Christmas gifts I made with photos
The fun thing about giving photo gifts is that the gift is as unique as the photo...I find that they make really meaningful presents. And if you're as shutter-happy as I am, by the time December rolls around each year, you probably have plenty of material for photo gifts.
I made a scrapbook for my sister, like I did two years ago.
This one covers the first year of her first girl's life, and I'll just show you a few pages. I apologize for the poor quality of these photos. I'm such a disaster at taking pictures of pictures...they never turn out very sharp! The printed photos really are good quality in real life, though.
(just apply that disclaimer to all the photos in this post...they're pretty much all pictures of pictures)
We were all so surprised that Annalise was a girl (my sister and her husband didn't find out the sex ahead of time).
She has three older brothers, so we all sort of expected that she'd be a boy too!
I didn't actually do a whole lot in the way of dedicated photo shoots for her over the year, but since I see my sister pretty often and since I always have my camera with me, I had a good selection of photos to choose from.
Going to the beach twice with my sister didn't hurt.
I finished this up shortly before we had our Christmas get-together with my family...Mr. FG says it just wouldn't be Christmastime if I wasn't frantically finishing up a scrapbook last minute.
Ahem.
I made a calendar for Mr. FG's grandma. I made one last year and she really liked it...she hung it on her bedroom door so that she could see the happy pictures every morning when she woke up.
I used mpix to make this calendar, and while the print quality is great, the process of making the calendar is a little trickier than on Shutterfly, the site I used last year.
I used a shot of the neighborhood dock for the cover (we had lots of good snow for sledding last year!)
And then I picked one picture from my 2011 files for each month.
I have such a hard time picking just one photo, but I like the look of one photo per month better than the layouts that let you pick multiple photos.
A calendar costs about $20, so it's not a terribly expensive present, and it could bring a lot of joy to someone all year long. It makes a great gift for someone who doesn't want clutter or who has limited space.
Lastly, Mr. FG's mom said that his dad would like a photo of us for his office, so we got a friend to snap a few photos of us after church one Sunday.
It was freezing and we didn't have a lot of time, but given that and the fact that it's hard to get six people to look good at the same time, I think it turned out pretty well.
If you want to give a framed photo as a gift, here's a small tip that will take your photo from so-so to fabulous: pick a frame with a mat.
Seriously.
It makes so, so, so much difference. Even a not-too-great photo will look 93% better with a mat. Try it! You'll be so happy with the results.
Some of those photos are truly hilarious!
I'm just discovering the bounty of frames/mats available ever so cheaply at Goodwill. A couple bucks, maybe a little black spray paint viola. We've added 7 framed pictures to our house in recent history. Grand total? Somewhere around $15.
I hadn't thought of the gift possibilities yet, but hmmmmm...
Thanks for the inspiration.
Yes! If you can look past the current state of the frame and imagine it with some paint, you can find some great deals.
You can even spray paint mats, as long as you're careful not to get the mat soggy.
Great gifts! We are seriously under pictured and framed over here on our walls. Must fix that in 2012.
(Why the metal handle (?) over the light switch? At least that's what I think I'm seeing.)
I was going to ask the same question about the light switch.
Kristen, your pictures of pictures look better than my original pictures so don't be so hard on yourself.
All the photo gifts are beautiful
That's because that light switch turns off everything in the room, which means it resets the alarm clock! We put the cover over it because people were forever turning the switch off.
Ahhh...great solution!
Have you ever ordered stuff from Vista Print? I ordered my photo Christmas cards (with a 50% off coupon) and was checking out their website. They have a LOT of free stuff, I ordered a canvas bag with my name on it for taking back and forth to school (I'm a teacher) and a couple of notepads...for FREE!! I just had to pay for the shipping.
Still loving your blog after all these years! Thanks for sharing your ideas...
Vistaprint is a great web site. I ordered our wedding save-the-dates from them and also made the invitations to my sister's bridal shower. The products are very affordable and look great.
I was just thinking about you the other day, Dana! So glad you're still reading. 🙂
I think I've ordered something from VistaPrint in the past but I can't remember what.
Photo calendars are really expensive from them, though...when I checked, they charged for each image upload.
Before Christmas their calendars were FREE for the first one and half price for the second! I'm not sure about the upload charge or anything of that nature as I did not order calendars!
I've ordered business cards from Vistaprint. There are a bunch of designs you can get for free (you just have to agree to have their URL on the back). They came out just fine and you can't beat the price!
I think that family portrait is one of the best I've ever seen. I think you all in your coats is a great spin on the "all dressed alike" thing--the uniformity lets your faces and smiles be the focus without screaming "look at our matching outfits!"
