Awesome Crafty Ideas to Turn Kids' Art into Keepsakes!

If your little ones love to make art, you definitely need these awesome crafty ideas to turn kids’ art into keepsakes!

kids hands with a set of paints and a painting of a rainbow on a white background

I don’t know about you, but my kids are prodigious artists. They draw and paint and make things alll the time. They are both also running out of space on the walls in their room to hang their artworks.

There are about a million ideas for displaying kids’ art in your home, but eventually, like me, you will start to run out of space, no matter what you do. So, I’ve always tried to find other ways to keep/appreciate their artwork that doesn’t necessarily require me scotch-taping it to my fridge.

In the past we’ve kept the very best examples of their work in one special keepsake box, but I thought that today we’d talk about some other awesome ideas to turn kids’ art into keepsakes. And if you have any more ideas, I’d love to hear them, please share!

How to To Turn Kids’ Art into Keepsakes

Photo Book
This idea frees up the most space in your home. Once a year, or so, gather up your kids art, tape it to the wall, one piece at a time and take a quick photo. You can use a real camera or even your phone. There are even apps designed specifically for photographing kids art. Then take those photos and have them printed in a photo book. You can then discard the actual art and get as many copies of the photo book as you want! A win-win!
Print on Fabric
You can use a service (for example, spoonflower) or get some iron on printer paper, scan your child’s artwork and have it printed on fabric. Options include:
-tea towels
-aprons
-t-shirts
-tote bags
-quilt square ( you could make a whole quilt out of their drawings)
-hot pad
All of these make fantastic gift ideas for grandparents, aunts & uncles and any loved one who loves your kids.
Mugs!
There’s nothing cuter than a mug with a kids’ drawing on it. There are tons of services out there that can print whatever you want on a mug, I’ve used both shutterfly and zazzle successfully before and they were great!
Stickers!
Get some printable sticker paper, scan or photograph their art and print it on sticker paper. What kid wouldn’t be super psyched about their own stickers?!
Calendar
You can either upload your kids’ artwork and have it printed on a calendar, or you can even buy a basic fairly blank calendar and add it yourself! Then your little one gets to see a different precious artwork each month!
Embroidery
If you like to do embroidery, you can transfer some of your kids artwork onto embroidery fabric and then embroider it! What a fun keepsake!
Puzzles
There are two ways to do this, you can either have your child’s artwork printed on a puzzle using one of the print-on-demand services I’ve mentioned, or you can give your child a blank puzzle and have them turn it into artwork. They’re both fun!
Wrapping Paper
We used kids’ artwork as wrapping paper a ton when my kids were in the preschool stage where they often come home with large abstract paintings. It makes the perfect wrapping paper. You can also give them butcher paper or brown wrapping paper to create on at home with the plan of using it as wrapping paper from the start!
Greeting Cards
Of course you can have your kids draw on blank greeting cards, but you can also cut up sections of paintings or drawings, and collage or feature them on the front of greeting cards. Editing a big finger paint to it’s coolest 3 inches can make for a really lovely card!
Gift Tags
Add small pieces of kids’ art to gift tags for some instant flair!
Magnets
We put kids’ artwork onto magnets every year for Christmas. They make the best gift because your child only has to make one thing and then you can have as many printed. And the other big positive is that magnets are pretty small so it’s easy for the gift recipient to display at home without it taking over their space either. Hot tip: put the date on the magnet and after a while you’ll have whole kid art magnet collection!
Other keepsake objects
You can get art printed on just about anything these days. You can have your kids’ artwork printed on keychains, plates, placemats, mousepads, napkins, pillows, water bottles, notebooks, clipboards… there are seriously a million options to choose from. Again, not sponsored, but shutterfly, zazzle and society6 are some companies that can do this for you.
Clothing
Ok, I saw this artwork clothing and thought it was just the coolest thing ever. Just fyi, I haven’t tried them and it isn’t sponsored, but basically your child gets a template to color in or draw on and then they turn their artwork into a dress in their size. Wouldn’t a gift certificate for this make the coolest gift??
Stuffies
Along the same lines, there are also companies that can turn your kids’ artwork into stuffed animals. I know for sure that my youngest would be so THRILLED with this idea. Again, I haven’t tried it yet but there are several companies that do it including Budsies, Plushy Gift, and Make my Plush.

Let me know if you have any other ideas for turning kids’ art into keepsakes, I’d love to hear it!

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Cassie May

Craft and Knitwear Designer at Little Red Window Design

Welcome to Little Red Window! I’m Cassie, a professional craft and knitwear designer working in the field for more than 10 years. I have a degree in Art History from Northwestern University and a Master's Degree in Architecture and Design from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I've designed more than 300 separate knitting patterns, hundreds of craft projects, and I love to bring joy to your crafts and knitting with well-designed, easy to understand tutorials and patterns.

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