Do you have piles of kids’ art coming out of your ears?
I do. I imagine you do, too.
I’ve written about organizing and storing art here since early 2008. I display kids art on the wall and have since day one. Yet I still have art piles to contend with.
We all do, right?
Last year I made a New Year’s resolution to get and stay more organized with the kids’ artworks, but life happened and the organization didn’t so much.
So I’m beginning again this year.
I’m pretty happy with the start I’ve made so far. I created posters to highlight my daughters’ art using a service provided by Itsy Art.
Thank you to Itsy Art for sponsoring this blog post! As always all opinions expressed are my own.
Display Kids Art on a Poster
Heads up :: Make sure to enter the Itsy Art giveaway at the end of this post.
I’ve long been attracted to the idea of creating a poster of my children’s artworks, so when Itsy Art contacted me about trying out their service and writing about it here, it was a no brainer. I said, of course!
First I chose which kids’ art display poster I liked best (they have several options including the basic collage with and without the child’s name, a state, US map, name and fingerprint art, and calendars). I picked the one called Kids’ Art Focus. I like the one with the name and year, too, but knew that I’d have artwork spanning a couple of years.
The next step was to select a dozen artworks for each child’s poster.
I involved Maia and Daphne in the selection of their own art for these posters, because they are of the age where they are opinionated about which of their artworks they like and don’t like and I was planning to hang the posters above their beds (as well as share them in a blog post).
If you have a toddler or preschooler, you could probably make the selection yourself just fine.
Or, if you want to involve your child but make the process a bit quicker and attempt more control, make the initial selection and then solicit feedback. “I thought these twelve artworks were wonderful representations of your art making over the past year and wanted to make a poster out of them. Is there anything you would add or take out?”
I took photos of each of the artworks (Itsy Art has some basic tips on photographing your child’s art, if you need them) and uploaded the digital files to the Itsy Art website.
The folks at Itsy Art took the photos, cropped each into a square to fit their format, and arranged them into the collage poster, then sent me proofs to review.
For Maia’s poster, I had them alter the cropping of a couple of the artworks. For Daphne’s, I approved the poster as it was.
I received a 2nd proof of Maia’s and was totally happy with it and hit approve.
Itsy Art printed the posters and they arrived on my doorstep in sturdy cardboard tubes.
They were very well wrapped for safe delivery.
And the overall quality of the posters is excellent. The paper is thick and satin-ny—gorgeous to the eye and to the touch.
Itsy Art did a great job with the color reproduction of the artworks, too.
A very few of the reproductions are slightly more saturated in color than the originals, but in those instances I noticed it in the original proof I was sent and could have requested that they change it but didn’t. (Sometimes a little extra saturation is appealing.)
The posters look great! And what a fun way to highlight and display kids art!
I found frames at Michael’s (a two for one deal as the big craft stores often have in the frame section) and hung the newly framed posters above the kids’ beds.
They were so excited to see them!
We were all pleased with how the posters turned out.
If you’d like to order posters of your children’s artwork as a display and organization tactic or as a gift, I recommend giving Itsy Art a try.
You can see their kids’ collage poster options here.
Or read more about how it all works here.
This blog post is sponsored by Itsy Art; as always all opinions expressed are my own.
Itsy Art Giveaway
For a chance to win an e-gift card valued at $75 to use toward the Itsy Art poster of your choice, leave a comment to this blog post by Wednesday, January 27th at 11:59 PM EST then come back up to the Rafflecopter widget displayed above and click the box saying that you are entering the giveaway. Winner will be chosen randomly on Thursday, January 28th and contacted via e-mail. Winner has 48 hours to respond or an alternate winner will be chosen. Giveaway open to readers in the United States who are ages 18 and over.
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83 Comments
Elizabeth
January 20, 2016 at 7:15 amWhat a great idea!! I usually take a picture of my kids art but then there it goes where no one can see it. Thanks for the advice!
