The Gift of Adventure

Today, I will be sharing with you a gift idea. Every year, my family has a Pollyanna exchange at Christmas time. This year to keep things interesting, we chose Pollyanna’s as couples. This gift was a wonderful Christmas present but could be given year-round at a Bridal Shower or to your partner this Valentine’s day!

The concept of the gift Is simple—I sat down and brainstormed 8 mini adventures my sister could go on with her fiancé and 8 more adventures that she could do with her fiancé and son. We had a spending limit of $100.00 a couple so there isn’t anything in here that is bank-breaking. In some cases, the gift pays for a small portion of the date, all of the date, or the date is something that is largely free. I made sure there was a variety of activities—funny adventures, physical challenges, food-related, artistic… something for everyone to enjoy.

I started the gift with the carrying case. This helped to set the restrictions and realities for what we could accomplish. I purchased an Extra Large IRIS Photo and Craft Keeper, 16 individual 4x6 cases within at Michael’s (with a coupon!!). I knew I needed to make each adventure fit in to a 4x6 photo case and I needed to have 16 in total. Maureen has a ton of printed pictures so I was confident that she would use the case even if she dismantled the adventures. I did choose options that you can keep doing over and over again (aside from the couple needing to purchase more items), so she could use the case for years to come as well.

Coming up with gifts that would fit into the case—that was the fun challenge for me! Take a look at the printable (link below) that I have included in this post for more information. I have the date descriptions, what I included in each case, and the case labels for each all ready for you to peruse -- you can make your own!

The Gift of Adventure - Printable!

On a side note, my sister is an avid scrapbook enthusiast. I included Project Life cards, embellishments, and photo challenges in most if not all of her cases. If the person you are gifting this to is not a fan, it is best to leave that out and use the expense somewhere else. I recommend hounding your local Groupon and Living Social pages for deals. There were quite a few we looked at but passed up for other adventures. Do you know someone that wants to ride a Segway on an obstacle course or get family photos taken at Picture People?

DIY Board Game

This Christmas, my family decided to change up our Pollyanna to make it a couples exchange. (When you include Mom & Dad, that's 14 adults and six kids- Pollyanna is necessary!)  Each couple had to give gifts to another couple. We could give them things that were on their wish list or get creative and send them on their dream date. We had very loose guidelines this year. With a tight budget I knew I'd be getting my Pollyanna some gift cards and some gifts that I was going to make myself. Some of the things I made them included an ornament with their names, a scrapbook kit, a date jar, and just printing a family picture out and framing it for them. I also had an idea to recreate one of my favorite board games for them with a personal touch. 

The game my fiance and I decided on was Clue. I've always loved the mystery behind the game! It also reminds me of the game we play before we exchange gifts, guessing who has us. To start, I searched some stores in my area to find the game to recreate. All I could find were hard-to-work-with, newer versions of the game that weren't quite what I was envisioning. I wanted the 80's and 90's version I grew up with.  I went to Etsy and found PaperCreationsbyDeb, who sells a ton of vintage game boards and pieces at great prices. There are a few more of the clue boards on there, too! Since I was only getting the board, I decided I should pick up some game pieces, too. I found these great wooden babies on Etsy by UrbanHomesteaders. I then decided I'd make or find all of the other parts of the game in time for Christmas. 

This version of Clue was made with the thought that each room would be a house owned by one of the families, the characters would be the 6 kids, and the "weapons" would be anything a child could potentially get in a lot of trouble with. I made everyone take a picture of their families, most opted to do it in front of their Christmas Tree. I had two empty spaces left over, so I put a school and a store there, figuring those were the other two places you often take your children. 

The "weapons" were all buttons and charms I found in my mother's stash. I used crayons, a ball, paint, a phone, scissors, and money. You could guess my son getting in trouble with the paint at Nana's house and be completely accurate, by the way. I also found some dice left over from older games. 

To make the cards, I had to decide how big I wanted them to be. I found an envelope that was about 4x5.5 inches in my scrapbook stash. Since you need an envelope to play the game, I used that to make my decision about the sizing of the cards. Each card is about 3.5x5. I found pictures of all the kids with their guiltiest faces and put a line of color and their name at the top. I printed them all out on one sheet of photo matte paper or card stock. I then did the same for all of the houses and the "weapons". For the backs of the cards, I made them all say what category they were and printed them on separate sheets. After I cut everything, I laminated the fronts and backs together.  

I made the clue sheets by creating a grid in excel, including each category and each possibility. I put three across a page and printed it landscape. I then printed several copies so the game could be played many times. 

The board was the trickiest part. I first cut out black card stock for each room and covered most of it, leaving the doors visible so the player knows where to enter  the house. I used my Canon Selphy CP900 printer and the photo app Pic Frame to print out small pictures of all of the family pictures and used adhesive to stick them to the board. I also had to make new blocks for all of the characters and secret passageways. 

After everything was stuck down, I used modpodge to make sure it stayed down. Note- really old modpodge may smudge printed ink. Who knew? The newer bottle I used was fine. The older bottle could possibly be older than me. After that dried, I made the decision to put contact paper over top but it hasn't been staying on very well so we might just take that off. If you are an expert with clear contact paper it could work for you.

And there you have it! A customized board game made with love. Time for a Family Game Night!