How to preserve your child’s artwork
To preserve your child’s artwork, keep a small, chosen set of originals flat in acid-free folders or a box somewhere cool and dry, and photograph or scan the rest in soft, even light so every piece is saved, named and dated. Then back the photos up in two places, rotate a few favorites on the wall, and once a year put the best of them into a book.
Children bring home a lot of art: drawings, paintings, collages, clay, and the things that don’t fit any category. Wanting to keep all of it is natural, and trying to is how a closet fills up. The approach below keeps what matters, in a form you will actually look at again, without saving every sheet of paper.
How do I choose which artwork to keep?
Collect through the year, choose a few times a year, and keep the originals that tell the story.
- Give it one landing spot. A tray, a bin or a large folder by the door where everything goes when it comes out of the backpack. Nothing gets decided on the day it arrives.
- Sort at natural breaks. The end of a term, the winter break, the last week of school. Sorting a few months at a time is quick; sorting a whole year at once is not.
- Choose with your child. Ask which pieces they are proudest of, and what they remember about making them. Their favorites are often not the ones you would pick.
- Keep the originals that mark a moment. The first drawing of your family, the first time they wrote their name on a picture, a piece that shows a new skill, one that came with a story, and a few that are simply typical of that age.
- Photograph everything else before it goes. The photo keeps the memory. The paper can be recycled, ideally out of sight of the artist.
A limit helps. One folder or one box per child per school year is enough for most families, and when it is full, something has to be photographed and let go.
How do I photograph or scan artwork well?
A phone is enough. What matters is light, keeping the phone parallel to the paper, and getting the whole piece in.
- Use soft daylight. Lay the artwork near a window, out of direct sun. Turn the flash off: it leaves a bright patch in the middle, and glare on shiny paint or glitter.
- Lay it flat. Put it on a plain, contrasting surface, like a table or a sheet of card. Weigh the corners down, or slip curled paper under a heavy book for an hour first.
- Hold the phone directly above it. Keep the phone parallel to the paper so the edges stay straight. Many camera apps show a level or a grid to help. Watch that your own shadow isn’t falling across the page.
- Get the whole piece. Leave a little space around the edges, then crop afterwards. A drawing that runs right to the edge of the paper loses its corners if you frame it tightly.
- Scan flat pieces that fit. A flatbed scanner gives even light with no angle, which is ideal for drawings and paintings on standard paper. Scanning apps on a phone also straighten the page for you.
- Photograph 3D work from a few sides. Clay, models and collages with depth need two or three angles, taken against a plain background.
- Take the back too, if something is written there. A teacher’s note, a title, or your child’s own explanation is part of the piece.
How do I name, date and back up the photos?
A photo you can’t find, or can’t place in time, is only half saved.
- Make one album per child per school year, for example “Art, 2nd grade, 2026–27”. School years are how most families remember childhood, so they are the easiest way to find things later.
- Add the date and a few words. Your child’s age or grade, a title, and anything they said about it. Use the photo’s caption or description field, or write it in pencil on the back of the original before you photograph it.
- Keep two copies in two places. For example, your phone’s cloud photo library and an external drive or a second cloud service. A phone on its own is not a backup.
- Check the backup once a year, at the end of the school year, when you are adding that year’s album anyway.
How do I store the originals so they last?
Children’s art is usually made on cheap paper with materials that fade, flake or smudge, so how it is stored matters more than it would for a photo print.
- Store it flat. A large art portfolio, flat file folders or a shallow box. Rolled or folded paper cracks along the curve.
- Use acid-free, archival-quality folders, boxes and sleeves. Ordinary cardboard and some plastics yellow the paper over time. Look for “acid-free” or “archival” on the label.
- Separate the messy media. Put a sheet of acid-free tissue or paper over chalk, pastel, charcoal and glitter, so pieces don’t rub against each other.
- Keep it somewhere cool, dry and dark. A closet shelf inside the home is better than an attic, basement or garage, where heat and damp do the most damage.
- Label the outside with your child’s name and the school year, so the box can be found without opening every one.
