Get Cards Printed and Share Photos Online
December 17, 2009
If you are one of those people who are well organized you will have already had Christmas cards printed and sent out weeks ago… but if like me and many others Christmas has crept up on you and you’ve suddenly realized that it’s too late to get your own personalized photo cards printed in time to send out, what can you do? Well there may not be time to print out Christmas cards, but you can still upload them to a photo sharing site with a special greeting message and share your Christmas photos online or by e-mail for friends to enjoy.
Many photo sharing sites offer a lot of other services too, including Photoworks who offer a huge range of photo cards in all sorts of designs. It may be too late to get personalized Christmas cards printed, but what about sending New Year’s greetings cards instead. Or making a personalized set of thank you cards to send out to family and friends who have sent you gifts this Christmas.
The great thing about sending late non-Christmas cards, is that you can use some of your best festive photos from Christmas to put on the card, so they still have a seasonal feel, but you don’t have to be in such a hurry to get them sent out. You can take your time writing individual thoughtful messages in each card, instead of just hurriedly signing your name. It may be more traditional to get all your cards to the recipient before Christmas Day, but they’ll have more time to read and appreciate your thoughtful greetings after the Christmas rush is over.
I suggest a combination of e-mail cards or photo sharing and a printed personalized photo card as a solution to last minute Christmas greetings. An e-mail shows you re thinking about the person, but once looked at it will be lost in the e-mail inbox and maybe never looked at again. A printed card with a photo of your kids may take pride of place on grandma’s dresser for months to come, or smile down from the refrigerator for the rest of the year. You could even have a set of cards printed especially for your children to write their own thank you letters to grandparents and family.
A personalized photo card is much more meaningful and lasting than an e-mail, even if it does come late. Plus there is something about handwritten messages, especially in this day and age of typed e-mails, that is so much more personal and special.
Mum and Photographer
Capture The Joy And Share Your Christmas Photo Album Online
December 15, 2009
When you have kids, the magic of Christmas comes back into your life again. Seeing the awe on their faces as they gaze at the myriad of sparkling lights on the Christmas tree, enjoying the ninety fifth rendition of Away in the Manger just as much as the first, loving all the secrecy and suspended excitement over the wrapping of presents, going wild with the glitter glue to create Christmas cards for everyone they know, all these moments are ones that you want to capture to create a special Christmas photo album that you can share online with your family, so they too can share your kids joy at rediscovering Christmas.
Make sure that you take enough time out of the adult stress and rush of Christmas preparations to share this innocent joy with your children. Camera in hand you can rediscover that childhood awareness of Christmas as a special time and step out of the stress of crazy malls and too much to do in too little time.
Make time to photograph the quiet moments as well as the big events: your child patiently drawing a special card, or working hard on making an angel out of silver foil and string, helping make cookies with flour all over them, hanging the first ornament on the tree or secretly feeling the presents to try and guess what is in each one. All these things have a place in your photo album, alongside all the bigger events like the nativity play and carol concerts. Even babies get some feeling of Christmas as a special time, as they lie watching twinkling lights or crawl into a mass of wrapping paper to enjoy the rustling sounds.
Now is the time to concentrate on capturing the moments, both special and ordinary. Take lots of photos of all the preparations for Christmas. We all know that the day itself goes by in a flash, but the excitement is here already with every breath of frosty air, every scent of cinnamon wafting from the kitchen.
No-one expects you to find the time to make albums in the midst of all the Christmas preparations. But by taking all these photos now you will have all the material you need to create a gorgeous photo album when Christmas is over and things start to feel a bit flat. You’ll be able to relive all those special moments, which you hardly had time to enjoy at the time, as you work on putting together an album that you can send out to family as part of a Christmas thank you e-mail, or you can just put your album online for invited friends and family to view.
Mum and Photographer
Cool Photo Gifts
December 13, 2009
Giving the perfect gift is such a satisfying feeling. Can you imagine the feeling you will receive when they are opening up the cool photo gifts? Now that most people have gone digital, giving a photo gift is easier than ever. There are so many cool items that you can have a photo placed on. It does not matter who you are shopping for you can find something for everyone.
Gifts for Her
By giving her a purse or tote with brag pockets, she can switch the photos she is displaying as often as she wants. Photos can be turned in 3D sculptures; can be life size or small enough to stick on the fridge. Looking for something in the sparkling line up, give her jewelry with her favorite people incorporated in the design. You can find different styles of earrings, watches, bracelets and necklaces.
Gifts for Him
Dress up his desk by giving him a pen set or business card holder with a photo of a loved one. Do you have a basketball fan in your live? Have the backboard of a mini basketball set decorated with his favorite picture. A dart board customized with a photo is a excellent way to relieve stress. You can place his photo on the cover of a magazine and have the cover tailored to him.
