Five Fun Gift Ideas Using PHOTOS

I love unique and meaningful gifts.

So I’ve started a top secret pintrest board with the title, 

“Christmas Giving Ideas”.  

Unfortunately the board is still very sparse when it comes to pinned ideas.

Sometimes it’s just plain difficult to come up with something personal and fun.

While I’m pondering on the gift theme, I think I’ll share some ideas from

Christmases past (or birthdays, or just-for-anyhows) on this blog

 in the next few weeks.

Here are five different gift ideas using PHOTOS!

#1.    Turn someone’s facebook timeline into a book!

  I love this idea. 

This book does require access to a facebook acount, 

so you might have to get sneaky to get a password, 

but this is so worth it!

I actually did this book of my own facebook timeline as a gift for myself.  

It’s like a diary from the year 2009 to 2014. 

 I do poorly at writing things down, but having these random snippets

 that I’ve posted over the years is making up for some of that!

I used the site, “My Social Book”, and it was amazingly simple to do. 

“Fonicle” is another source for making a book from a facebook timeline.  

And I’m sure you would find there are other places 

out there that do the same thing 

if you do some searching.  

#2.     Use someone’s phone photos to create a book.

  I did this for my husband, Nathan’s birthday. 

I kept mentioning to him that I’d like to have some photos from his phone, 

and that he could just download them all onto my computer. J 

Then I did a simple photobook (from “My Publisher”) 

and left plenty of white space next to the photos for writing. 

I honestly cannot even identify some of the objects on these pictures.  

And I’ve certainly never made a photobook with so many pictures of 

car/truck/tractor/motorcycle parts, guns, and dead animals in my life!!! 

Wow. 

It was really fun. 

I gave him the book along with the promise that I will do the writing 

and explaining in the blank edges if he tells me what to write!  

I purposely put in pictures that he had snapped 

for their usefulness and not their beauty. 

A picture of a receipt he was using to remember something 

will be pretty cool to look at in twenty-five years from now. 

Or just think of how vehicle styles change. 

And trust me, there will be plenty of vehicles to look back at!

Reminiscing over this book in the future will be completely different than looking at my own scrapbooks of kids, holidays, decorations, and flowers. 

I like it! 

Here’s a site I like to use when looking to compare photobook printing companies.  And she has some good coupon codes too! http://www.photobookgirl.com/

#3.          Make a small keepsake book. 

I did this little twenty page book as a gift for my sister and brother-in-law. 

It’s from Artisan State, and for first time users 

is only $5 (with $5 shipping for a total of $10).   

  It has beautiful thick board pages that lay flat.  

This was the simplest book I’ve ever done!  

Yay for that!  

I found it easy to arrange the pages exactly how I wanted them 

without a lot of messing around. 

 This little book would be a sweet idea for grandparents!  

Here’s the link http://www.artisanstate.com/

#4.        Turn a blank canvas into a photo canvas.

  This is the canvas I made of my niece last spring, and I gave the instructions here.

#5.      Use foam board to make a small stand-alone photo for display.  

Last Christmas I put photos of my niece and nephew 

on pieces of foam board that were about 5”x 7”. 

I used the same technique as the canvas, except I didn’t lay the 

canvas fabric over the wet modpodge to create texture.  

This little photo board is very easy to make, 

and would be cute tucked somewhere in a child’s room. 

Happy Creating!

"As water reflects the face,

 so one's life reflects the heart."

Proverbs 27:19