Having 3 children and being a crafter who encourages her children to explore arts and crafts regularly means that we have boxes upon boxes of art and craft projects in our garage – those that aren’t hanging on the wall of course.  We are not going to be able to store these forever so I have been looking into alternatives to hanging onto everything.

For example, recently I posted about the kids wearing their art.  One day these art shirts will be used as part of a quilt for each of the kids.

So when I was presented with an opportunity to try out American Greetings PhotoWorks I jumped at the chance.  I knew exactly what I wanted to create. 

preserving kids artwork

A coffee table art book. 

Marisol absolutely adores it.  She has asked my husband and I each to read it to her a couple of times, and it was only delivered today.  I chose pieces of art that had a special meaning behind them – her very first crayon art, Holiday projects, a few special school projects and a handmade card that was sent to her daddy while he was deployed, to name just a few.  Each piece has a meaning behind it and most of them have a little story that goes along with the image.  Like the time her and her brother decided to paint the downstairs bathroom pink and blue and then paint themselves.  Yep, that was included.

storing kids artwork

Once all of the pieces of art were scanned or photographed it was extremely easy to upload them to the PhotoWorks site and arrange them onto pages.  Their editing tools are a breeze to use and you can change the page layouts, colors and typefaces with the click of a button.  

PhotoWorks books

Over time I plan on whittling away at the boxes in the garage and make a series of books for each of the children.  A series that I can pass onto them when they are older, that they can share with their children.  

 

As seen on:

iVillage  …  Modern Parents Messy KidsThe Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking … MSN Lifestyle Canada

Disclosure: “I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of American Greetings PhotoWorks and received a free photo book to facilitate my review.”

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11 comments

Erin Pyle (@erinjeany) March 10, 2010 - 7:19 pm

That has to be the coolest idea ever for art projects! 🙂 I love it! M will certainly treasure that book forever!

Reply
cat@juggling act March 11, 2010 - 1:13 am

What a fantastic idea!

Reply
Shannon March 11, 2010 - 8:11 am

I LOVE this!! Hmm, wish I had saved more of the kids’ artwork…guess I better start now!

Reply
Family Adventure Guidebooks March 12, 2010 - 4:15 pm

When I grow up I want to be you Tonya, well I guess you already knew that ;).

Reply
April Curry March 14, 2010 - 10:29 am

Your site is getting better and better! Mum Staab… you are amazing!

Reply
Lain March 17, 2010 - 2:33 pm

What a great idea! I love it!

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samone August 30, 2011 - 11:21 pm

great idea – love the necklaces photographed x.

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kelly@imperfecthomemaking February 29, 2012 - 11:22 am Reply
Tonya Staab March 2, 2012 - 3:00 pm

Not a silly question at all.  I took the photograph of the necklace on a plain white background.  One of the page options was a half page photograph that went all the way to the edge.

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Liz McFarland March 2, 2012 - 11:02 am

Love this! My apologies if this is a silly question, but how did you do the necklace so it’s in the book but doesn’t look like a picture?

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Tonya Staab March 6, 2012 - 12:08 pm

Thank you so much Kelly.

Reply

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