Growing up I distinctly remember our blue art cabinet. I had to ask my Mom for whatever it was that I wanted to use, until I was tall enough to reach the latch and open the cabinet myself;or clever enough to stand on a chair to reach. It was the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe of art cabinets. An organized array of various art mediums from crayons, markers and pencils to the more sophisticated types like watercolor, oil and acrylic paints. I completed many masterpieces with those art supplies.

Seeing my kids create their own masterpieces pulls at my artistic heart strings. I’m very sentimental. But, I’m not as brave as my Mom when it comes to the accessibility of our art supplies. I keep the supplies way out of reach in the top cabinets of our kitchen. I learned the hard way. After ingested tips of markers and crayons, colored carpets, floors, bodies, walls, sofas and paint explosions; I waved the white flag and reorganized. Sure, we still have art catastrophes, but we call those our own personal Picassos. We love our art, and have fun displaying it on our “Masterpieces” wall in our living room.

There’s such an abundance of kid art in our home that I take pictures of their art, then store my favorites in empty pizza boxes labeled with the year (which I guess means we eat a lot of pizza). Anyway, back to the art. Then, when I make our annual family Shutterfly calendar I add the kids’ artwork in with the family photos. Saving the artwork digitally means endless possibilities for what I can do with their art someday. From cherishing it in a photo book or creating canvases, to embarrassing them someday later on in life.