Gifts for the Kids
Every kid likes to hear about themselves, they can be a star in their own book. You can have their picture or pictures of individual family members included in the book. Paper dolls are on a whole new level when the child’s picture helps create the doll. Jigsaw puzzles are a lot of fun for all ages and now you can take a favorite picture turned into a jigsaw puzzle. Another toy item the Rubik’s cube, you can accommodate six pictures on the cube.
For the Home
Need a space heater but would love something that can go with your decor a little better? You can have a photo turned into a heater. The photo is framed with an electric heating unit behind it. A little light shows that the heater is turned on. Have a favorite photo turned into bedding, pillows or even a dog bed. Need a hostess gift? Customize a bottle of wine that you select and then have photo placed on the label you can design. You can customize a wine cooler or other pieces of furniture with a photo of your choice. Do you ever feel that people walk all over you? Now your friends can literally walk all over you when you put your photo on a door mat.
Photo gifts are extremely personalized and very hard to forget who gave you the present. Take the time to have fun with photo and the gift you choose. Your gift will be enjoyed for years to come.
Put Stunning Pictures Of Your Kids On Canvas For A Special Gift
November 19, 2009
Thanksgiving is just around the corner with the mad rush to Christmas in sight, but there is still time to be creative with your gifts this year. All too often the last minute rush of Christmas shopping has us buying gifts for our partners that are uninspired, and that a year later have either been forgotten or worn out already. If you want to give your husband or wife a really special and lasting present this Christmas, why not put one of your best pictures of your kids on canvas, as a meaningful gift that will last forever.
A beautiful canvas print isn’t cheap, but it is far better value for money than an electronic gizmo or a few shirts that might not ever get worn. Displayed on the wall of your living room or in your bedroom you will both enjoy looking at it every day for years to come. Good quality canvas prints will last for many years, long enough to be handed down to the next generation, so you can even look at your gift as a family heirloom in the making!
You may already have a perfect picture of your kids in mind; one where you have captured a happy moment, when they are full of life and energy smiling and with eyes sparkling. It could be a close up portrait just showing head and shoulders, or one showing them busy and active in a picturesque landscape, perhaps at the beach during the summer or running through the gorgeous fall leaves.
If you haven’t got a picture you are happy with, then grab your camera and your kids on a dry day (it doesn’t have to be sunny, you can get some gorgeous photos with the soft light of a cloudy day) and head out somewhere pretty; it could be a park or the beach, a mountainside or a the steps of a fine city monument. Take loads of photos of your kids, from close-ups to action shots. Keep shooting more and more pictures and think of fun activities that your kids will enjoy; jumping off rocks, peering into rock pools, hopping down steps, playing hide and seek behind trees. Catch natural shots as they play and set up a few more formal poses in between, while they are full of energy from their games.
You only need one picture for your canvas print, but you will end up with a whole series of fun pictures that you could use to create an album with later too. The hardest part will be choosing which picture to use for your gift. It doesn’t have to be technically perfect, it is the emotion of the picture that is important, so choose one that really conveys a happy feel.
So now you have one of your most important gifts sorted for Christmas and can relax a little, knowing that your canvas print will be delivered to you soon, saving you that last minute frenzy of the mall on Christmas Eve.
Mum and Photographer
Personalized Calendars With Your Special Pictures Make Great Gifts
November 12, 2009
It can be hard to find meaningful gifts for your family in the run up to Christmas. Your children probably have a wish list as long as their arms, but what about your parents and in-laws, who seem to have everything they need already. One thing that everybody uses is a calendar and a perfect way to make it meaningful and personalized is to produce one yourself, using special pictures that you’ve taken of your children over the year. These calendars make wonderful gifts for anyone who is close to your family.
Photoworks has a very simple and easy to use program for designing your own calendar and as they are known for the excellent quality of their printing you are sure to get beautiful results. How you design your calendar is up to you. You can just choose thirteen great photos of your kids and leave it at that. Or you could decide to get more creative and choose a theme. Here are two suggestions, but you can do whatever your imagination suggests.
Following the seasons: Seasonal pictures make sense in a calendar and you can highlight the seasons with your choice of photos of your children too. January and February could have photos of them playing in the snow, or all muffled up in winter clothes splashing in puddles. For the spring months look for photos you’ve taken of them picking spring flowers or on an Easter egg hunt. Summer photos will be easy to find – just sort through your vacation pictures for some great shots of your kids on the beach or at the pool. Fall colors and Halloween pictures come next, and then we are back with winter scenes and of course a Christmas picture for December. You don’t have to restrict yourself to pictures that you’ve taken over the last year. You could include a cute baby picture of your child’s first Christmas several years ago or get nostalgic with toddler pictures of your now school age children.
