Building our Community

How to preserve your children's art work digitally

I don’t know about you, but on almost a daily basis I am bombarded with artwork from my four children. Don’t get me wrong, my kids are very creative; I’ll give them that! And it doesn’t hurt that we have artistic genes in our family… (my Dad, Richard Galbraith, is the artist who designed the MECS mascots!).

However, there is only so much wall space in our house to display all these works of art, and I continually find myself running out of room. In the past, piles upon piles of creations have built up in cupboards and various boxes, and when I finally convince myself to ‘sort’ these piles out, I find that I get a bit overwhelmed and end up throwing most of it away (don’t tell my kids!).

Recently I have been searching for a way to preserve my kids’ artwork so that it can be appreciated forever, without having to worry about storing it somewhere. 

I have discovered an app called Artkive which allows you to catalogue artwork digitally and enable sharing with family members if you choose. Artkive also offer products through their shop function, but I have not used this.

If you have access to a scanner either at work or on your phone, why not scan your child’s artwork to create a digital album? The image to the left was scanned using an app called Genius Scan and the quality is fantastic.

Another sneaky tip which doesn’t necessarily preserve your child’s artwork but may alleviate some of the parental guilt associated with throwing it away – why not turn it into wrapping paper?! I have done this on many occasions.

If you have any tips or tricks on how you preserve your child’s artwork, feel free to share these with me!

Anna Turner

MECS Reception