Undefeated Daddy

Every man has that do it yourself instinct.  The only thing that differs from man to man is which things he feels compelled to do himself, and which he figures he should just pay someone else to do for him.  For many Dad’s, when it comes to their children, most things are do it yourself, especially if those things involve some sort of cool technology, like digital photography.

Once the Undefeated Dad has mastered the art of taking great digital photographs of his kids, he will need to print those photos.  At first, a few 4×6s will satisfy the need, but soon, other sizes and shapes will become necessary.  When that happens, there are two options.  You can buy every size paper there is, or you can print multiple photos on bigger photo paper.  When it comes to wallet-size photos, this is pretty much the only option.

There are many challenges to printing great photographs, and we’ll cover some of those soon, but today, we conquer one of the easier challenges.  Well, it would be easy, except as a real man who is a real father, you might not know the tool exists.

Cutting Digital Photo Printouts Straight

You’ve tried scissors, and you can do a pretty good job, but it isn’t good enough.  A real man wants perfection in the things he cares about, and this is one of those things.  You’ve seen paper cutters before.  They have a big wood block with a cutting arm attached that you pull down and it cuts a thousand pages all at once with nice straight edges.  Of course, that seems like a bit much for your little photos.

What you may not have seen before is a similar tool that is used for crafts (Crafts?  Oh, so that is why you haven’t seen it.)  Find yourself a Michael’s or Hobby Lobby or whatever they have in your area.  If you have to ask someone for directions (deduct 2 Man Points) you’ll want to ask for a straight edge paper cutter.  If you want to find it yourself, it will be in the “scrapbooking” area.  You’ll know it because it is filled with single sheets of colored paper that cost over a buck a piece.

You don’t need an expensive one.  A small plastic one is just fine for your photos.  A 8 1/2” size means you’ll be able to cut up to an 8 1/2” x 11” piece of paper, but only the short way.  However, your need for 4 1/4” x 11” sizes should be limited.

With this little device you can chop up wallets, 4×6, 5×7, 6×9, and so on all day long.

If you don’t want to go into a craft store at all, you can get them online of course.  I have a Fiskars one and it works great, but it is the only one I’ve ever had, so I can’t compare it to others.  Here’s a couple of links to get you started.  Mine is most like that third one, but it might not be available anymore.  You might as well get the 12 inch one if it costs less money.

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