Unique Photo and Crafting - Gift Ideas

How Do You Give a Reasonably-Priced, Unique Birthday or Holiday Gift? (Article updated: July 2010)

After, you read this article, you will have at your disposal a lifetime list of some of the best, healthiest, and readily-available gifts that you could give to someone.

Okay, that birthday is coming up, that holiday is creeping up slowly and you still have time but no ideas, what do you do? You are going to a party and you have no clue what to give; where do you begin? Ah, the "celebration" party has just about everything and needs nothing more; what do you give?

Almost everyone loves photos. Yet, giving photos may be an 'old' idea. Well, everyone has their own camera, and everyone can take pictures so what kind of gift is that?

IF you think of celebrations ahead of time, weeks or months in advance, you can give a most wonderful special gift that cannot be duplicated by anyone you know.

Here is how you can make your photo gift, your photo craft - SPECIAL! Here's how to put your own personal touch in there that will make your gift different from all the rest EVEN if others give photos as presents.

PREPARE AND GIVE GIFTS OF:

• TIME

Most people do not realize it, but, "time" is one of the most valuable, most memorable and most lasting gifts that we can ever give anyone. Time is priceless.

Take the time to give someone, something, homemade.

In cases of family presents, we all have the "old" photos, old family history photos, and current photos of past holidays. Consider doing a "lifetime" photo album for someone who has no time to collect, sort and mount photos into archival photo albums. You can give the gift of TIME! Gather copies of all of your old photos and place those copies into a beautiful album. This is a great gift for someone who has piles of photos in boxes yet has no organized way to view them. A great way to give this gift of time is to pre-arrange an outing (to a state park or festival), take photos and do drawings throughout the festival and then collage them all, bring all the art together and present the present to your recipient later on in the year. (For example, go to a "holiday" celebration, parade or festival during the month of the person's birthday and collect the memorabilia for your future collage. If a person's birthday is in February, you can collect hearts and flowers and valentine's type themes at local events, and create a "red and white" special collage or photo book for that person. If their birthday is in September, you might collect "fall" type items, or if in December, you might collect Christmas themed-items and do a holiday or Christmas combined "birthday/Christmas" collage or photo book.

• MOTION:

Photos, video photos, this is the way to go, especially if your recipient does not own a video camera. You do the video at the event. After you take the videos you can put them online through one of the free website services. Check with a good search engine to find a free website that permits you to post photographs and videos. Then put your family video up there ON PRIVATE - so that only your family can see the video. You can do some research online and even find some programs that allow you to make a "video scrapbook". Now, that's the perfect gift for someone who has a computer but does not have a video camera. There are many sites online where you can store and display videos. This is very helpful for those people who do not own video cameras. If your family member doesn't own a video camera, he/she can still enjoy seeing videos online if you store them at one of those free sites. If you have a holiday video, you might even be able to bring that to one of your local tv stations for display there. The key is creativity, hard-work, positive-thinking and persistence. Collect your photos and videos all year long and present them to someone as a "New Year's Gift". You just might make someone's day!

• LOVE:

This Valentine's Day go out and photograph all of the beautiful window displays and community displays that feature hearts and valentines and valentines-related theme pictures. Collect these and save them for the following year. Do some of your own valentine poetry or go online and do some research for some free poems that you can use in your personal album. (Lots of sites have poems and art subjects you can use FREE -as long as you do not use them for commercial purposes. Obey all copyright laws and double-check to make sure these images are free. So, after collecting free images and poetry all year long, put your work together in a nice scrapbook. Check with your local scrapbook stores to find "scrapbook" pages to make your album beautiful. You can also check with Pearl Paint Stores and Michaels Crafts for some awesome additions to your collection. Both of these stores are awesome and have reasonably-priced items for all holidays.

• COLLAGE:

You can give the gift of "time" in another way. Make a collage of either old or new photos OR combine some old and new into a time line capsule collage. If you go to thrift shops or garage sales, you can usually find old magazines and even some newspapers to use in your collage. Create a unique collage, place it all together on a craft board, and to top this present off, make a beautiful photograph of the collage. That last item will be your special personalized gift that is irreplaceable. Your photo of your collage. Most people you know will love a collage that is personal. You can find great collage pictures everywhere. Check old magazines. Check recycled magazines and check the libraries discarded book areas.

• FAME:

Yes, you've heard it - Fame! Here is an idea if you live in a small town or in a town that has small libraries with display cases. PLAN a holiday or birthday display for a family member or friend. Once you plan it - gather all the photographs, collages and craft items along with your poetry or writings. Put it all together in a public display of your affection, time, love and connection to your family members and friends. The way to arrange it is this, go into your local library and speak with the reference librarian. Tell that person that you would like to have a month's display on the topic of CELEBRATION. Tell them that you will include pictures or writings about local celebrations, parades, festivals etc, and then you have a space for free to display your work. (Sometimes they need 2 or 3 months advance notice to make your reservation of the library exhibit space). Now, as you collect different memorabilia (from your city or state), collect also some of your family pictures that you know your family would want to have on display (be sure of this!). When you go to set up your exhibit, add the family pictures to the display, and that is the perfect gift for someone who has EVERYTHING. Send the announcement of the display in a card to your recipient and you are set. ALWAYS get permission to display individual photograph portraits of people in public displays.

