Oh what can you do with a greeting card!

We all know what greeting cards are for, but when you are completely free to design them and to use all the pictures, word, embellishment you feel to use, you start to come up with various ideas, like:

A cute calendar card
You can insert it in one of those double 5x7 acrylic frames and it will be perfect on your desk!

A Timeless birthday calendar card
A favorite or secret recipes card
Perfect to share that special recipe with your dear ones.

A desktop frame card
Perfect to use with one of those acrylic frames you can find in any craft store.

A menu card
Perfect for a wedding, but also for any special occasion. You can make it as simple or as scrappy as you like.

A newsletter card
Your loved ones want to hear from you, and not all of them have emails, or facebook, so you can send a brief newsletter to let them know about your life. You can do it once a year( i.e: Christmas) once a month or any time you feel like it, and you'll see a new habit among all your relative: Greeting card collections (mostly yours!).

A genealogy tree card

A cute simple way to have your 4 generations family tree at a glance.
Even the little ones will enjoy looking at it...
You might want to make more than one copy, as this will be looked at often.

If you want to try any of these ideas and create a greeting card yourself, you are in luck! You can get a free greeting card coupon this month!!! Discover how here!

Stay tuned for more ideas, and don't forget that until September 16 you can take advantage the best deal of the year on HM greeting cards! Check it out!

Christmas in July idea: Not your usual gift tag!

Every Christmas I assist to the family ritual of picking the gift under the tree, reading the tag, ripping the paper off, and then trashing everything that is not the gift.
Call me a sentimental but I think that the tag is important too! After all, it does have the name of the giver and sometimes some cute word!

Since I cannot push anybody to change this habit, I thought that the best way to "save" the tag from imminent death would be to make it more useful.
How about a tag with a picture of the giver with or without the recipient?
How about using the whole family picture in the back of the tag?
It would then become a keepsake! Using our playing card format, a tag can become a wallet photo, a bookmark, or even a wallet size calendar!

Let the gift start from the tag this year!!!!

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You can get a free Publishing account by signing up at http://www.preservemyheritage.com and start creating unlimited projects at once!
Love my Creative Genealogy templates and ideas? 

My HM club members can have their favorite template transferred to their account for personal use, or  can have it completely personalized by me for them  for a reasonable fee.

Want more for less? Check out our incredible host rewards and My Club HM!

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Christmas in July gift giving idea for kids: let's learn!

It is always great to see our children get all excited at Christmas when they rip the paper and discover the presents they get, if only this excitement could last!
I am a fan of learning toys and since I discovered the possibilities with Heritage Makers, I have found the answer to my dilemma! I can create educational projects for my kids that will keep them entertained and excited for long time after they open their present. What's even better, they will learn something, and they will improve their self confidence.

Long time ago I found in the template gallery a template for an ABC book, and I loved it, so I created one for my children, and they love it! It has their pictures, and they can tell me the story behind them. They love showing these books to friends and family when they come over! You can have a 3D preview of the whole book here.

Seeing how much joy and enthusiasm this brought to my children induced me to create another book, a color and numbers book, which has been their new favorite since!
You can have a 3D preview of the whole book here

My youngest boy is turning 1 soon and I am creating an ABC matching game for him, it is never to early to start them on learning! I know that my other 2 boys, who are 3 and almost 5, will end up being the ones who use this cards most in the beginning, so this is going to be a gift that keeps giving! I might even order a copy for each child, to avoid any fight!;)
You can find a 3D preview of the template that I am modifying to suit my kids' needs here.


Another matter that is very important to me, is that my children speak Italian, as I was born and lived in Italy for 30 years, but I have had no luck in finding any tools to help me in this endeavor. My only choice was having to go back to Italy and get some books, which I would be the only one able to use to teach to our children, then I found this template in the template gallery, beginner Spanish flash cards, and was inspired to create a beginner Italian flash card set. Now my husband will be able to use them and learn Italian together with the kids. How cool is that!^_^
I also just found a cute ABC poster, it was a breeze to just pop my kids pictures in it, I created it while also updating the blog, timing my self: it took me 7 minutes, and could have been less if I didn't take more time trying to decide among many cute pictures of my children! I dragged and dropped the pictures, re sized some, and it was done!

You'll find many more educational ideas in the template gallery, each of them modifiable to suit your own needs!

You can also create any educational book or flash card, or poster for your children, and tailor them to your kids' individual capabilities!

My first born tends to put himself down when he doesn't succeed at first in something, so he is going to get a special book where I list all the things he can do, that he might always remember how special he is and all of his great qualities and abilities!

As you can see the ideas are endless, so don't wait!
With the wonderful  packages available each month, creating gifts for the whole family is going to be super fun and you won't have to break your budget this holiday season!
 Just give me a call or email me and I will be happy to get you started on the best gifts you can ever give to your dear ones!

Another great gift giving idea: Let's play!

Don't you love how playing games seems to always bring the family together? Kids get to improve their attitude about winning/losing and it's something fun that grown-ups and kids can enjoy together.
There are some great ways to bring a fun family connection to game night - your family photos on one of our Playing Card Game Decks!
You can't go wrong with them! Kids just love seeing their faces and the faces of their family as they play their favorite card games. And what a great gift for the grandparents - a deck of cards featuring their grandchildren!

Here are some of my favorite Card Game Templates, some found in the Heritage Makers Template Gallery, some just created by me from scratch- just click on each link to preview the whole deck:

Family Domino: this is your simple Domino, with a kick: faces instead of numbers. I had so much fun creating it from scratch!

