What to do with Oodles of Doodles?

I loved art at school and my books and pencil cases from the time were covered in doodles and quotes from various pieces of literature that I found particularly inspiring/funny. Top Ender has developed a similar trait and is forever doodling designs for a new outfit, flowers that she would like to create through cross pollination and her name if she were to marry various celebrities. Its fantastic, I love seeing how her skills are developing and how her mind works but there is a problem and that is that I am a hoarder. When it comes to Top Ender and Baby Boy's drawings and pieces of work I can't give them up and I know that I am not the only parent out there that wants to keep every piece of work that their child does.


The question is what to do? Some people keep every piece of work that has ever been created and store them. Some take the work and filter through what is there and select only the best, or the ones that have special meanings or memories. Others cut them up and make a smorgasbord of pieces of work. And then there are those who just throw them all away.

None of those options work for me. I haven't the space to keep them all and I don't want to throw them all away or cut them up. I don't have the talent or the ideas to make sure that they look good and to make sure that it is the ones with the right memories that are kept. I knew that I needed another way, but what was it? What was the answer I was looking for?

A similar question had been asked about photographs before. I take a lot of photos each month and each one holds a memory, a captured feeling, a moment in time that I can never get back. Of course the answer to my problem with photographs was the answer to my answer to the problem with Top Ender and Baby Boy's Doodles. The Computer. If they can get into the PC they can be stored forever.

We have a scanner and I am not afraid to use it. Every piece of work that they do can be stored digitally and then the actual piece of work can be recycled or used as wrapping paper.

When I saw the blog post on Mummy's Little Monkey for the doodling competition with Feel Good Drinks I thought that it would be a good one to enter and to also use one of the images that I will scan in from Top Enders doodles. So here is the entry from Top Ender aged 6 and 11/12ths.