Is your child a budding artist? Does he or she create more pieces than you can keep up with?
My son, who is now almost 6, is un petit artiste 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 really 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.
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 the art pieces, such as the date (or approximate date) and what my son said about the piece or titled it. I did this because when my son was just 2 or so, a colleague told me that she wrote on the backs of art pieces from her kids and how glad she did that now that she was a grandmother. That was great advice!
So for several nights this past March, 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 used 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 $200.
However, it probably would have cost me almost as much to buy a scrapbook, scrapbook paper, stickers, and other embellishments to go along with it. And for me, it was just as fun as scrapbooking and completely worth the money. 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 out all of the recyclables (mostly paper) and recycle it. Some of the non-recyclables (beads, buttons, pipe cleaners) can be put back into our art supplies. This feels wrong until I think about it. 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 to just toss everything, keep the memory of the art, and save 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, even though it’s round 2!
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!