<p>We’re having a family reunion vacation next week with several families and most of us haven’t seen each other in person for several years. I thought it might be fun to have a table set aside with a couple of craft ideas that anyone could. The very youngest person will be five years old, but most are 14 - 29, with two other generations 45-60 and 80’s. Yeah, I guess that’s a pretty wide age range, but I’m thinking not camp crafts that you want to throw away before you even finish them. Something fun that might take a couple of sittings to do, can fit in a suitcase and you actually want to keep. We’ll be there for a week so it doesn’t have to be done in a day.</p>
<p>Decorating picture frames, that will hold a photo from reunion? Can use wooden, metal or even plastic frames and decorate. Complexity is only limited by skill of artist.</p>
<p>What a lovely idea! Unfortunately I don’t have any ideas. We always have jigsaw puzzles going (assuming there is space to leave them out for come-and-go puzzle solving). That and lots of board/card/domino type games.<br>
Eager to hear other ideas…family reunion coming up.</p>
<p>I like the idea of a t-shirt or scarf or pillowcase but I was thinking of something a little more off the wall unique, like some funky jewlery. I personally have too many picture frames but might be a good idea for a reunion picture. We used to do a jigsaw puzzle, but somehow the last two years, it hasn’t gone over that well.</p>
<p>Funky jewelry or keychain is of course a possibility, but do you want it to be something actually used? I would think tastes rage widely between 14-29 and even more to 80+. </p>
<p>I remember the vinyl strips we’d use to make camp land yards–sold by the roll in craft stores. Maybe check out your nearby craft store and ask them for ideas. I’m sure this comes up often and they’d love to sell supplies.</p>
<p>There is also a company…you draw pictures and can have them put on coffee mugs or notecards. Your family members would do the drawing and then someone would have to send it to the company to be transferred onto the mug or whatever. That might be a headache.</p>
<p>Jewelry? Would that appeal to the 20 something boys in the group? </p>
<p>What about something that could be decorated with fabric markers? A white T shirt maybe? Get a variety of sizes. Some folks might wear them as a shirt…others as sleep shirts.</p>
<p>After seeing them at an art fair, my creative sis in law taught us to make padded fabric covered boxes. Small ones, like the size of a check book box, or cigar box. No sewing, but ironing was involved and a certain amount of hot glue gun work. My kids gave them away as presents at times, as they were useful and attractive. We padded the sides, lined them with contrasting fabric, added buttons and ribbon on top for decoration. </p>
<p>I looked for instructions on line, and found a number of books dealing with the subject. Some might require sewing, but ours did not. Here is one: </p>
<p>If you were doing a Christmas ornament or a refrigerator magnet, I think it would be interesting to have each person put a dot of paint on their finger tip and then dot a print or two on each of the ornaments. At the end, each family member takes home a colorful object with a bit of family heritage included! This could also work if you do a pencil drawing on a large piece of paper and let the family “dot” in to create a colorful image. The one I saw was of a tree. You could then use that image to reprint on mugs or tee shirts.</p>
<p>Years ago we saw a multi-family group at the beach. They set up a tie dye event with each member tie dyeing a shirt. They then took a photo of the group. We looked from afar saying, “Why didn’t we do that?” I guess though it depends if you want it to be an ongoing activity set up for the weekend like a 1000 piece puzzle as mentioned OR a one time thing with a specific end result. Have fun.</p>
<p>While trying to sleep last night, I had an idea - mosaic crafts! [Mosaic</a> Crafts for Beginners | eHow](<a href=“http://www.ehow.com/way_5272456_mosaic-crafts-beginners.html]Mosaic”>http://www.ehow.com/way_5272456_mosaic-crafts-beginners.html) I could buy some flat marbles, bring some buttons, coins, etc and a bag of broken pottery. We could do it on terra cotta plant holders. That would be the most expensive purchase I think, but I’m guessing they may be on sale at this time of year. I found some ideas for mosaic Christmas tree ornaments too! What do you think?</p>
<p>I wonder if some of the older kids would be able to merge or share photos people took on their phones? You know how you have photos on your phone, your cousin may have photos on their phone, etc., but maybe there could be a way to upload family photos to a site (like shutterfly) where you combine all the photos and then various family members can upload their family vacation photos to that one album? Yes, they can do that on FB, but maybe older family members would appreciate having one “family album” they can access to see how everyone’s doing. </p>
<p>If I didn’t describe this clearly or correctly, it just reflects my lack of tech savviness. I know my brothers and sisters sometimes send photos of their kids, but it’s kind of random.</p>
<p>We are blessed with a creative memory consultant and for this family reunion get together we also have a cousin who is a professional photographer, so we’re pretty set with pictures and I’m 99% sure that there will be an album. There are apps for sharing photos at events, but what we usually do is just let my creative memory SIL download everything onto her laptop. Making a photo frame craft, as was suggested earlier, would work with mosaics too!</p>
<p>How about generations teaching each other skills? Younger ones teaching older ones how to skype (or how to turn on a laptop! :D). Older ones teaching the younger ones how to knit, or change the oil in a car. </p>
<p>Sign up for ancestry.com and work together to create your family tree. Save all the documents you find onto someone’s computer. Ask everyone to bring old pictures with them to the reunion (add them to ancestry.com if you want). Create a family history book with anecdotes from everyone (record and then transcribe), photos and historical documents.</p>
<p>Will you have a kitchen? Cook meals with/for each other, teach each other how to do different techniques. Share family recipes. Take pictures as you do this, and create a family cookbook. </p>
<p>Get silly and dress up in clothes from a different generation - then take pictures, if you can stop laughing long enough to hold the camera steady.</p>
<p>axw - I think you’ve been watching our family! We skype, we have a family genealogy website (my FIL is a second generation genealogist) we did a family cookbook about ten years ago and we already have the meal rotation set up. Love the idea about the old clothes. Too bad every one of us, including all the oldest generations moved once or twice and it’s very doubtful there’s anything older then 20 years old except for maybe wedding dresses. Wish I had saved my hated gym outfit - that would have provided some laughs!</p>
<p>We’ve been vacationing with my husbands parents and siblings for about ten years and this we’ll be adding on a few more families so it’s a reunion. In two years I’ll start planning for an official reunion but right now I’m just looking for some interesting crafts. </p>
<p>Great Lakes Mom, I like the fabric covered boxes idea. It’s on the short list!</p>
<p>I guess I’m not so keen on the hand drawn t-shirts and pillowcases because my kids have made them before and never really wanted to save them. Now, if my son’s graphic artist GF made it, that might be different!</p>