Why Enlarge And Frame Photos When Printing Them On Canvas Is More Economical And Beautiful.
July 24, 2009
Why Enlarge And Frame Photos When Printing Them On Canvas Is More Economical And Beautiful.
I was amazed to discover this week that for nearly the same price that you would pay to enlarge photos you can get them printed on canvas. I know the prices have been going down; I even got a complimentary one when I entered a photo contest, but you can get any thing from an 8×10 to a 16×20 for the price of dinner for two.
Considering my son is almost a year old I haven’t been out to dinner in a while so I plan to put those savings to good use. In fact, with his upcoming birthday celebration photo canvases make the perfect hostess gifts, maybe even favors. Because I live so far away from the rest of my family, I am borrowing a house from my aunt and having his first birthday party in the town they all call home.
I have had several offers to help with the party, from food to decoration, and I was looking for a nice thank you gift. The photo I used for Aiden’s invitation is so adorable that it was practically begging to come to life on a canvas.
You don’t have to worry about winding up with a less than quality canvas when ordering at these amazing prices. As long as they use archival quality ink and canvases and a UV protecting sealer, then the canvas will easily last a hundred years under normal conditions.
Unlike a picture printed on photo paper, when you have one printed on canvas it actually looks like it is woven right into the fabric. When it is pulled taut and gallery wrapped it is stunning. The finished piece is so beautiful that I rarely even frame mine. In a photo filled house like mine, that really saves me from clashing frames, and gives my home a gallery appearance.
Aiden crawling towards his birthday.
With advancing technology, canvases have become the economical choice for photo decoration. You don’t even have to wait around; you can go from order to delivery in about a week. And the best part is you can do it all from the comfort of your home. As the mom of an increasingly mobile little one, I don’t even want to think about going out and trying to get my prints and the right frames to go with them. Photo canvas websites are the new one stop shops, click into one today.
Print Your Pictures On Blankets and Pillows To Create Unique Photo Gifts
July 23, 2009
It’s the middle of summer now and the holiday season seems a long way away. You’re probably busy taking photos of your kids at the beach or out in the park, enjoying the sunshine and warmth, capturing them splashing in water, digging in sand, full of the joy of childhood vacations. With a little bit of thought you could turn some of these precious memories into unique photo gifts for your family and be well ahead on the gift buying by the time Christmas does arrive!
Gifts of photos of your children are always welcome to grandparents and far flung family. Sometimes though like in my family, there comes a time when their walls are already full of framed prints and there’s no more room on the dresser to cram on another portrait. This is when you need to let your imagination take off and find other ways to present your best pictures, to create a gift that is personalized and useful at the same time.
Digital photos can be used in a whole range of ways these days. Recently I came across an idea that I thought would make a perfect gift for Christmas, Mother’s Day or a birthday. You can have your photos printed or woven into blankets and pillows. The options I was looking at included fleece throws and 100% cotton blankets, which are washable and guaranteed not to fade. I loved the idea of creating a photo collage with a few of my best pictures of my kids and putting them onto a blanket. Perfect for Gran to snuggle under on a winter night surrounded by the faces of all her grandchildren!
Cotton or linen pillows were another idea that I liked. Here the photos are smaller, have borders to frame them and there is a choice of sizes and colors, so they can fit in with any décor. You can have your photos reproduced in full color or go for an artier option in black and white with a colored border, which would fit in well with a more formal interior decor.
Using your photos like this doesn’t have to be just for Christmas gifts though. I know my kids would love to have their own blankets with photos of the whole family on. It would also be a fun way of decorating a baby’s room as there are baby size blankets available too.
So while you’re enjoying the sunshine this summer, take loads of photos of your kids, then you can spend a happy time later in the season when they are back at school, reliving the memories and making them last for ever with a series of imaginative gifts for your family.
Child Photographer
When You Print Photos On Mugs You Are Creating A Classic Gift.
July 22, 2009
Some things stick around indefinitely because they are just such a good idea. It is so simple to print photos on mugs that it is no surprise that it is an instant classic. A mug is easily the most used dish. I use mine for everything from coffee to soup and that doesn’t even touch on foodless uses. Popping a treasured memory onto one for yourself or to give away is just the start of a good day.
I remember twenty years ago when photo mugs were the craft project for vacation bible school. Of course, then, they were made of double layered plastic and you slid your photos and artwork between the two panels before proudly taking them home to your parents. I find it very amusing that the same idea has perpetuated this long and is still just as simple, if not more attractive now.
