The birth of a baby brings a lot of new expenses. Diapers, wipes, bottles and formulas are just the beginning without having to add photo birth announcements.  Thankfully, you can create your own birth announcements at home with your computer.

The tools to create your own photo birth announcements include a computer, a scanner or digital camera, a printer, and some type of picture software.  If you don’t own a digital camera or a scanner, you can always borrow a friend’s equipment and e-mail it from their computer to your e-mail account. This will allow you access to the picture file on your computer.  Most computers come with the Paint program. This is all you need to work with your photo; however there are much better programs available.

The first step in creating your own photo birth announcements is to upload the photo to your computer.  This can be done by scanning a picture that you already have or uploading a picture from your digital camera.  As mentioned earlier, you can have a friend e-mail you the picture.

Once you have the picture on your computer, it is time to open the photograph in your picture software.  If you are using a program like Photoshop, you have many tools and options.  However, you can use Paint and even Microsoft Word to create your photo birth announcements.

Once you are finished manipulating your photo and adding text and other extras, you are ready to print your photo birth announcements.  When printing your announcements you may want to use a special glossy photo paper. 

Also, you may want to explore your printer’s settings and make sure that the print quality is turned all the way up.  This will make your printer slower, but the picture will be a lot clearer. You can set the printer options back after you are done printing your photo birth announcements.