03 Nov DIY Photo Gifts Made Easy
Are you getting tired of looking at the same walls, wondering what to do? With the holidays coming up, how about starting a short-term project?
I create a family calendar each year. I make around ten copies and distribute to various family members. They all love it! They use it to remember holidays, birthdays and anniversaries.
How to Start?
Starting the photo project is actually the hardest part. If creating a calendar, the calendar has between thirty to seventy pictures. A yearly photo book could contain many more pictures. So, the hard part is selecting the best pictures from the year.
I get pictures from many sources: my kids, my husband, friends, my phone and my camera. All told, there are probably around a thousand pictures to sift through. The pictures need to be easily viewed so they could be selected to add to the calendar. My pictures are on Amazon Photos, but there are many other applications that could be used, such as Apple Photos, etc.
I create a separate directory or album for the pictures, so I could upload them to the Calendar-making application – as we’ll see later on in this blog.
What to do Next?
I review the pictures and decide which ones will go in the person’s birthday date. I also like to highlight the birthday person(s) on the page above the calendar.
Some ideas for a family yearbook include creating a spread for each week and selecting the best pictures from that week. Likewise, the best pictures from any given month could be selected for photo spreads, with extra pages for special events such as birthdays or vacations.
There are many, many other fun things that could be made with pictures. One idea is the Memory Game – for this, only 12 pictures need to be selected! In this example, I created the memory game with pictures of my husband, from infancy to recently.
Where to Get These Done?
There are a lot of companies which provide publishing services for these items, and more! These are some of the companies I’ve worked with in the past (I’m NOT getting any compensation for these suggestions): Pinhole Press, Picaboo, MPix, Printique, Mix Book, to name a few.
The selected pictures need to be uploaded to the company’s website. They usually have easy-to-follow directions. The pictures would then be added to the product selected. Each company is a little different. You can view the finished product on-line. When you’re satisfied with the results, you place the order. Orders take between a few days to over a week, so you need to be sure to give yourself plenty of time for the project. The best time to start is now!
What if I Need Help?
If you need help on any part of this, please contact PreciousMemories at amira@PreciousMemsPhoto.com. We can help with all phases of the project: helping select the best pictures; scanning them, if necessary; uploading the pictures to the company’s website; designing the final product.
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