A Magazine For My Man

TODAY I am going to share a FABULOUS present I came up with this past July to celebrate another birthday for my man.  I wanted to make sure it was an extremely memorable one....so, of course, I had to come up with an amazing present, right!?!

I don't know about you...but for me - presents that come from the heart mean SOOO much more than anything you can buy from a store!  I would think up a great idea...and then decide it just wasn't heartfelt enough.  FINALLY, a little inspiration came my way!  I found a fun website that lets you create your own magazine cover!!  I really liked the idea but instead of just creating a cover, I decided to put together an ENTIRE magazine dedicated to my man!!  Just thinking about it made me smile!  :)

I went right to work!  My first step was to photoshop the front cover of Jamie's magazine using a picture of both of us.  Wa-LAH...here is my final project....

I then sent an email out to ALL of our friends and family.  I let everyone know what I was up to for Jamie's upcoming birthday and asked if they could please send me back a memorable story about Jamie along with a picture of the two of them.  We recently moved to another state far away from all family and most of our friends, which is another reason I figured this would be a much appreciated present.  Who wouldn't want to read special stories about themselves written by loved ones....especially when we don't get to see a lot of those people as often as we would like?!?  :)  

Hint: Email friends and family members WAY before your spouse's birthday!  You don't want "crunch time" to creep up on you and find that you are still waiting on some people to send their stories in!!

When the stories & pictures started rolling in.....I began putting them into a "magazine-style" layout in Microsoft Word. (BTW - prepare to LAUGH at some of those photos!  I sure did!!)   Here are some examples of a few layouts below:

  

You know how writers usually have a little somethin'-somethin' about themselves after you read an article??  Well, I thought that would be a fun touch so I included a mini-description of each person after their story.  Here's an example of what MINE said:

  Yep, when you create the present...you have TOTAL control over what it says about you!  {lol}  Here are a few other "blurbs" about some of the other "authors":

 

(And yes...."Heiner" is spelled correctly!  lol)

I took all of my page layouts and my photoshopped front cover to Kinko's to have them print it.  I LOVED the semi-glossy look that the magazine cover had!  It looked so real!! 

Back at home, I found an old magazine and I began adhering my OWN pages on top of the pre-existing pages.  I left a few of the original articles in (they had to do with love) as well as some of the more interesting advertisments.  I tore out all of the pages that were left over.

OH!!  Don't forget to type up a "Letter From The Editor"...which is YOU!!  {WINK} In that letter, you basically explain that this magazine is a special feature all about your loved one.  You can click on my picture below to enlarge it to see what I wrote.

(Isn't that a crazy advertisment on the right!! So fun!)

Now, presentation is pretty important!!  I thought it would be funny to have a "mannequin" dressed up in his clothes...holding the magazine.  Just use pillows and crinkled up newspaper to stuff the clothes.  (A twist on this would be to buy all brand-new clothes to put on the mannequin...as part of his present.)  I enlisted the help of Jamie's talented l'il brother who drew a face on a balloon.  Here was our finished product:

Jamie was a little leery of his "twin"!!  :)  We were all laughing pretty hard!  I almost included a picture of Jamie's face when he first saw the figure sitting there in his clothing...he had SUCH a funny expression on his face!  I decided to spare him the embarrassment!  :)

Although he wasn't so sure about the mannequin...

...he LOVED the magazine!!

Here is a pic of the two of them together...{lol}  His sweet Grandma called while we were opening presents...in case you were wondering who was important enough to take presidence over my amazing gift!  :)

You wanted to see a few upclose pictures of the INSIDE of the magazine??  

OK, here ya go:

Now, there was a SPECIAL sUrPrIsE for Jamie on the back cover.  My funny (and crazy) uncle sent in a picture layout that made ALL of us blush and laugh our heads off at the same time!  I am soooooo not gonna tell you what it was...but you can see Jamie's reaction below:

I can honestly say the present was a HIT!  Jamie told me multiple times afterwards how much it meant to him!  (Oh yeah, and did I mention that my husband is NOT a reader?!?)

Now, if this is something you would love to do for your OWN hot man....but just don't have the photoshopping skills...no worries!  You can go to MagMyPic...and they will do the work FOR you!  (I was actually inspired by one of their designs when doing my own!)  

Here is one I did using a layout from MagMyPic:

I just HAD to do one for our adorable yorkie, Jaxston!!  He had JUST snatched Jamie's credit card which had fallen on the ground....OOPS!!

....and THAT is how you create a Magazine For Yer Man!!  :)