Eliza
January 20, 2016 at 7:20 amLove it! There’s something so beautiful about seeing all of the different styles and techniques represented together. And the colors are beautiful!! Thanks for sharing this, Jean. :-)
Karla
January 20, 2016 at 7:58 amI would love to win this giveaway! I love my children’s artwork and hate that most of it is sitting in plastic tubs. I hang what I can, but so,many other pieces are out of sight. This is such a fabulous idea.
Rosemarie Paulson
January 20, 2016 at 8:08 amThis looks so awesome!
Lynne Marie
January 20, 2016 at 8:38 amI enjoy your blog posts. So inspiring to me and my child!
Energy
January 20, 2016 at 8:46 amThis looks like such a great idea! Even though my little one is turning 12, she is still making some pretty amazing art, and sometimes just throwing it up on our rotating art board isn’t enough. I love this idea, thank you so much for sharing!
Michelle
January 20, 2016 at 8:51 amGreat idea! Each of my three children has an ‘art box’ where they store away treasured creations. This would be a great way to let some of those masterpieces come out from storage.
Debbie Clauer
January 20, 2016 at 8:58 amThis is a very cool, fantastic idea!! I feel bad if I don’t display her artwork – running out of wall space.
Tiffany Warman
January 20, 2016 at 9:00 amThis is such a great way to keep kids art!
Teresa Tenorio
January 20, 2016 at 9:03 amWhat an awesome way to display kid art and save space!
Hadyn
January 20, 2016 at 9:14 amthis is great! I’ve been taking pictures of my kid’s art to put in a book, but I like the poster idea much better.
Niki Coyne
January 20, 2016 at 9:16 amWhat a beautiful way to honor our little artists!!! Absolutely Love It!
Amy
January 20, 2016 at 9:16 amLove it!! Thank you for the chance to give itsy a try, what a great idea :-)
Annie
January 20, 2016 at 9:17 amNeat!
Shannon O
January 20, 2016 at 9:17 amThat is a great idea… I need to do this so I can pitch some stuff lol…
Michelle
January 20, 2016 at 9:23 amThis is such a beautiful idea!
Amanda
January 20, 2016 at 9:24 amWhat a wonderful idea!! I have a 8 year old daughter who is constantly drawing and coloring.
Erin S.
January 20, 2016 at 9:28 amThis is such a great idea, with four kids my art files are unruly at their best!
Sarah M
January 20, 2016 at 10:21 amThis looks awesome!
nancy
January 20, 2016 at 10:22 amWhat a beautiful way to pay homage to the work they do!!!
Charissa
January 20, 2016 at 10:29 amWhat a cool idea! Thanks for the giveaway and the chance to win a gift card! :)
Katie R
January 20, 2016 at 10:41 amI have the BIGGEST pile of my kids artwork! This would be a fabulous solution to what is quickly becoming a hazard ? Thank you for the giveaway!
Claudia
January 20, 2016 at 10:55 amThe posters turned out great. I really love the posters and the art.
Sue
January 20, 2016 at 10:55 amThis is a fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing. And I want to win the giveaway.
Amy Jo
January 20, 2016 at 11:06 amI love, LOVE this idea!
Thank you so much for sharing.
Marisa
January 20, 2016 at 11:13 amI love this idea, yours turned out great!
Sarah J.
January 20, 2016 at 11:16 amThis is such a great idea! My daughter has recently become much more willing to recycle her pictures which is helping me be a little less buried, but I love the idea of making the special ones into one big piece of art. Thanks for sharing!
grace
January 20, 2016 at 11:49 amlove this idea .. we got so many arts that need to be organized somehow … we can’t keep hanging them on the wall tho they are all pretty :-) thanks for the chance.
Cristal
January 20, 2016 at 12:08 pmBeautiful posters and an excellent way to deal with that mountain of kid art. I might give this a try.
Ames
January 20, 2016 at 12:20 pmWhat a cool way to save art in a beautiful and useful way!
