Gifts from Baby

http://lillyella.blogspot.com/2009/06/crafting-button-bra...
This is SO easy and inexpensive! I use white or black elastic @.39 a yard. Everyone has a box of buttons hanging around. Takes 20 minutes to sew. I use Nymo thread to make it stronger. Doubled quilting thread will work, too. I haven't used those little baby bracelet buttons with the letters stamped on them, but you just gave me a good idea!

A fun and inexpensive gift I have been making for 3 yrs now (was such a hit, everyone love them) Was to go to Hardware store and get tiles (like for bathroom floor) 6 in by 6 in and take photos and put them on tile, you can write something if you want, then put photo mantage (found at craft store) over the top, makes it look shiny and protects, Makes perfect photo coasters.

Can make 20 tiles for under $15.

I usually make 4 coasters per year. per person.

If you need a bit better description and directions please msg me and Ill explain better!!

Try Salt dough hand print Ornaments. Check out http://www.artsncrafts-ideas.com/salt-dough-recipe.php. for recipie. Make the dough, then roll out a flat disc a little bigger then your son's hand. Then have him press his hand into the disk. Then bake it (Make sure to put a little hole in the hand to put a ribbon through before baking) you can also carve the name and year on the back or the bottom. I did this a few years ago and it was a great hit! make sure to keep one for yourself as well!

Good luck

Hi A.... I am not sure where you are located, but if you are anywhere close to Federal Way... There is a place called Paint Yourself Silly.
You can paint tiles, coffee cups, Christmas ornaments... anything that they have there... you paint, they fire it and all... Fairly inexpensive... I think I paid 7 dollars for my tile, and we put my son's hand prints on it!
Anyhow... check it out, see what you think!
Good luck!

Something that I am doing and now your baby would be problable old enough for is to get a picture frame, 8x10 or maybe one of those 3 frame ones from Ikea and then have your baby color or use finger pants and frame them. I remember seeing one of those in a collegues office once and had asked him about his art and he said his kids did it, it looked really good and I am going to have my boys do it for grandparents this year.

A.,
You can put his little hand or foot in clay. They have kits you can buy or you can do it with cement like a stepping stone or something. Also, I have made cards with paint using foot and hand. You can put this in a frame with a picture of you and your little guy or just him. That would be sweet. Hope this helps.

A framed picture of your son and the person to whom you're giving the gift would probably be very well received and not very expensive. There are also lots of photo products like mugs and aprons and puzzles... that don't cost too much that you could put a picture either just of him or of he and the gift recipient on it. Another idea is stationary. This will be the second year I'm doing that. Last year, my boys were only 2 and it worked well so I bet your guy could do it. All we did was let them paint wildly (abstract) with water colors. Then I chose my favorite, scanned it on my computer and added a little "Made by" label with their name and age and then took them to Kinko's. I bought some colored envelopes and then used pretty ribbon to tie each stationary set together. It looked really good by the time it was all done. Good luck!

A.,
What a great question!! You have gotten some wonderful answers. Now your problem is going to be what to choose!

Something crafty is definitely great. My duaghter is a bit older, but right around that age she started liking stickers and stamps. You could have him paint/sticker/stamp a picture frame and put a picture of him in it.
If you don't have the time for crafts, know that our family members like getting photo gifts (they live across the country and overseas, so they don't see us very often).This year they will be getting photo calenders from snapfish, that are $20 each.

A framed picture of them with Baby would be cute.

Hi A.,

Do you use Snapfish? Last year, I made my family things with pictures of them and my kids. For example for two of my sisters I made mugs. I used pictures of them and my kids only, and each of them said "we love aunt..." For my father, I made him a calendar. Each month had a different picture of the kids, I made sure to include any pictures I had of them and him as well. On dates that had special events (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.), I wrote them in and put a picture of that person on it. For my mom, I made her a big (16 x 20) collage of pictures, that said "we love Grandma". And all the pictures were of the kids and her. My brother got a mousepad. Everyone really loved their gift. Basically, I made them each something personalized and individual, and something that fit their lifestyle. The best part was that I spent less than $100 on all of that. Good luck on whatever you find. Happy holidays!!

Maybe make them an ornament with your baby's picture on it.

