Time To Craft...

When Charlotte spend some "time together"... we usually, bake... prep dinner... or craft. Just like I stated in this post, it's super important to set aside minutes to foster the relationship between her and I. Having a newborn now in the house, it seems like even a little less time... BUT, it's still time, and that's all she desires. Whether it's a minute, or 30... it's time.

Lots of birthday parties have been happening around here... and having just had a newborn, we haven't had MUCH time to get out of the house, to hunt down and purchase a toy present for the little ones we've been celebrating. These relationships, are friendships that Charlotte cherishes... and so, I ask if she'd like to "create" something for her friends... she replies, "yes"... and we go to town.

Whenever we get together with some of her best friends, I tend to photograph them, at least with my phone... like I said, she cherishes these friendships... and being a military child... we'll more than likely part ways with them in a little bit. There's NOTHING better to Charlotte than photographs... she relives their adventures everytime she looks through my camera roll... and it brings her so much joy.

For her most recent birthday party invite, we decided to print out some of these Instagram photos (there are a ton of companies that can do this for you... we chose one, that printed on 3x3 " squares) so that her sweet friend might find that same joy in reliving those adventures... 

1. Find a vessel to put those photos in... it could be KRAFT box, like the one we used... we knew we wanted to stamp it, so it was a nice blank canvas for us. You could use a decorated one, or decorate yourself (with washi tape, stickers, scrapbooking paper, etc.)... but we kept ours simple. Charlotte helped dip the stamps into the ink and I just showed her how to stamp on a paper (for practice) and then she completed the box after.

2. Pick and choose which photos to print, and PRINT them out.  SO many of us, keep our photos in our phones... we hardly ever print them. Kids are so used to electronic viewing... that to look through photos, it's often "foreign" to them. It doesn't have to be. There are ton of companies that have phone apps, (Origrami, Instaprint, Postal Pix, etc) that you can download. Once you sign into your IG account, it's super easy to load and order your favorite prints. Ours came within 3-4 days... and they were then ready to place in the box.

3. What's better than toys? ICE CREAM... we picked up a gift card to stick in with the photos... Charlotte created a little tag... 

4.  Tie it all up... and you have a totally sweet gift for your little one's sweet friend. This also works well for adults... add a gift card to a coffee place... or ice cream shack... or cupcakery... endless possibilities.