There is so much variety to choose from; you can decorate your standard mug or a lovely latte mug, even stainless steel travel mugs. It doesn’t stop there; my husband came home from a bachelor party last month with a personalized beer stein which was absolutely fantastic. Because of their prominence in office environments, corporations have been using mugs as advertisement for decades.
There is no doubt that you already know the countless liquid free uses for mugs. However, if you are looking for an original gift, instead of filling it with candy, try a window plant. Even more personal, you can make multiple mugs with different grandchildren’s photos and use them to grow favored flowers. They will last much longer than the ones they picked from garden.
If you have printed a picture in the last few years, either from a website or an in-store lab, than you have seen the wide array of products onto which you can print your photos or pop art. From aprons to paperweights, you can really do almost anything.
When was the last time you ordered a photo gift for yourself? I have one with a beautiful collage of my son coming next week. It is to celebrate my return to caffeine after pregnancy and a year of nursing and I am very excited. Few photo gifts can offer the daily reminder of something precious like mugs can. With every sip you are reminded again and again of the love and happiness that someone wished for you. It is a classic gift for a reason, brew one up for a loved one today.
Create Your Own Masterpiece With A Photo Printed On Canvas
July 21, 2009
Picture this – you’ve just been taking photos of your kids on a beautiful, sunny evening and you’ve managed to capture the perfect shot of their happy smiles beaming in the golden light. This is a photo that deserves more than just sticking into the photo album. You want to frame this one and put it on your wall to preserve that moment forever. Why not make the most of this photo and have it printed on canvas!
Printing a photo on to canvas is a technique that is now widely available. Your digital photo is printed onto a canvas background and is given the texture, depth of color and feeling of a real masterpiece. Museum quality canvas ensures that these prints will last for many years to come without fading or deteriorating.
Most digital cameras now produce images of good enough quality to make really quite large prints. Think of creating a larger than life portrait of your child smiling down from the wall at you. With canvas you really don’t need to stay small, in fact you are really creating a piece of personal art that you can use as a focal point of your room.
Once you’ve had one photo put onto canvas, you’re bound to want to create your own family portrait gallery, so stunning is the effect. With the modern look of the gallery wrap finish, where the image is wrapped around the edge of the canvas stretcher, there is no need for the distraction of a frame, so you get the full force of the image. Another advantage of canvas prints is that there is no need of glass to protect the image, so the image is clear and vibrant without being disturbed by the reflections of glass.
Canvas prints are also relatively light, without the weight of a heavy wooden frame and glass. This means that it is easy to mount a whole series of canvas prints on a wall. You can have them printed all of equal size and hang them in a row, or make them of all different shapes and sizes and hang them to create a mosaic effect, all close together in a block.
Canvas prints really do bring a whole new dimension to your photography, making your pictures look really professional, so that you can enjoy your best photos of your kids everyday and keep your memories of those gorgeous toddlers alive… even once they become teenagers and are begging you to take those embarrassingly cute pictures down!
Child Photographer
The Perfect Child Photography Contest Is All About The Photo.
July 20, 2009
Have you ever looked into a child photography contest, only to be turned off by the thought of pitting your child’s adorable smile against another’s? If you look past the very first pop up of your web search you will come across cute baby contests that agree all babies are beautiful. The real entrant in the contest is you and it is your photography skills and creativity that are judged.
Because of the lure of prizes and parental pride contests to find the cutest children for advertisements are flooded with photos. I have entered more than one and while there is no doubt that my son is beautiful, for some reason he has yet to win. While I scouted out even more contests to enter his winning smile in I came upon ones that are all about the photos.
I’m sure that you have caught your child in some adorable moment, peeking around the corner, or wearing a beard of bubbles in the bath. You look at the photo and you see the perfect image. If you have staged the perfect picture, or more impressively, caught it by chance, then you should enter in one of these photo contests.
With judges that range from professionals to your peers, even offering you a vote, there is much to be had. Not only can you rise to the photography challenge, but you can look around and be inspired by other people’s clever ideas and poses. I often peruse other’s photos and find shots that I am eager to duplicate and make my own.
