Accumulate. The first step to reigning control over your child’s creative clutter is to set up a single spot to collect completed artwork. The ideal scenario is to establish one container—a collection bin—placed in a convenient location in your home. This could be a bin that you store on a bookshelf near the front door, a lidded wicker basket or a canvas box on a console table in the entry way, or a vertical file box on the kitchen counter. The key is to have one spot for each child’s artwork that makes it simple to file items away.

Appreciate. Whenever your child comes home with a new piece of artwork they’re particularly proud of, appreciate it by putting it on display in a special place in your home. Create a gallery wall in your child’s room, or frame favorite pieces using inexpensive acrylic box frames. Or, establish the refrigerator door or an oversized magnetic board as your home’s art gallery. As new favorites come in, cycle the old pieces into the collection bin and put the newest pieces out on display.

Incubate. Let your child’s collection bin accumulate artwork over the course of several weeks or months. This incubation period will make it easier to cull through the artwork and make decisions about what to keep permanently.

Edit. As soon as your child’s collection bin gets full, edit, edit, edit. Keep the truly special pieces—those your child is especially proud of and those that tug extra hard on your heartstrings. You don’t have to keep it all and you’ll actually be more likely to enjoy the pieces you do keep if you edit the collection down the very best and most special pieces.

Organize + Store. Finally, organize and store the keepers by age or grade level. Here are a few ways to approach this step.
•    Artwork books. Your child’s artwork book can be as simple as a 3-ring binder with sheet protectors. Or you can 3-hole punch artwork and place it directly in the binder. For over-sized artwork, turn the paper sideways, punch holes and then fold the art to fit in the binder. Or, look for oversized books such as the Original Digital Printer Album from Itoya. These books come in a variety of sizes up to an 18” x 24” poster sized album, making them a perfect solution for oversized pieces.
•    Photo books. If you don’t want to keep original artwork here’s an alternative. Snap a photo of each special piece of art and the artist. Then print photos and put them into a traditional photo album or photo book. This is also a terrific solution for 3-dimensional projects as well as art made with food. (Think fruit loops glued onto construction paper and macaroni art.)
•    Collages. To create your own artwork collage, start with a whole lotta’ artwork you love, an artist canvas in the size of your choice, scissors, decoupage medium, and foam brushes. Then, channel your inner child, get messy and create a masterpiece you and your child will both be proud to hang on the wall.
•    Artwork boxes. Perhaps the simplest storage approach of all is a box or portfolio. You could go as simple as a clean, unused pizza box, or invest in archival safe boxes designed just for artwork—even oversized pieces.

Just as our kids experiment with their art, don’t be afraid to experiment with your organizing process! Pick and choose the steps that work best for you and your family so you can better appreciate and collect those works of art.

Aby Garvey is the founder and co-owner of simplify 101. Her passion is helping people create real and lasting change in their lives by getting more organized. Aby believes organizing is a fun and enjoyable process, which is why she developed a whole new way to get organized—simplify 101′s online workshops. Get a taste of simplify 101—and the organized life—with their FREE, simple-to-follow guide How to Create a Command Central Binder. You’ll put together a home reference binder that will help you get organized, save time, and minimize paper clutter and the stress that comes along with it! For more great organizing tips and information, visit simplify 101.com or follow their blog, Facebook, or Pinterest.

And besides, I wanted something extra special. Something that when they opened it not only did they FEEL the love, they could SEE the love. And then an idea came to me in one of those glorious ‘aha’ light bulb moments that make you do the happy dance like nobody’s watching! I had it. I would make each of them their own special book, and in that book combine all the details of their own birth story, complete with pictures, and fun verbiage to tell it. Boom-baby! And I got to work.

Deciding where to begin was the hardest part, but then I figured, why not start the beginning…{wait for it}…at the beginning? Genius, I know.

The majority of the book is about them, celebrating their birth, their story…

But the end celebrates their future induction into the big {and biggest, big} brother hall of fame…

I had the boys open them a few days before our little bundle was due to arrive, giving them time to enjoy the memories of their own birth and at the same time preparing them to welcome the newest member of our family.

Reactions? My oldest son, LOVED his book. The same cannot be said for my littlest man. He wanted a new present…one with wheels. {Note to self : do not, under ANY circumstances, give presents to boys who have just woken up from their nap. Period.} After his initial disappointment, I later found him cuddled up with his blankie and bla-bla {his lovie} reading his new book. Melt me.

Their birth story books prepared them for the arrival of our newest baby by celebrating the day they were born, allowing them to see just how much they were loved, and are still loved, and giving them something to relate to as we welcomed their new sister into our lives…and the bonus? They also make a treasured keepsake for a sentimental mama like me!

Guest post by Stacey Worthington

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beyond obvious things like the facts that i’m a stay at home mom, a photographer and a lover of all things random and creative, you might find me drinking mass quantities of coffee, running circles around my boys and baby girl, singing at the top of my lungs just because it makes me happy and frequently labeling myself a dork…because i am one! i love life and all things it encompasses and work daily to focus on gratitude and stamp it on the hearts of my children…after all, a thankful life is a happy one!