Susan D
January 20, 2016 at 12:52 pmWhat a great idea! I would love this for my son’s artwork.
Laura R
January 20, 2016 at 3:28 pmThis is SUCH a great idea!!!
Amy Pignatella Cain
January 20, 2016 at 4:16 pmThis is a great idea! I am always looking for solutions on how to store my child’s artwork, and this is space-saving and beautiful! Thank you!
tracy
January 20, 2016 at 5:24 pmthis is nothing short of AMAZING! With all these kids I keep having (ha!) man do I need this!
Laurel
January 20, 2016 at 6:40 pmThis is a really neat way to display kids’ art! Thanks for sharing!
Cara
January 20, 2016 at 7:46 pmOh my. I have piles of art. I love the idea of these being yearly posters I give to the grandparents.
Beth @ Pages and Margins
January 20, 2016 at 8:52 pmWhat a great idea!
Heather
January 20, 2016 at 9:36 pmLove this idea! I started making artwork books for my kids on shutterfly but love this idea also!
Athaliah
January 20, 2016 at 10:50 pmThis is probably one of the most reasonable ways to store/display/celebrate my child’s art. There is SO much of it at 4!!! Thanks for this, love, love, love your site!
Sydney
January 20, 2016 at 11:28 pmLove it thanks for the chance
Erin Ellis
January 20, 2016 at 11:36 pmWhat a wonderful idea! I would love this for my two daughters artwork!
Phyllis at All Things Beautiful
January 21, 2016 at 8:57 amThey are so beautiful! I would love to do this with my autistic son’s artwork.
Jen
January 21, 2016 at 9:38 amI LOVE this! I recently made a collage of my kids’ painting, but I used a whole bunch of frames and hung them over the couch. These posters would be awesome to hang on the huge blank wall next to the stairs. Thank you for sharing this!
Kimmy Ripley
January 21, 2016 at 11:49 amI would love this so much for my 6 year-old daughter, Chloe Pearl! She is an aspiring artist and she wants to be an art teacher when she grows up. Art is her LIFE! <3
Kate Garwood
January 21, 2016 at 2:56 pmputting the art on a display poster board in an insanely good idea, we have a ‘gallery’ wall that we use to change them out accordingly. This sounds way easier and I adore the idea of having it hang above their beds.
Nancy
January 21, 2016 at 3:48 pmWhat a great idea!
Nicole
January 21, 2016 at 6:42 pmWhat a beautiful way to manage and showcase a child’s artwork! I will be checking out this for sure.
Andrea D.
January 21, 2016 at 8:02 pmI love the idea of putting their art on a poster. Thanks for the chance to enter.
katie
January 21, 2016 at 10:03 pmthese turned out beautifully. I think id have a really difficult time narrowing down which pieces of art to include!!!
Sonia Singhal
January 22, 2016 at 9:44 amThanks for the great idea here. On a different note, I love the headboards on the kids’ beds. Where did you get them from ? :)
Laura
January 22, 2016 at 10:36 amThis is such a great way to display kids’ work! I love it!!!
Michelle Harrison
January 22, 2016 at 8:19 pmCool posters
Katherine
January 23, 2016 at 10:06 pmI I love this idea and would love to try it!
erica
January 23, 2016 at 10:45 pmThat is pretty cool – although then I’d REALLY feel obligated to hang the artwork:) Still – finding a place to hang one piece is better than 12. The photographing makes me nervous, but the tips are great. Thanks for the info and chance to win.
Thea
January 25, 2016 at 9:29 amThose posters look gorgeous! What a great way to display kids’ art :)
Beatriz
January 25, 2016 at 10:39 amGood idea. Thank you.
rosemary
January 25, 2016 at 12:29 pmlove this idea, my big plan for this year is to take photos of the girls’ work all year and then at the end create a calendar with the pics for our friends and family
Catherine Nathanson
January 25, 2016 at 4:15 pmWhat a fun idea.
