Teach Art to Your Children v 1.8

Today's lesson is not so much how to make art as it is what to do with the art your little Leonardo is cranking out. My child can create anywhere from 5 to 25 paintings in a weekend...leaving behind a wake of half dried paintings all over my studio, not to mention potential storage issues. So what to do?

Keep a handle on things. Get into a habit of scanning the "keepers" into your computer frequently. I archive the creations by date.

Making that annual family self-published book for holiday gifts? The artwork makes a nice addition to the portraits and vacation photos.

Scrap-booking? You can print out the paintings on any surface you are working with. A laser copy of the artwork will look nice in the scrapbook. You can resize the artwork to fit your layouts.

Digi scrap-booking? Don't get me started..the possibilities are endless! If you are tinkering with Photoshop, you can create awesome layered images of your child and their artwork.

early watercolor; circa 2009

I'm a huge fan of my scanner...and my back-ups. Make sure you are backing up your files regularly. I'm sure you will find that a file on your computer full of artwork will be much more pleasant that a bulging folder in your closet...closets are for shoes, right?