Family occasions: For this idea you could set up a series of photos of your kids especially for your calendar. Write down a list of important family birthdays and anniversaries. Divide them up month by month and then get older kids to design colorful hand-written notices saying things like “Happy Birthday Grandma” or “It’s my Birthday!” or “Happy Easter”. Find some occasion to remember for each month and if there are more than one make a separate notice for each one. Then take fun photos of your kids holding up the notices with big smiles. Choose different backgrounds for each photo and have the kids change clothes between shots. You can have some photos with two or more children in and others with just one of them, but make sure that they each get the same number of photos of themselves in the calendar, they are bound to count! Only do all this if it sounds like fun for all of you – you want the kids to look like they are having fun too! Once you have put all the photos together you’ll have a really personalized fun family calendar to remind everyone of all the important dates throughout the year.
After all this work putting photos together you will probably want to order yourself a copy of your gorgeous calendar as an early Christmas gift too, and until 16th November Photoworks have a special offer giving two calendars for the price of one, so get creating calendars now!
Mum and Photographer
Create Christmas Gifts Your Kids Will Treasure With Personalised Photo Gifts
November 5, 2009
Now Halloween is over and November is here our thoughts turn to the holiday season. There is still time to plan personalised photo gifts that need a little preparation and thought put into them, but the time to do it is now, before you get too busy with all the other preparations. I’ve been searching the internet for inspiration on fun gifts for the children in my family; not just my own kids, but nephews and nieces and little cousins too
Usually I think in terms of giving grandparents photo gifts featuring their beloved grandchildren, but kids love pictures of themselves and their family too and there is a great selection of photo gifts for kids at Photoworks.
My favorite gift for a toddler is the photo board book, with a charming story that you can personalize especially for the child you will give it to, by inserting individual photos of them so that the main character in the story has their name and face! You can choose different photos for each page or repeat photos, depending on how many photos you have of your child. It takes a little time to put together online but will make a really special gift that any toddler will love.
My kids love stickers and it is cheap and easy to create sheets of stickers from any photo you like. Some children will love to have pictures of themselves to stick everywhere, others might love stickers of their pet, their favorite pony from riding school, a group shot of the whole family… the possibilities are endless and only you know what your children will love best.
If you have a sports fanatic in the family there are some fun gifts you can create using photos of them and their team, or of them in full sporting gear. A clipboard or mousepad showing them featured as the All Stars is bound to be a huge success.
A really memorable gift, for older children especially, would be their very own photo book: a printed album you have made just for them with carefully chosen photos from the year, showing all their activities events, fun times and family times. This will take you some time to put together as you have to select photos, choose captions and titles, layout the photos but it would be worth every minute you spend and be a gift that they will treasure for the rest of their lives.
So take all the photos you can of your kids now, so that you can put together one of these special gifts for them in time for Christmas.
Mum and Photographer
Create Colorful Photo Calendar Gifts
October 27, 2009
Do you want to recapture the past year’s highlights? When you create a photo calendar gift you can share your family’s highlights with the ones you love. Are you afraid that you are not crafty enough or have the time to dedicate to a project? Do not worry merchandisers have something to offer for everyone.
Upload to a website
Type in ‘where can I create a photo calendar’ in your search engine you are over whelmed with the number of responses. The different websites allow you to upload your own photos to arrange your own personal calendar. Most can be created with three basic steps. First, pick the theme and style of the calendar you want. Some websites let you choose wall, desk, poster or magnet calendars. The second step would be to upload the photos you will use in the design. Depending on the design of your calendar, and the website, you can put up to four pictures in the design for one month. At certain websites, you can also personalize the important days of the month by placing a picture in that space. You can create a more personalized calendar by placing a caption in for that month. The third step is to preview and finalize your calendar. Once the calendar or calendars have been printed they will be shipped to your door. Pricing and shipping vary; make sure to check out several different websites that you trust.
Do-it-yourself blank calendars
If you go into most mass retailers, you can find the blank do-it-yourself wall calendars. There are even websites that offer this option. Some of the larger wall calendars have a 12 x 12 blank space that need to be filled every month. This gives you the option of creating a scrapbook page design for each month or you could simply place more than one picture in that layout. Yes, a scrapbook page design can be time consuming but it does not have to be hard. You can now purchase scrapbook kits, sold separately, that have everything you need to design pages. Scrapbook pages definitely personalize each picture and demonstrate that you spent time on the present. After the year is done, the recipient can place the scrapbook pages into an album to keep for years to come.
No matter which route you go, family and friends will have a memorable gift from you. The best part of giving a photo gift is the memories. Every month you will able to remember a special part of your family’s life.
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