Creative Gifts for Grandparents---Part One

My parents were hard to buy for. Their knowledge of our tight financial situation was probably a strong factor in their declarations of "we don't want anything," "we don't need anything," "we have too much stuff already." In desperation, we looked at our parents in a different light. We looked at them as grandparents!

And came up with: Simple, cheap, and uniquely grand stuff you can give your parents when grandchildren are a part of the picture.


Get the picture? Take pictures. Use those pictures to make grandparent gifts!
Anyone can have commercial photos taken---in any price range from the local discount store packet to the department store studios and the nation-wide studios, to the exclusive photography studios and frame them or have them framed in a wide variety of choices from the same wide variety of sources. But, there are wonderfully acceptable ways to present your photos cheaply and priceless.

Simplest: Do your parents like to read?
Simply crop a snapshot to bookmark size or cut a sheet of paper to the size you want the finished bookmark and fasten a selection of pictures cut from snapshots to the paper. It is ready to laminate.

Still Simple: Do your parents eat?
Simply have one great photo enlarged* (either at the discount store photo shop or on a color copier at the quick copy store) to an 11x14 inch size
OR
Cut a sheet of paper to place mat size and arrange a collage of snapshots as desired. Do a second sheet, if desired, so the place mat is reversible.

Take your finished creation to a previously-located copy shop that does laminating** and you have a useful gift that is uniquely yours.

*there are copyright laws which prohibit the copy of commercial photographs
**check your public library---ours has do-it-yourself laminating machines at great cost savings.

Pretty Simple---and Fairly Cheap: Do your parents wear casual clothes? 
There are a variety of kits and photo papers that allow you to quite easily transfer photos to tee-shirts, sweatshirts, aprons or other washable apparel or fabric. These products are readily available at large craft stores or craft sections of large box stores. The savings is greatly increased when you buy the product and the clothing when they are on sale, or over time, using the weekly coupons that are commonly available for 40 percent off a regularly-priced item.

Continued tomorrow...