Hi There A.,

I am a single mom as well of 4 children. I definitely know what you go thru & how tight budgets can be. I needed a good gift from my kids & myself too, so I gave them a t-shirt with my kids & I's picture printed on it & wrote their names & the year below it with clothing puff paint. This gave the t-shirt a "personalization from our heart" feel to it & didn't take more then 20 min to do. You can also use flat clothing paint too if you like that better. I went to Walmart & picked up some $5.00 T-shirts, then took those & a printed picture of my kids to Postal Annex & they screen printed it right on the t-shirt. I don't know if you are from Vancouver but I used Postal Annex in Salmon Creek. I'm sure there are 1's in Portland that do this as well. It was $11 if u bring in your own t-shirts plus $2 to take the pic off a cd or they had t-shirts there & charged $15. They can also type in your message below the pic on the computer, before printing the pic to put onto the shirt, if you don't want to do it yourself with the clothing paint. This gift was an absolute hit! They LOVED it! Also, just this last baseball season I had to come up with some good coaches gift's, so I went back there & had mouse pads printed up with my boy's baseball team pic on it. She typed in the team name & year for me too (no charge) and they came out GREAT! They are real nice up there. All the coaches liked these better then the trophies they usually get. The mouse pad's cost me $11 for the mouse pad & screen print. Both gift cost me no more then $16 after tax & made great lifetime momento's. I know there are companys at the shopping mall's that do this too, but I don't know what they charge. Hope this helps & Happy Holidays from 1 hard working mother to another. =0)

T. D

A.-

When I was a Nanny, one family had their 2 year old paint a paper box (like they have at the craft store), then they added pictures inside of the child. They gave me this and a "grown-up" gift to me for Christmas. The 2 year old is now 13, but I still have the box on display.

I had many families do things like that and LOVED it!

R. Magby

Do you have a camera? Maybe you can casually start to take the camera out while you are together with these special people. Sometimes it takes a few times to get a nice, natural picture. You can give them pictures of themselves with your special guy. The dollar store has frames or Fred Meyers usually has them on sale. Costco and Walgreens both do a decent job with prints and you can upload them online or at the store. Have fun!

Briefly, an ornament for the Christmas tree that has "from .... and the year"

A.,

I don't know if you have something like this or not, but if you have something like Kids N Clay in your area you can go into the studio and either make something from scratch or "paint" something premade. We did that for a present for my in-laws and they loved it.

www.kidsnclay.com for ideas.

Hope this helps,
Melissa

I love the idea box another reader suggested! Hmmm... how about a mug with a picture of your child and his "Auntie" or "Uncle". I saw personalized mugs on sale for about $7 each the other day. You could even wrap it in gift wrap that has your son's handprints painted on it in red and green paint. Or maybe a little Christmas ornament that you and your son make out of salt dough and he could paint them himself. Or how about buying a Christmas ornament that you could put your son's picture in? Toss in a plate or mug full of homemade cookies that you and your son make and that could complete the picture!

I look forward to reading some of the other suggestions that are posted here as I could always use good Christmas gift ideas myself.

Best of luck to you!

How about making some sort of craft with your son for them. Somethings I've done with my now 8 yr old boy:

Fabric Painted canvas shopping bags
Painted a picture frame w/ a picture of him in it
Christmas Ornaments (kit from Michaels)

If you are okay w/a bit of mess here are a couple of ideas. For these two you need a t-shirt in the size of the person you are giving it to. Get some fabric paint and paint your little one's hands and feet and stamp them on the t-shirt (or cards, or picture to be framed). Another option is to get fabric markers and let your little one go to town on their own at the bottom or inside date and give age/name of your cutie. My little one's are now 9 and 6 and we still get compliments on these gifts. If you can sew (by hand or machine) you can get cheap fabric let your little one draw or do hand print and turn this into pillows - you can get a lot of small/med. pillows from a yard or so of fabric and a bag of fill.

I think a cute little personalized gift would be to paint your child's hands, press them on paper. Then take a candid picture of your child with his "aunties" individually and put it on the sheet with the hands. The hands could sort of be holding the pictures. You can find super cute frames for inexpensive at the dollar store. I bet they will love it. :)

Hi A. (pretty name!)

I also am a single parent (but of twins!) and the best things we have ever given are pictures that they have made (no matter what they look like) then find frames at the thrift store/dollar store. Also we used to do a walmart portrait (i only suggest walmart because they are the CHEAPEST portrait studio when they have those 4 and 5 dollar portrait packages)and then the cheap frames...it is personal, inexpensive, and gives them a keepsake of both of you...my boys have outgrown the desire to cooperate during portraits (their smiles look fake and forced, they are 9) so we do small handmade things or batches of cookies, etc...good luck and have fun!

Check out Walgreen's website in the photos section. They have SOOOOOOO many different things (like mugs, mouse pads, calenders, blankets, etc.) there that you can personalize with photos there's bound to be something that fits your needs.

So this is what I did with my daughter and from her as well. Buy some of that model magic made for kids, make sure it is soft and use your son's hand to make a handprint. Then you can use something like a toothpick to enter his name and age in the clay or wait until it dries and use a sharpie pen and then get out the paints and let him use them with your help. That went over so well with my support group, they all cried. So it's a good thing to try.

A nice photo framing a picture of your son and the recipient would always be treasured. You can set up a "photo shoot" without letting on what the photo will actually be used for, so it is still a surprise.