Tuesday 10 August 2010

Easy to make Gift Frames & some Pretty Pictures



Mercy {my live-in cleaner} had her best friend {who now lives in Pretoria} to stay over the weekend. I always take a photo of them together when she comes to visit. This time I decided to surprise them both by printing it straight away & making a gift frame for each of them with the photograph inside & a few simple embellishments adorning opposite corners. I "wrote" on the photo with the text tool in Picasa. I have tons of old frames & am busy taking out all the old photos, scrapbooking them & repurposing the frames as gifts.

There's one for each of them so I made them each slightly different. I sent Chelsea down to Mercy's room with them as I knew they would bowl me over with excitement! They were overjoyed &, as Reilly put it, they reacted like it's the best thing they'd ever received in their lives - "like when I get a new X-Box!" he said...makes you think doesn't it?!

***Tip - clean the glass with benzine/thinners/turps on a lint-free cloth before placing the photo behind it & DO NOT turn back all the "holders" {that secure the glass/photo/hardboard together} UNTIL you have had a quick check to see that there are no stray bits of dirt, hair, etc...you'd be surprised what can blow in there in a millisecond believe me! Hold tight to the front of the glass while you're doing this so it doesn't fall out!!! & if any stray "things" have got between the glass & the photograph blowing them away usually works best - {no fingerprints on the glass this way...}

And thought I'd share a few photos today as well. I'm spending a bit of time {well quite a lot of time actually} in My Pictures/Picasa trying to get up to date with my photo editing & backing up as I've fallen off the wagon since May when we moved into our new home. I'm noticing a MASSIVE improvement in my photography since I did my little course & got my new camera - a bit tricky to tell what triggered the improvement seeing as both happened at the same time, but the course gave me the opportunity to become confident with a new camera so I guess they worked hand in hand.

Took these in June when we went to Port Elizabeth for the Brazil/Netherlands World Cup match.

Love this one {above}. She's such a sweet girl...

And she loves her dad so much...{almost more than me}... but not quite... ;-D




6 comments:

Jessy Christopher said...

Ah, so these are the frame gifts you mentioned!! You are so thoughtful & of course the women are ecstatic to receive such beautiful gifts. What a great way to recycle old frames too :) Can't wait to see those pics turn into layouts!! Beautiful shots!

topkatnz said...

yep it does make you think about the simple pleasures, and this commercial world we are raising our kids in...

Mel said...

Oh that is so sweet and thoughtful of you. Amazing the little things that can mean so much to those who have so little materially. Definitely pause for thought.

Lovely post.

Ella Swan said...

Thanks girls! I'm always amazed at how excited people get when you give them photographs, especially if you make a bit of effort with the presentation, and honestly it took me less than an hour to do both. Thinking of saving money on Christmas gifts this year by doing them for all the relatives too! Certainly quicker than scrapbook pages & more practical as gifts for people who don't have albums to hold the layouts anyway.

Annie said...

Popped over to see your 'offerings'. Wow, your photography is stunning Helen! You obviously have an 'eye' for it!

Zimbabwe, we had an exchange student from there in 1996. She lived in Banket, near Harare. She now lives in Perth, Australia.

Diana said...

Sweet and thoughtful gift. Yup, does make you think. I totally totally get that.