Grandparent's 50Th Anniversary Needing Inexpensive but Touching Gift

Wow! You are running out of time! Would it be possible to call or email family members and get "fondest memories", quotes, meaningful advice your grandparents gave and how it worked in thier lives, etc.?? You could type them up in pretty fonts on pretty scrapbook paper with a family photo or an old photo of them in the center. Then frame it. Don't be discouraged if you can't really go all out--they would love anything like what I mentioned! Good luck.

I did this for Mother's Day about ten years ago and my mother still talks about how special it was. I wrote down as many memories about our times together as I could and put them in a pretty glass container. As she read them, she said, "I didn't know you remembered that." Your hubby and kiddos could add to these memories. Good luck.

make them a special photo album of them and you kids. that would mean alot to them and even if you have to make copies of some of the photos, it won't be very expensive at all!

This might take about a day or two depending on how much time you have during the day. Make a "scrapbook" calender. Take pictures of the kids and get special backing paper. I got a thicker cardstock for the sturdyness then glued the special printerd paper to it. Print a current calendar from microsoft office, you can download it and add holidays, birthdays, anniversaries before printing it. Add the kids picks to the months they go to : ie. christmas, summer... Drill or punch holes for binding and hanging, and bind with ribbon. We did this for christmas gifts for Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents. and they ALL loved it.

Do a 'personal creation' quilt. You send in pictures and it really i s nice.

For my parents 30th anniversary we made them a scrapbook with 30 years of memories. We put in engagement pictures (their wedding pics were stollen with luggage right after they got married), baby pics/ other of their kids, wedding pics for kids (we did a page per child), just some fun family pics of when we were growing up. THere were only 4 grandkids, so we had a page for each grandkid, and updated family pictures of all the kids families and an updated picture of the two of them together to end it. My mom cried! (Not too hard to do, but a nice response none the less) 50 years might be more challenging. If you did it, I'd definately ask for help from siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins.... You could even put together something of just YOUR memories of them and you and your kids.

My husband and I like to make dvd slide shows. You will have to have it on your computer, if your computer if somewhat new I bet it is on there. Ours is under sonic media something another. You just follow the steps and you have to have a blank dvd.

Do you have a paint your own pottery store near you? You can do a lot of neat things with the children's handprints and ideas range from cutesy to really elegant white platters with black prints and a scripted bible verse.

Or for even less cost, my grandparents and parents love it when the girls create a stepping stone for their garden. Again, very user friendly for the crafty impaired kits are available at any craft store.

For just a little more cost, the new digital image upload frames are a neat way to provide multiple pictures of you and the children.

Hope you find the right gift to show your love!

I think a scrapbook of your family and extended family would be perfect. That's a one-of-a-kind item that they could not buy for themselves.

Good luck!

____@____.com

I love the ideas about writing down memories .. yourself or including the family members.

One year, my sister invited all the grandkids to write down their special memory of Grandma and Grandpa and how their marriage made an impact on their lives and relationships.

Have you thought about going to a paint your own pottery place and having their hand or footprints stamped on a plate or platter? Some studios have a custom artist that will really dress it up for you (make bouquets, or animals... out of the prints) and label each print with the childs name and age at the time. Sunshine Glaze in Southlake Town Square has a custom artist or check out heavenlytoes.com for ideas and information. good luck.
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I know those photot frames that you put the digi card from your camera into so it keeps rotating pictures is not cheap, but it is something that you can keep making new by keep on taking pictures and giving them the digi card. They have come down in price, maybe you can find a small one?

I believe my husband and his siblings gave their parents on the 50th a dvd of their life. You can start it off with when your grandparents were small then add it on up to now. Or just start when your kids were born and add favorite memories that yall had together.

A scrapbook with family photos and journaling would be priceless!!!! It would be fun to get the entire family involved....have everyone bring photos and scrapbook supplies and you can build it together one afternoon. I've had several "scrapbook" graduation parties and the kids bring photos/memories of them and the guest of honor. Everyone decorates a scrapbook page and we have a finished album to send home with honored graduate.

For my grandparents 50th anniversary I wrote "their story". I got a photo album with their wedding picture in on the front. Then inside pictures to tell the store. I also actually wrote out their story. How they met, the wedding date, all kids bdays, graduation pics, wedding dates, kids born..the pics went with the story. It made them cry (well all of us) it was very touching. Plus it'll be great to hand down to generations to come! I also put in pics of their hobbies (square dancing, his military pic, etc.)

Good luck and enjoy!!

That is SO awesome - you have grandparents AND they're still doing well enough to babysit for you AND they've been married for 50 YEARS!!! Wow, you're quite lucky. They probably have everything they need - what about a photo album, or scrapbook with you as a baby?

i know it sounds simple but if they're having a party you could always make a collage of pictures from way back when and then add in new ones with your kids and what not. Maybe write a little poem and attach it to the collage. i did this for my grandmas wake. everyone loved it b/c it had lots of pictures that many of them hadn't seen before. you could make it so they can keep it and hang it up in their house. good luck.

You might try this:

From the craft store (Hobby Lobby, full service Walmart), get several sheets of plastic canvas suitable for placemats on the table (rectangles or ovals), pieces of colored felt (sticky back would be great)large enough to cover the canvas sheets, small bottles of tempura paint (contrasting colors) and paint pens or colored glue pens.

Cover each sheet of plastic canvas with the felt (trim to fit), then have you and your angels place tempura paint hand prints on each placemat making sure that you identify each person by name using the paint/glue pens.

Since there are 5 of you (depending on the number of place settings needed), each of you could do 2 by yourselves (8 places and 2 wings) or everyone decorates them all. Either way, your Grandparents will be pleased.