Janice Dukes
January 25, 2016 at 6:54 pmI love this idea. To eliminate so much paper but preserve my daughters art
Nicole Howard
January 25, 2016 at 9:37 pmI’ve been putting favorite pieces of my daughter’s art into photo books (take a picture of the art and have the book printed and mailed to me), but we only see those when we take the off the bookshelf. I definitely love the idea of being able to see a bunch of old artwork in a small amount of space! Especially considering artwork is taped to every available space in my office (bathroom door? bookshelf with a suspiciously clean and blank edge? yes, there too).
P.S. all the super colorful art you picked out looks amazing together.
Rachel Slovinac
January 25, 2016 at 11:02 pmThis is a great way to display all my daughter’s artwork. We don’t have a huge amount of wall space so this product would be absolutely perfect for us!
lydia
January 25, 2016 at 11:44 pmI LOVE this idea!
LeAnn Taylor
January 26, 2016 at 2:58 amThese are so neat! What a cool way to show the progression over the span of time, too!
Amulya
January 26, 2016 at 9:22 amGreat idea ! This would make any space look beautiful . Thanks for the giveaway.
Amy
January 26, 2016 at 3:49 pmWhat a great idea! The finished project looks amazing!
Elizabeth
January 27, 2016 at 12:31 amLooks like a fun display
Karen
January 27, 2016 at 7:21 amBeautiful! Love love love it :)
Natalia Fry
January 27, 2016 at 11:11 amSuch a great idea. Thanks for sharing.
Thais
January 27, 2016 at 11:31 amI love to decorate my house with my kids art and this idea is wonderful to combine multiple drawings in one beautiful art!
Thanks!
Jackie Pastore
January 27, 2016 at 11:35 amOmg this would be a wall saver! My son literally has his entire wall covered in drawn super Mario pics and washi tape! I’d love to get them all organized into a nice poster so I don’t have mayhem on his walls aaaand I wouldn’t feel as bad about having to choose which ones to take down when we eventually move. Rental/military life!
Eman Mustafa
January 27, 2016 at 12:03 pmLove, love , love the art collage. I would love to win and get an art collage to show off to friends ????.
Alissa H
January 27, 2016 at 2:01 pmI have been looking for a service just like this!
Marybeth
January 27, 2016 at 2:12 pmwe would absolutely love to win this for Madison’s room. I notice a huge relation between self-esteem and art displays in kids! Her room is already covered in her art sometimes I have to choose not to keep pieces for certain reasons& this would be a nice way to preserve them.
Shilpa Kamath
January 27, 2016 at 3:04 pmThis is a wonderful way to display their works of art. I have been stringing them up using wooden pegs and have been looking for other ways to display them. The collage makes it possible to display many drawings in a single frame and that’s perfect!
Thank you for the opportunity to participate.
Kristy
January 27, 2016 at 3:40 pmLove it. I have mountains of artwork too!
Jessica Spracklen
January 27, 2016 at 4:57 pmWhat a wonderful idea! My son draws amazing pictures for hours every day. This would be a great way to display some of his favorites. :)
Krystal gannon
January 27, 2016 at 7:19 pmLove this idea! Definitely going to give it a try!
Leah
January 27, 2016 at 8:08 pmWe need art organization ideas for sure!
Stephanie
January 27, 2016 at 8:26 pmThis is such an adorable idea!!! You could do one every year with your favorite pieces! It would be fun to see the evolution over time. Thanks for the giveaway!
Debra
January 27, 2016 at 8:57 pmAwesome giveaway! So glad I saw this!!
Stacy
January 27, 2016 at 9:00 pmThis is awesome! I have so much of their art hanging and so much more in a box. My apartment is small so wall space is limited. This would solve so many problems!! Thanks!
Amanda
January 27, 2016 at 9:52 pmThis is awesome! I’m always looking for different ways to display my daughter’s art!
Paula H
June 27, 2016 at 3:01 amLove this idea! Something to Cherish always. Great present for dad too :-D