It’s a new year, and resolutions are in full swing! This year I challenge you to print your digital pictures!! Whether you set aside one day a year to have a professional take your family portraits, or you love to snap pictures of your kids and family every day – don’t leave those beautiful memories sitting on a flash drive in your desk drawer, in a file on your computer. Here are a few ideas to get those digital files printed so that you and your family can re-live those memories everyday!
Portrait Wall Display – If you have some empty wall space that is just begging for some attention, print your favorite images in larger sizes and create a gallery wall. Depending on the size of the wall space 8×10’s and 11×14’s, mixed in with some smaller 5×7’s look great! You can choose to purchase brand new frames, or you can buy frames from a re-sale store and paint them all to match. If you want a classic and uniformed look you can print your images in Black and White. Don’t forget to mat those images – not only does it help to make the image stand out against the frame, but it also appears more like a gallery when hung on the wall.
Photo Books – There are many online places to create photo books these days! You can easily create a book for each year with your favorite images, and display them on the coffee table. My kids love looking through the books of themselves from their baby years, and especially the photo book of our wedding. They can’t imagine a time before they were born!
Notebooks/Notepads – Turn your favorite images into a custom notebook! Tiny Prints offers adorable spiral bound notebook designs. Pop your favorite images into the templates and you’ve created a personalized gift for yourself! www.tinyprints.com
Personalized Framed Art – If you like things easy, it does not get much easier than Minted.com and their personalized framed art. They have over 200 designs that simply involve you inserting your digital portrait, and voila! It creates a beautiful custom framed piece for you to cherish forever! www.minted.com
Shoebox – Okay, I know this does not sound as fancy as the other ideas, but come on, sometimes we just don’t have the time! Every so often I go through my favorite random pictures, its usually a combination of professional photos, pictures from my phone, etc. I print those images in a small size and put them in a shoebox in my office. I realize this defeats the purpose of having them displayed to see every day, but every once in a while, I will take the box out and look through it with the kids, and laugh at all the fun times. This is also the first place I go when one of the kids is the ‘Star Student’ at school and tells me the night before that he needs a bunch of pictures to take to school the next day!
Pillows -My last idea is kind of a quirky one, but I found these great custom photo pillows and thought they would be so cute in a playroom, family room, or nursery. Really the possibilities are endless with these!
