There are so many reasons I love the holidays. The smell of a freshly cut Christmas tree, baking endless amounts of treats, watching all the classic holiday movies.. Heck, I even love holiday music until I’ve heard the same songs a hundred times in a month. Most of all, I love finding the most perfectly thoughtful gifts for my friends and family. But every year, like clockwork, there’s one little problem that gets in my way of holiday gifting: time.
Although I look forward to the holidays all year long, they always seem to sneak up on me and before I know it, it’s a week before Christmas and I still haven’t found that perfect gift for everyone. After scouring the internet searching for gifts that will arrive in time and coming up short, it dawned on me that there are tons of super meaningful gifts I can create myself with BeFunky in no time! Let me show you what I’m making:
1. Framed Art With Visionn
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard the great news that BeFunky launched a brand new mobile app called Visionn, and it’s a thing of wonder. Visionn has 12 unique artistic effects that can be used in real-time or on photos and videos from the camera roll! It’s the perfect way to turn a photo into a totally frame-worthy work of art – perfect for a unique, meaningful gift.
First, start with a gift-worthy photo. Since I’ve got a friend who is obsessed with her Boston Terrier, Lucy, I decided to whip up a painterly rendition of this photo that’s stored in the Camera Roll on my phone:
Next, open up Visionn (it’s available in the App Store for just $1.99) and click on the photo icon in the bottom left corner to open up Camera Roll. Then swipe through the filters until you find the perfect one. Each of the filters can be previewed and applied instantly, so this part is quick! The hard part is deciding which filter is the best, because there are so many fun styles to choose from. In the end, I went with the Burnside effect:
Now you can airdrop it to your computer, print it out on the paper of your choice, and put it in a frame!
2. Inspirational Quotes
Everyone needs a good dose of inspiration every now and then, even if it’s just a sentence reminding you that life is good. With BeFunky’s Graphic Designer, it’s super easy to take the quotes you love and create inspirational picture quotes that are so pretty you want to look at them everyday. It all starts with finding a quote that reminds you of the giftee, perhaps their favorite saying or a quote by their favorite author/role model/philanthropist/you get the idea.
Once you’ve got the perfect quote in mind, head over to the Graphic Designer and it will automatically open to the Templates tab. Since I want to frame this picture quote, I’m going to select a template that will fit into my 5 x 7 inch frame. I went with one of the Invitation templates that has a photo background already.
These templates are fully customizable with drag-and-drop capabilities, so after deleting all of the original textboxes, I went ahead and replaced the photo. To do this, you can either upload a photo into the Image Manager tab or search from Pixabay’s library of over 770,000 free stock photos to use. Drag the new photo into the template.
Quick TipDon’t want a photo background? Start by selecting one of the blank templates in the Template section! You can even change the background color if you don’t want a solid white.
Then add and arrange your quote by clicking on the Text tab.
Print it out, put it in your frame, and voila, a perfectly meaningful gift you can make in minutes.
3. Photo Collages
A picture is worth a thousand words, so a photo collage is worth millions. Whether you put together a collage of that road trip you took with your friend over the summer, special moments you’ve had with family, or a montage of you and your beau, the possibilities are really endless. Start with a theme in mind and head over to BeFunky’s Collage Maker, then upload the photos you want to use in the Image Manager.
From here, the easiest way to make a hi-res collage without cropping a single pixel from any of the photos will be to use the Collage Wizard. Find it by clicking on the Layouts tab, then click Collage Wizard.
Select the images you want to use by clicking on them and then start browsing the different layouts that Collage Wizard automatically generates for you.
Once you find the perfect layout, select it. From here, you can drag-and-drop images to the different spaces to switch them around, edit the photos, add text, and more!
Print it out when you’re done, frame it, and bam, another perfect gift!
4. DIY Polaroid Photo Coasters
This is one of my absolute favorite gifts to make and the full tutorial is available on One Good Thing By Jillee. To start, gather six (or more if you’d like!) of your favorite photos and open up BeFunky’s Photo Editor. One by one, edit each photo with the vast library of effects and then use the Crop tool in the Edit tab to crop them into 4” x 4” squares (300 x 300 pixels).
Quick TipIf 300 x 300 pixels crops your photo down too small, just crop it into a larger square. Then head to the Resize tool in the Edit tab to resize the square to 300 x 300 pixels. Loopholes.
Then click on the Frames tab and select one of the Instant frames, which will automatically add the classic Polaroid border around the photo.
Print them out on laser paper and use some mod podge glue to apply them to 4” x 4” ceramic tiles with a sponge paint brush. Paint a thin layer of mod podge over the photo as well. When the glue dries (which doesn’t take long!) add one more layer and wait for that to dry. Finish the coasters by spraying a layer of clear acrylic finishing spray. Add some small felt circles to the bottom.
The Gifts That Keep On Giving
These DIY gifts are simple and fast, but there are a few more gifts I can suggest.
A BeFunky Plus Subscription
Got someone on your list who loves editing photos, wants to learn the ropes of graphic design, or all of the above? For just $34.95, you can gift a BeFunky Plus account to your loved ones, granting them full and unlimited access to every tool and feature offered across the entire Creative Platform – the Photo Editor, Graphic Designer, and Collage Maker – for an entire year! A Plus account will surely put everything they need to design like a pro (sans graphic design degree) and make good photos great right at their fingertips.
The Gift of Visionn
Visionn is also an incredibly entertaining gift, and at only $1.99, it’s quite a steal! Visionn will allow your friends and family to see the world from a unique perspective, create animated videos, and turn everyday photos into incredible works of art. Perfect for almost any age, and Apple has made it really easy to gift Apps by logging into your iTunes account, going to the App landing page, and selecting “Gift This App” from the dropdown menu.
We hope you find all the tools you need to craft and give the perfect gifts with BeFunky! Happy Holidays to you and yours!
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