photo gifts for one and all

you: Stacy, do you like giving photography as gifts?

me: um, yeah.

you: but don’t they cost an arm and a leg?

me: absolutely not! everything here was under $40. *but* you do need to have fantastic photography to begin with to create your works of art, i must say.

eh hem. now booking for 2013.

isn’t this a fun thing? from Pinhole Press  12 images and $20 and it can be yours. it’s reason enough to have kids so you can order this game for them.

this framed beauty is an Instagram i took of our footies in the sand (my mom and I) when we were at my cousins wedding on the beach in October. living in this tiny town, we have to travel to get anything framed in good form, so i’ve been diving into the new world of online framing.

This one is sized 11×11′ and was $35 at KOLO.

its a great size, finish, and matte for any person on your list. not too small and still very neutral to go in any space they should choose to put your gift in.

ye Olde Instagrams, again. seriously…. talk about a nice, cheap gift. I simply bundled them with pretty yarn and stuck them in an old tiny fruit container i got a yard sale this summer for $2.  nice to sit on the coffee table and the like.

and finally, my favorite thing is this calendar i made myself with the help of photoshop, SP designs and Office Depot.

I made 8 of these babies and it took me about 2 hours total, including the time it took waiting at the store.

We had a photo shoot with the fabulous Tara Whitney when we were in sunny California and her style of photography, much like mine, is very storytelling and best shown in a collection: hence 12 months of Ryan + Stacy. Since I don’t typically like the “store-bought” calendar look… with the grid lines…i used a template from SP Design. It’s modern and colorful enough without being too kiddie. I had 2 months printed onto 1 sheet of 8.5×11″ card stock and then just trimmed them myself. (if you find yourself trimming a lot, I highly recommend you pick yourself up a paper trimmer. so handy. i use ours all the time.) after I trimmed all the months and sorted them into a full year, I made myself a little guide to punch the hole. knotted a piece of twine to bind it all and walllla! DIY calendar. inspired by Rifle Paper Co.’s garden calendar.

here’s what the dogs did while I made calendars…