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Black Belt Shopper
(featured column)

Homemade
Gifts from Your Computer
by
Larry Wiener
All you have to
do is go into almost any store and you know that Christmas is coming. If
you’re like me, you’re thinking about gift buying already. You can,
however, use your computer and an ink jet printer to make a lot of personalized
gifts that will be much more meaningful than yet another tie or sweater. More...
What You’ll Need
Besides the computer and printer, you’ll need software.
Two of the best software packages for making personalized gifts are Print
Shop and Microsoft Publisher.
Print Shop,
which is available just about anywhere that software is sold, is designed for
home use. The opening screen suggests a number of different projects you
can use for gift making, such as calendars, labels, and t-shirt transfers.
Microsoft Publisher,
which is designed more for business use is very powerful and integrates
beautifully with other Microsoft applications.
You can find specialized applications for making t-shirts,
calendars, and other gifts. Many of them are easy to use, but are not as
flexible or powerful as the general applications.
What Projects You Can Make
Your imagination is the limit and you can get a lot of ideas
by looking at the applications, but here are some that have worked for me.
 | Family
calendars Almost every year I make
calendars that feature a family-related picture for each month. This
year I may do something different. Rather than making a calendar for
the coming year, I may make a 2007 calendar noting important family events.
Local office supply stores offer binding at a relatively low cost,
especially if you are making quantities.
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 | T-shirts
You can make t-shirts using transfers
available in any office supply or major technology store. Follow the
iron-on instructions and use the transfer printing setting on your
application and you’ll have a great shirt.
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 | Bookplates
If you recipient is an avid reader, you can make bookplates with Avery
labels. Publisher and
several other applications will let you print labels of various sizes.
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 | Certificates
You can give your recipients certificates for various services.
If, for example, you have a family with small children, you can make a
certificate good for babysitting.
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 | Photo
collections If you have, as I do, a
large collection of family photos, a photo CD or printed copies of old
photos can be very meaningful to some of your recipients. Interesting
captions, inviting covers, and other touches can make your gift even more
meaningful. |
Tips for Making Your Gifts
High in Quality
Of course you’ll want to make your gifts high in quality and
you can. As one who has been making gifts on the computer for many years,
I offer you the following tips:
 | Give
yourself time It takes time to learn
how to produce high quality gifts. Often your first few tries don’t
come out right because there is a learning curve in learning to use any new
technology. Give yourself time to do a few trial runs and expect your
first few tries to not be worthy of gift giving. You may even want to
start planning now so you aren’t rushing around to make gifts when
Christmas is almost here.
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 | Use
good quality ink and paper My
experience has been that when I want my printer to produce good quality
work, I need to use the manufacturer’s brand of ink, not the refills.
I find that the images come out sharper and that fewer pages are ruined.
Also, using brighter paper and even photo paper produces a better product
than standard copier paper.
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 | Make
extra copies If you are making a
generic family calendar for, say, a dozen people, you will inevitably find
that you will have extra people who want your gift. You’ll want to
be able to accommodate them. |
Computer-made gifts can bring great joy to your friends and
family and can be a lot more fun than trudging through a mall at this time of
the year (even the Black Belt Shopper gets tired of shopping at this time of the
year).
And how can I forget to plug my book, The
Black Belt Shopper’s Guide available at this site! Check
it out yourself for other gift-buying ideas or maybe even you can give it as a
gift to someone who either is into shopping or who needs to make better use of
his or her money!
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Copyright
© 2007 by Larry Wiener, author of The
Black Belt Shopper's Guide. All rights reserved. Want more
money-saving tips? Get a FREE Subscription to our monthly
newsletter!
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