Hats off to you if you've already gotten your holiday thank yous written. And if you've gotten your kids to write theirs, then I bow! My parents were always very adamant about making sure we got our thank you notes written after each holiday and birthday, and I'm grateful for that because everyone likes to be thanked and acknowledged for something they've done or given.
But, getting 5 little girls to go through the list of friends and relatives who gave them gifts and thanking them all can sometimes be nigh unto torture for the mom. I've been trying to come up with some different, fun, dare I say thrilling ways to help them get them finished and thought I'd share. In fact, I enjoyed this so much it might become a series. What do you think?
Ever since I was a little girl I've been enamored with interactive cards. I used to sit down with a stack of paper and make all sorts of pop-up cards. This is like the grown up version.
Start with two photos of a wallet: one open, one closed, taking care to keep them the same size. On the first photo carefully cut out all the sides except the hinged side, bend open using a ruler.
On the second photo cut out the whole thing and any openings you'd like to use on your card and bend in half.
Glue or use double stick tape on the first photo to some card stock. Tape the inside of the wallet within the opening. If the inner wallet is bigger just trim it up to fit. Decorate any way you'd like.
Each child gets a "credit card" or "dollar bill" to write or draw a little thank you without being overwhelmed with the whole card and we send one thrilling thank you to an unsuspecting papa Thom.
How do you get your kids to get their thank yous done?
This is super cute! Oddly it's easier for me to get my kids to do their thank yous, than to do my own. Card maker issues, LOL. I posted my kids' Christmas thank you's here: http://tanyastampsnthings.blogspot.com/2012/01/thank-you-notes.html
ReplyDeleteNo kids yet, but my husband and I are still struggling to get our wedding thank-yous written. Eek! It really is harder than I expected, because we didn't get very many gifts, but what we did get is oh so very special...I don't feel like I can write enough to each of them! We already had to buy bigger thank-you cards since I didn't think ours were sufficient; hopefully everyone understands! I adore this card, though...thanks for the tutorial!
ReplyDeleteI love your idea - My kids write one a day. For us, sitting down for a few minutes is easier than doing a pile of them
ReplyDeleteI just posted about this too - my 6 year old's card was too mortifying/funny not to show.
http://www.bigdandme.com/2012/01/thank-you/
Sweet!
ReplyDeleteI am passing this idea on for my grand-magnificents. They always like sending mail (hope they never out grow this) and this idea for thank you notes will be fun for them.
Thank you for sharing!
Wow!
ReplyDeleteThis is amazing and I will be filing it for future use. Unfortunately the elder relatives who 'expect' thank yous also expect what was given by them to be itemized more often than not. Which is silly, to me, but whatev. I usually give my son some paper and crayons, paints or markers and let him have at it. Then cut the paper up and fold it into cards. I write simple thank yous from the family inside and we all sign. That way he made the cards and everyone got thanked. He's only 3 so I'm going to wait a bit longer before I press him about doing his own writing. Heck, I can't even get my husband to do his own writing, and they are his relatives. :D
ReplyDeletewhat an awesome Idea!
ReplyDeleteI am from Germany and we don't do thank yous at all, but as well, we don't get presents from everybody, just parents and maybe grandparents.(or just santa if you believe in him :D) but i remember well when i had to write Thank yous with my aupairkids (6 as well)
at christmas morning i had to stop them opening presents all the time, so i could keep up with writin down which present came from who, what a stress at 6 o clock in the morning :D
That is so incredibly cool!
ReplyDeletei want to know exactly where you were and what you were doing when this idea popped into your head.
ReplyDeletethrilling, indeed.
yes, a series, please. i, too, come from a childhood of intricate pop-up cards.
woops. but i'm not ben. too lazy to sign out and sign in again.
