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. :)