Transform your photos into five gifts this Christmas

In this gloomy economic climate, we may have less money to go around, but the desire to treat friends and family to special gifts this Christmas has not diminished. We just have to be creative and come up with presents which have a lot of value – without costing us so much money! As such, people have fallen back in love with the homemade gift. You could make delicious jams and chutneys, sew some cushions or use your photography skills to come up with a gift to make the recipient smile all year. Here we look at five ways to use your favourite snaps to create presents and stocking fillers your family and friends will love.

1. Create nostalgia with a personalised calendar

Calendars in shops always have a theme – from popstar pin-ups to the kittens and puppies that make all mums say ‘ahhh’. But wouldn’t it be great to have a family-themed calendar? You could take your own photographs with your digital camera, dig out some old baby photographs or ones of dad when he still had a full head of hair. There are plenty of themes you could come up with, including old family Christmases, ‘guess the baby’ or an old family holiday. They make lovely gifts for parents and grandparents alike and are a great conversation piece when unwrapped on Christmas Day.

2. Turn your pictures into arty gifts

If you want to give someone a photograph as a gift but don’t think putting it in a frame quite does it justice, then blowing it up onto a canvas could turn it into an extra special piece of artwork for a friend. Try playing around with your photograph on photo editing software beforehand to experiment with different effects.

3. Puzzle the kids with a jigsaw

You can now also transform your photographs into jigsaw puzzles for the kids. Pick any photograph - an old scanned one, or a snap just taken on a digital camera - and you can order it to be turned into a jigsaw puzzle. You choose how challenging you want it to be, from a ten-piece jigsaw to even a thousand, if you’re feeling ambitious. Choosing a colourful image will make the puzzle more interesting to put together, and everyone always finds themselves joining in with a piece around the coffee table.

4. A mousemat to cheer up an office space

Office spaces can often be dull, so put a smile on someone’s face by putting one on their mousemat! Whether it is a recent holiday snap of everyone laughing on the beach or a baby covered in ice-cream and laughing, it is sure to make sitting at a computer a little more fun. You could go the whole hog and get matching stationery too.

5. Your mug… on a mug

If you’re a typical family or group of students, you’re bound to have a cupboard full of mismatched mugs in all colours, shapes and sizes. Why not create your very own set of personalised mugs for each member of the family or roommate? Each mug has a picture of the owner on it, so there won’t be any fighting over them anymore either. You could take some retro photo-booth style pictures in black and white, or simply use some from an album documenting an unforgettable party you were all at. They’ll look forward to their morning tea or coffee even more, knowing they have a friendly face to greet them. There are plenty of online services which offer this personalised gift.

Using your arts and crafts skills has fast become the new way to give big and spend little. And what’s more, these gifts have the personal touch. So dig out those old photos or get snapping in time for the festive period.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MyCreation offers free photo book software for both PC and Mac, enabling the creation of photo books, wedding albums etc., which can then be ordered with their printing service.