{photo gift tags}

Honestly, I cannot believe that it's November!  CRAZY.

Miracle of miracles, I am *almost* done with my Christmas shopping (yay!), which means it's time for the wrapping to begin! Often times it's just small and simple touches that gives gifts that extra little*something* that can make such a huge difference.

One of my favorite things to do is use photo gift tags. Kids love to see themselves in pictures, and to have it attached to a present and know that it belongs to them? So exciting!  It's just a really fun way to both give and receive. Instead of having the picture of who the present is for, how about switching it around and using a picture of who it's from?  Grandparents would love getting a gift with a darling photo gift tag of their children and grandchildren!

It is so easy to do, and anyone can do it using one of several options.  If you have and use Photoshop, that's an easy way to go.  If you don't, there is a free program called Picasa that I love, and highly recommend. It's super user-friendly and provides many photo editing options, as well as a superb way to organize all your pictures.(Click HERE to download for Windows and HERE for Mac.)

Today I'm going to give you a tutorial on how to add text to your pictures in Picasa, and show you how fast and easy it really is--anyone can do this, I promise!

Step 1: 

When you're in Picasa, open the picture that you would like to use for your gift tag. Click on the "Basis Fixes" tab (circled, top left), then on "Text" (circled, bottom middle).

Step 2: 

Select the font (the same fonts you have on your computer), size, and color of your text, then just start typing! For two or more separate lines of text (see picture below), once you've finished one line, just move your mouse, click a different spot on the picture, and repeat the process. You can just do it within one text box, but it's easier to line them up if you do it separately.

Step 3:

Once your text is written, click on the text, and a large gray circle will appear.  If you click on that circle, you can move the text anywhere on the picture that you want it to be. 

Step 4:

Select "Save As", and save your picture in your desired folder.

Step 5:

Insert picture into Word (or similar program) by selecting "insert" (at the top, the tab next to "home"), then "picture". You'll browse for your picture, and it will open in Word when you select it.  Click on a corner of your picture, and move your mouse to re-size it. If you want more than one tag on a page, you can copy and paste them as many times as you like.  Or if you want to add another tag to the same page, just repeat the process. If you make them small enough, it's easiest to create two columns--you'll be able to fit a lot more tags on one page.

Step 6:

Print it out--I used just regular white copy paper--but you can use white cardstock, photo paper, or even get the pictures developed if you like!  Mat the picture on cardstock, distress the edges (using Distress Ink--Vintage Photo color--my favorite), punch a hole in the corner, then tie it on to your gift.

So fun!