Kids of Christmas past

If you have kids or grandkids, you probably have a dusty archive of forgotten holiday photos. Kids on Santa's lap. Kids in front of the Christmas tree. Kids emptying their stockings. You get the picture.

Instead of letting those snapshots languish in albums and boxes, here's a holiday craft idea from Minnetonka designer Sue Hunter of Home for a Change Interiors (www.homeforachange.com). Hunter takes her plain old pix and turns them into stylish new seasonal decor.

"With my children now 20 and 18, I miss looking at the precious photos of them as children at Christmas," she writes. So she copies favorite photos and blows them up into 8 x 10s (in color or black and white, depending on the look she's going for. She spraypaints an old frame, and uses a piece of cardboard, covered with fabric, wrapping paper or wallpaper to set off the photo. Then she accents with ribbon, small holiday ornaments, keepsakes and greens to create a simple, inexpensive piece of holiday artwork.

You can hang it on the wall or set it on a mantel or table in place of your year-round artwork. And if you're still puzzling over what to give Grandma as a gift, this nostalgic idea might do the trick.

What are your best brainstorms re: homemade holiday gifts?