Just wanted to say a huge thank you to Kirsten from 6th Street Design School for posting about my pad today on her ‘Feature Fridays’ series! If you haven’t checked our Kirsten’s blog before, go browse around – she has seriously fabulous style. And to those of you who are popping in here from Kirsten’s blog, welcome!! Thanks Kirsten – you’re the sweetest!
Now back to the regular programming..
With blogs and pinterest and etsy to browse through, there are so many creative ways of announcing big milestones in your life — engagements, save the dates, graduations, and of course, pregnancies and new babies!
When Daniel and I found out we were pregnant, I soon started looking through Pinterest and scheming about a cute photo announcement. And boy, there are a lot of fun ideas out there. Here were some of my faves (you can check out my whole baby pinterest board here):
As you saw in our baby news blog post, we ended up going with the photostrip idea. I liked the whimsy and frankly, easiness of this option. It was the middle of winter, so there weren’t going to be any fabulous outdoor photoshoots happening.
To create our photostrip, we had a pal of ours take a few photos in our living room (thanks andy!). I created the signs we held on regular white paper with a black Sharpie (nothing fancy here, folks!). We held up the different sheets and did a few shots with each to have a bit of choice. Then it was just about photo editing.
I use PicMonkey - a free online photo editing tool – and it’s awesome. Besides the regular editing stuff (cropping, rotating, touch ups, etc), it has a whole host of specialized tools: filters, adding text, adding graphics, etc. I took my 3 sign photos, plus 1 with us holding our pregnancy test, and then applied the same filters (“tranquil” and “cross process”) to each.
Therefore turning the photos from looking like this…
…to this! The “puzzled” look on Danny’s face here still makes me totally giggle. What a freak.
I saved them as .jpg’s and then uploaded them into Picasa (another free tool). I use Picasa for its collage tool, which I find really easy to use. I selected the four photos for a collage, and then kept playing with the aspect ratio until I got it looking like a photostrip – it ended up as 333 x 1000 pixels.
And voila!
A fun little photo announcement to send around to friends and family, post on facebook, and on the blog! For family members of ours who don’t have internet access, we printed out a few copies on cardstock at Staples (cost us less than $5), cut them to size, and then popped them in the mail.
Have you guys ever DIY’d a photostrip? Done any cute photo announcements? In other news, what are you up to this weekend? It’s supposed to be pretty sunny and warm here (for Ontario in March, anyway!), so I’m ready to go on some nice long walks.
Tags: baby announcement, DIY photostrip, pregnancy announcement
pregnancy announcement: ideas + how-to DIY a photostrip http://t.co/GW7McPYEt6
on the blog today: http://wp.me/p1s8qR-1LH
I don’t know how I missed this bit of news, but OMG! YOU’RE HAVING BABY!!!
Congratulations! I can’t wait to to hear all about your adventures in pregnancy. And I’m so happy for your child…they’re going to have one awesome mom. xo
OMG indeed! :) Thanks so much, Nadine. We can’t wait for this little sprout’s arrival!!!
xo,
gem
@thesweetestdigs Congratulations on your announcement! :)
I’m visiting your blog for the first time (jumping over from 6th street design school) and LOVE it! What a cute blog! I will for sure be checking back :)
Thanks Kristin!! So happy to have you! :)
xo,
gem
Thanks for the info about PicMonkey. I’m intimidated by PhotoShop and Illustrator, so this sounds a lot more easy and fun!
I’ve busy with business training tomorrow, and then teach SS Sunday am, but am looking forward to games night with colleagues tomorrow nigh and then hiking the trails off West Hunt Club (by Moodie Road) Sunday afternoon. The cherry on top of this awesome weekend is my day off on Monday; I’m sleeping in a wee bit, and then getting a pedi at my coworker’s sister’s spa in Richmond, Hair Expectations. Can’t wait for pampered feet!
Thanks, again, and have a great one!
Joy :)
Oops – that would be ‘tomorrow night’. ;)
Oooh games night, hiking, and pedi?! Sounds pretty darn fabulous! Have fun, Joy!
xo,
gem
diy photostrip–so smart! and congrats on the new addition coming soon! hope it is as smooth as ever.
Yeah – so easy and they look so cute. Thanks, Ali!
xo,
gem
Just found your fun blog and adorable home via 6th Street and am so happy! Love your style. Congrats on the baby! We are expecting our first in July I actually shared this little photo announcement http://delightfullynoted.blogspot.com/2013/01/first-come-love-then-comes-marriage.html
Ahhh – congratulations!! I *love* your announcement.. made me giggle :) Hope your pregnancy goes smoothly! Thanks for popping by!
xo,
gem
Congratulations! I love how you announced it :)
Thanks SO much for detailing what you used and how you did it to get your photostrip done! I have zero techie ability and even less photography sense and I am now excited to try this out.
This weekend I’m all about spring cleaning and meeting up with friends!
Yeah it’s really SO easy… no big photoshop skills required (cause I definitely don’t have those!). Have fun over the weekend!
xo,
gem
First of all, I clearly missed your news earlier, so Congrats! And this is a great summary of ideas for announcements, and I love yours! Very cute.
Thanks so much, Lindsey!
xo,
gem
OMG I am the WORST blog-reader ever that I missed your big news. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!! I’m so excited for you! And I love Love LOVE your pregnancy announcement (totally agree: Danny’s face in photo #1 is priceless. Made me laugh out loud)
I’m go excited for you guys, Gemma. Such great news! xo
Aww – thanks for your sweet message, April!! I really appreciate it!
xo,
gem