Art Treasures from School

During the years of raising a large family, I saved artwork created by my children, from the simplest scribbles and stick figures of a two-year-old to elaborate paintings by a high school student. About once a year I would select each child’s best art to keep and mount on colored paper. For long-term storage, acid-free, archival-quality paper works best. On the border below the picture I wrote the child’s name, age, and subject or title of the drawing.

Included in these art pieces were many self-portraits, drawings of the family, renderings of holiday traditions, and even paintings of family trips and outings. These have become a cherished part of our family’s history.

One Christmas, after many years of storing boxes full of the children’s art, I decided to make special Christmas gifts out of them. After separating the pictures into piles, I chose 10 of the best examples of each child’s work to assemble into booklets. Because the pictures varied in size, I took them to a copy shop and either enlarged or reduced them to fit on a common page size, then added a title page and assembled the booklets.

Just before Christmas, I placed each child’s loose drawings into gift boxes and placed the special booklet on top. Because our children, now adults, live nearby, we were able to deliver these gifts in person on Christmas Day. It was truly a joyful occasion as our grown children rediscovered their art treasures from the past.—Wanda West Badger, Monument Park Ninth Ward, Salt Lake Monument Park Stake

Illustrated by Joe Flores