I hope this helps.

J.,

I bought this great picture frame at Kirklands for my Mom and Dad for less than $15. Says Grandparents on it. You can fill it with favorite pics for them. Kirklands usually has some great gift ideas.

D. K.

What about a table top carousel picture frame holding pictures in cronological order of their life together?

If you can get ahold of a photo of when they got married and other photos of them in thier youth till now make a nice photo album for them. this is great if you have a scanner and photo paper isnt that much you can find it al walmart. or you can take the photos to walmart and copy them at walmart i think its only .50 cents a copy. good luck to you! I look forward to seeing what you come up with for your gift.

J. W. Iam a Creative Memories Consultant. Inexpensively we have a paper album kit that's $15 and it hae all you need. You just add 13 pictures. Look on my website for other ideas www.mycmsite.com/anitacopeland or call me ###-###-#### and pick up something. A. C. I also have the matted Pagr Frame on hand where you can put own picture collage in and do handprints or something similar on the mats.

I have done this for all kinds of gifts, works great at Mother's Day for Grandparents too.

Find a nice large frame and get art paper(the thick kind, at Michaels) and if you want to you can even buy a frame with nice matting aleady in it or have the whole thing framed(depends on how much you want to spend).

Then you can do one of 2 things:
1. you can use you,your hubby and kids hands you make a family tree. Use several kinds of green paint and the just paint or draw in the tree part.
2. You can enlist the whole family aunts uncles etc. at the party if you use stamp pads and make a huge one if you wanted to get fancy. Make sure to leave a space at the bottom where your grandparents can put their handprints facing down as the roots. And if you do this on have everyone sign inside one of their hand prints.

I think it looks really elegant if you get someone with really nice hand writing to put the occasion and the date in the bottom corner.

This one can be as cheap as you need, but if you do the whole family option, you might be able to get everyone to spring for a little and get it framed really nicely.

What a blessing grandparents are, I really miss mine.

Being in your grandparents age bracket, I have pictures and albums coming out my ears (of course, more are always welcome).
I think Gift Certificates redeemable for dinner at my grandaughter's house one Sunday, a "girls" shopping trip, a couple of free car washes, a picnic, trip to the lake, or the zoo for all of us. Or maybe there is a home or yard project they could use some help with. I wish my grandson lived close enough to help us with some yard work that the yard men won't do. Is there a play or musical they would like to see?--take them!
The only thing we old folks usually need is more time with our loved ones; SO BE CREATIVE. At least one 'gift' per month. Think of all the fun places they took you when you were little. My grandaughter loved to go the Home Depot with her Pop! Go on line and make up some cute certificates--or better yet enlist your childrens help. They probably have some great gift ideas too.

Have you thought of having you kids make a coupon book for them. They can have a " free hug" coupon. A date for ice cream coupon and maybe a sleep over coupon. If you have the kids color or write (whatever level they are at) it would make it special and unique for them. If you have some older photos of them you can have a book printed that shows how the family grew from them to you and your kids. These are fair priced and can get them done quickly at target or wolf camera. I made mine a calendar with fam pics for a gift one time. just some thoughts. good luck

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I have a super great idea for you! Look up the name plate. You can personalize it like Granny and Pa's house, est. 1958
It is so cute and costs $35 and I can even get that for you cheaper. You just need to contact me and I'll tell you what to do. The name plate is a door plate that they can put on thier front door for all to see! It is heavy duty steel and really nice. Oh, I hope that I can help you with this special event!! I think it is awesome to surprise those you love with truly special gifts.

Wow you have no time....
How about a Song CD do they like music? We are getting ready for graduation and just hearing the songs make me sad. :)
How easy to download and create a CD put their picture on the front and do songs from their day until now....
Even songs they do for the grandkids, etc. Might be fun and def not too expensive.
Have fun celebrating! My parents are both gone and have no grandparents you are very lucky to be able to celebrate with them. Enjoy the moment. Do a favorite day for them....favorite food, favorite dessert and I love the memory idea. I so remember my mom always thinking of the memories!

Get a friend or someone close to take a black and white photo of your family and place it in a pretty little silver frame. There is nothing that would touch your grandparents more than to see the best things they have accomplished in 50 years.

If you have a little time and photos of them and your family, why not a scrapbook? It doesn't have to be a big undertaking, a small 8x8 with photos of you and them over the years would be something they could treasure for the rest of their lives.

I did one for my parents'60th anniversary and was so glad I did, as Daddy died a week later.

Hi J.,

For my parents 50th, we took an old wedding snapshot(they couldn't afford any formal pictures) from their wedding day and had the image scanned and printed on canvas at Sams. I don't remember how long it took to get the canvas, but the price was very reasonable, just over $100, I think. They both cried when they opened the gift, they were so touched by the gift and flood of memories they had from their special day.

My parents 40th is coming up this month. I too am on a budget. I'm thinking I'm going to get a wood frame from Michaels or some place like that. The one that has the place for a picture to one side and a big open spot on the other side. I thought I would put in a picture of them on their wedding day or just a good picture of them together in the frame part of it and then decorate the rest of the frame and on the 'empty' side write a really sweet note on how special it is to have them as an example of what a wonderul marriage should be...yada yada.

The whole project should cost less then $10-15 and it's made by you so it's extra special!

I think a photo gift would be the best! Maybe a small scrapbook full of pictures of their lives and their family. Maybe you could include notes from different family members with comments about how much these grandparents mean to them. Those are usually the most heartwarming gifts of all! How sweet you are to put so much thought into their gift. They're blessed that you're in their family.

This may sound a bit cheesy, but check into the national adopt a star program. That would be something they could appreciate (as will the grandkids) for years to come!