photo gift idea

Shoot-Along Gift Idea: Special Edition Book

11.03.10

Hello, and welcome to this week’s shoot-along post. I’m featuring one photo tutorial, photo gift idea, or photo challenge every Wednesday from summer through December. Scroll to the bottom of today’s post to see more from the shoot along.

One of our favorite books in the world is I Like Starsby Margaret Wise Brown. It is sweet and dreamy.

So for my one-year-old niece’s birthday, we decided to give her one copy of the original.
And one special edition.

We used pics of all the cousins, and I had my kids sticking stars all over every page.

The result was pretty great. I’m sure there are other books that would work for this. Ideas? What is your favorite children’s book?

I’m thinking it would also be cool to actually stage photos for a book and keep backgrounds. It would have to be the right book. Hmmm.

Join the Shoot-Along right here

Tutorials to date:
Tell the Story | Light pt I | How to Boss Your Camera Around (shoot in manual) | Work Your Light Meter

Challenges to date:
Sour Face | A Trick for Capturing the Ordinary | Then + Now Scavenger Hunt | Feet Portraits

Gift Ideas to date:
Portrait Buttons | Photo Games | Photo Game Markers |Photo Booth Round Up | Special Edition Book

Thank you, Carrie!

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I Heart Photo Booths

09.29.10

Hello, and welcome to this week’s shoot-along post. I’ll be featuring one photo tutorial, photo gift idea, or photo challenge every Wednesday from now through December. Scroll to the bottom of today’s post to see more from the shoot along.

Want to know my all-time favorite party favor to send home for kids’ parties? Fun, adorable, crazy photos. For my daughter’s bday this year, we made a photo booth out of our front door. The photos turned out adorable.

The key ingredients for a great photo booth? Good lighting and zaney props. That’s about it.

(Don’t miss this DIY version, or go check out how the pros do it.)

how sweet are these girls? from here via here.

this is an all-time fave of mine made by Melanie of You are My Fave

I almost died when I saw this one. how cute is this little guy? see more here.

and one more from Mer Mag to send you on your way.

Join the Shoot-Along right here

Tutorials to date: Tell the Story | Light pt I | How to Boss Your Camera Around (shoot in manual)
Challenges to date: Sour Face | A Trick for Capturing the Ordinary | Then + Now Scavenger Hunt

Gift Ideas to date: Portrait Buttons | Photo Games | Photo Game Markers |Photo Booth Round Up

All this made possible by the lovely Carrie Butler.

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Shoot Along Gift Idea: Personalized Game Pieces

08.03.10

So it has taken a little longer than expected, but I finally have for you the final game gift promised from this post. Here’s a little project I did with my kids as a follow-up to our Tahoe vacation.

I am always looking for ways to use pictures from favorite trips or memorable periods of our life. I like the pictures not only of the people but of the details that were important to us at that moment that we could easily forget.

Did anyone play with shrinkie dinks as a kid? I remember having a Rainbow Bright set. Did you know you can get blank sheets of them for your printer? It’s almost more fun than I can handle.

We printed off a few pictures from our trip. For photos to work on shrinkie dinks, they need to be a bit washed out to make the final color true. We had fun picking out the pics. For this project we picked out several subjects that were in transit.

We added a little hand-drawn detail with a water-based marker.

Then cut along the lines.

And then came the fun part, we popped them in the oven. It is so much fun watching them curl up and become itty-bitty versions of themselves. Note, if you have an emergency and some curl over themselves, don’t panic! Just put them back in a little longer and they should flatten. Use a butter knife to carefully and gently flatten them a bit if you need to.

We added stands and have a pretty fun final product. Candy Land, anyone?

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Shoot-Along Gift Idea: Photo Games

07.26.10

I am a fan of family game nights.

And I love the idea of making games from pictures of all of your family’s favorite people, places, or things. Here, a few of my favorite personalized game ideas. With one more coming tomorrow.

Totally beautiful memory game by Say Yes to Hoboken. Get the full tutorial here.
Also love this bottle cap version.

I was completely blown away by the method for making these photo bean bags.

And a few favorite ideas for photo puzzles from here,

here,

and here (via here).

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Shoot-Along Gift Idea: Portrait Buttons

07.22.10

Melanie over at You Are My Fave did the sweetest thing to honor her grandfather on his big bash for turning 90, she made photo buttons for all to wear. (p.s. Don’t miss her ice cream party in a box idea over at Marta’s today).