Last month I discussed my process for dealing with the mountains of kids artwork that accumulate in our house.  (Read the post for Kids Artwork – Part 1)  I ended that post with a promise to reveal what I did with all the artwork that was scanned and saved in files on the computer.  So here it is – my way of compiling all (or at least some) of that art into one place.

I don’t like to let stuff (especially photos and artwork) to just sit on the computer and get lost amidst the thousands of files.  I like to make sure the photos and artwork are remembered in the context that they were taken – which is really the goal of memory keeping isn’t it?  So some of the kids artwork has made its way into our yearly family albums that are printed as photo books.

So far I have incorporated the artwork into three years of family albums and each year I have organized it slightly different.  The first year, 2012, I sprinkled pages dedicated to artwork throughout the family album:

I also like to add photos of the kids making the art as well as the finished product.  We still have these little, painted bunnies and the memories captured in these pictures below are priceless!

In 2013, I decided to split the family album into two sections: one for photos and the other for artwork.  The section of art was at the end of the book and was separated with a title page.

Both of the kids’ artwork is displayed on all pages and, I think, it is easy enough to tell what was done by a 4/5 year old and what are the scribblings of a 2/3 year old!

Once again, I added the odd photo of the kids actually making their creations.

It was also important to remember the stories behind the art or the silly explanations the kids give about why they drew the picture.

For the 2014 family photo book I wanted to keep things simple – there would be no pages or sections devoted to kids artwork.  I still wanted to include a few masterpieces, so I chose only one or two of my favourite each month to showcase.

Of the three ways I organized the kids’ artwork in the family albums, this last way was my favourite.  Not only because it was a lot less work, but because the book flowed so much better.  The artwork added to the pictures and stories rather than interrupting or being an afterthought.  This worked so well, that I will do it again for our 2015 family photo book – which I have yet to begin and is a story for another post!

I am also planning on creating separate photo books for each child that contains all of their early years artwork.  I haven’t quite figured out how to go about that yet, so when I do,  I will share those ideas too!

Leah