I have this problem big-time. My son is autistic and finds great joy in going through reams of paper drawing. His pictures are amazing and I think probably give some insight into how he sees the world that his words (or lack thereof since talking is not his thing) don't. I can't stand to recycle these gems, but our house is flooding in these papers - when he's on a roll he can go through a ream of paper easily.I'll scan some this weekend, but I'm still not sure I can put them in the recycling.

There are tons of ways to deal with this problem.

Take digital photos of the art and set the images as screen savers on your computer. Kids love to see their art work on the screen. You can also print the images on the front of note cards and use them as thank you cards for kids birthdays.

Save some of it and use it as wrapping paper for small packages.

Or you can laminate them and use them as kids placemats. When they get funky, toss them out.

Another idea with the digital photos (or scans) of the artwork is to put them together into an art portfolio, which you can do on Snapfish, Shutterfly, Picaboo and other sites starting around $30+. You'll have a wonderful hardbound book you can keep on your coffee table or order as duplicates for holiday gifts to the grandparents.

I encourage making homemade books on recycled paper with my oldest daughter (now age 9). The books are usually the same size, so they are a neat stack on my shelf, but it also seems like she spends more time on them that way. Each picture is a part of the story.

And no, I'm not parting with the originals, but at least they are organized!

My "little ones" are now in their 20's, so we didn't have the option of scanning their wonderful artwork when they were younger, but we did select a handful of favorite pieces and had them professionally framed. They still adorn our family room and the hallway leading to their rooms (along with art produced by my husband when he was a child--his parents were both artists, which no doubt has a lot to do with this!)

In addition to saving paintings and ceramics, we framed two collages in shadow box frames, and they still make us smile.

Saving your kids' artwork is a challange, especially for busy parents. Who really has time to do all the crafty things on the HP website? Artimusart.com does it all for you. They transform ALL you kid's artwork into a beautiful hard cover book and On-Line gallery. They send you a return postage paid huge box to collect the art. Then they scan, fix all the blotches, smudges tears, etc. and send the images to a web gallery where you click and drag art in order, pick the book cover, image and color and fill in the text template.It's really a web way to scrapbook your kid's art and is amazing!
Artimusart.com. Check it out!
-Dana

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