I absolutely adore the Texas wildflower season. Sometimes it’s really, really short. Sometimes it’s non-existant. But thanks to a lot of early rain, I think we’re in for an incredible season. For the past 8 years, I’ve taken my kids out into the bluebonnets to get pictures and I plan to carry that tradition on again this year. They’re not in full bloom yet, so I thought I’d capture this once-in-a-lifetime season of yellow flowers with my daughter.

No matter where you live, however, you can take advantage of the wonderful color and romantic look of wildflowers (even if you have to fake it…I’ll explain later) and I’ve got a few tips for you to help you capture the best images possible:

1) SAFETY!!! I have to admit that I cringe when I see little ones sitting in the flowers just a few feet off the highway and mom is out there by herself trying to snap away. If possible, take someone with you to focus on the children’s safety while you focus your camera. Most importantly, you’ve got to find a safe place to take pictures. Even if there’s a stunning patch of flowers in the median, that’s not really a safe place to be. I know it’s tempting, but the best way to get your pictures is to be sure you’re well off major highways and roads. And sometimes that means driving around for hours looking for the safest possible place to go.

2) Comfort – Mosquitoes are no fun and don’t make for very good pictures. Here in Texas we also have to worry about fire ants and lately, mud. Be prepared for critters and I advise everyone to wear boots and just find a clever way to make sure they’re not seen in the pics.

3) Go out on cloudy day or close to sunrise/sunset for the best lighting for your images.

4) Use your most telephoto lens and shoot wide open…if you just have a kit lens, zoom out as far as it will go. This makes the flowers look more plentiful, even if they are not. All of the images in this post were shot with a 70-200mm as close to 200mm as I could get and at f/2.8.

5) Embrace mistakes. I kind of like the painterly feel of this out of focus image below:

6) It doesn’t always have to be in color. Loved the mood of this image when I turned it into black and white:

7) Fake it if you want to. I see nothing wrong with investing in a few potted plants and setting some in the foreground and background of your image. Shoot through the petals to create a look like you’re in wildflowers:

There’s one wall in my house that makes all the other walls turn green with envy. It’s the show stopper whenever someone new comes into our home. It’s the one that gets the oohs and aahs as the other walls roll their eyes.

It’s this one…

Okay, so the walls are actually yellow. But you get the point. ;)

As a photographer it’s difficult to narrow down images of my own family to display. It’s also difficult to find the time to actually print all the things I want to enjoy everyday.

About four years ago I decided the solution to this problem was a photo collage that showcased bits and pieces of our life as a family. I wanted each family member to get equal time (yes, even mama!) and I wanted the images to be a celebration of who we are not what we look like.

I started with a 36×36 gallery wrapped canvas that included nine 12×12 images. After a few years our family had grown out of the images on the wall and I decided it was time to update.

But I just couldn’t bear the thought of taking down those memories. So instead, I added to it. I created a new 36×36 canvas with a new set of nine images that celebrated our evolving life as a family. I hung them side by side so they appear as one piece.

And call me crazy, but I don’t think I plan to stop at two. The way I see it, that wall has room for six 36×36 canvases when it’s all said and done. And the neighbors may think I’ve gone cuckoo for cocoa puffs but I can’t imagine anything that will make me happier in 10 years than seeing the growth of my children from babies to toddlers to children to teens on that same wall.

Of course seeing my husband and I change from 20 somethings to, well, 40 somethings won’t be as much fun. But it sure beats the alternative, right?

If you’re interested in creating your own wall o’ canvas, here’s what to do:

- Open a blank Photoshop document in the dimensions of your finished canvas at 300 dpi. Mine is 36×36 but you can create yours in whatever size you’d like.

- Figure out how many images you’d like to place on your canvas, and how you’d like them to be divided up. My piece has nine 12×12 images.

- Open that many images and crop to the determined size at 300 dpi.

- Using the move tool, drag each image individually onto your large blank Photoshop document and position where you’d like them to be. It may take a bit of playing to hit upon the arrangement that you like.

- If your canvas lab allows you to create your own edge color (mine does) you can do that right in PSD. Start by flattening your finished canvas piece, and then creating a new blank Photoshop document at the size of your finished canvas PLUS the depth of your edges. If you’re planning to print a gallery wrapped canvas with a 2 inch edge wrap then you’ll add four inches to each length of your canvas (two inches on each side). So for my 36×36 canvas I would create a new document at 40×40 at 300 dpi.

- Change the color of your new Photoshop document to your desired edge wrap color.

- Drag your Photoshop document with pictures onto your Photoshop document with the edge color. Hint: View > Show > Grid and View > Rulers will help to make sure you have your image file positioned correctly on your background layer.

- Now flatten, save as a JPEG and order from your favorite canvas lab!

