the wall
Store your child’s arts and crafts
Instead of hiding your child’s fun crafts in an old shoe box, you can keep your kid’s artwork in a photo album. For clay, pottery, or string crafts, try taking a snap and print the photos for storage. You can also have your kid’s clay and pottery works turned into refrigerator magnets. You can make stringed crafts into children‘s accessories or key chains.
• Place in photo albums. Can’t keep them forever? Place in photo albums. Through the years, your child can see all the works he or she has done. Your artist kid might even compare past drawings to current ones too.
• Make photo collage. Why not stuff them all together to make one piece of art? You can either make a wallpaper to hang on walls. You can also make a video presentation of your child’s artwork.
• Keep in file folders. Like an artist’s portfolio, you can file your kid’s works in folders. Place a note with details like date, medium used, or even the title or theme of the artwork. That way you can organize and recall all the moments your kid has done with it.
• On kid’s table under the glass. If your child’s table has a glass frame, place the drawings beneath it. It can act as the table’s decor as you know it. And trust me, my mom’s paper dolls are still here with mine!
• Put in memory boxes. Store all drawings in a special box for safekeeping. Your child can reminisce all the artworks he or she has done when growing up. This will bode well if you have enough space in your house. You can leave them there until your kid doesn’t want them anymore.
• Make a book. Collate all art projects and photos and make a book with it. You can place it on your coffee table in the living room where guests can scan the pages of your kid’s arts and crafts. You might think making a book is expensive but you can try doing it on your own. From printing to bookbinding, you can check out videos on YouTube how to make one.
Bonus storage tips:
• Digital Archiving. Technology made it possible for parents to store their child’s arts and crafts online. Even if you don’t want to share it with fellow netizens, the web has cloud-based storage apps you can place them in. You can also store them on hard drives.
Too simple or common for you? More storage tips here:
• Place artworks in a piano chair. Yes – IN A PIANO CHAIR. Do you know what a piano chair is? It’s a bench where you can open the upholstery to store piano books. And guess what? You can place your child’s artworks there.
• And speaking of a piano chair, there are also storage chairs or creative ottomans if you want to buy one. Lift the seat to store your kid’s art in the hollow space.
• Another storage spaces are coffee and side tables where you also get to lift the surface up.
• Under the bed foam. The frames that hold your bed foam together is also a nice place to keep your child’s artworks.
• Wallets? Take photos of your kid’s artworks, resize them to smaller pieces, and store them in your purse.
• Have a pegboard for other stuff your kid is making.
Give during celebrations
Is it Father’s day on the corner? Or is it Mommy’s birthday on the weekend? You can make your child’s art into greetings cards for any loved member of the family. Grandparents love to collect greeting cards form their grandchildren!
• Make greetings cards or tags for special people. Is it Pappy’s birthday? Or your neighbor’s kid’s bar mitzvah? You can always make a sweet greeting card for the people you love.
• Edit and print it to make gift wrappers or bags. Know your holidays! You can have your kid’s arts and crafts printed as a gift wrap and use it during celebrations. Is someone’s birthday in summer? If you still have that drawing of your child’s day at the beach, you can use it to wrap a summer birthday celebration. How about Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve?
• Gifts for loved ones. You can use your child’s 3D artworks as gifts for loved ones. You can turn the artwork into a penholder, placemats, accessory, or wallet. Grandparents, aunts, or uncles would love to see the crafts made by your child.
• Party décor. Wanna have a free party hat? Your kid can make one. You can turn a simple paper or cardboard into a hat or pom-poms for your backyard party. How about a paper placemat, care of your child? Or buntings hanged by the clothesline?
• Giveaways. You can give the sculptures as a memorabilia or token of appreciation to guests who came to the party. You can make even a little booklet of your child’s illustration into an awesome giveaway.
• Use as the party theme. Pick an artwork for your child’s party theme. How about that ballerina-turned-galactic-robot? Or that one time your kid made a sparkly mouse-bird? Weird, isn’t it? But that’s where the fun starts!
Bonus celebration tips:
• Games and galore. Want your kid’s arts and crafts to be the center of your party games? Go on a treasure hunt where your child’s sculptures or illustrations are the clues to the quest. How about illustrating a donkey along with making a pin for its tail? And don’t forget to build the piñata with art, candies, and crafts inside!
Too simple or common for you? More celebration tips here:
• Cake or dessert toppers
• Costume for guests
• Invitations and signage
• Art fan when the fun gets too hot under the sun
• Auction for an event cause
• Theme and art for child-friendly campaigns in your area
• Create simple music instruments or noise-makers for the holidays
• Let your kid design your butter cookies!
