Wedding Date Art

I realize it is only October, but I have been working hard to get names checked off my Christmas gift list for a couple of weeks. I was so excited with my most recent project, I could not wait until November or December to share this with all of you.

The most popular post I have posted on Full of Great Ideas was my absolute favorite project, my Name and Est. art. It is my fall back gift. I have given it to friends, family, teachers, daycare, etc. I have even changed it so that it is a baby announcement for my recently born nephew. Well, when my brother was married I knew I wanted to make him one but I wanted it to be unique. Not only because everyone in our family has one like mine but also because his last name doesn't fit as nicely.

I remember seeing something on Pinterest that I loved, but as you know, if you don't Pin it while you see it you will not find it again. I knew the image I saw was similar to the baby announcement but had a photo on the top.

So here is what I created first:

 Then I thought I would try sepia:

 And lastly, my personal favorite, black and while:

I used the same technique as I did with the name/est. art. Here are the links to the Leo Reynolds site where you will find the letters and numbers.

When you find a number you like, make sure you open it fully before saving or inserting it.  When you are looking at the page of 50 or so small images, click on the image you like to make it larger, then right click on the image and select 'View Medium 640' or bigger. Once the new image opens you can drag and drop from this screen ..but if that doesn't work, right click on it again and select 'save image as'. Save the letter/number to a place on your computer where you can find it. Open the Publisher file and 'insert', 'picture', 'from file'. Find the letter/number on your computer and select it. Adjust the image size to fit.

Once you are happy with the design, save the image as a high resolution JPEG (to do this in Publisher follow theses steps: 'Save As', 'Save as type', 'JPEG', 'Change...' (Resolution), 'High quality printing or commercial printing (300dpi)') .


I was so anxious to see how it looked (as you know I am not a patient person), I printed it off on my horrible home printer. By no means did this give me the best results, but it did prove I love the way it turned out.

I created two sizes for this, the first was 8x10 and the second was 11.75 x15.75 (to fit into Ikea frames and to be printed on a 12x18 sheet at Costco). I am extremely happy with how the 8x10 looks with a mat but the larger will look great too without a mat.

I will print this at Costco for $1.89 and I had the frame on hand..so grand total for this Christmas gift is under $2. I guess if I had to buy a frame, it would be under $20. Not bad.

What do you think? Is anyone else working on their Christmas list already?

UPDATE: I have uploaded the Microsoft Publisher file to Google documents. You can download it here. Please leave me a comment to let me know whether or not you were able to download it ok. I am willing to share this as long as you promise to use it for personal use only and not to sell them. Note when you click on the link, Google documents will give you a note saying "Sorry, we are unable to generate a view of the document at this time. Please try again later." Or it will say "click here to download original file" you can save it by clicking on the link. That is ok. Simple click on the arrow down button (next to the print symbol) to download the file. Save the file and then you will have no problem opening it in Publisher after you download it.


Stephanie