ReplyDeleteI took this photo (http://heatherhalesdesigns.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bokeh_SMALL.jpg) of our holiday decor and added "thank you" in PS to it, then had them printed as postcards. each child wrote their thank you not on the back and we mailed them. In years past I've taken pictures of them using/wearing their gifts and adding "thank you" to it in PS and then mailing gift givers the photo.
ReplyDeleteSuper cute idea! This would be a fun way to give a gift card or cash too.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's amazing!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is pre-kindergarten and tires quickly of lots of writing so I pre-printed stationary that says "Dear _______ Thank you for __________" that way she has to only write a few words. I brought the stationary and a clip board on a post-holiday road trip and she was able to do a few then, but now we are trying to do one a day.
Last year I made colored copies of two of my fave of her self-portraits and turned them into her own stack of folded notecards and we used those as thank yous until she was able to write a bit more.
I love your idea and would love to see a series. Since 2 of my kids are teenage boys I was thinking I would inspire them with food. We will all sit together and write the notes, then eat chocolate chip scones.
ReplyDeleteThis year for my daughter's birthdays (they are 4 days apart in December), I just took photos of them holding signs and then did an email Thank you with them. That way we could cover everyone, not have to find paper and stamps, and still convey our gratitude in a timely manner (cause otherwise they wouldn't get done-LOL).
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to what we did:
http://www.falafelandthebee.com/?p=8632
People LOVED them! I think this is our new way of doing it.
~Michelle
This is awesome!!! We will be doing these this weekend.
ReplyDeleteSuch a fantastic, creative idea! I hope you do a series!
ReplyDeletex Katherine
what a fab idea!!
ReplyDeleteThank YOU!
Can't wait to receive this thank you!
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome! What a great idea. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI agree it's easy to for the kids to get overwhelmed with a blank card. With my 5 kids, I buy a simple thank-you card and they all sign a little something. Saves on postage this way too. Definitely not as creative as your idea, which I love, but gets the job done.
ReplyDeleteDarling!
ReplyDeleteWhat a cute idea! Our kids are still fairly young almost four and 19months...but I always have them around me when i am writing the thank yous....and, the past several go arounds on the thank yous I have been having the older sit with me and either dictate what she wants to say or I tell her what I am writing as I write it and she adds what she'd like....This year we added the addition of her personally signing each one, b/c now she can!! :)
ReplyDeleteTwo of our kids have December birthdays, so we have a lot to get through for December in terms of thank you notes. I've had the most success with starting about day 4-5 post event, then expecting 3-4 to be written per day. We always make a list of people and gifts so they can check them off. For Christmas, our family shares the card, so everyone writes a few sentences which makes the process easier because it feels like (to the kids) they do less since they have a small space to fill.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! You're such an awesome mommy. :)
ReplyDeleteThat is so CUTE! How do you think of these things...you genius you? We just do a family card and the boys sign their names. We write little personal messages in the blank spots, Owen draws a picture, and Reid scribbles over everything we write. :) I felt so good that we sat down and finished all our cards for FHE the Monday following Christmas. But then I didn't get them out to the mail until today!
ReplyDeleteHow lame is that?
And this is random, but it looks like you just wear your wedding band too? I didn't fuse my engagement ring to my wedding band because it snags things all the time and my hands are always messy/busy/working. I only wear it on dates and to church...just thought it was fun to see you *might* do the same thing.
Olivia (aka Benjamin ;) and Delia--THIS IS WHY I DON'T SLEEP. These "things" come to me when I should be sleeping and if I fall asleep right away I don't remember them by morning. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen my girls were little, I photo copied notes with blanks of them to fill in, like Dear__, Thank you for the __. Then they had to add one sentence about the item, and then they were done. As they got a little older, to add incentive to thank you's, we started the rule that they couldn't USE the item until the thank you was written. This results in two girls (12 and 14) who wrote their notes and posted them before Christmas break was over. Ta-da!
ReplyDeleteWow! Brilliant idea. So doing this for birthday thank you's next month. Thanks!!!!
ReplyDelete