Just have to share our DIY Framed Holiday Portrait Gift, which is one of our holiday gifts for parents! If nothing else, I like to do this each year. It’s a simple yet exciting to give gift. The kids are so proud of them and the parents fall in love with them. I hear they save them and put them out each year. Love that!
How to Make DIY Framed Holiday Portrait Gift
Take a photo.
I drape a white piece of fabric over the top cabinet doors near the patio door where there’s lots of natural light. I would have put it up there to show you but I’ve forgotten where I put that fabric now…oh yeah, it’s serving a very useful purpose in the garage at the moment.
I’ve done color pictures in the past but this year I wanted to do black and white. I used the black and white setting on my camera or you can change the coloring on PicMonkey.
Outdoor Photos
Or, I like to take pictures of the kids outside in the snow. They turn out cute with all their winter stuff on. This year we haven’t had snow until today so that was out!
I have the kids come over one at a time and I take a bunch of pictures until I think I have a couple I can use. Usually, they’re excited to have a turn and quite cooperative but the little ones can be difficult to get a good picture of. Sometimes it helps to have them sit on a chair so they don’t run away on me! 
There’s always some that turn out like this….
I’d recommend taking pictures early so you can retake pictures if necessary!
Embellish
I use Forever Artisan for digital scrapbooking so that’s what I used to make the photo pages. I started with a photo card template from Shabby Shoppe and added some embellishments and each child’s name.
Print Your Photo
There are other sites with predesigned pages for printing too, like Shutterfly, Walgreens, PicMonkey or Canva.
You can upload them to Walgreens, Walmart, etc. but I decided to print my own photos at home. It’s faster and cheaper. It would have been $15.00 for the 5’x7’s. I love Staples double sided Matte photo paper for printing for projects and crafts like this. It’s $14.99 for 50 sheets. Use your rewards card and earn cash back!
Frame
Some years I’ve spent more, but this time I found frames at the Dollar Tree. I considered spray painting them white but decided to just be content with silver frames and save myself some work. Actually, I like the silver frames!
Next, I’ll share our Handprint Calendars project.
CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS KIDS CAN MAKE
- Sled Craft Ornament
- Recycled Can Lid Snowman Ornament
- Holiday Photo Wreaths
- Button Tree Ornaments
- Painted Salt Dough Ornaments
- Tree Photo Ornaments
- Wood Block Photo Ornaments
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Jess Bjokne
December 18, 2011 at 4:56 AMI love doing photo gifts for parents too-you can’t go wrong! It is tricky to get good shots though, I know but I have done the same thing and taken them earlier on just in case! This year I did the tile ones, they are super cute! Thanks for sharing as always!
Brooke @ Let Kids Create
December 18, 2011 at 5:56 AMSo cute, you can’t go wrong with photos and great scrap booking software.
The Papendorfs
December 18, 2011 at 1:48 PMvery clever and I’m sure they love them, can’t wait to see your handprint calendars 🙂