Absolutely gorgeous! Great photos to work with, but great, great gifts!
My sister-in-law does this as well. She took a 2x4 and cut it down smaller, painted it black, and somehow stuck pictures to it which were decorated with scrapbook borders (all digital, she printed it). The pictures were all of my mom's grandchildren. So now my mom can display it on her desk at work. My description isn't doing it any justice, it looks much nicer than it sounds. lol
they are all great... I think the one you did for josha turned out great!!!
What a great idea for a present. You must have spent ages putting it together and that makes it all the more special for the recipient.
Wonderful Pics! My daughter did a dad/kid collage for my husband this year for Christmas,he said it was the best present he got! Gonna start Goodwill search for frames, Mothers Day is just around the corner.
On my mom's side of the family we do a calendar of photos from the previous year. Since there are about 30 of us, we like to put multiple photos on the same page so we can get everyone in! 🙂 It's a fun way to remember everything throughout the year.
Fortunately for me, there are currently only 5 grandchildren on that side, so one photo per month works out!
I am really kicking myself right now, because I gave a TON of picture gifts away this Christmas, and never even thought to look for the frames/mats at Goodwill! Grrr. Anyway, I have a 3 month old and for my mom and MIL, I got a frame with two 5x7 spaces in it (matted) and in one space I put a picture of my newborn, and in the other I put his hand and foot prints. I think it turned out super cute!
Such thoughtful presents! Did you use Picasa or PS to edit the photos?
I use Picasa to do minor things...cropping, shadows, highlights, and black and white conversion. Love Picasa!
My goodness! So here's what I did this year: I made the most of the wedding photos for Christmas presents. But I didn't want to go broke on buying an album. I had my eye on these $15 ones that held 50 photos at Barnes and Noble. But I'd need something like 6-7. That money just racked up!
So I scoured the web and found CHEAP albums at Artist Supply Source (http://www.artistsupplysource.com/) and Unique Photo (http://store.uniquephoto.com/e/). I ended up picking up mini albums that hold 25 photos for $2.50, and then larger ones that held 100 for $4.50. That's a number I can get behind!
I also took advantage of a photo print deal that SnapFish was having on Cyber Monday. I ordered 1200 4x6 prints! Yeowza.
My mom and grandma are still waiting on their delivery (USPS is super slow with this box...). But everyone else teared up over it 🙂
I love it when a present I give makes someone tear up. I feel that's proof of a successful gift. lol
Love love the gifts that come from the heart!
Kristen,
The same sweet daughter-in-law who told me about your site (which this grandma loves!) has been giving us a photo calendar for several years; she gets photos from our other sons' families and it is a favorite gift of grand-parents and great-grandparents - one which gives us pleasure every day all year. This year we told our sons and their dear wives that we would appreciate it if they would give us ONLY photos in some form and put any amount above that in their gas tanks or in airplane tickets to come see us (with the proviso that kid-made gifts are also always welcome here) and we are grateful that they happily complied. Please keep telling your readers that it's the most-desired gift they can give to many grandparents!
We often give photos to our moms--they're past wanting more "stuff" to clutter up their houses but love photos of family far away. We sent my MIL a digital picture frame a few years ago so we also send more photos for that. My husband is the photographer, though, not me!
I would like to know the printer you use. I am having a time with printing quick photos at home. Sometimes need quick copies of photos when family come by to give me photos and I want to give to my parents and need a really good quality printer.
I have a Canon Pixma printer. I love the quality of the photos Canon's printers make...my only complaint is that the print heads don't seem to be built to last. 3 years or so, and they get clogged up, and a new printhead is usually more than the price of a new printer!
I gave my parents a photo gift that was two years in the making. I finally managed to get a picture of our family ranch from the same place in each of the four seasons. I framed the four pictures up and they were very excited about it.
Good idea buying frames with matts at Goodwill. I usually buy my frames at the dollar store, but then have to go to the craft store for the matt. I could probably get a nicer set at Goodwill. I do photo calendars every year and I put the dates of birthdays/anniversaries. This is a nice reminder for my grandparents so they don't lose track of important dates. The photobook/scrapbook you did turned out great!
My hubby and I were cleaning out our overcluttered basement and I stumbled on something I used to make as gifts and need to start again - el cheapo limestone tiles leftover from our kitchen backsplash (I think they are about $5 for a box of 10 at Home Depot). I would turn them into sets of 4 coasters. Sometimes I would write words on them but whether plain or decorated I would then seal with polyurethane and add felt pads (self adhesive) to each corner. Voila, a great gift for really cheap. Only downside is that they aren't as fabulous as the thirsty stone brands in the hot summers when the glasses drip constantly. I am going to start making some soon for housewarming gifts for a few people.
