How to Store Kids' Artwork

When Trevor was a toddler, he was quite a prolific artist, as many toddlers are. We had an art wall in our family room to display his creations. Trevor decided what we hung and where. The system worked well for many years until we needed that wall for his desk and homework spot. For awhile, we hung art randomly around the house, but we were inconsistent about it and most of his projects stayed tucked away instead of on display. The seasonal stuff (primarily Easter, Halloween, and Christmas) would come out when we decorated for those holidays, but we weren't displaying the more evergreen crafts at all. And if we were traveling and didn't decorate the house for a particular holiday, even the seasonal stuff wouldn't come out, since I stored it with the decorations.

That system wasn't working for me. I wanted to enjoy Trevor's artwork year-round. I wanted to be able to get to it easily, to change out projects without dealing with all the boxes in the garage. And I wanted to see my own projects, too. I've made some stuff over the years that makes me smile whenever I see it; why was it in boxes and never out on display? Time to change all of that.   

For years, we've hung the Christmas cards we receive on the wall above Trouble's cage. The other 11 months of the year, the wall is empty. It was the obvious place to put our new art wall. (Where would the Christmas cards go, come December? I'll share that solution tomorrow.) But how would I store the artwork that was out of season without lofting it in the garage?

Pizza boxes. And a bookshelf.

I went to the local Mary's Pizza Shack (delicious pizza, by the way) and asked for some pizza boxes. I offered to buy them, but manager just gave them to me, so I put a few dollars in the tip jar. Once I got home, I printed labels, cut them with the paper trimmer, and glued them to the boxes. 

As you can see, I made boxes for Valentine's Day, Spring, Summer, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Year-Round. The Christmas artwork is staying with the Christmas decorations, because we will always decorate for Christmas. The stack of six boxes fits perfectly on a bookshelf upstairs. 

Here's a peek inside the Summer box.

I just piled everything summery in there. When summer comes around, Trevor and I will grab the box from the bookshelf and hang what we want to display. As we make more art, it will go directly into the appropriate box (unless it's headed to the fair first - we have a tub for fair entries).

 

As a reminder, you can find tutorials for the summer projects and all the rest of our seasonal artwork on my Crafts by Holiday / Topic tab.