Wooahh! What is this? What are those nice looking Apple-branded boxes?



What ever could they be?



The little box contains some really nice 4” x 6” holiday cards with my boys on them that I made with iPhoto.



They came out really nice. I did some photo editing to the original. I dropped the saturation down a bit and added some noise. Everyone seems to be all about the “vintage look” these days.



It’s a 2-sided card. The greeting is on the back. I like the 2-sided cards because they’re just the right size to stick in one of those magnetic frames for the fridge and they don’t flap open like a regular greeting card. You can stick them there and leave them on all year long That, and they’re half the price at 99 cents.

I make a calendar for my Mom, my Wife, and her best friend every year. They love them. They come in a very nice Apple-branded folder. They make for great storage when you want to put the calendar away for the year.



We put them back in the folders the following year and file them away with the photo albums.



You can go nuts with the customization. I like to mix it up. Anything from 2 on a page, to 3 on a page, to 4 on a page. Every 3 months or so I like to throw in a full page group shot. I always use pictures for the month being displayed. So you know exactly what the kids looked like a year ago. You can even drop images into the backgrounds for specific days. It’s great for birthdays.



They’re very well done. At $20 a pop, they make awesome one-of-a-kind Christmas presents. You can’t beat them.

I also made a hard-covered photo book. I make one every year for my wife.







I started making books of our boys in 2007, a few years after the twins were born. I skipped 2004-2006, so I’ve been trying to play catch-up ever since. The one I made for this year is for 2005. I think for her birthday next year, I’ll give her one for 2004 and 2012, then I’ll be all caught up.

I like to give them to her for Christmas, but by doing so, they end up without any Christmas pictures in them. I think from now on I’ll give them to her the following year for her birthday. That way the book will be all-inclusive for the year.

At least for Christmas, she’ll still get a calendar.