When Anne Geddes’ work first debuted, I was one of millions popping their own little ones into flower pots and firing off dozens of pictures. This past Christmas I photographed my son in a drywall bucket, in a t-shirt with the family’s logo on it. My father and grandfather, the heads of the business, were thrilled with the quick spin on an old pose. My father dubbed the photo his “Little Legacy” and taped a copy to his clipboard to show off when he gives estimates.
While I am a fan of beautiful baby contests, entering my son with the conviction that he will one day be on the cover of one of my parenting magazines, I find a certain satisfaction in the photo contests. I take pride in overcoming shutter lag to get the perfect shot of my son popping out of the water at the pool. I am thrilled when I choose just the right ISO to capture a low light photo of my baby sleeping without it being overcome with graininess. The contests appeal to all my photographic sensibilities, give them a peek and they will be calling you too.
A Mom’s Best Tool Is Sharing Photos Online.
July 17, 2009
It is no secret that motherhood requires you to use every trick in your bag and come up with new ones on a daily basis just to keep up. That is especially true for mothers like myself who’s family is too far away to lend a hand. That being the case there are just two things that I can’t life without; unlimited minutes on my cell phone and sharing photos online.
I want my family to be able to see my son grow up, as they are able to do with his cousins who live in the same town. I also take more pictures of my little one daily than most people take in a week. Relying on postal service is both costly and slow; uploading your photos onto the internet is really the only way to go.
There are so many benefits to sharing your photos online; I can’t believe I only started doing it this year. I had associated it with teens and myspace and never really looked into it. However, most of the websites that you upload your pictures to let you order prints and other products.
The one I use even retains my address book so I can share pictures with everyone or just two or three people with only a few seconds of clicking. There is even an automatically formatted invitation from my account to view the photos which saves me tons of time. Not only can I use it to order prints, but so can everyone else I share them with.
I can’t even tell you how much I used to spend on doubles and triples just so I would have enough to give away. Now everyone picks out what they want and does whatever they want with them. My cousin stores them on her iPhone while my mother is constantly ordering 8x10s. One of the nicest things is that they can send me comments as soon as they see them and I can pretend we are all hanging out together chatting about our kids instead of spread across the country.
There are more technical advantages too. The photos you upload are stored on the websites server, so you can access them from anywhere. It is the perfect place to store your precious memories in case of fire or other destruction. My cousin who is studying to be a professional photographer uses the sites to get critiques on her photo skills from family and peers.
Whether you are a professional photographer or a time pressed mom, photo sharing websites are ideal for you. It doesn’t matter if you scan in a print or start with a digital image, as long as you know how to store your pictures as a jpeg you are good to go. If you don’t, Adobe Photo shop can do it for you. Either way you can simplify your life and start uploading now.
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Already Put Your Photos On Canvas? Here’s How To Make The Perfect Display.
July 16, 2009
Now that your photos are on canvas how do you give them the attention that they deserve? The answer is in your display. If you really want to make your artwork pop the wall that you hang them on is almost as important as the giclee.
Contrasting colors make the boldest statements. Finding the right shade is as easy as getting a color wheel. You can get them at the art store or just grab one online. The exact opposite color is straight across the circle from the one on your canvas. To turn your intended wall into an eye catching gallery simply paint it in the contrasting color to provide a stunning background.
It may be simpler to reverse engineer the process and choose photos for your canvases that contrast the existing wall color. Choose a number of your favorite photos and using some paint safe tape, design your ideal layout, then send the winning pictures in to be printed on canvas.
When I was pregnant with my son my nesting instinct turned into the pressing need to paint my son’s room perfectly. My goal was dappled sunlight, and after half a dozen shades of yellow and a week with a sponge I succeeded. While playing with my Photoshop software in my son’s first weeks home I made a collage of animals that I had photographed at the zoo. I laid his name over it and played with colors. A deep almost purple blue declared the room as his and I converted it to canvas for hanging by his door.
It doesn’t take a maternal instinct to desire beauty from your home. Whether you want to be surrounded by canvases of your child’s multitude of expressions or some other happy memories, there is no sense in hanging them on the wall if they are just going to fade into it. Nor do you have to paint the whole room if one wall will do.
Accent walls are very popular now. You can jump onto this trend and make it your own with distinctive canvases arranged on a single wall of bold contrasting color. If you are looking to spice up your home in a fun way let a color wheel lead you to the perfect shade of paint to bring out the best in your canvases. Make your memories stand out on your wall like they do in your mind.
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