Memorializing Your Kids' Art Projects

Kids are a creative bunch. Parents love receiving kids' artwork, whether it’s finger painting, drawings or even a sculpture. When you really look at a piece of art from a child, you can see reflections of their personality. Sometimes a drawing or painting will represent feelings children can’t express with words.

Hanging onto these mementos are important for parents, but sometimes keeping track of it all can be difficult, especially if they have more than one little Picasso living in the house.

Putting your children’s art into electronic form is a good way to hold onto their work without taking up a ton of room in the house. Once the refrigerator is out of space, art usually gets stashed away and forgotten. Here’s how to keep those masterpieces in circulation.

Scanning Artwork

Many people don’t know it, but a scanner is one of the most useful pieces of technology you can own. Once a document is scanned, saved and backed up, you don’t have to worry about paper copies.

Scanning your child’s artwork is a great way to save it forever. Upload the image or images to an album along the artist's timeline and then share with friends and family. Once the image is scanned, you can file the original away someplace safe, like a plastic bin along with other keepsakes, such as report cards, medals, certificates etc.

Taking Photos

Your child’s 3-D pieces aren’t going to be able to be scanned, but taking a photo of them will allow you to capture the memory. Take a few photos of the piece, maybe with your child posing with it. Then upload the picture into an album and add some accompanying text: Jennifer made this vase in art class. It looks great in the kitchen! Or record Jennifer explaining the inspiration behind the artwork and upload that audio clip.

If you have many pieces of art hanging on the fridge or in your work cubicle, you can also capture those on film as a group and upload them to an album.

Kids are proud of the art they produce and they love it when their parents delight in their work. In addition to capturing their work in electronic form, you may want to also consider framing and hanging especially well-done paintings or drawings. This token of recognition will instill a sense of pride and accomplishment in your little one, and also let him know that he or she is contributing to the aesthetics of your family’s home.