I am blessed to have a lot of family near by. My children get to spend a lot of time with Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. Every holiday is filled with lots of people, love, and laughter. We do, however, have some family that we don’t see often. Since the advent of Skype and Facetime, we are able to connect much more often than was possible before, but something is still missing. When my older daughter was little, I came up with the idea to remind her of her other family members that she didn’t see as often with a set of photographs for her to play with. Family Photo Cards.

I made the whole family: including Mommy and Daddy. We used them to identify people when she little and then, as she got older, put the spouses together, and the kids with the mommies and daddies. When we did see that out-of-town family, they were less of strangers and the “warming up” time was decreased.

Here’s what you need!

1. Pick out a head shot photo of each family member

Find a photo of each family member and crop it to be a head shot. Better yet, save yourself some time tracking down photos and ask everyone to text you a selfie. (That way there are also no complaints about the picture you chose :-))

2. Name each person

I chose to put a piece of paper labeling each person, but when I make my new ones for DD2, I will use a photo editing program to put the person’s name right at the bottom of the photo. It’s not a necessary step, but we did use the labels as DD1 got older as the beginnings of identifying letters/words/names – ie “Mommy starts with M”. Either paper or photo editing is great.

3. Get them printed

The hardest part of any photo project – – Remembering to get them printed. But, this is also the most important step. Having the photos in your hand is the key. Sure, you could have photos to show on the computer/phone/tablet. But we are in a world where we are all trying to reduce the screen time our children are exposed to. This is a great thing to sit on the floor with your child and do together. Look for promos from Amazon Prime Photo – if you are a Prime member, 4×6″ prints are just 9 cents and free shipping and sometimes they run a 50 free prints promo.

4. Laminate them (Or put them in a photo book for protection)

I laminated mine, making them more of “cards” so that they would be more durable to play with. Obviously, photo paper is easily ripped, so the pictures need to get laminated or be put in an album for protection. I like the cards because when we played “Whose kid is whose?,” we were free to move the photos around easily.

**If you choose to laminate, just make sure you round the corners. Laminating sheets can be sharp on the edges.**

Cost

Photo Prints – 9¢ each

Laminating Sheets – 4 photos per 8.5″ x 11″ sheet (make sure you leave a gap between photos so the laminator seals them. – 14¢ for 4 photos

Or

Laminating Sheets – These are 4×6 already, so no cutting!

Thermal Laminator – If you don’t have one, I recommend this one. It’s under $25 and you will use it for so many things.

A fun, inexpensive game to play with the kids and less warm up time with the family they don’t see as often? Priceless.

Let me know what you think?

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