Seeking Sentimental Gift Ideas

I make footprint candles as gifts. If you want the directions, e-mail me. They're very easy and pretty inexpensive.

I am making ornaments out of clay with my girls' handprints on them this year. People always like picture mugs. They even have the stainless steel travel mugs, now. I also got some mugs at a craft store, where the kids can color thier own designs on them. One year I did glass coasters with my daughter's pictures for her grandmother.

Hand and footprints of the kids with pictures of them at corresponding ages. Calendars or mousepads made through shutterfly or some other photo group.

Along with the picture calender idea, we do a photo book on snapfish every year for the grandparents and a few other key people in our daughters life (and one for us). It is sort of a retrospective of her last year. I try to keep it with about 3 pictures on each page and put a little caption on any photos that need one (or would be funny with one).

This year my daughter is making her grandmothers pillows, no sewing required. I made blankets many years ago and they were a huge hit with everybody. You can buy kits from your local fabric store for no sew blankets, the pillows are the same idea but you stuff them and alot smaller of course. Basically its two pieces of fleece type material cut strips all the way down the length on all sides and tie together.

I make necklaces using shrinky-dinks. I printed out pics of my kids with the ink-jet shrinky dinks following the easy directions, used a paper punch for the necklace to go thru, put it in the oven for 3 minutes and it was done! It was a fast & easy project and didn't cost an arm and a leg, either. My recipients loved them, so I've given them new ones every year.

L.,
How about putting together a slideshow or making a special movie out of all your home videos? This is something I have been meaning to do for my mother and I know she will love and cherish having those memories (if I can ever get my act together), it is also something fun to watch together in the evening as a family after all the excitement of opening presents is over!

Happy Holidays!

I have a friend who prints pictures onto fabric. You can do this on t-shirts, sweat shirts, totes, hankies, table cloths, anything made of fabric that can be ironed.

You can find how to do this at a fabric store. I think some print shops will also do this for you.

I started making photo coasters lastyear. Just use white bathroom tiles (bought at home depot) and choose photo and put photo montage(found at craft store) over it and felt pieces on back. I give them new ones to them every year. My sister made a collage out of them, kids grandparents put them on top of a chest and glued them. So they can be sued for multiple different things. Or just coasters.

This year I made a sentimental gift for my little one and it really has turned out to be a great gift for my husband and I. I made my three year old a photo book on Shutterfly of all her adventures for the past year. I included pictures of her friends, family, special things she really liked, places she went and special events. I journaled in each page too, so it was like a story. I never have time to sit down and scrapbook anymore, so this was the best way I could document her life. I gave it to her and we read it all the time, like a story. It has so much meaning for her but even more for my husband and I. We love reading it. It was just a great way to capture her life at this moment in time.

I have also made these books for my mom and dad. They take a little time to do but seriously are worth the effort.