How to Turn Your Child's Art into a Photo Book – MILK Books

1. Get organized

It’s time to start the task of tackling that mountain-high pile of drawings, paintings, sculptures and more. We’d recommend sitting down with your child and work with them to choose their top pieces of artwork that they’d like to showcase permanently in a photo book format. You could keep things simple and include a bit of everything in no particular order, or you could consider arranging the art by theme. Perhaps your child has a knack for portraits of people, flowers or simply takes an abstract approach. Maybe you’d like to divide things by medium; paint, crayons, pencils or chalk. Or you could opt for displaying the art across a book in a chronological order to show how their style and skill has developed over time.

If you find yourself reading this article before your little one starts bringing home a collection of artworks – well done! Consider this your sign to get organized early and start keeping a regular record of all your favorite masterpieces now by using a traditional scanner or taking a photo from your phone. 

2. Get digital copies of each masterpiece

Once you’ve got all your child’s artwork organized it’s time to get digitized copies of everything for easy uploading later. You can either use a traditional scanner, a photo scanning app, or take a photo from your phone or camera. Photos are a great option for any 3D art creations. 

MILK Tip: If you’re using your phone or camera, be sure to place the artwork against a plain background and shoot in natural light where possible. You can crop the background out later or keep it in for aesthetic purposes. 

Childhood artwork often cycles from fridge frames to closet clutter faster than relatives can say, “Look how tall you’ve grown!” Instead of banishing my cherished drawings and paintings to the attic to collect dust, I compiled my proudest masterpieces into a beautiful photo book that doubles as a delightful coffee table tome and nostalgic keepsake.

With the help of my awesome mom (she kept every charcoal drawing and handmade bookmark), we scanned art pieces that my sister and I created over the years: favorite mermaid masterpieces, a Hawaiian sunset painting, a watercolor of cats sailing a boat (you know, as cats do), and more. I chose to create an 8×8 Premium Layflat Photo Book. This gave my art collection a slick portfolio feel, thanks to its extra-thick premium paper and seamless layflat binding. Who says kid art can’t be gallery quality?

Create your own childhood art book in three easy steps:

1. Scan + edit artwork: Scan your favorite art pieces. You can always pare down the collection later. If some don’t make the book cut, you’ll still have a digital copy of them. If you don’t have a scanner, don’t fret; many office supply stores offer scanning services. If art is too large to scan (like this Raggedy Ann crayon masterpiece), take a photo from a bird’s eye perspective. Upload into a photo editor and crop to desired size. Play with contrast and brightness to achieve the same vivid color in your art piece, like I did in the below sunset painting.

2. Select layout + caption: Display one painting or drawing per page to achieve a crisp portfolio aesthetic. Choose your favorite 1-photo layout, or just drag-and-drop your photo onto the page. Caption each photo and include age and year the artwork was completed. Use the same font throughout for uniformity (I opted for a kid-like scrawl).

3. Create cover + spine: Feature your favorite paintings in a collage layout on the cover (see above), and include a photo of the artist, too! Add the year(s) to the spine to label each album.

Give this page-turning walk down memory lane a go, and start creating your photo book! We’d love to see your childhood sketches, so tag your photo book with #Snapfish on Instagram to share.

We love seeing what you come up with! Please tag us @SnapfishUS and #snapfish on Facebook, Instagram & Pinterest . We love seeing what you create.