Photo-Cropping Fun Times

This year I've decided to do my best making every present myself. I tried mostly last year, but this year--everything hand made by me or by a local artist!

I feel like I can put my positive energy into these items, and it will mean more to the person receiving them, because the entire time that I am making these things, I am thinking about how much I appreciate this person or all of the fun we have had together.

There is no reason to get overwhelmed about trying to do this yourself. I know how easy it can be, I have a hard time not putting things off until that last moment. I do it daily, but I like to live a suspenseful life. Ha! Not. I just have too many thoughts going on in my head at once.

Over the last year I have taught myself to be resourceful. I have learned that it only takes a large amount of patience to find that perfect thing for someone. I just think about all of the things they are into, and pay attention to those hints they throw out this time of year, and try my best to create them.

For my Destiny:

I swear we are soul mates. She is apart of the Traverse City Toxic Cherries derby team, and through out the last few months has earned awards that we now have on our wall in the living room. I found my inspiration for her gift in the Big Ass Book of Crafts. I am doing a photo collage of her individual team photo for our house. Everything about this screamed "She'll just fucking love this!"

I found the photo on her facebook, saved it to my computer like 20 some odd times. I used the basic Windows Live Photo Gallery thing that was installed on my computer and cropped the photos to show only a portion of the original. Then, I opened the cropped photos on the Paint program to organize them and get a rough draft of the finished product.

I sent the photos into Walgreens from my computer.. This photo is a rough layout of the finished product.
For the frame: I won some vintage frames at the auction back in the summer, and there is one that is long that will work perfect for this. I need some glass cut out for it, but you can find that service at most hardware stores. I used Northern Michigan Glass. Very nice people!

Now for the collage, you need to tape (I'm going to use double sided tape) and something to tape the photos to for a background. The article I read said to use just poster board, so I got a black one from the Dollar Store for 75 cents.
These are not soo good pictures of the finished product, I will take a picture of the finished product on the wall at home.. when I get home:)

And she LOVED IT! Super cute, and it didn't take me too long to make. Note: cropping the photos part sucked. The first time I sent them in, I didn't crop correctly, also didn't feel the need to purchase software to make this any easier, and they turned out horrible. Second times' the charm?!

Stay tuned for more handmade Christmas gifts. I actually accomplished a lot this year as far as everything hand made and had to spread them out a bit!