Our kids love drawing and all things creating art! While I encourage their creations the mess that sometimes comes along with all the art papers all over the place is no fun!
Our kids favorite papers to drawer on or create art is loose printer paper. They’d walk back and forth to the printer getting papers to do their art. All. The. Time. It didn’t matter if I bought them art books or construction paper or any other kind of paper. The printer paper seems to be what they love best!
For the longest time, I kept a basket to place their art (what ever is not taped to a wall). Then once in a while (like monthly or so) we would go through the basket, throw out what they think they didn’t need (and what I think they didn’t need) and keep the ones they really loved.
But alas, the light bulb moment came when we moved and I was figuring out how to have less paper clutter. It’s when I thought about creating an art “books” using their extra school folders. It’s as simple as placing a stock of printer paper in each kid’s folder so they can each have their own little “books”.
What you need:
- Loose Printer Paper
- A File Folder (without or without clips)
- Hole puncher for folder with clips
- Labels/Sharpie to write names on the folders
There are two options for creating the “books”
- Add a stock of paper on one side of the folder. They’ll take a sheet of paper when they are ready to draw or create something. When they are finished with a drawing or art piece, they can then place it on the other side of the folder.
- The other option: Seal the papers to flip like the pages in a book. In fact, two kids wanted that option. The other one chose the loose paper option mainly because she liked the decorations on the folder but it doesn’t have the clips to seal the papers.
Add labels to the folders so the kids could identify their own if the folder covers are all the same. I added name tags “just because” but it may not be necessary if the folders are very different and each kids knows which one they chose.
And decorate the front of the folders with stickers if they wish.
It’s that simple but it’s a really effective system. Just think of the possibilities:
- Less paper clutter.
- You won’t have to go through and clean out a basket or bin of stacked high and running over with loose papers every time.
- Art would no longer be mixed up!
- All the kids would have their own individual neat little folder with their own art and drawing projects in one book.
- They could go back later and look at their amazing work!!
What happens when the folder get’s full? Good Question!
- Add more papers when needed.
- If the folder is getting full, you could go through with them and take out the ones they absolutely do not think they will “need”. And then add some new papers.
- Or you could create a second folder. Be careful though that you are not creating too many folders to add more clutter. Just go through and see if they could remove some old art.
I suppose you could just buy them drawing books if they prefer that option. But if they love the loose printer papers, consider making folders. Ah, art time would be so much calmer, too!!
