Home made gift ideas

[Eileen101]

A grandparents has a big birthday soon and I'd like to have the children craft something as a momento for them, but i can't think of anything except a collage of photos. My mind is frazzled at the moment with life - does anyone have any ideas or inspiration of something we could do/make please?
Bonus points if it doesn't cost me anything as I have £1.73 in my bank until after the party...
I could make a cake, but it seems a bit dull and lacking imagination.

I should think a collage of photos would be very well received. As a DGM, I love pictures of my DC and DGC.

Have the children each make a birthday card. Commit them (in your own mind) to do this every year. It’s lovely to see how their imaginations change over the years

A collage of photos is always nice but you could put drawings from the kids or notes saying how they feel about the person in to make is really personal. Its hard ti judge, when i don't know what your skills are, I cross-stitch a lot, so a personal gift, given time, is pretty simple for me.

Oh we do this, I'm just wanting to level up this year for a special celebration

Oh I love this!

You could get the kids to decorate something. Painting rocks is effective if the Grandparent has a garden (or likes ornaments). They could decorate flowerpots or coasters or mugs or make keyrings. It depends a lot on what ages the kids are and what the Grandparent likes (some people would love these ideas and for other they're just tat they don't want!).

You could do the photo book, but ask the DC to write out their memories related to those photos/events they've done with their grandparents, perhaps with tickets or other bits if memorabilia so it's more of a memory book type thing.

How old are the children?

7 and 4

I got my dc to make their gps a book. Stapled a lot of folded paper together.
front cover drawing of GP
photos of dc and gp
drawings of GPs fav things
handprints
gluing and sticking
sticking buttons to make a flower

Have you got any beaches near you? If you can get some sea glass, a twig and a box frame, you could use the sea glass as bodies of birds sitting on the twig, and then draw a beak and legs for each one, perching on the twig. You could have one for each grandchild, or one for each family member.

Have you got a scrabble game you don’t really play with anymore? You could use the letters to make a collage of grandchildren’s names.

DH had a birthday card recently from our nephew and on the front it was asking lots of questions about him (job, what he does to make nephew laugh, how tall is he, how do you know he loves nephew, what does he do as a hobby etc) and it was just wonderful. We discovered he thinks DH is 23, works in Tesco and is 4” taller than DN. He is none of those things, but it was just wonderful to read it from a child’s perspective, and to hear that DH is his funniest and silliest uncle. I bet they’d love a list of questions like that, answered by your DC.

Salt dough can make all sorts of things, DD’s class once made and painted coasters and fridge magnets to sell at a school fete. Essential that you seal them with varnish.

You can make a perpetual birthday calendar with family photos and birthdays of all the family members, here is a guide for making it and you can add photos from grandparents' youth, your wedding pictures, photos from when the kids were very young, etc.
Also, if the kids aren't exactly good at crafting things, maybe then can sing something instead? Or even write a short and simple poem(s)? The gift doesn't have to be something to unwrap, though it would be very nice, the emotions have just as much value.

I agree with suggestions above.

just a thought as an “extra” could you record your children singing something special or even record them saying a special message about why they’re so special, sone memory in there etc ? I have a video of my DS just after we adopted him singing Happy Birthday to me followed by his own version of You’re Amazing and it still makes me smile 14 years later - I bet a GP would love something like that

Thank you everyone, such fantastic inspiration.

I bought my mum a photo frame and put in a picture of them both in it and then we did my son’s hand prints underneath it. He was between 2-3 when we did it. Not only did she love it but as he grew both of them loved to look back on those little hand prints. We also wrote a note in it stating his favourite things to do with her.

I got my girls to decorate a fleecy lap blanket. They cut out shapes from felt and glued them on to create a personalised blanket. My mum and dad loved them.