Personalising blank cards using photographs

So if you're anything like me, you probably have lots and lots of photographs. And, again, if you're anything like me, you'll have digital copies of these photographs (in addition to the originals which should have been attractively arranged in albums or scrapbooks after you printed them out :-).

Back to the digital photos...why not use them to bring joy to others, instead of leaving them sitting around on your hard drive or SD card, mostly forgotten?

OK so first, identify a couple of photographs which you'd like to share. They could be photos of kids, family members, friends or just blank scenic shots. They could be current or old. The beauty of a digital photo is it can be printed as many times as you like, so you're not actually "destroying" a precious old original photograph.

Get these photos printed or developed. The maximum size should be 4R, unless you have a really huge blank card to personalise, in which case you could go for a bigger size.

Next, grab some art paper, or if you already have a pack of blank notecards, you could use these.

Basically you'll be sticking the photograph onto the card. For a scalloped effect, I cut around the photo with craft scissors, but you can just stick the photo straight on, or embellish the frame with stickers or other materials if you like.    

To stick it on, I used cellophane tape on the back and across the whole card. If you had a laminator, you could probably do a more professional job of it - but for a less professional finish, cellophane tape or even clingwrap could be used.

On the inside of the card, you can write your message, and maybe include a note describing the photograph.

For this project, I used a photograph taken from a beach at dawn, several years ago.