Father’s Day is quickly approaching! On Sunday June 15th, be sure to surprise dad with a wonderful Father’s Day photo gift. It’s a quick and simple gift to prepare (pending the kids cooperate!). All you need for this project is a picture frame that holds 3 photos (I suggest 3″x5″ or 4″x6″ photos), a camera and two wooden letters: D & A (no need to purchase the second D unless you plan on making artwork from it later!). 

This gift is great to make with babies or toddlers (although they can be difficult to keep still as you might have noticed with Miss O from last year who was almost 1 year at the time). This is also the ideal gift for a family with three children. Simply have the child(ren) pose holding a letter and snap some photos! You don’t need to get all artsy with it – I just had O sit on our hardwood floor in a room that was painted hot pink. You can easily edit the photos on your computer. If you have an Apple computer as I do, iPhoto is your best friend. When editing, the Enhance button is my absolute favourite! Along with Retouch, Straighten and Crop.

Once you’ve settled on your favourite three photos, send them off to your nearest photo lab. If there’s one thing I have learned since having a child, it’s worth it to get your prints done at the more expensive photo lab. I’ve printed at Walmart, Costco and Blacks (a Canadian photo chain). Although Costco prints do the trick, I highly recommend going with Blacks even though they are often 3 times the price. When you are only printing 3 photos, it’s not that big of a deal to spend that much! 

One thing to note: take your pictures in the same orientation as your frame. I did not do this. I took them landscape but my frame was portrait. I simply took my photos into the photo lab and they helped me crop them properly so they would print as portrait. 

Daddy loved his Father’s Day present. He displays it proudly on his desk at work. I put the photos into a simple black frame that held 3 photos – most dads won’t get as excited about a beautiful frame, especially when he’s too busy looking at his beautiful child in the photos!