Photo gifts are a wonderful thing; they allow absolutely anyone to make their own special and meaningful gifts for loved ones, regardless of the level of their artistic skills!
Photo gifts allow you to make your own design and place it on hundreds of different products. Now, if you're lucky enough to possess good artistic skills your options are limitless, however, the reality is, most of us aren't privileged enough to possess such skills and we need more than a little help!
This article is written to show you how easy it is to make your own gift and provide you with a few tips that will allow you to design and create your own "one of a kind" unique gifts, gifts that the special people in your life will adore!
The most basic designs
Popular basic designs include photos of people, particularly children, spouses, boyfriends and girlfriends. While these photos can be placed on any number of photo gifts, they are most commonly used on personalized phone cases, key chains, cufflinks, dog tags, custom golf accessories, money clips, mugs, playing cards, wallets and watches. Most people complete their personalization with a little text, commonly the recipient's name, sometimes along with the date and the event.
Of course, when you design your own gift, using your own photos and personal messages, you are 100% assured that your gift will be unique and that the recipient will be very impressed and pleased by the amount of effort you have put into your gift giving.
Make your own design using children's drawings
A design idea that is becoming more and more popular is the use of kid's drawings on photo gifts. For example, a dad is always pleased to wear a pair of cufflinks customized with his son's drawing of daddy! Maybe "daddy" would also enjoy showing off his son or daughter's artwork on his golf ball markers - there's nothing better to give him bragging rights on the golf course!
Most moms are proud to display their children's artwork on their coffee mug. Other gift ideas for women that use kid's art for the design include cosmetics bags, toiletries bags, tote bags and umbrellas. There are of course many other products you can design with children's art - the best thing about presents featuring this type of design is you are guaranteed that both parents and grand-parents will treasure them forever!
Getting a little more adventurous
When it comes to designing larger items like blankets and shower curtains you usually need a very large photo, that to be honest, unless you own a very expensive camera, most people do not have access to.
Before I move on, it's important you understand that if you enlarge a smaller photo to cover an item like a blanket or shower curtain, the image on the finished item will at best not be sharp, or at worst, look completely blurred and faded. The lesson here is to never stretch an image to cover a product as you will always be disappointed with the result!
So, back to the design - you have three options; create your own collage, use a tile pattern, or use a template.
Many people have software on their computers that allows them to create their own photo collages - if you have access to this type of software you can design your own collage, upload it to a photo gifts web-store and make your own gift very quickly. If you don't, there's no need to panic; most design platforms offer the option for you to create your own collage online.
Many photo gift websites also offer a design platform that allows you to repeat your image over and over again to create a tile effect - tile effect patterns are popular on shower curtains but less so on blankets.
The third option, to use a template, is only offered by a few select photo gift stores. It's worth hunting around to find the right store if you want to create a really professional looking blanket or other large item.
These templates allow you to choose your color and pattern schemes and provide you with pre-formatted areas to insert your photos and text. They make wonderful gift ideas and are always appreciated by the recipient.
Although this article has only scratched the surface, I hope you now understand that you don't need to be an artist or graphic designer to make your own design?
Learn how to Make Your Own Design without the need to possess any artistic skills. David Sheath's website, Make Your Own Gift offers 400+ custom products that can all be personalized with your own photos, logos, designs & text. He makes it easy to Make Your Own Gift with just a few clicks of your mouse.
