We have an in-progress decoupage project where we are cutting out and pasting the best of his art onto a bookshelf - partway there and it looks, well, delightful!

We make my daughter’s abstract paintings into cards. I cut shapes out of her paintings and she loves gluing the shapes onto a card. They actually turn out looking quite sharp! Then we give out the cards to our neighbors and relatives, or put them on gifts.

Recently, we took the winter snowflakes out of the window and replaced them with flowers. We stamped the flower shapes onto nice paper with potato halves (painted with watercolor), and then we cut them out and taped them to a string to drape across the window. I think it’s kind of chic! We’ll have it for the season, and then recycle it and make something new.

She always has at least one painting or collage displayed next to her play table. I keep the pictures that have special meaning, like her first success at drawing circles, or her first painting that had a story that went along with it, or just a painting that had a particularly riveting story attached to it. I was quite the child artist, myself, so I have gotten a sense of what is important, having weeded out my own child art collection several times.

Great ideas! I do a few things. I bought two of those magnetic strips from Ikea and hung them in Isaac’s room. They’re a quick way for him to hang his artwork and rotate it. He also has a 3-ring binder they created at his preschool to hold his work for the year. I’ve been adding more items to that binder as a nice memento. I also have a stash of pieces I’ve saved for scrapbooking.  Sometimes instead of using purchased sheets I’ll cut his bigger pieces of artwork into the right size and use them for the background sheet to mount pictures. Sadly though I haven’t scrapbooked in ages. We’ve also mailed a few drawings or paintings to grandparents as ‘thank-yous’ for Christmas and birthday gifts. It’s a nice thing for the grandparents and great-grandparents who don’t get to see the boys very often.

We hang it up for awhile. Some I keep, but since we have an easel up constantly, there is just a TON of simple scribble or paint art. After it’s been displayed awhile, I save it and use it as wrapping paper.

this is so great and timely for me. those are some wonderful suggestions. i think shutterfly also offers bound books for kids art now - a great thing to do with the photos of the art that would last…

We do a couple of things:

1. I have some Ikea metal strips in the hall for hanging artwork.

2. I have some DaVinci kids’ frames - basically a nice looking frame that has a front which opens. You can insert artwork without taking the frame off the wall. And if you have the correct size paper, you can store it in the frame, too.

3. I take photos of artwork which I then send to the grandparents or toss (especially if it involves food). Someday I’ll probably make a scrapbook/photobook, but for now the kids can look in iPhoto to see their “art gallery.”

We have a plastic picture frame in our front hallway that we use as a wipe off board.  My son is allowed to pick out his favorite pict to put there and he is allowed 2 on the fridge until his little siblings pull them down and throw them out.  Originally I bought the kikkerland clip mobile and thought I would hang in in the corner to showcase his artwork but we never got around to hanging out.  Instead we use our screen saver as his gallery.  I scan or take pictures of him with the art project and then use a slideshow as my screen saver.  He loves watching it and showing it off to friends.  My friend took this idea and put the gallery on a digital photo frame in her son’s room.

We do a couple of things to make sure we aren’t creating too much clutter.  I scan our favorites and save them on the computer in a folder, dated, so that I can email them over to far away family & friends.  Sometimes we need to pull from these pictures & drawings for school projects, and they are super easy to print.  For his all-time favorites, special notes, paintings, etc., we put them up on a large cork board on the wall in his reading corner, which is also near the desk in his bedroom.  Seeing these special things every day makes him happy & often sparks another day’s creativity!

Here is another good blog post with ideas on managing kids’ art.

Another idea for the day to day coloring pages that you are not going to save, use them as packaging material for presents and gifts going to family and friends - a lot more colorful and fun than tissue paper!