Love those!
I made a calendar for my mom and mother-in-law this year, and they LOVED them! I used Picaboo with a groupon. They were expensive normally ($75 total) but with the groupon I only paid $35 which I thought was a good deal. If I see the groupon again I'm doing to do it again this coming Christmas, because it was definitely a hit!
I made a calendar of our cats for one of my cousin (we have a long-time running facebook joke about cats) and he was very happy. I created it online from Staples Print and Copy https://www.staplescopyandprint.ca and it came up to about 9$. It was a stapled one, not coiled, but it was in colour and turned out nice enough. I wish I had take better pictures for it though because I didn't have a lot of pictures to choose from that were high resolutions.
I also gave my mother an empty album and a coupon for a day of photo organization. I ended up spending more like 3 days organizing all of our pictures and will need to get many more albums, but it was a nice start. Basically, my mom had everything in albums up to about 1995, and then it was all in random boxes/packages in no order. Then as of about 2006, there are very few pictures because everything is digital and on the computer. Once all the physical pictures are organized in albums, I intend to print off the best pictures from each year up to now, and then every year I just need to maintain it!
I so love the picture book that you made such a great idea!
I did several photo albums using Shutterfly's special purpose albums. I did a "10 Things My Sister Loves" which took me forever to curate her photos. When I get done, I realized I had enough to do one for my brother-in-law, so his became "8 Reasons You're A Wonderful Brother-in-Law". For a friend, I did an album of pictures at Thanksgiving because she didn't have many of her children or boyfriend.
For my Mom, I did notecards in Shutterfly as she likes to mail out notes.
Earlier in the year, I did a family album covering nearly 80 years for my in-laws. I'd already given them out as gifts and the recipients loved them.
I had coupons for most of these. They're not overly cheap even with coupons, but it was worth it.
Nancy
The friend's album used the presets for "Happiness Is". I forgot to mention that. Using the special purpose albums helped focus my attention to get it done easier.
What a delicious present of four you made. Any parent or family member would go nuts for each and every one of them. Gorgeous.
Those are really cute gifts!!! Great ideas!!! Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 🙂
My fiance and I gave engagement photos for Christmas! It was a pretty inexpensive gift, since we had a friend take the photos. We got the prints and frames at Target, and all the recipients loved the gifts!
The scrapbook is incredible! That is the most amazing, thoughtful gift! You are supremely awesome!
Kristen the scrapbook is amazing... (in fact all the gifts are great)... thank you so much for sharing - it's inspirational! Without a doubt I will be replicating every idea this year in some form.
I am writing up a post to share this January about something I have done for 4 wedding gifts. At weddings I had a little digi camera with me and took various photos throughout the day. All sorts of random things. I then put it all together (collage style) in a very large frame. The photo's overlap etc. Always black and white photos. I even managed one time to get the frame into the newly married couples bedroom whilst they were honeymooning so it was at the bottom of the bed when they returned.
Basically I kept an eye open for various ideas from other professional photographs I had seen in bridal mags etc and did the best I could to do an overview of the day.
A little bit stressful, particularly when I moved some placecards around on the head table of the wedding breakfast to get the shot I wanted and then couldn't remember who was supposed to be sitting where - oops! Thankfully someone helped me sort in time!
ps - another idea for old frames is the 'fingerprint' design. Get the kids to make patterns on the old frame using their fingers dabbed in paint, for a personal gift of them at that stage in life. This year my Kids did something a little different in that they designed their own cardboard frames for their annual school photo to give to Grandma's etc...
I craft ornaments with my daughter's picture on them for relatives. Usually it involves some kind of drying clay for a border, a cheap bulb, and a simple glaze to seal the picture.
We chose a picture of my 3-year old daughter with her cousin from our trip to the mainland earlier in the year (we live in Hawaii), had her color a few popsicle sticks, and I hot-glued them together to create a picture-frame ornament. It was absolutely nothing fancy at all, but really sentimental.
Who is that absolutely adorable girl all the way to the right in the December 2012 calendar picture?! Her face made my night! What humor!
Hee. That's my niece, who is 10 days younger than Zoe. She's got enough personality for about 5 children. 🙂
One of my coworkers died unexpectedly over the holidays after having worked in our office for 18 years. A couple of my coworkers had the idea of creating a photo book of photos collected of her over the years (we have an annual work retreat where we end up taking a lot of photos of each other) to give to her daughter. It was a tragic reason for making a photo book, but I was really impressed with the thoughtfulness of the idea.