Hanging Kids’ Artwork

I am a mother of two and have utilized a company out of Boston, MA., Artimus Art. My daughter is extremely creative and have we have boxes upon boxes of artwork. Especially after being stuck inside for a year! Each season I sort through the “keepers” and Artimus Art creates a book of all my daughters artwork. Simple, easy, very personalized process. I am not very tech savvy, so having someone actually build the book for me has been a life saver rather than having to scan each of her pieces and upload them.

Our small hallway opens from the living room onto three bedrooms, the bathroom, the linen closet, and the coat closet–and has one short stretch of wall (that sounds like a lot, but it’s a very small hallway in a small house). Several years ago, I asked my husband to come up with a way to make it a “gallery wall” for our daughter. He used picture hooks on the sides of the door jams to string two lengths of twine, and we attach selections of her drawings, paintings, and other projects using clothespins. Every now and then I take them down so there’s room for new creations, and put the old ones in an accordion file.

I’ve made a gallery wall in the hallway outside my kid’s bedrooms with their framed artwork. The piece de resistance is my youngest’s intepretation of a goat – a grey wooly blob with googley eyes and popsickle sticks for limbs. It brings me so much joy when I walk past it, and I can’t wait to add to it over the years!

Oh my gosh Interrupted House will always have a place in my heart.

Anyone here familiar with Mixtiles? They are photos laminated on 8×10 styrofoam blocks (1 inch depth, and nearly weightless) with strips of adhesive on the back, which allows you to hang them with no damage to the walls, and they can be repositioned several times. You can order them with a number of “framing” options — I always opt for the clean edge, which is nothing at all, just photo. I think they would be great for kids artwork……the size allows you to hang dozens in one spot, if you choose. Retail they run about $10 each, but they are always emailing their specials……right now you can get 30 for $149. I have no connection to the company, except as a satisfied consumer. I think a wall of Mixtile artwork would be beautiful!

My kids are mostly grown now at 21 and 18. I had saved a large portion of their childhood arts and crafts as I’m artsy too. I was going through decluttering and saved the most precious ones. I bought a large (1 1/2 inch) circled punch and cut circles out of the rest. I mounted the circles in a grid pattern in a large shallow shadow box frame. I now have my own ‘modern’ art hanging over my couch and I do love the memories it provides.

My parent’s in law have a (HUGE) artwork my husband made from a face professionaly framed. They moved house two years ago, and even though my husband is 34, it was one of the first things they hung in their stairway and is one of the first things you see when you enter the house. My husband is the type of child most parents would be very proud of, in all he has accomplished, but that artwork is a testiment to the fact that they were always proud of him to begin with.

I have the first drawing my daughter made from us as a family displayed in our hallway, framed, it is the first thing you see when entering our home. I will do the same with my sons version. I have a whole wall with photo shelves on which I only display family photos and art the children made in different ways (clipboards and corkboard and frames for anything on paper, and the rest scattered in between). My husband and I also keep our Fathers / Mothers Day gift on our night stand. I also have stuff hanging in the windows in our living room. They have their art in there own room as well (in frames that are easy to switch out if they would want to put something else in it). Both my children love to create and I feel it gives them a sense of belonging that we display their art so openly. I just love to look at it and all the fun moments we had making them. I also have a few walls with chalkboard on them so the kids can easily draw om them. And they never drew on my other walls so I think it is working ;). I switch stuff out with the seasons and have them help with decorations for special days (Valentines, Halloween etc.).

I do not keep everything because they come home with new stuff daily, but I do try to keep the ones they point out to me as special. I am most proud of the ‘firsts’ I was able to keep, like the family drawing, but also the first time my daughter wrote her name.

My parents never displayed any art that I created as a kid, and I’m realizing it’s because I drew and painted almost exclusively in albums, not on loose leaf paper. This was in the Soviet Union in the 80s and, oddly, loose leaf paper just wasn’t around, while sketch albums were widely available. Visiting other families with kids at that time, I don’t recall any children’s artwork on display either, so other kids probably used albums too. I suppose our parents could ask if they could take a page out of an album to put up on the wall… but I don’t know that I would have let them haha :)

I have several of my kids’ art pieces framed throughout our house, peppered in with other art.

I am especially partial to the joyful abstract expressions of ages 1.5-2.5, and the surrealist people that start emerging around the third birthday. Around age 4.5, the expressions become a touch too literal for my sensibility–until the captions and speech bubbles start showing up and stealing my heart.