Basic Photo Playing Cards: Sometimes, simple and easy makes the best gift! Just pop in your photos and you have a great standard card deck for all of your favorite card games - a perfect stocking stuffer! This is how some of my cards looked:

Fancy photo playing cards: If you like your playing card deck to be more elaborate, you can chose among many other templates or create a new one like I did with mine:

3 in 1 Family game - Don't you love BOGOs? Even better when you get 3 games at the price of one! With this card deck, you can play any game you would with a standard deck of cards, plus you can guess who is the person in the picture(it is up to you to make it as difficult or as easy as you like, depending on who the usual players will be) or it can start the conversation going with questions about people's dreams, memories, and more... A great way to get to know each other better or be reminded of things you "should" know!

I took the idea from a template, but decided to make it more personal changing backgrounds and embellishments. This is a project I am working on as I write!

But there is more than just using them as playing cards - combine card game decks with other Heritage Makers projects to make these fun, personalized games. Give one of these as an unforgettable gift - you'll never find it at next year's yard sale!

Family Land - Playing Cards and Poster Game Board and Family Fold Out Game Rules - Just like that other popular board game, this uses family photos instead of colors to go from square to square. Combine the card deck with a 18 x 24 poster as the game board! You can also print the rules on a Family Fold Out card.This is how mine looks:

You can really come up with any new game, you can make your own UNO game, OLD MAID, there is no limit to the creativity with our playing cards!

One of my next projects is to create the game of "SCOPA" which is a classic card game played in Italy, so that I will be able to share some more of what is part of my culture with my kids.

More ideas to come in the next days, so stay tuned!!!

I'm happy to help you create your own unique Card Game for yourself or as a gift! Just call me or email me and I can get you started. And remember with our Buy 3 get the 4th Free Christmas in July sale, you can get multiple decks of cards to give to your dear ones at an amazing price! You must purchase the credits this month to get the sale price, but you'll have plenty of time to complete your cards before the holidays! Gift giving has never been more fun!

Today's Chrismas in July Idea

Do you like seeing your Christmas gifts in next year garage sale? Do you like giving always the same kind of gifts?
I don't, and I am going to give you some wonderful and thoughtful ideas this month that will help you create some unforgettable and very meaningful Christmas gifts.

Picture CD idea:Make a CD with all the family pictures you can find. If you still have most of them in shoe boxes under a bed or in the closet, take them out, and scan them. If you don't have time to do so, hire a professional photo scanning specialist, it is totally worth it! Make the CD even more personal, by creating a beautiful cover with some of the key pictures on a 3panel family fold!
You can make as many copies as you like, and you will have made so many family members happy, and probably some will even shed some joyful tear!
I have already scanned many of my husband's grandparents pictures, and I am going to look for more. As soon as I have found all the pictures I can, I will burn the CD, including pictures, maybe a word document telling them what I felt going through their story in pictures, and I will have this CD cover that will really make the CD stand out!
I am so anxious to see their reaction when they see it!!!!

Stay tuned for more Christmas in July gift giving ideas!

Family Reunion ideas

Do you have a family reunion this summer? Here are some great ideas of fun things you can do at your family reunion to strengthen your family’s heritage!

1. Family Treasures Card game: This is a fun family game that has a playing board (laminated poster) that goes with it. To view the instructions click here.

2. I AM a Heritage Maker Activity Book: This is a great way for your kids and their cousins to get to know their heritage in a fun activity book.

3. Personalized Card Deck: Does your family like to play card games? Create your own custom deck of cards with pictures of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. There are lots of templates to choose from in the gallery (rook, old maid, go fish, face cards, etc.)

4. FAMILY LAND: This fun game is just like Candy Land, but with your family name and the family activities you enjoy doing together. It will keep the kids entertained for hours! Also, it has a deck of cards to go with it.

5. Family Cookbook: If you have time before the reunion, have family members send you a favorite recipe and a picture. Put together a family cookbook. Take the cookbook to the reunion and if family members would like a copy, you can take orders. If you don’t have time to put it together before the reunion, have your family bring their picture and favorite recipe to the reunion. Then put the cookbook together later.

6. BINGO: Create your own Bingo cards with pictures of grandparents and other relatives. This is a great way for the young kids to learn the names of their great grandparents.

I got all these ideas from the Heritage Makers blog

Make and Take:

Do you need fun craft ideas? Here are some that are simple, fun, and affordable!

Special Memories Box: This is a great way to keep all your favorite cards, notes, letters, etc. all in one place. This is made using 2 12×12 pages and a 7 inch craft box ($2 at Walmart).

Family Clock: Super easy and a great addition to your home. This is made using 1 8×8 page and a 9 inch clock ($4 at Walmart). Blocks: Create your blocks to say whatever you want. Does your reunion have a theme? If so make a block per family or per kid with the theme or family motto. 1 12×12 page will make 5 blocks. Cut a 2×4 into 7 inch blocks.

Tiles: Create a tile with a picture of an ancestor or of grandma and grandpa that includes one of their favorite sayings. 1 12×12 page can make 4 tiles. Get 4 6×6 tiles at Home Depot or any home improvement store.
Scanning: If you have a scanner, offer scanning services to the persons in your area who will be attending reunions. Have them ask each family member to bring the pictures they have of great grandma, great grandpa, etc. (The pictures don’t leave their sight). You can scan everyone’s pictures while at the reunion and then everyone gets a copy of everyone’s pictures. It’s a win, win for everyone!