My basic decorating style in my home is to surround me and my family with items that have special meaning in our lives.  Sometimes these items can be gathered during family vacations or memorabilia from special family events like weddings, baptisms or birthday celebrations.  Our house is also filled with family photos because I like looking at them and remembering people, places or things that we have done together as a family throughout the years.  (Yes, I guess you could say I am a sentimental old fool!!)

One of my favorite decorative items that relates to family is the “Three Generations” photo frame which holds a picture of three hands.  When I saw the photo frame while shopping one day I knew that the photo would look great in it!  My young daughter’s hand is so small and there is paint on her finger, my hand is slightly larger and my mom’s hand is more wrinkled.  The photo was taken just a few years before she passed away and to me it tells the story of three generations of women in my family.  (We also used the photo as the title page for the video that we played at my mom’s funeral service and it was perfect to reflect the feeling of family)

Another favorite family decorative item that we did very recently was the family hands craft project which was quick, easy and inexpensive.  We started by taking three pieces of scrapbook paper and trace each of the hands of the members of your family.  For a smaller family you can lay each of the hand tracings on top of each other or for a larger family the tracings can be laid overlapping side by side.  Shown below is another variation for the family hands craft project is using paper for a wonderful overlapped look.  (Craft Note / Tip: I hung this on the wall in our home next to another craft project, Words into Art.  Be sure to write the names and date that the hand tracings were taken. Please click on the link for a list of craft supplies and complete instructions)

Shown below are more family hands craft projects that I have made as decorative art for our home –

Framed childhood handprints with special poem

This was originally posted in May 2013 and it is a great craft project to do with the kids to create a very sentimental Mother’s Day gift or it is a great gift idea for the grandparents for Christmas or Grandparent’ Day.  Children handprints, especially when they are very young, always make interesting art work for a home especially when framed with a special poem.  (For more information about Childhood Handprints, please click on the link)

Framed Zoo Animal Handprints

This was originally posted in April 2013 and it is another inexpensive craft project to do with the kids to create whimsical zoo animals with family handprints.  Several handprints of the same animal are great for the whole family (create a herd of elephants walking across the savannah, a group of monkeys hanging from a tree or a group of ducks swimming on the water)  Be sure to include individual animal prints for separate family members that expresses their personalities. (maybe a lion for the father, a tiger for the mother, a monkey, zebra, giraffe, elephant or flamingo for the kids)  Frame each print in a white mat and simple black frame which won’t distract from the colorful prints.  Take the time to label the prints with the names of each family member and be sure to include the year.   Several of these individual prints along with one group print would look great to create an interesting wall display in a family room.  (For more information about Zoo Animal Handprints, please click on the link)