Turn them into products to sell
There are hundreds of homemakers that turn their kid’s arts and crafts into unique creations. They often sell it on Etsy and have a production partner do it for them. It’ll also inspire your kids to start their own business! If you don’t want to sell it, you may consider it as a gift to other people. Here are sample merchandise products to try out.
Note: Talk to your kids before selling their artworks! It would be cool to have a child-parent business running. Not only your child artist will feel happy about it, but you’re respecting their boundaries, too.
• Pillowcases. You can turn your kid’s drawing into a pillowcase for bed rest or lounging. There are plenty of novelty shops around the city that does this kind of customization. You can also upload it on the web and have someone deliver drop-ship it to customers.
• Tote bags. Here’s an idea: other than printing your kid’s art on the tote bag, why not let him or her paint on it instead? Get some textile dyes or paint and let your kid be. Again, you can have your own personal manufacturer and have it sent to your customer’s address.
• Notebooks. Customized notebooks are a fun way for your children to express their creativity. They can also get to write a personalized message to the one who buys it.
• Wall art. Print your kid’s art into a canvas, wood, or metal for people’s home decor galore. Your child will see many people appreciating the artworks he or she has been doing at home.
• Mugs, fridge magnets, towels. These awesome customization can be handy at any home. So, the need for these products is evergreen. You’ll have loads of competition online, so hatch a plan to set yourselves different from the rest!
• Stuffed toys. Have a knack for sewing? You can make stuffed toys out of your kid’s arts and crafts!
Bonus product ideas:
• Clothing and apparels. Talk about shirts, dresses, and socks for your little ones! Scour the web for companies nearby to send your child’s illustrations. They usually create apparels like scarves, leggings, shorts, dresses, and more.
Too simple or common for you? More product ideas here:
• Custom shoes or boots are often priced to make at $30 to $50
• Accessories are often what kids love to do. They can make beads or string crafts to be worn
• Novelty items like customized pen holders or wall quotes can be done with your child’s art
• Recyclable things to sell like plastic coin purse or soda can bracelets
• Planners, journals, and calendars work too
• Wood art and garden décor
• Linens – I mean, why not?
Recycle arts and crafts for home use
Think you don’t know what to do with your child’s art projects? You can recycle it for home use! Who knew your kid’s arts and crafts can be something useful like a utensil holder, memo pin, hand fan, and more. Take our recycle tips to clear the clutter.
• Turn cylinders to pen or utensil holders. If your child has been making art with cardboard rolls, you can reuse them as storage for home or art supplies.
• Paper crafts in the dining room or kitchen. As mentioned earlier, you can save your kid’s drawings by paper lamination. You can use these laminated works as coasters, mats, and more.
• Big plastic bottles for terrarium projects. Your kid’s liter or two of soda bottles in the house can be a terrarium project in her room. That way, you can teach your child about the environment and how to take care of plants.
• A shoe box or milk carton. You can either store supplies here, or turn it into a piggy bank for your kid. Moms even turned their kid’s artsy boxes into a paper towel container. Also, you can use it to cover your gifts with it too, during celebrations.
• Cork crafts! Has your kid created loads of cork crafts? You can reuse wine corks as a vase for succulents and other plants.
• Make recycled paper. Too many drawings your kid doesn’t like keeping with? The two of you can recycle papers and turn it into a new one. You can use the recycled paper for greeting cards or photography printing.
Bonus recycling tips:
• Furnishing chips for a mosaic piece. You can break an artwork into chips and make a cool mosaic for frames, tabletops, and home decor.
Too simple or common for you? More recyclable ideas here:
• Make excess glue like “snow” for Christmas decors
• Melted crayon recycled as candles, decorative lampshades, Christmas balls, and more
• For cloth arts, you can use the textile to make a mop, rug, or a wiping cloth
• Old papers or newspaper arts into weaving baskets
• T-shirt arts as paracord bracelets, bags, pouches, and more
• Finished art cereal boxes as file holders for home and office use
• Stone art for an outdoor mat. I can turn little stones into a lid opener by gluing the rock on top of the lid and twisting it
Teach your kids about disposal?
Activities for kids may promote their physical and mental well-being. They get to improve their concentration and motor skills. Many parents wanted to enhance their creativity through kids’ arts and crafts. But, if their art projects keep on piling up, talk with your child.
You can tell your son or daughter to keep only the artworks she loved and the remaining to be given away. The reaction of kids differs from one to another, so, you might tread on this topic slowly to them. It’s heartbreaking. But, it gives your kid an insight about restriction and not to waste paper, wax, or any plastic art material he or she has.
One easy way to curb this problem is by busying your child with easy to clean arts and crafts. At least that way, you can worry less about the mess!
The bottom line is to talk and consider when it is enough or how ready your kid is to “leave” their artworks.
So, how do you deal with your kid’s arts and crafts at home?
