Children's Artwork Books

I'm a lucky mother. My children are prolific artists and writers so I am given a stack of beautiful artwork daily. On top of that, I have school papers coming out my ears. When you add the two stacks together, my kitchen counters look a little, well, busy. I've struggled with what to do with the treasures that I get. Last year, I dumped everything in a box and every few months I'd spend hours scanning. I like the whole scanning idea, but the box of overflowing papers got to be a bit of an issue to my cleanly side (which only comes out a few times a week, mind you.) I also found that I scanned way more papers than I could possibly use. So I needed to revamp my system.


After a bit of thought and a bit of research, I came up with a solution to the stacks of precious papers. I saw an idea for an artwork/schoolwork organizer in Simple Scrapbooks magazine and I decided to use it. Here is a photo of the finished product.

The system is composed of ten 10x14 envelopes (one envelope for each month of the school year.) The covers are made of foam core. I purchased the Elmer's brand with a grid printed on one side so it was easier to measure. Each cover measures about 11x15. I used a steak knife to cut and it turned out that one large board yields two entire covers. Since I purchased a pack of two boards, and I needed six covers, I taped chunks together to make the last two covers. The result was a bit rough, but it turned out alright.

I decorated the foam board with DCWV paper, ribbon from my stash, and buttons. I used 6 total sheets of 12x12 paper: 3 different patterns. I glued the paper down using PVA glue and I made sure that I had enough paper that I could wrap it around the sides. To cover the loose ends on the inside, I glued another sheet to the inside. I used the Heidi Swapp outline mask and acrylic paint for the title. And in the spots where I had trouble, I covered my little gaffes with 7 Gypsies gaffer tape. To put everything together, I punched two holes in both the envelopes and the covers and threaded some ribbon through. I just marked my two spots on the decorated covers with a pencil, used a hand drill (not really necessary, a pencil would work) to make a hole and used that as a guide for the envelopes. Even though I omitted the measuring step, it turned out great. Just make sure that you leave enough room when tying your ribbon. You'll want to be able to open the book. Here is a photo of the inside.

I used Making Memories foam stamps and acrylic paint to mark the month on each envelope. I got a bit distracted at one point and stamped April on two envelopes so I just cut a piece of white cardstock, stamped the correct month on it and glued it over my mistake. If I did the project over again, I would stamp the month on the envelope before I assembled the book because I found it a tad tedious to wait for the paint to dry.


So now, I when I get a special paper, I just put it in the appropriate envelope in the appropriate book and forget about it until the end of the school year when I can go through everything and decide what to scan and what to recycle. Which brings me to what I do with the scanned artwork and how I scrap it. But, that is another topic for tomorrow.