Sunday, December 11, 2011

Gift ideas in the Xmas frenzy

As Christmas is literally just around the corner, I've decided to give you a really cool last minute gift idea. If you'd like to give a homemade pressie but you lack the time to come up with something personal, funny and even handy, try Facebook and Photoshop fridge magnets! I made both as brithday presents but I think they will just as do for Christmas.

Facebook (or fridgebook) magnets are nice because you can edit them however you like and with editing it takes abount an hour and a half to make them.
First of all, you're going to need a magnetic sticker sheet or band. This is the cheapest solution of magnet making, you can usually come by these sheets in any creative hobby shop. (You can also buy printable magnetic sheets but they cost more and harder to come at). The next step is to choose the pictures. I saved my friend's profile picture and edited the "fridgebook" logo on top of it in photoshop, so it'd look just as his actual FB profile. I downloaded the FB font which you can also do for free if you click on this link. Unzip the file and save it to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Fonts (if you're using photoshop for editing).


Make a snapshot of your FB page then use the colorpicker tool to to get the exact FB colour for your magnets' headers. After this it's all up to you what kind of buttons you'd like to create. I made a Like, Dislike, Photos, and Wall Post button and a status update and a comment bar. You can either type a message to the bars or after you've printed them (I used glossy photo paper) you can just easily write something on them. Finally, you just remove the paper from the sticky end of the magnet, and stick the carefully cut buttons and bars onto them and you're ready!

Here's the final look:

If you have photographer friends you can suprise them with the Photoshop magnets as well! The principle is the same, however, I used magnetic bands this time - you can save time if you edit the toolbars as wide as the magnetic bands, so you don't even have to trouble yourself with cuttings. If you have photohsop, just run it and hit print screen button on your keyboard to have the high-res pictures of the toolbars and windows. (I chose the Swatches, Adjustments and Layers windows and 2 other toolbars.)



Note: Make sure to edit the pictures in high-res, you can resize before printing.

A few more ideas: if you got the fridge magnet bug then you can easily make iPhone app, twitter, YouTube or even Windows magnets! It's only a matter of imagination what you come up with!
Good luck and Merry Christmas!