Thursday, October 20, 2011

DIY Birth Announcements

When I started looking at options for birth announcements, I was surprised at how expensive they were. Even pre-made designs printed on regular photo paper are often over a dollar each.  That seemed a bit excessive to me, so to save a little lot of mula, I decided to design my own using the free photo editing/organizing program, Picasa.

Here's a quick tutorial:

First, I chose a picture that had some space for the name and all of the info that I wanted included.  Next, I selected the picture in Picasa and hit the "collage" button.  Once you get to the collage screen, make sure you have the right dimensions selected. I chose 4x6 since that is the cheapest size to print.  I then chose black as my background color, sized the photo to almost fit the space, making sure to leave a thin black border.  Next, I hit the "create collage" button to get back to the normal editing screen. Then, I used the "text" function to add Levi's name and other birth info.(Note: I download free fonts at dafont.com and Fonts for Peas, they have tons of nice options) Once I was happy with the design, I saved the file and downloaded it to Snapfish.  I decided to use Snapfish to print my birth announcements because they have a great deal on new registrations (20 free prints and 9 cents each for the rest) and I was also able to print them on matte paper, which I tend to prefer.   

So, for 100 birth announcements (much more than enough!) I paid a little under $8!  Not bad!

Here's the photo/design we chose...

Some other options we were considering...
(this was initially my favorite, but I ended up deciding that it was too "winterish" for my August baby.)
Now I just need to get my act together and send them out! 
Never has addressing and stamping envelopes ever seemed so difficult. 

Oh babies. :)

7 comments:

  1. These are so beautiful, Kerrie! I'm thinking Christmas cards. :)

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  2. LOL...yes babies make everything harder and more enjoyable!
    I don't know how you were able to choose...they are all so adorable. Wonderful idea.

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  3. Oh, these are so sweet. Winter was my favorite too. Have a blessed winter day; it it is cold here, so you must be freezing.

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  4. I like the one you chose! Such a good idea... I'll have to try that for our christmas cards as well :)

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  5. I think God did such a good job on Levi's face!

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  6. Great picture! I did this with Patrick's birth announcements and I've done it with Christmas cards as well!!

    This year, I got lucky in May and found a groupon for Picaboo.com for 30 dollars for 100 dollars...so I bought it! It got me through Maura's birth announcements, Patrick's birthday invites, and even most of Christmas!

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  7. How did you add the text? I cant find the text button anywhere.

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