Saturday, August 22, 2009

Let's Use Those Old Family Photographs!

There are five weekends in this month, but only four "Weekend With Shades" columnists. So a new edition of "Weekend With Shades" will be published next week. Today Shades will answer a readers' question.


Recently a Shades reader asked what I did with all the photographs I own. Besides framing them and hanging then on every wall in the house? I'm running a past Shades article on "Let's Use Those Old Family Photographs" to give you a few ideas. Notice I didn't say the Xmas word, but I should. Enjoy!


Shades has been MOOved to expand on the, Let's Use Those Family Photographs & Our Collections article. In this article MOO will be used to create a boxed writing set.

A MOO greeting card was designed using a family photograph to simulate a cabinet card. You open the card and write the message inside. (You could also use Victorian frames around a family photograph.) To accomplish this download the template from the MOO format guide. Here is an example of the card created to look like a cabinet card using a family photograph:

Greeting Card

To accompany the card and add to the writing set an address label was created using the MOO sticker template. Here is the address label with the family photograph in the background:

Address Label

Now there is a greeting card and an address label. What better addition to the writing set than a postage stamp with an image of one of the family photographs used to create the greeting card. Go to Stamps.com where they have a program called PhotoStamps for Mac. PhotoStamps is a FREE download that makes it incredibly easy to turn digital images into PhotoStamps, right from your Mac! PC users can create photo stamps directly on the Stamps.com site. The stamp created is illustrated below:

Postage Stamp

A beautiful box and ribbon makes this a lovely writing gift personalized with family photographs.


~::~ FAMILY PHOTO MAGNETS ~::~

Inspired by Thomas MacEntee's Friday From The Collector's article Don't Purge - Get Creative the following family photograph magnets were designed.

Magnet A

Magnet B

A template was created in Photoshop measuring 2.25 in. X 3.25 in. (This can be done in any imaging program.) The selected photograph was placed in the template and a section of the bottom of the photograph filled with color for the addition of type. Sayings were added to each of the magnets. You could use some of those family sayings and words written about in the 54th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, add amusing sayings that fit the photograph, or list the name with birth and death date of the person in the photograph. Rather than attaching the photographs to a magnet why not purchase a magnet frame. This allows you to give several photos along with the frame that can be easily exchanged depending on the recipient's mood.

1 Comments:

Blogger Craig Manson said...

Liked this one a lot!

August 22, 2009 at 8:32 AM  

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