By now you have certainly heard of (and more likely, fallen head over heels for) Pinterest, the remarkable visual bookmarking site that is sweeping the social scene. I was one of the earlier adopters and can barely imagine my online life without it. Need a recipe? Check Pinterest. Gift idea? Pinterest. Grumpy toddler? A Pinterest activity will cheer him up. The perfect paint color? An endless array of options…on Pinterest of course. Crafting, DIY or creative project? All of those and more. Much more.

By now, many of us have stopped just collecting and filing amazing and innovative ideas. We’ve put our pins into action. And, 90% of the time we are in awe of the results. We LOVE Pinterest. We love how creative it can make us feel. And, of course we love our made over living room.

But what happens when things go wrong? PIN-tastrophe. You know, the project that looked awesome, but didn’t quite turn out as you expected.

Case in point: I have loved making sensory boxes for my three year old. Of course, we were feeling all Montessori with our bamboo rice box and garbanzo bean exploratory tub. Until I heard a “clink, clink, clink, crash” on the stairs. “What was that??!!” Apparently, said three year old started grabbing fistfuls of dry garbanzo beans to chuck at his brother and down the stairs. Our entire upstairs was covered in chick peas. Two weeks later I’m still stepping on (err, finding) them.

Here are what a few others had to say about their own Pinteresting mishaps:

I just posted that I need a whole blog just for my Pinterest projects. Most of them have worked out well. Except for the other day when I let the boy play with toothpicks and a spice jar. Toothpick in my foot. Seriously. Hurt like heck. — Crystal Butler

I saw a Pin to let a preschooler play with a hammer and ice to get out energy. That is a recipe for disaster. — Lori Hand

The glowing Mountain Dew experiment. Totally doesn’t work. Very disappointed 7 year old. Funny part is we just kept trying! — Alison Bickel

I tried to make some “amazing” macaroni and cheese that was supposed to taste just like Panera’s. You boiled the noodles in milk to cook them. DEE-SKUSS-TING. My kids wouldn’t even eat it…and what kid won’t each mac ‘n cheese? — Erin Cobb

What about you? What have you tried via Pinterest…and bombed? Share here or pin it to your own board with the tag #pintashtrophe.

Her answer: “Get a succulent.”

More than a decade later, the succulent is still my favorite plant and I happily have them displayed all over our home. They are the absolute easiest way to bring the outdoors in without much maintenance or thought. Since their current rise in popularity, it is now much easier to find wide varieties at your local big box store or farmers market.

This is a perfectly quick project to add life to your office space or to take on as a family in anticipation for Spring! Just be careful, it’s terribly addicting…

Supplies:

· mini succulents (check your local farmer’s market)
· glass container (IKEA and Michael’s are a great source)
· small rocks
· charcoal
· cactus soil
· orchid bark
· spoon
· spray bottle

Start by adding a layer of rocks in your glass container. I like to keep my layers as even as possible just for visual purposes but you’ll want at least a full layer with no holes. Follow this step by adding a layer of charcoal. I found both of these supplies at my local nursery.

Next you’ll add a little bit of your cactus soil. Nestle your plant in the soil and continue to build soil around it using your spoon, patting the soil down around your plant with your fingers as you go. Finally add a single layer of the orchid bark over your soil layer and give a few mists of water to quench your plant’s thirst! Depending on the humidity in your home and where your plant is placed will depend on how much water it needs. In our home, a few mists every 2 weeks seems to do the trick!

Here are some fun variations from our home to add some pep to your succulent garden:

Spray paint one of those boring containers from an old florist delivery.

Search out fun vintage glassware at garage sales or antique shops to use as vessels.

Add a little fun for the kids by adding some painted toys. This garden resides on the window sill in our playroom! I just loved the painted dino terrarium idea from Harpers Happenings so I added them to our succulent garden.

Simply wrap some hemp or twine around a glass container for a more rustic look! Just tie or glue in place.

We make a monthly budget, and use cash for everything.  We know where our money goes, have been paying down all of our debt, and working on having a sizable emergency fund.  But, being the way that I am, there is no reason why my budget notebook and envelopes cannot be cute, right?  I used the same idea as my kitchen journal, and printed out envelopes from this template.

My best friend is also on this journey, and we help each other stay motivated, and accountable.  Sort of like a workout buddy, who cheers you on when you reach goals, and kicks your behind when you lose your way.  I made a set for her as well, and now we are budget buddies.  We keep track of everything in our notebooks, and use the envelopes to keep track of how much we have spent and where we have spent it.

Instead of dreading making a budget, and spending our money each month before the month actually gets here, it is something that I look forward to.  It is now the highlight of my month.  Seeing the progress that we have made, and how each month, we get closer to reaching our goals, is almost like a game.  I get a thrill every time I get cross a debt off our list, and when I put a certain amount of money towards a goal.  We are winning this game, and know that our future is much more secure, and we are changing how our family treats money.  One month at a time.