YOU MIGHT NEED:

Sometimes you may need model release forms for your photographs. Check out this site that has free release forms online.

MODEL RELEASE FORMS

http://www.dpcorner.com/all_about/releases.shtml

You can copy those forms (read the instructions at the site).

HEALTH AND SAFETY (For Artists)

If you do a search for arts hazards or arts safety or arts techniques safety, you will come up with a good number of websites that furnish great information about art and health and hazards.

USE your imagination and you will come up with ten more ways to celebrate using collage and photography and your crafting skills.

FIND YOUR CRAFT ITEMS:

1. PEARL PAINT STORES - This group of stores is located in New York City in the heart of Chinatown. They carry craft items of everything from sumi-e supplies, puzzles, photography, art, watercolor, stamping and hundreds of other craft items. They have so many items that it takes FIVE stores to hold all of the items. (One store alone is five stories high).


2. PORTER'S PHOTOGRAPHY - Look up this store on the net. It is one of the best photography supply places that we have found. We have purchased items from this store so we do recommend it highly. They have prompt delivery, accurate service and great products.


3. PUBLIC LIBRARIES - Surprise! You will find craft items here, sometimes even prettier and more rare than those you find at craft stores or photo stores. MOST libraries sell old books and sometimes those OLD books are good enough for collage supplies. You can purchase a book for fifty cents or one dollar and with that one purchase you will gather tons of pictures, illustrations and other embellishments good for your collage.


4. FAMILY AND FRIENDS - Ask. Ask everyone you know if they have any old magazines or books that they would like to donate towards your craft projects. You might come up with some wonderful ideas and supplies for your next projects.


5. PORTER'S ONLINE - (no relation to the Porter's Photography) - Though we have not purchased from this company, their website looks good so it's worth checking it out as soon as possible. You can find this one online by using the Google search tool. This catalog is an awesome photography and crafts tool.


6. THRIFT STORES - You can sometimes find old photography albums at these stores and also, they have been known to sometimes have scrapbook items.

LOOK!

Once you really open your eyes to talent and creativity, you can come up with awesome ideas of expanding your creative collection for future gifts.

Look around your city and town and you will be surprised at the talent that you can find. Get permission to check out the high school art departments and ask about having the services of the local photographers there to do your special photographs.

Look into non-profit groups in your area. So many times, non-profits have access to mural-painters and other up-and-coming artists. So perhaps you can make some connections there.

Look into the annual fairs and festivals. These are types of events that artists seek out. And usually, if the fair or festival is large enough, you might even see a special art exhibit just for that event.

Look into your own network of friends and relatives. There are very creative people around you. In your own circle of family and friends, you probably will find some talented writers, artists, poets and other creative individuals --right there where you are. Enlist their help in some of your art projects.

So, in summary, remember these important items when thinking about using crafts and photography for gifts:

HEALTH and SAFETY: Always use safe materials and keep them away from children. Many of the creative arts kits and paints and painting kits contain lead. These kits are not toys but kits for beginning and professional artists. Take care when bringing these into homes and schools.

Read all the warnings and pay extra attention to safety and health.

LEGAL NOTES: USE Model release forms when needed.

WRITING AND PHOTOGRAPHY: Check out the American Society of Journalists and Authors Conference that happens once a year, usually in New York City. We attended this conference one year and found it most enlightening and informative. During the conference, authors - new, inexperienced and published authors usually have the opportunity to contact, converse with and consult with many editors, publishers and sometimes even with the President of a large publishing firm. During one year, we had the opportunity to speak with the President of Random House. This conference is an opportunity to not be missed! For new and beginning writers, the conference fee might seem expensive but we recommend it -even if you save up for the fee. We know that this conference is worth every penny you spend on it.

Other conferences are usually listed of posted in magazines like Writers Digest, or The Writer, so it pays to check these out.

Photography: We highly recommend the New York Institute of Photography for beginning photographers. Check out the Canon Masters program also.

CREATIVITY AND COMPLETENESS: Check out and use the sites listed in this article to get the most out of your own crafting/photography experience. Use teamwork to obtain the best results. Brainstorm with other creative individuals and artists. If you live near a Michaels store, spend an afternoon in there just browsing and then go back and purchase what you need.

Think about all the gifts that you ever received in your whole life, I'll bet there are some beautiful homemade favorites in your list. Make something this year, for someone you love. G0 homemade!

Supplies: Check out Michaels and Pearl Paint Store in Manhattan or anywhere else you need them. See the websites online.

So, when looking to gift --in a very different way, look to the arts, look to music, look to crafts. Look outward and upward to find gifts that will keep people smiling all year long.