I’ve been experiencing some art-related Mum Guilt of late.
I tend to subscribe to the idea of “process over product” when it comes to art with my toddler.
She produces awesome art but many of her masterpieces end up “filed” in the recycling bin.
(To be clear, we all know this is a euphemism for “thrown out,” yes?)

So I’m trying to be a bit more proactive about repurposing her art work.
Here are 7 ways you can reuse some of your children’s masterpieces.

That shot above shows some lanterns we made for Chinese New Year.
We used watercolour paper which is a lovely weight for lantern-making.
You can read about the process of their creation here.

We used some artwork to create place mats.
I cut out some backing cardboard and then glued on some paintings.
I’m also terrible at throwing out books, even when they are way beyond their use-by date.
So we cut out some pictures from this dictionary and pasted them on.
Gluing activities entertain my toddler FOREVER.
After decorating with some washi tape, we popped the finished pieces through the laminator.
(As a teacher, I have a ridiculous love affair with my laminator.)
If you don’t have a laminator, a bit of contact paper should do the trick.

Presents wrapped in kiddy art are the sweetest.
Above, I’ve actually used the paper towel that was used to clean our paintbrushes as we completed a watercolour activity.
Kiddy masterpieces are rad for garland-making.
You can find out how we made our 2016 garland here.

Olivia Foster also has a great tutorial on making toddler art bunting over at Hello, Wonderful.

Gina has a great post on how to create a family art gallery.

Jimmy Halfpenny are an Australian company that I’ve been following on Instagram for awhile now.
They take your child’s artwork and create a custom made book with it.
I am not affiliated with them, but just wanted to share this awesome way to showcase and save your child’s masterpieces FOREVER.

What do you do with kiddy artwork?