Thursday, December 20, 2012

Homemade Photo Cards: An Inexpensive Way to Create a Thoughtful Homemade Gift Using Your Favorite Pictures

I'm no photographer, but I have a decent camera and take some really nice pictures...often by accident.  But card-worthy pictures nonetheless.  I love making homemade gifts and last year I started using my favorite pictures to make bunches of "greeting" cards (sans the greeting), so I guess they would be called photo cards.  Here's why I love this idea: (1) it's super inexpensive, (2) it's personal, (3) it highlights where you've been and what you've done throughout the year or in the recent past (for example I have many pictures of beautiful Tahoe, Napa Valley, other beautiful parts of Northern California, even some photos of our trip to the East Coast), and (4) it's functional (your gift can actually be used).

I find the card stock at Michaels Craft store.  I get the large cards with envelopes (25 in a pack for $4.99), which comes out to about $0.20 per card.  And I use Costco to print the pictures (prints are $0.13 here).  So total cost for each card is around $0.33.    

I made a pack of 10 cards for Sky's teacher this year.  I'm also making her a batch of these chocolate macaroons from The Urban Poser.  Sky will make a homemade card to top off the gift.  I'm really happy with the combination of a sweet, healthy treat and functional gift.  Last year I made Sky's teacher a gift of tea (that included local raw honey, a cute honey spoon, an organic lemon, organic loose left tea, and tea dipper/infuser, along with pumpkin pie bites). 

And last year for my family, delicious homemade coconut ginger granola.  

Here are some easy homemade beauty gift ideas: homemade lotion, body spray, coconut oil bars, soap, sugar scrub, homemade natural chapstick.  

I hope this post inspires you to make a homemade gift this year!

Photo Cards

Glue the back of each picture 
Fit securely on the folded card 
Make sure to personalize each card 
Place envelopes on the bottom and cards on top.
Finish by wrapping with pretty hemp twine 

4 comments:

  1. Those are so cool! What a great idea! :) I may be borrowing this one!

    Have a very Merry Christmas!

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  2. Love this idea Amber!

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  3. You are such a genius Amber with everything you do! I like to think of you as SuperMama as there isn't a project you can't tackle! And I am totally bookmarking this idea for next year :) Hugs to you and congrats again on your new house friend!

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  4. Lovely simple idea that anyone would appreciate receiving. A great little project for doing with young children too. Thanks for this!

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