If you're like many people, you're craving connectedness; the current pandemic has forced us all to be a little farther apart than we're used to being. But with that said, it's possible to show your gratitude and share how much you care with others using Mixbook. Check out these five simple projects you can do to make your family and friends feel closer during these difficult times.

5 Amazing Ways to Show Gratitude When You Can't Be With Family and Friends

You don't have to be a professional artist or have a keen eye for design to create five amazing products that show your loved ones how much you care. Check out these five ideas to get started on your next project:

1. Personalized thank-you cards

2. Gratitude books for friends and family

3. Home decor prints

4. Photo calendars

5. Catch-up photo books

Here's a closer look at each.

#1. Personalized Thank-You and "Thinking of You" Cards

Faraway friends and family members have been sending gifts, making time for video conferences, and thinking of each other non-stop during this unprecedented crisis, so what better way to show your appreciation than through a personalized thank-you card? You can design your own or use a thank-you card template personalized with a family photo.

Along the same lines, personalized thinking of you greeting cards are a wonderful way to let others know they're on your mind. Choose a funny play on words, like "I'd pick you for my quaran-team" or "Hello from the inside," or pick something that matches your personality. You can personalize your cards with a family photo, pet photos, or even photos of you and the recipient together. Make unique cards for each friend or family member, or create an entire set that you can mail out whenever someone's in your thoughts.

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#2. Gratitude Books for Friends and Family

Let your friends and family know you cherish - and miss - the time you've spent with them by creating a gratitude book. Include photos of all the good times you've had in the past, and write thoughtful captions about each memory. If you're not particularly poetic, you can add poignant quotes on important pages. Here are ten gratitude quotes that tie into the current pandemic you can use:

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." - Robert Brault
"Once you begin to take note of the big things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack." - Germany Kent
"Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul." - Henry Ward Beecher
"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. It makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." - Melody Beattie
"Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life." - Rumi
"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for." - Epicurus
"The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything." - Hannah Whitall Smith
"We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude." - Cynthia Ozick
"Gratitude is an antidote to negative emotions, a neutralizer of envy, hostility, worry and irritation." - Sonja Lyubomirsky

Your gratitude book doesn't have to be a gift for someone else, though. It can be something you create just for your family to pull out when you need to re-center yourselves.

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#3. Home Decor Prints

Create beautiful home decor prints featuring you and yours to share with the people you care about most. Take some time to reminisce with your photos, choose your favorites, and upload them to create canvas prints, metal prints, acrylic prints or acrylic blocks, or even poster prints. You can even have the finished products sent directly to your friends and family. Choose special occasions with grandparents, like birthday parties or family reunions, pick special days out with family friends. or choose any photo that makes you feel more connected to the people you love.

Create Home Decor

#4. Photo Calendars for Faraway Family Members

Let grandma and grandpa, aunts and uncles, and best friends count down the days until you can all see each other again with a specially made custom photo calendar. You can include photos of special events that have happened in the past, such as an anniversary, birthday, or other special occasions, or you can choose photos of your favorite people all together. Add custom events to the dates by inserting a photo or simply use text to draw attention to important days throughout the year.

**Bold Patterns Calendar by Martha Stewart**

Create Calendars

#5. Catch-Up Photo Books to Keep Everyone in the Loop

When you can't spend face-to-face time with your friends and family to keep up on what's happening, the next best thing is a "catch-up" photo book. You can take the pictures you've compiled since the beginning of the pandemic - before anyone really knew how long children would be out of school or even how long it would be before the illness was treatable - and put together a book that outlines everything important that's happened so far. Take pictures of kids with growth charts or their own arts and crafts, add pet photos, and write a little bit of text about how you're all spending your time, what virtual schooling is like, or what you miss most about spending time with family and friends.

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What Ways Have You Shown Gratitude and Stayed Connected?

If you've created a special book, craft items, or anything else to stay connected with family - or to remind your own family that gratitude is important - we'd love to see it. Drop a link in the comments below or share it with @Mixbook on Instagram so your work can inspire others, too!