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Looking for a creative and personal gift idea for a one year old? Want to find something they'll actually play with over and over (instead of taking one look at it and spending the rest of the afternoon playing with the box?) As a mother of a 14-month-old, I have a few tested and approved ideas for you!
(If you missed it, be sure to go back and check out my other ideas for creative gifts for one year olds here and here.)
Today's gift idea is all about photos of family and friends. Emma LOVES to look at pictures of people that she knows. Plus, she's just learning to say names (Grandpa is "Pa-Pa," Aunt Amy is "Emy" and her cousin Blair is "Bay") so this is great practice for her.
For this gift, I have two different ideas to share with you. The first one was actually a Christmas gift from my parents. They printed out a bunch of photos of Emma with different family members and friends, and framed them using these foam frames from Amazon
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The result was fantastic! We keep the photos in a basket on Emma's toy shelf, and she gets them out to play with all the time.
She loves carrying them around, and spends a lot of time pointing at each person and practicing saying their names.
The frames are great- they are perfect for Emma's little hands, and I love how soft and bendable they are. However, I do have to say that without any reinforcement, your toddler will be able to pull the photos out of the frames (something that Emma did within the first few hours.) I fixed the problem by using packing tape to secure the back of each frame, and haven't had any issues since. A dab of glue would probably be just as effective. 
Not into the photo frames? Here's another option: A printed "Family and Friends" photo book. We ordered ours through Shutterfly.
It was a really simple process, and Emma sits and "reads" this entire book at least once a day. She really loves it!
Each family member got one page. At the end I added pictures of some of her friends as well.
So that's it! Two ideas for ways to use family photos to make a creative and personalized gift that your toddler will play with over and over. What do you think?
