Craft Project: Vintage Photo Father's Day Card

I recently discovered some old family photos in my mother's cupboard. The photos are more than 50 years old, and all of them are coming from the era when black and white photos were still regarded as fashionable.

When I looked at these photos, I immediately thought of all the craft projects that these photos could be used for. I decided to use one of these photos to make a birthday card for my father. This card can also be adjusted for Father's Day, or any other occasion when you would like to make a card for a man.

Supplies:

• a suitable old black and white photo.
• a photo editing program*
• 8.2 x 6 inch piece of light tan colored cardboard
• 3.6 x 5.6 inch piece of dark brown cardboard
• pencil
• ruler
• pair of standard scissors
• pair of pattern edged scissors
• quick-drying glue
• one A4 sheet of beige paper
• one light tan colored envelope

*I used PhotoScape version 3.5, which can be downloaded free of charge from http://www.photoscape.org/.

Instructions:

1. Fold tan cardboard in half to create a card 4.1 x 6 inches. Use the ruler to make the fold neat and smooth.

2. Cut the two shortest sides of the dark brown cardboard with the pair of pattern edged scissors.

3. Glue the 3.6 x 5.6 inch dark brown cardboard to the front of the card, carefully ensuring that it is an equal distance from the edges.

4. Scan the photo onto your computer.

5. With the PhotoScape program, add an antique photo filter (nr 4). This will turn the color of the photo into sepia, and also give it an aged look.

6. From the different frames that could be added to the photo, choose the Paper01 frame and set the width at 200%.

7. Save the adjusted photo onto your computer. If you want to keep the scan of the original photo for another project, remember to save the adjusted photo under a different name.

8. Print the photo and then glue it to the front of the card, again ensuring that it is an equal distance from the edges.

9. Print a message on the beige paper, cut it to the correct size and paste it to the inside of the card.

Note: If you can't find a matching envelope, use a light tan sheet of paper and make your own envelope. You can find some templates for envelopes at: http://desktoppub.about.com/library/weekly/xenvtemp.htm.

Editor's Note: You will want to measure your photo choice and adjust card and envelop sizes accordingly.

By BessieBessie from Pretoria, Gauteng