Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Christmas Shopping

With Thanksgiving approaching, I am on a quest to wrap up holiday shopping. I've definitely streamlined the process to make life easier for me. But, it's always challenging to find gifts for people who already have everything they need. I love that there are so many photo gifts available - especially for grandparents. From cookbooks, to photobooks, to photo gifts. Most sites, including Shutterfly, have so many designs for non-traditional books - I think Greta would love this one. I helped my mom create these cute books using templates for the grandchildren this year.
For the past 3 years, I have created photo story books highlighting some of what we've done through the year. It's a great under $15 gift for the kids. I've created photo books for grandparents, tote bags, etc. Two of our grandparents liked the calendars I made last year. I used Heather Melzer's templates to add a little pizazz to a conventional picture. Here's a sneak peek at one of her designs for December 2009:

I try to use pictures from the current year, but the holiday pictures are usually from the year before. This picture was taken by Kari at the Polar Express last year. You download the templates & Heather includes an easy to follow tutorial. It took me about an hour to fill in the templates & upload them to shutterfly. All of the pictures are vertical this year so I had to search for photos that would fit with the templates. My 2008 calendar is HERE. Shutterfly did a nice job printing them last year & supposedly, shutterfly will start a sale soon - so get creating!

1 comment:

Poozoe said...

Your calendar is just gorgeous! You are so good. Now I know why you like Edward! You don't sleep either!!!!!

Where do you like to order your tote bags? I'm looking at Cafe Press and not super excited.