photo love notes
Saturday, May 23, 2009 by Paige Balcer 
I think it's great to be able to incorporate my photos into gifts for others. And the more personal the better. I created this box of notecards for my husband last year. The box includes 56 cards that have a photo of my hand on one side and are blank on the back. The idea was that I would write him one note a week for a year. Some were love notes, some thank you's, and sometimes I just drew a goofy picture. It turned out to be such a great personalized gift and I thought I would share how I created it. Now, there are tons of different ways you could create something like this, but I'll tell you how I did this one.
First, I found the box. The one I bought is about 3.5" x 5" from Borders (Paperchase brand).
After choosing the photo I wanted to use, I opened it in Photoshop and cropped it to 3.1875" x 4.6875" at 300 dpi. This one will go on the lid of the box. I chose to add some text to this one, but you wouldn't need to. I printed it out on matte photo paper, but you could also use cardstock. Then I attached it to the lid with double stick tape.
Then I went back to my original photo file and cropped to 2.75" x 4.125" at 300 dpi. This is the size I used for the 56 cards because they would fit in the box with enough room to still get them out.
Next, I opened a new document at 8.5" x 11" and dragged my photo into it. I duplicated the layer 3 times and arrange them on the page. Unfortunately, I was only able to fit 4 on a page (you may be able to squeeze 6, but it was too close for me). This means I had 14 pages to print!.
Now comes the tedious part, cutting out 56 cards with an x-acto knife or paper cutter.
Last step! I cut a 6" piece of ribbon and hot glued one end to the inside bottom of the box. Make sure you only glue about 1/2" of the ribbon. That way, when you put all your cards in the box, the recipient will be able to pull on the ribbon to get them out.
I know my husband loves this gift and sometimes I go back and look through them all. It's fun to read them and remember what was happening in our lives when I wrote them.
And because I'm feeling brave, here's a bonus shot of one of my notes.
Reader Comments (42)
=) Love this!
xx
http://esterdaphne.blogspot.com/
Jessie
http://designsbyjessie.etsy.com
TTFN -- Claudia
I share with you a little love story here:
http://manfredkz-photography.blogspot.com/
Cheers