Some pieces won’t last however they are stored: food on paper, dried pasta, and paint on paper plates. Photograph those well and let the photo be the keepsake.
How do I display artwork without the clutter?
Display a few pieces at a time, and change them often.
- Pick one spot. A corkboard, a strip of wire with clips, a clipboard wall, or a frame that opens at the front so a new piece can be swapped in.
- Rotate. New work goes up, and the piece it replaces goes to the landing spot to be sorted. Your child sees their work valued now, and the display stays fresh.
- Frame one or two favorites properly. A piece in a real frame on a real wall says something a fridge magnet doesn’t.
- Photograph before it comes down. If a piece has been on the wall for months, take the photo on the day you take it down.
How do I turn a year of artwork into a book?
A book is the form families come back to. It is easy to pick up, it shows change across the year, and it takes a shelf, not a closet.
- An annual art book. Once a year, put the year’s best pieces into a photo book from any photo book service: one piece per page for favorites, a grid for the rest. Add the date, the grade, and your child’s own words about a few of them.
- A family photo book with the art in it. If you already make a yearly photo book, add a few pages of artwork alongside the trips and birthdays, so the art sits next to the rest of that year.
- One book across several years. For a child who draws less as they get older, a single book with a few pieces from each year shows the change in a way no single year can.
Whichever you choose, the photos from the steps above are what go into it, which is one more reason to photograph pieces well the first time.
Put this year’s best artwork in your child’s yearbook
The school yearbook is already the book that marks each year. At a Rethink school, it can hold your child’s art too.
When your child’s school makes its yearbook with Rethink, the personalized edition of your child’s book (the +$10 personalization upgrade) includes up to two custom pages that you fill yourself. They are optional, they appear only in your child’s copy, and no other family sees them. A spread of this year’s best artwork is a natural fit, printed in the same book as their class and school year.
- Photograph the pieces as described above: flat, in soft light, with the whole piece in the frame.
- Order the personalized edition, or open an order you have already placed from My Orders, where you sign in with the one-time code we email you.
- Choose how to make the pages. Design both pages in our free Canva template (8.5 × 11 inches) and upload them as one PDF, which lets you arrange the art and add titles or your child’s words. Or upload 2–20 JPEG or PNG photos and we lay them out into a collage for you, without captions.
- Check the preview. Wait for the on-screen confirmation, open the preview, and make sure no artwork sits right at the edge of the page, because a little is trimmed off when books are printed.
Do it before your school’s print deadline, which each school sets. You can replace the pages as many times as you like until then. If you order during summer ordering, the pages must be uploaded when you place the order. The full step-by-step guide to custom pages →
The custom pages sit alongside your child’s myClass and myGrade pages, built from photos of their own class and grade. What a personalized elementary yearbook includes → And if your child’s school doesn’t make its yearbook with Rethink, here is how to suggest us to your PTA.
Children’s artwork, answered.
How much of my child’s artwork should I keep?
Keep the originals that mean the most, and photograph the rest. A folder or one box per school year is a limit most families can live with. Choosing with your child makes it easier, and it tells you which pieces matter to them.
Is it OK to throw away my child’s artwork?
Yes, once it is photographed. A clear photo keeps what you will want to look at later, and letting go of the rest is what makes room to keep the best pieces properly. Recycle it out of your child’s sight if that is easier for them.
Should I scan or photograph my child’s artwork?
Scan flat pieces that fit on the scanner glass, because a scanner gives even light and no angle. Photograph anything larger, and anything with texture or depth, flat and in soft daylight.
How do I keep chalk, pastel or charcoal drawings from smudging?
Photograph them first, since they smudge easily. Then store them flat in their own folder with a sheet of acid-free tissue or paper on top, so nothing rubs against the surface.
Can I put my child’s artwork in their school yearbook?
Yes, if your child’s school makes its yearbook with Rethink and you order the personalized edition. It includes up to two custom pages that you fill yourself, and photos of artwork are a good fit for them. Add them before your school’s print deadline.
Two pages.
Their art.
Add this year’s best artwork to your child’s custom pages when you order the personalized edition, or later from My Orders, before your school’s print deadline.