Homemade Gifts: Personalized Guitar Picks

                      

My cousin loves music.  He taught himself how to play the guitar when he was younger, and has been playing, and writing songs ever since.  His master's in in theology, and he is an associate pastor, but his main gig is leading worship each Sunday.  Last year I tried to think of a homemade gift that would go along with his love, in particular-what to do with guitar picks.  I had the thought of personalizing picks in some way, and googled the idea.  I saw that you can actually order guitar picks with personal pictures on them...the problem is it's about 25 bucks for 5....so then I began the hunt on how to 'do it yourself.'  I came across a tutorial on youtube that was right up my alley, and really easy.  Step numero uno...snag some pictures from your cousin's facebook page.  Case in point. 

Plot ways to borrow above cousin's daughter for a week or 57 because she's cute, and if you borrowed her, above cousin could get in lots of practice without interruptions.  Proceed to project. 

Print array of pictures in smaller sizes (but bigger than thumbnails), grab some picks at a guitar store, mod podge, and diamond glaze.  (I couldn't find diamond glaze, but if you can...get it, it dries clearer than this 'other stuff.')  I would not print these on photo paper because it bled, I reprinted them via a 'real' photo printing place, and it didn't bled. 

I traced the pictures down to the size of the pics, mod podge them down, mod podged again over the top, and then diamond glazed the top (not too much). Dried. 

(The dog pick is for my brother, who also plays guitar, these are just a few samples of people in my cousin's life)
I took an over exposed, too close blurry picture before packing them up forever so that you can just imagine whether they might or might not look better than the finished product, and sent them on their way.  The overexposed, blurry picture is a really imporant part of the process, so don't forget that.  Another year of the 'impossible' to buy for family homemade gifts  are now out of the dusty attic that is my brain and on their way to their new owners.

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