What to Do With All That Artwork?!! 6 Tips To Repurpose All those “One of a Kind” Masterpieces

So, it’s the end of the school year, and chances are, if you have kids in school, or even in preschool, reams and reams of papers, artwork, worksheets, old tests, and everything else are probably ending up on your counter.

I’m the same way. It’s just so hard to throw away anything on which my little snowflake put crayon to paper, but frankly, what am I going to do with 10 sheets of paper with the same.exact.brown.squiggle?

So here are a few tips to help you deal with  the paper onslaught at the end of the year:

• Use larger pieces of artwork as giftwrap. This is especially great for gifts for the grandparents. Plus, then once it’s unwrapped, they have to figure out what to do with it. You can use twine or ribbon to wrap so little Picasso’s masterpiece is not marred by something so mundane as tape.
• Use smaller works of art to make a colorful card. Just fold it in half, and have your child write a personalized message. This would be great for birthday thank-yous!
• Have your child help you choose the top 3 pieces, then frame them nicely for display. Slowly, when your child is asleep, the rest of the papers head to the recycle bin.
• Take a photo of every piece of artwork, and make a photo collage.
• Make a custom photobook using a service like Blurb with photographs or scans of each piece of art. That way they are memorialized forever but take up very little space. (Use code 15OFFBLURB to get 15% off all Blurb Photo Books)
• Make a clothespin collage: Hang a line of twine in your child’s room, and clip the favorite pieces of art to it with clothespins. This strategy gets the art out of the thousand piles that crop up, while letting the child be proud of his or her display.