When looking for the perfect gift for someone, it can often be difficult to choose. Most gifts that can be purchased at a store can seem fairly impersonal, at least to the extent that anyone can buy one. A better approach is to give a more unique gift that also has the personal touch. One way to do this is to give a gift based on a photo. The photo can be of the recipient in some cases, but in most instances the photo or photos will be of family members or friends. There are any number of great photo gift ideas.
Framed Photos
The traditional way to give a photo is in a frame. This can be something the recipient can hang on a wall or sit on a shelf or desk. To make the gift more impressive, choose a quality frame that matches the decor of the recipient's home. For example, a home with a lot of finished wood should get a wood frame, while a home with a more modern design should get a metal or plastic frame.
Collage Photos
When giving a number of photos, they can be combined into a single image using a scanner and graphics application. These collages can be printed as regular photos for framing, or they can be blown up and printed on larger poster sheets and framed.
Greeting Cards
If the photo is a gift for a special occasion or a holiday, a great way to give it is by incorporating it into greeting card. There are several online companies that will do this for customers, but most office supply companies and local printers can also do this kind of work. For sentimental cards, it can be a nice touch to have the edges of the photo fade softly into the background color of the card.
T-shirts
For a fun, or even funny, way to use a photo as a gift, a t-shirt can be perfect. As with greeting cards, there are many online companies as well as local businesses that can create these t-shirts. However, it is also possible to create very nice photo t-shirts at home using a home printer, iron ons and an iron.
CD Photo Albums
If the gift is for a relative, a thoughtful photo based gift is a CD photo album. This is created by scanning in photos from various members of the family. These can be current photos as well as photos the family has collected over the years. Once they are scanned in, they can be assembled into a yearbook like format and burned to a CD.
Photo Cubes
For a cute gift that someone can keep on a desk or nightstand, a lighted photocube can be quite impressive. These small cubes have lights on the inside and a surrounding cube frame into which the buyer can insert photo prints. Some even have a motorized rotate function. One of the nice things about this gift is that the photos can be changed.