When your child is born you oh and ah over every little bit of them. As they grow, you encourage their accomplishments and applaud all the milestones that they pass. From rolling over to those first faltering footsteps, you cannot wait for every new deed that comes along. When they discover fine motor skills, you are the first one there with a crayon to draw with. That first piece of art is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen! But then there is a second, third, and fourth, and you quickly run out of room to display and store the artwork that is precious, but also oh so prevalent.
What do you do then? How do you display your children’s artwork in such a way that you honour it and give it meaning for your child and yourself? The fridge is far too easy to fill in an afternoon of creativity, so where do you go from there? How do you manage it all?
How about;
- Go beyond the fridge door and create an art gallery of your own at home. Dedicate one wall in the living room, playroom or hallway to your child’s art. Make it fun! Style it uniformly or irregular. Create a rainbow or a monotone! Try using themes to give a cohesive look to your “Art Gallery”, i.e. Spring pictures, pencil sketches, shades of blue paintings, or whatever suits your mood. Get as creative with your display as your child does with their art!
- We all know that art doesn’t come in uniform sizes, so when your child brings home art bigger than your kitchen table, what do you do? An egg carton caterpillar might fit on a dresser, but large art can sometimes be cumbersome. Solution? Take pictures of large pieces & add them to a photo album to enjoy. The pictures will last a lifetime and only take up as much space as your much smaller album will.
- You can’t keep it all. I am going to give you permission now. It’s okay to let some of the artwork go. As new pieces are created, remove old artwork from your display location, whether it be a bulletin board, the fridge, your child’s bedroom walls or door. Set a rule for the number of pieces of art on display at any given time and stick to your limit. Either replace oldest pieces or let your child choose which ones to remove, but make a point of rotating your displays. This makes for better enjoyment of a fixed number of pictures without the overload factor.
- If you don’t want to take over an entire wall with your children’s artwork, why not go the route of a display art cabinet? The L’il DaVinci Easy Store and Display Art Cabinet lets you hold up to 50 pieces of art without the need to take down a frame to change artwork. You simply open a hinged door and place your new piece of art onto the spring loaded frame, then simply close the door to admire new framed art! The cabinets come in 8 ½ x 11 or 12 x 8 sizes and are available from Budding Artists.
- Not all artwork is created equal. Turn special pieces into keepsakes and giftware. Budding Artists offers a wide variety of items that can be hand-designed by your own budding artist. Choose from coffee mugs, t-shirts, garden stakes, coasters and more. Perfect for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas or birthdays! Browse through our Marketplace today to find the perfect piece to highlight your child’s art.
