Need some suggestions for a Gift

I need some creative ideas from all you wonderful women. My father passed away in May from Lung Cancer and Alzheimers. I would like to make something for my brother, sister and mother for Christmas as a memorial to my dad. I don't know if a poem with his picture on a page and framed would be ok. I have total brain block. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. Thanks!!!!!! Jane

I think this would be a lovely, touching gift. I found that in working with my inlaw's pictures, and creating a memory album for my mother in law I felt that I was greiving and getting through the process in a much healthier manner--I was looking at those faces close up, and seeing the fun and joy that that man had brought to his family. I made layouts for my own family's album, and then color copied the relavent pages for my mother in law and all of my husband's siblings. I gave it to each of them the Hanukkah following his death. If you aren't wanting to take on such a large project, but a framed layout, I think that would be a lovely thing to do. I would pick a picture where both your father, and each member of the family who you will be giving this to is the best, or reminds of a special time--maybe a wedding picture of he and mom, teaching one of your siblings to ride a bike, ect. And make them individual and personal, and then have them framed in one of the scrapbooking layout frames.

I am very sorry for your loss, and hope you will find healing in this project as I did.

Nancy

I saw some beautiful 12X12 frames advertised in a sb magazine. I think it would be wonderful to sb a special page for each member of the family and then frame it. You could layout the picture and poem just like you would do on a sb page but frame it instead of putting it in a book.

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Melissa

I lost my father to a brain aneurysm(sp?) when my children were quite young. It took me a long time to get over his death. I found myself unable to even look at his picture without totally falling apart and as a result didn't have photos of him around. In retrospect, I realize that I robbed my children of the opportunity to know what a wonderful person my dad was. I think had I been scrapbooking then and had I persevered with putting together a book about him I would have had a much easier time healing. I look forward to doing a book about dad for my kids. I love the idea of doing a scrapbook page and framing it. I'm thinking I might do something like that for my mother this Christmas.

Audrey

Thanks everyone for their ideas. I think I am going to make a different page for everyone and make it a little more special for them. Jane