Kids Artworks and Achievements Display and Organising System

I am one of those type of people that likes to have a clear, clean front on their fridge.  To have papers, even magnets just seems too cluttered for my liking.  That’s not to say that my fridge front does not have anything on it at the moment but that I would much prefer it didn’t.

In an attempt to clear the clutter on the front of my fridge, I let it be known that, under no circumstances, was it a display spot for the kidlets artworks or awards.  This was all good in theory, but where would these then go?  In a pile ‘to file’ of course! But where is the sense of pride in that?  It does not show how proud we are of our kidlet’s efforts, actually sends the message that we find their works and achievements insignificant.  Definitely not the impression I want to give.

To be fair, every now and then, the pile does get sorted into folders but even that was not working for us.

Note high out-of-little-hands-reach location {on top of our computer cupboard}, my baby has just turned four and everything possible has been put up high to prevent him destroying it in his younger years.  I hope think we are past this stage now.

A whole new system was needed and STAT!  I liked so many ideas out there for displaying the kidlets artworks.  It was when I came across this idea that I knew what I would do.

Kids Art Display from Iheart Organizing

I had two large, pre-loved whiteboards that would now get a new lease on life.

{Note – I do my projects on my shed floor, it’s supposed to be dirty!  And there’s my trusty Cattle dog ‘Dory’ again!  I actually attempted a project late at night in my garage (attached to house) and my boy was whinging so bad because he couldn’t be by my side ‘project-ing’ gotta love him}

I purchased an inexpensive packet of 6 clips and using white spray paint, I gave the old wooden frames and the clips a new look.

I had purchased a large roll of wrapping paper for this project but once sprayed with adhesive (with a small test patch) the paper just crumpled too much.  As I was not going for the scrunchy look, I hunted for a better option.  And found it, in the form of a flannel backed plastic tablecloth!

Or so I thought!

I marked out where I would like to screw in the clips.  To determine position, I used scrap pieces of A4 paper and eyed it for good placement horizontally.  Then using  a measuring tape to ensure the clips would be level.

I attached the tablecloth with spray adhesive and smoothed it out as much as possible.  I knew it had slightly scrunched in spots and I was willing to leave it as is but in the harsh light of night, all of the board’s imperfections could clearly be seen.  And this photo doesn’t quite show just how bad!

Now, I am aiming to let go of the perfectionist side of me but this is just too far from perfect. This display board was in a prominent place in my house and I just couldn’t live with it left like that. Time to re-think a second time.

I pulled off the tablecloth fabric and sanded back the whiteboard, prepping by filling unwanted holes left from it’s previous use. I taped off the frames because I am useless at cutting in, and painted them using a sample pot colour leftover from choosing my wall paint.

Two coats and the unwanted holes still showed! I think it’s because the old whiteboard was made of masonite. I had to cover the holes so raided my stash of small wood shapes and found an ample amount of stars. Stars tie in as it is a display of my little ‘stars’ artworks.

I painted those stars same colour as the board, I didn’t want them to stand out too much. I covered most hole marks and dotted more around for good measure, just using some craft glue.

To ensure the screws did not poke too far behind the thin whiteboard, I chose short screws but they were still too long.  To fix this little problem I found some washers in our stash, the smaller ones would be behind the bigger one so not seen but I sprayed the bigger ones to match the clips.

And placed them between the clip and board as I screwed it in.  I highly recommend the more expensive magnetised clips with the bulky back that you could screw in, eliminates the need for the washers but I was trying to work with what I had.

This completed my ‘Display Board’ for the kid’s very latest works of art and awards.

When a newer piece comes in, it will be clipped up here and the previously clipped item will be either photographed for digital storage (we can’t keep every piece of artworks – too many!) or filed IMMEDIATELY in their ‘Achievement Folders’.

To prevent piles happening, I purchased the biggest, fattest folders available providing a lot of ‘growing’ room.  I decorated with co-ordinating scrapbook papers and letter stickers..  These will now be kept on a shelf located directly under the boards.   I also covered a couple of wooden magazine holders to match and hold their school yearbooks, one per child.  Not only is this handy for filing, it is in a spot allowing and encouraging little hands to peruse and revel in their achievements at their leisure – class photos included.

Time will tell if this new system ‘works’ but given that I

-assessed what was NOT working with current system

-thoroughly researched options to best suit our needs

-located items for all steps of the process in one place &

-allowed room for further expansion

I would say, I have finally solved the little problem that was our little Artworks and Achievements Display and Filing System.

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