Toddler art to keep or not to keep?

We've arrived at the final day of Toddler Art Month. I hope you've had fun and found some new resources and activities. I want to take a minute to thank the participants:

• Stubby Pencil Studio
• Lisa of Little Coffee Beans
• Meryl of My Bit of Earth
• Kerrie of Sea Kettle Diaries

Thank you ladies so much for helping me make this exploration a s success! Please check out their blogs and get your tot some supplies from Stubby Pencil Studio. 

To keep or not to keep? That is always the question with your child's art. If your toddler is anything like mine they'll make ten draws in a day. They'll then practice their cutting skills and pasting skills and before you know it you'll have a pile of gluey hand colored chads. What I do is save any piece of paper that has not been colored on both sides if using crayons of colored pencils. Watercolor paintings I let dry and use the other side as well. Play dough sculptures get squashed down and put back into the container. I only save drawings if they are really exceptional, for example I like the color combo or Sofia worked on a new technique like zig zags or circles.  The rest of it I compost or throw away. I try not to attach myself to every piece because there are way to many of them! Plus Sofia doesn't care about anything she makes it's purely about the process of putting each material on the page. 

So what can you do with the art you love? 

• make them into greeting cards
• send them off to family members
• scan them and make a calendar featuring different colors for each month
• make an art wall where you feature one or two creations and rotate them out each week
• use as wrapping paper
• let you baby tear it up exploring how paper crinkles (make sure they don't eat it!)
• use it to decorate storage bins using Mod Podge 
• anything from this Crafty Crow post about ways to use old news papers and magazines

I hope you all have had fun following along! Feel free to take a button and spread the love. If you liked this series please let me know. I'd like to do it again next year with even more things to explore like photography, creating with materials from nature and mixed media. 

Have wonderful week everyone!