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Ye Olde Antique Baby Pictures

With a few easy steps, you can give a photo and its frame a "time-worn" look.
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With a few easy steps, you can give a photo and its frame a "time-worn" look.

Even the biggest technophobe (yup, that's me) can turn a standard photo into a sepia keepsake. Take the shot you'd like to use -- either a print or a digital file on a memory card or CD -- to Target, Wal-Mart or any photo shop or retail store with a photo kiosk. At the kiosk, follow the directions on the monitor to scan, crop and convert the image to sepia tones. While you're at it, print multiple copies for folks on your gift list, from the great-grandparents on down. Add the patina of time in mere seconds to a ready-cut mat and a ready-made frame.

What You'll Need:

Photo

Wood frame

Optional: Sandpaper, bike chain, hammer, screwdriver, metallic paste, shoe polish, picture mat (sold at craft stores and photo shops that sell frames), beige tissue paper, glue stick, used tea bag, old coffee grounds

What to Do:

1. At the photo center kiosk, insert a CD with the photo image or a memory card from your digital camera into the designated slot. If you only have a print, place it in the scanning drawer and scan it in.

2. Hit "Select Photos," and choose your image to display it on the kiosk monitor.

3. Now for some playtime. Press "Sepia" or "Antique" (it's called different things on different kiosks). You can always hit "Undo" if you don't like it. You can also lighten, brighten and crop the photo to get up-close-and-personal. (Nobody has to see that rumpled bed in the background.) Just don't eliminate too much background if you plan on using a mat, because the mat will cover up the photo's edges.

4. When you're happy with the image, push the screen for the size -- 4" x 6", 5" x 7" or 8" x 10" -- and quantity of the image, and complete your order.

5. Options for antique-style framing:

Here are three techniques to give your frame an antique look. Mix and match if you wish.

* Sand down edges and surface areas of a painted wood frame.

* Distress a wood frame by gouging it with a hammer or screwdriver, or slapping it with an old, oily bike chain.

* For the look of old money, rub metallic paste (such as Rub 'n Buff) over a dark frame, or shoe polish over a too-shiny metallic frame.

Here are two ways to gussy up a picture mat.

* Dab a rag on a used tea bag or coffee grounds, and blot on the mat to age it.

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