Create a Forever Keepsake with 4everBound Books

Here’s the problem: Your kid is a prolific artist. The artist part is great, but the volume is an issue. How many crayon drawings of your family, poster-paint apple trees, and construction-paper collages are you supposed to be able to manage?

If you’ve been following my advice, you’ve Set Up a System to Deal with School Papers: A temporary display space to show off this week’s latest greatest creations and a bin or portfolio for long-term storage.

But you’ll notice a secondary problem. You’ve saved all of your child’s wonderful creations, but they’re stored away where no one looks at them.

Why keep a precious memento stored in a bin,
​never to be seen and enjoyed?

The typical options for putting children’s art into a usable keepsake each have their own problems.

School years scrapbooks work well as your storage system, but we tend to jam too many pages into the scrapbook’s pockets, making it a fight to get the papers out for viewing. The book becomes heavy and cumbersome and won’t lay flat.

Printed photo books are space-savers, but if you can’t bring yourself to throw away the original art (I couldn’t!), then you have to keep storing the artwork.

A binder with plastic sleeves is OK, but it’s a pain to put together and its utilitarian plainness doesn’t do justice to your child’s marvelous creations.

SOLUTION: 4everBound*

Owned and operated by Robyn and Peter Pomonis, 4everBound takes your precious paper mementos and hand-binds them into a beautiful keepsake book. Your child’s actual art pieces become the book’s pages. If a piece is too small, they mount it onto a larger page. If a piece is too large, they carefully fold it so it becomes a pop-out page.

Last year, I made a 4everBound book for my oldest daughter who’s now a young adult. It was fun to reminisce through her life from toddler to teenager. Although I had already pared down her work at the end of every school year, I still had too much even for the largest 90-page 4everBound book.

​How do you go about paring down all these precious memories? Make it a game.

SORTING: THE YES/NO GAME

Gather all of your child’s artwork into one place and separate it by year. Don’t get hung up on perfectionism or you’ll get stuck on putting it in chronological order — just do the best you can.

Now play the Yes/No Game. Pick a year — I like to work backward starting with the most recent — and sort the papers into two piles: Yes and No.

By forcing yourself to make a binary decision, you’ll get through it much faster than if you have to rank the pieces. Don’t overthink your answers. If it’s a maybe, put it into the Yes pile at this stage.

Now for the hard part: Immediately throw away the No pile! Don’t give yourself time to think about it or you’ll start fishing things out of the trash.

Repeat this for every year’s worth of papers. Set a goal to sort one year’s worth every day or five years’ worth each week.

​After you’ve gone through it once, count how many pages you have to see how much you still need to reduce. Play the Yes/No game again until you have the number of pages needed. 4everBound books are available in 30, 60, or 90 pages. Just go for the 90-page kit!

THE 4EVERBOUND EXPERIENCE

Once you’ve begun the sorting process, you’re ready to order your 4everBound kit. You’ll receive a sturdy shipping box with a prepaid label, a thick plastic envelope, and instructions. All you have to do is put your pages in the envelope — in the order you want them to be in the book — seal it, put it into the box, and mail it back to 4everBound. At their shop, Robyn will hand trim, mount, and fold your pages then give them to Peter who binds them. Soon, you’ll receive a beautiful, one-of-a-kind keepsake that your family will treasure forever.

Just think what fun you’ll have snuggling on the sofa and leafing through the memories with your family!

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Not just kids' art — 4everBound preserves all kinds of memories

Do you have paper or paper-like mementos that you want to bind that’s not children’s artwork? 4everBound can handle that too! Preserve family history by having them make a book of letters or documents. Memorialize your achievements by binding a book of awards or racing bibs. If it’s paper or paper-like, 4everBound can make it into a book!

Watch my interview with Robyn and Peter Pomonis, founders of 4everBound, and learn about some of the most interesting books they've made.

* I receive a small commission when you buy through my affiliate link.