If I’m being totally honest, I’m kinda sick of buying things just to buy things. Presents that don’t mean much and will quickly be forgotten. Gifts for my kids, my husband, my family, my friends. I’d much rather give them something that they’ll care about. Something useful. Something they’ll want to hold on to. Something I won’t regret buying and they won’t regret getting (who else is insanely tired of clutter?).
So in the spirit of giving, I thought I’d share a few ideas of meaningful gifts you can give to those you love using Photographs. Because who doesn’t love photos?! It’s one of the rare things on this earth everyone loves to look at and something people want to hang on to.
ONE.
We’ve really tried to cut back on buying our kids things just to buy them things. They don’t need much and honestly, they don’t ask for much these days (maybe because I never take them to the store and toy commercials are a thing of the past–sweet mercy). Now each year for Christmas, we give them a stack of photos and supplies to make their own photo albums. Or you can make the albums together.
You can read all of the details of how we pull this together HERE.
This year I’m going to do it a little different for my girls and get them these “All About Me” books they can fill out and mix in photos with the pages.
TWO.
Parent gifts can be tricky. And I try real hard to think of things that will matter to them. If we can make my mom cry, we know we did good. A few years ago for Christmas, I had all my siblings print off 150-200 photos of their family, we combined all the photos and made a few photo albums for my parents. They rarely get to see the day-to-day photos we take of our families or even the vacations we take so this was a fun way for them to get to enjoy those photos.
You can read all the details of how we pulled this all together HERE.
These ended up being really fun for the whole family to look through. And it’s a gift that can continue through the years and just add more photos and albums each year.
THREE.
I love these mini-clipboard calendars from Persnickety Prints. They’re different. They’re small so you could put them anywhere in your home or office. And they’re cute. You could use photos you have, screenshot photos from a friends or family members Instagram account or take some from Facebook and use those.
(photo credit–Persnickety Prints)
FOUR.
Make a quick photo book for a friend or family member from a vacation you went on together or an event you participated in (or they participated in). A race, a one-day adventure, a birthday party, etc.
I ran the Spartan race with my husband and several friends and put together this Photobook using Snapfish. I let the software auto-fill the photos so it didn’t take very long and used a coupon code to get a huge discount on the book.
You could also make a small Photo Book through Persnickety Prints with photos from an event (or any photos for that matter):
FIVE.
Take a screenshot of a friends photos on Instagram and make them a little album, book, or prints.
A small 4×4 album filled with square prints:
(photo credit Beckyhiggins.com)
A set of square prints from Artifact Uprising to keep in a little box and display:
(photo credit Artifactuprising.com)
Or make them a display with the photos to put on their wall (details on how to do this HERE):
SIX.
Give the gift of Chatbooks. If someone has an Instagram account and isn’t using Chatbooks, this is a GREAT gift. But. You don’t have to have Instagram to use this service. You can link it to your “favorite” photos in your photo albums and once you hit 60 photos, the book comes to you automatically.
You can read all about Chatbooks HERE or visit their website here.
SEVEN.
This isn’t exactly photos (but you take photos to create it so….), but a book with all your favorite recipes would be a great gift!
All the details on how to create this are HERE.
EIGHT.
If your kids or someone you’re gifting to have an Instax Mini Camera
(photo credit Beckyhiggins.com)
Some of these will obviously take a little work, but anything worth doing usually takes some effort. I am not sponsored in any way for any of these products. These are just things I personally do and think make excellent gifts.
**If you want some ideas for the person in your life who loves taking photos (aka the photographer in your life), you can find some ideas HERE.
**If you’re interested in improving your photography with your phone OR your dSLR, definitely check out THIS!!! (This would also make a great gift for someone wanting to make their photos better).
**Want to display more photos in your home? Here are some photo display ideas I’ve done in my home.
If you haven’t already, come find me on Instagram (@ltross)! I share lots of stuff there too.
