Pictures for MawMaw: Project #6 Easy Gift Exchange: Project #7

I had a bit of a hard time coming up with a handmade project for my husband’s mom. I know that she loves real hard-copy pictures of the kids, though, and I know that I’m terrible about sending them to her. I was roaming through the craft department at Walmart and was struck by a great idea when I saw this unfinished wood photo carousel.

I had already planned to make some wood block ornaments with the kids. (Pictures of those coming soon!) I figured the same basic method of decoration would work for this, too. I started by painting the whole thing white, then I used Mod-Podge to apply scrapbook paper to each side. While that was drying, we cut letters out of old magazines to spell out “MawMaw’s Babies” ransom-letter style on the top. Once those were decoupaged on, we let the whole thing dry overnight.

The next morning, I sanded the edges of the scrapbook paper to smooth them out and the corners of the photo carousel to rough them up. Then I rubbed a light coat of wood stain over the whole thing, wiping it right off. When that was dry, we just added pictures, wrapped it and shipped it off!

Earlier this month, I attended a Mom’s Night Out with the other mothers from my local homeschool group, and we did a Chinese-auction-style gift exchange. I wanted a simple idea that would work for anyone, but since I’m all about practicality, it needed to be useful, too. Here’s what I came up with:

This is the “Natural Moms’ Cold & Flu Season Survival Kit”. Simple washable cotton velour tissues, oranges, tea for sore throats and congestion and antibacterial soap. Each tissue is two pieces of cotton velour cut 6 1/2″ x 8 1/2″, then serged with wrong sides together. (The velour needs to be at least 80% cotton for it to work well as a tissue.) This would be a thoughtful gift to give anytime you hear that there’s a bug running through a friend’s home this winter, too!