Depending on how much time you have and whether you can sew or not, I'd make a family quilt.
I use family member's shirts or fabric pieces that THEY select and send to me. I use them to make the underside of my quilt. Each piece represents that family member. Usually I do this for the high school graduates in our family, so on the top side I use fabrics that are the school colors of the college the student has chosen, but you can use other fabrics if you have them, or more family member fabrics. I tell the person I make it for that it is a way to have your family with you all the time.
I just remembered I found a really great photo of my dad and I together from when I was little (maybe 3 or 4 years old). We're in a park and I'm riding on his shoulders. I have it scanned, but was wondering if there would be a special way to present it to him with a quote, poem or something nice like that??? KathrynHannah - maybe I could tie in your idea of the handwritten note. Any suggestions?
a finger painting from my son
placed a thick matting over it
place pictures from newborn to "today" all around the matting
then, frame the whole thing
(all you need to buy is the matting and frame) *really inexpensive.
He loved it!
maybe something along these lines with all the grandchildren pictures.
I just remembered I found a really great photo of my dad and I together from when I was little (maybe 3 or 4 years old). We're in a park and I'm riding on his shoulders. I have it scanned, but was wondering if there would be a special way to present it to him with a quote, poem or something nice like that???
I did this for dh's g-mas one year and they both LOVED it! I got a 2 sided folding frame and put a pic of my boys on one side and printed a grandma poem onto matching cardstock on the other side! (I used a different poem for each g-ma to personalize it a bit more) Big hit - the poems were read out loud (at the different christmas get togethers) and one g-ma even cried!!
I just googled "dad poems from daughter" and found some cute ones on this site...
Depending on how much time you have and whether you can sew or not, I'd make a family quilt.
I use family member's shirts or fabric pieces that THEY select and send to me. I use them to make the underside of my quilt. Each piece represents that family member. Usually I do this for the high school graduates in our family, so on the top side I use fabrics that are the school colors of the college the student has chosen, but you can use other fabrics if you have them, or more family member fabrics. I tell the person I make it for that it is a way to have your family with you all the time.
I did something kind of similar for my Grampa's 75th birthday a few years ago. I didn't think to use my family's own fabric pieces, though! I used blues and whites (his favorite colors) and I put pictures (each family member selected what picture they wanted used) on iron-on transfer sheets so that his whole family (at the time--it's expanded even more now) was on the quilt. He has 11 children (8 living), 17 grandchildren (15 living) and 14 great-grandchildren. I put Grampa and Grammy (deceased in 1991) in the middle and kept the photos in groups by family. I used my grandmother's buttons (she saved and collected them) at the corners of the squares to help keep the quilt together. He really loved it!
That's an AWESOME quilt!! I may have to think about this for future gift ideas! I'm not sure I could do a whole quilt though - It would take me FOREVER!!!
__________________
WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
Stay at home mom to my 3 boys... ages 6, 4 & 2!
"I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me."
Philippians 4:13
I once dug up an old b/w photo of my dad holding me on his lap when I was around 1. It's the only photo I know of with the 2 of us together until I'm 9 or older. I got it copied & framed it. He seemed to like it.
I did this for dh's g-mas one year and they both LOVED it! I got a 2 sided folding frame and put a pic of my boys on one side and printed a grandma poem onto matching cardstock on the other side! (I used a different poem for each g-ma to personalize it a bit more) Big hit - the poems were read out loud (at the different christmas get togethers) and one g-ma even cried!!
I just googled "dad poems from daughter" and found some cute ones on this site...
Just sharing the card I made, thanks to the great poems from SAHMto3boys. I'm not a scrapbooker, but I'm happy with how it turned out. Plus, it was FREE!
Quote:
Linear Mode
