Last updated on February 9, 2025.
Is your child a budding artist? Does he or she create more pieces than you can keep up with? Maybe you have lots of school work or multiple science fair projects that you want to keep the memory of.
My son, who is now almost 6, is a budding little artist and makes A LOT of art! He has been creating art since he was under 2, and I am guilty of saving almost all of it. I did not realize how quickly it would all accumulate. And if you’re a mom, you’ll understand when I say I think that all my child’s art is beautiful!
Do you have tons of art that you think is lovely and you can’t let go of? That’s perfectly normal, so don’t feel bad about it. But what do you do with all of that art – especially if you’re trying to reduce clutter or even striving for minimalism?
If you search Google or Pinterest you will find many great ideas! I was inspired by other bloggers and people searching for a solution to the same problem. Marie Kondo would say I should keep only the pieces that spark joy. I was also inspired by The Minimalists, who recommend scanning your photos and documents and letting go of the hard copies – so why not child art as well? I opted to scan and photograph the majority of my son’s art and make a Shutterfly photo book – and it came out beautiful!
So how did I do it? I managed to do it while working full-time, after bedtime. I’ll explain my process next.
“Nothing a child ever does is trash. It is practice.” -Naomi Shihab Nye, Cast Away: Poems For Our Time
Organizing
First I had to organize everything. The art pieces accumulated quickly over just a few years and I had stored it all in three bins. Over the years, I had managed to write information on the backs of most art pieces, such as the date and what my son said about the piece or titled it. I did this because a colleague advised me to document those things. That was great advice!
So for several nights, I sorted the art by year. Next, I sorted the stacks into the months of each year, in order. As I sorted, I selected my very favorite pieces – the ones that spark joy! – and set those aside, as I plan to put those together in a scrapbook later this summer.
Digitizing
Once I had everything organized, I started photographing and scanning the art, working on just a month’s worth at a time. I have an Epson scanner and I scanned all of the art pieces I could. Some of the art was larger than the scanning bed, and other pieces were three-dimensional. For those, I set up a basic background using a folded black poster board on a table next to a lamp with two light sources. I simply set up each piece in the best light I could and photographed those pieces using my iPhone on the HDR setting.
Making the Photo Book
I put the images into folders divided by year and as I went through each month, I uploaded them into Shutterfly and designed my photo book. You can use any online photo service, I just already had an account with Shutterfly. I do recommend a larger-sized photo book. I chose 12 x 12 which is the same size as a standard scrapbook, and I’m super happy with it.
Most online photo services offer a large variety of backgrounds, colorful embellishments, fonts, layouts, and many other design options included in the price. This book ended up being about 90 pages. I also opted for the hardcover version with the lay-flat option, both of which cost slightly more. After applying a few coupon codes at the end, this book still cost quite a bit, almost $75. Without the coupons, the retail price would have been over $200. Always wait for Shutterfly’s “Unlimited Photo Book Pages” sale or coupon to place your order. You can design the book ahead of time, place in your cart, and wait for the sale to trigger the order.
I will cherish this book forever!
What will I do with the art pieces now?
Since I’m going to let them go, I’m of course going to separate all of the recyclables (mostly paper) and recycle them. Some of the non-recyclables (beads, buttons, pipe cleaners) can be reused and put back into our art supply cart. I’ve now made my son’s art organized and accessible. The art book is so easy to pull out and look through, whereas the art in storage bins was not.
Strict minimalism would probably suggest just tossing everything, keeping the memory of the art, and saving the money. But if you’re like me and feel that your child’s art is just too dear to part with, you might find this a good compromise.
I am currently working on a second book because this book only went up through 2017. I’m enjoying putting it together.
UPDATE February 11, 2024: Since writing this, I’ve put together several photo books of my son’s art (he’s made a lot of art over the years). I physically kept only the most special pieces. I hung some on the walls and the rest I put into a scrapbook. Everything else I scanned or photographed and put in the photo books. For me, this is still the best way to preserve my child’s art. I enjoy getting the books out and paging through them.
UPDATE February 9, 2025: Alternatively, here is a more economical way to put something together: Buy a blank scrapbook when it goes on sale at your local craft store. They’ll often either come with blank white scrapbook paper, or you can buy packs of scrapbook paper at a discount. You’ll still scan the art pieces, and when Shutterfly or Google runs a sale on prints (such as “100 free prints” or “101 prints for 4 cents per print”), buy prints and adhere them onto the scrapbook pages! This creates a scrapbook of your child’s art that is less expensive than the photo books.
I hope this post inspires you to do something fun and creative with your child’s art! Please subscribe and leave me a comment below about your project!