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Photo Crafts

Nowadays, almost everyone has one or more cameras at home. Digital photography has created a nation of photographers, but what happens to the pictures once stored on the SD memory card? Just turn them into something fun, zany and creative. Hundreds of photography-related crafts projects can be found online and at the local crafts store. Sometimes the materials for these projects have already made their way into the home---school glue, craft paper, crayons and scissors to name a few. So take the SD card out of the camera, fire up the printer and get creative with these fun projects.

Kid Friendly
- Make a big set of photographic kids' blocks. Print photographs onto sticker-backed paper, cut the photographs into squares and attach to large blocks. Use pictures of the baby, the pets or things around the house to help the baby recognize objects. Use magnet paper to print custom refrigerator magnets. Most standard printers accept magnet paper. Cut out fun shapes or make people magnets from images of the family for a "'fridge family portrait." Take full-length portraits of the kids, print on magnetic paper and cut the images apart. Now the kids can mix and match body parts to create family Frankenstein monsters for Halloween. Back-to-school cards using templates from Fujifilm make great gifts for out-of-town family members. Find the templates at Fujifilm's Photo Craft site at http://www.yourpix.com/createphotos/photocrafts.
Entertaining/Holidays
- Place-card holders add a creative and funny touch to that next party. Print photos on adhesive-backed photo paper and attach to construction paper somewhat larger than the photo. Use the printer to print the person's name in a cool font and glue under the photograph. Christmas ornaments made from photos of family and friends add a special touch to any tree. Buy inexpensive ornaments, print the photos on adhesive backed paper, cut into circles (or shapes such as squares or stars) and attach to the ornaments. Attach slowly from the center out to avoid air bubbles. Halloween masks created from life-size portraits add that special edge during that ghoulish time of year. Take portraits of each child from the front. Get in close to capture all the detail, which makes a better quality enlargement. Print, cut out around the outline of the head and decorate each face with paint or markers.
Announcements
- Photographs make great birth, engagement and party announcements. Print the photographs to the desired size and use purchased stationery or any one of several different papers as a background. Decorate according to the event and personal tastes. Remember, when printing images from most home printers, adjusting the dots per inch (DPI) based on the size of the printed image helps cut down on ink costs. Smaller images make use of lower DPI settings.

Photography