Go Fish (or Memory)

For the last few years I tried to personalize our gifts for my nieces and nephews by making them their own set of Go Fish cards or a Memory game. It takes a little work but makes a lasting, exciting, inexpensive gift for Christmas.

Here's what I do...I print 2 pictures (I got a little over zealous one year and made 4 pictures...bad idea) of every family member (extended family too...which in my case isn't that many...or you could do all the cousins, etc.) The pictures don't have to be the exact same...one time I used a picture of my sis-in-law making a silly face and another of her smiling. You want the pictures to be closer up so it is mostly of the person and not of the background.

Then I cut...I cut all of the pictures to be the same size (you can keep them as 4x6s but I thought that was too big to play with) and then I also cut up colored card stock to be a little bigger size than the pictures. For my gold fish game I stamped fish all over one side of the card stock and I glued the picture on the other side. (It's important to keep the non-picture side all the same though!)

Then to make the game a little more lasting (and just when you thought you were done!) I cover them in clear contact paper. Then I cut them out so they are all the same size again.

Next I find a good small box that the game cards will fit in. I type up rules to the game personalizing them to the family I am giving it to (i.e. instead of saying "player" I type the child's name.) And I paste it to the inside lid of the game. I think I also print out the name of the game and paste it to the outside of the lid.

And voila!