My kids are college age now, but years ago I took some of their artwork that I loved but didn’t know what to do with and hung it in our big walk-in hall closet. Now whenever I go in there to get the broom or some random cleaning supplies, among other things I see my daughter’s third grade self portrait on the back of the door and my son’s kindergarten sunflower with his face in the middle on the wall. It just make me happy.

I really shy away from giving anyone unsolicited advice, especially mothers, but this is a hard one to read. My own parent was discouraging of my creative efforts and it has really affected my entire life as an adult. It feels like I need to work hard and find the “right way” to express myself and be creative, rather than being able to enjoy myself in the process of expressing. Art and drawings are creativity and expression from young children and the way we respond to that output of who they are has lasting impacts on them. For me this has also led to perfectionism, so if it isn’t perfect, it isn’t good enough. I have a really hard time trying for things I know I might not be good at. It’s infiltrated every area of my life and it has been really painful for me and in my relationships. I do hope you’ll gently consider shifting this. I wish my parents had had someone to share this with them for my sake.

We try to pick one special one from each kid to frame each year, usually for Father’s Day. The process of sorting through and picking one favorite to frame helps us remember the fun and celebrate the creativity.

The kids use their school artwork to decorate their bedrooms– just taped up everywhere, randomly– as you did, Joanna. Even my too-cool 8th grader still likes his elementary school drawings. They’re like a little snapshot of his brain and how it was working at that time.

Ouch.

“i don’t like those pathetic little markings”

As an art teacher and a mom, this sentence pains me so much.

I suggest looking up Rhoda Kellogg… she did an intensive study on the evolution and growth of art and markings made by children. It’s truly fascinating.

I love kiddie art. I love art.

I have foster kids and always put some of their artwork in the files with the medical records and all the other paperwork I have to keep to hand off to their parents when they are reunited. Right now I have siblings, one in preK and one in grade 5. Obviously, the preK student is bringing home lots of arts and crafts…Gr5, not so much, especially with so many things virtual these days. The disparity is becoming really obvious! I try to make up the difference by including other things for the older child (photos of them doing “big kid” activities, etc). Should I just let this one go, as one of those different-kids-are-different things? Or does anyone have any suggestions? I’m not looking for a lot more work or a fancy scrapbook; I just hate seeing one thick file full of glitter and one file full of…notes from the doctor and whatnot.

When artwork is done being hung up, or if you just have too much too keep, a great idea I read was to photograph each piece before disposing and put it in a digital folder for that kid for the year. At the end of the year(s), make an inexpensive photo book of their work. If you use one of the many services that can design the book for you, it’s such a quick way to remember their artwork without boxes of paper.

There’s a great children’s book called The Dot by Peter Reynolds about the power of recognizing children’s art, even when it’s not advanced. It’s worth a read!

put up the kids drawings. you won’t remember in a year how much that unimpressive drawing ‘ruined’ your aesthetic, but he’ll always remember how proud you are of his efforts.

Amazing tips :) Art is art and no matter what it should be displayed!

My body displays some of my favorites from my kiddos! My older daughter did a drawing of 4 birds, representing the 4 members of our family when she was 7. I loved it and hung it in my office. It hung there for years, until one day I decided it should be a tattoo. And so it was. Then I knew I would have to add something my younger daughter drew when the time was right. I added 2 butterflies and 5 flowers drawn by my youngest, also drawn at age 7, that represent my 2 girls and our family again (including our dog Snoop). I love this tattoo so much!

LOVE the framing of the wall drawing. It’s not an unfamiliar occurance in our apartment and this is a heart warming reminder to keep a sense of humor!

This makes me so happy! Growing up, my mom always had my siblings and I make gifts for our grandmother, aunts, and uncles each Christmas, so each December, we each had a very serious project we were working on, ranging from dammit dolls (look it up and then laugh at a 10-year-old making them), to soap, and everything in between. My sister (the littlest of us) made pastel drawings one year — they were abstract and scribbly, but my mom had them framed and we had one hung on our wall in every apartment we lived in after that. It’s one of my favorite memories of the holidays, and was always one of my favorite pieces in our family home.

My 2.5 year old drew his first recognizable car (recognizable to us, mind you. He always knows exactly what he’s drawn haha) last week, and I hung it up in our kitchen. At least once a day he’ll walk past, point at it, say “car!” and beam with pride. Though to be fair, we’re just as proud :)

Did you know that little girls tend to paint nouns and little boys tend to paint verbs? I used to get worried when my oldest son painted black and red scratchy lines in all of his artwork, but really he was just imagining himself running free. May be the case for Anton too.