Framed Family Portrait: Holiday Gift Idea

Each year, I try to have my students create a gift for their parents that showcases their creativity, is something the families will remember, and won't cost me an arm and a leg.  This year, I blew myself out of the water with our end product ;)  

I really didn't have a lot of time to have the kids create a present this year.  With everything else going on, the holiday just snuck up on me.  So I needed something quick.  I went to the Dollar Tree and picked up 23 $1 frames and a roll of foil.  

I asked the kids to draw (on paper first) a family portrait.  They could draw whatever that meant to them, but I basically wanted a picture of their family in some sort of background.  The kids were so creative in their interpretation of this.  Some drew winter scenes.  Others drew their house.  Still others just drew their families outside.

Then, they transferred that drawing onto the glass of the frame using black sharpies to outline, followed by colored sharpies.  I had them take the glass off the white paper a color on the table about half way through the coloring.  This helped them to really see the "blankness" of their drawing and encouraged them to fill in more of the space with color.

When it was all colored, the kids wrapped the back of the frame in foil (since it was a cheap dollar store frame, there was no cardboard insert or anything. I just had the cardboard backing.)  The foil behind was a nice, depth-adding touch that really brought it all together, instead of the cardboard backing showing through.  They placed the glass back into the frame with the drawing side facing inward, replaced the backing, and viola, they had a finished product!

That was it.  All in all, this cost around $26 with tax.  It was super quick (only taking around 90 minutes) and the kids LOVE it.  I displayed them around the room for a day just so everyone could see them all.  This is definitely one I will be doing with the kids in the future.