(ended) Countdown Contest: 19 Days Until Christmas

[missangie]

Okay, I think I'm ready to hear about the photo gifts that you have created and purchased through SR. I know that many of you created calendars and photobooks. I've seen some Poster XXL orders and some Canvas on Demand orders. If you created a photo gift at any of our photo or personalization merchants, you can enter today's contest.

Be creative with your entry because I will be choosing my favorite! I want to know who your gift(s) are for. I want to know why you bought that person(s) a photo gift. I want to see one of the photos you used in the project (for some of the projects there may only be one photo). Tell us which merchant you used and what kind of deal you got on the purchase. If your credit has come through share that too! I want to know it all. Photo gifts have been one of my favorites throughout the years, and I want to know and see what you all have come up with. Pictures tell a story--so, share your photo gift story today for a chance to win today's prize. The contest ends at midnight tonight.

Standard rules apply:

http://sunshinerewardsforum.com/showthread.php?t=17569

[pbhall13]

Well I went thru Posters XXL for this gift. Sydney and Sadie have both been dancing that the same studio for 8 & 4 years. We usually take classes with the owner, but some years we may have a different teacher for 1 or 2 of the classes. BUT this year they both have Miss Carrie (the owner) for all 5 dance classes....so I wanted to give her something different and special that she could display in her studio.

I have a very good friend who dabbles in photography and I remember seeing a picture she had taken of her daughter Mia (was about 1 year at time)...and it was so cute....she was dressed in a leotard, legwarmers and chuck tayor sneakers. She even played around with the color/pigment to make it just so.

Well I loved this picture and wanted to have a bigger one made and then framed for the dance teacher/studio of Christmas. (I figure what I would have spent on 5 dance teacher gifts ...this ended up being less and I think more personal) The poster itself was inexpensive..the framing is what will cost the most, but like I said Miss Carrie is our favorite dance teacher and I know how much she love arwork/photography of dance so I am sure this is going to be a big hit!!

Here is the picture:

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc12/pbhall13/tutuconverse2copy.jpg

I already rec'd credit (with in days of ordering) and am headed off to have it put in a frame!! I just love it..........

I also have this other one that was printed thru Poster XXL...same little girl, but going to surprise my friend (the mom and Photographer)and give it to her as a thank you. I may put it in a hot pink frame since Mia's bedroom has a lot of that color and I think it will make the black and white picture POP:

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc12/pbhall13/P8134965crpcopy.jpg

I think both pictures cost me under $12 and that includes shipping.....

I just love these pictures (and the ballet outfit mia is wearing use to be Sadie's...)

[MrsWonka]

I made two photo gifts this year.

The first one is for my mom, she lives far away so I made her a photobook from Shutterfly of my son's first year. It includes pictures from pregnancy to his first birthday. This is the cover...
http://share.shutterfly.com/SharedBookRenderServlet/?p=0AbtHDFu3aM2LxBtGDAGHJp1nSyw
And this is my favorite picture...
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b7d908b3127ccec1ee5690062600000010O00AbtHDFu3aM2 IPbz4e/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/
I know it is blurry, but the picture means more than I can express here. My grandparents helped my mom raise me and I am very close to them. My grandmother has Alzheimers and doesn't remember me anymore (well most days she doesn't), watching her slip further into herself has been extremely hard on me. The day of my shower was a good day (one of the last that she knew me) and that is her touching my belly. My grandfather had a stroke a few years ago and the once active man is now confined to a wheelchair (which you can't see in the pic).

The second gift I made this year is a photo album with 200 pictures from our 1 day Disneyland trip. This is for my best friend (and the day's photographer). This is my favorite pic he took of my daughter while they were on the "Autotopia" ride (she is wearing his sunglasses).
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8d730b3127ccec542f3e5b31900000050O00AbtHDFu3aM2 IPbz4e/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/
And this is my DH wearing DDs ears...too cute...
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8d730b3127ccec542c029726400000040O00AbtHDFu3aM2 IPbz4e/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/
The album is from Disneyland, but the prints are from Shutterfly. I have received my credits for the order and the pics are wonderful. I can't wait to see his face when he sees the album with all the notes I have put in for him.

[Alice28]

I have done two photogifts- one was a photo book from Snapfish for my MIL. We don't get to see her too often, so I thought I would put together pictures for her of the kids, and included a few of when my niece and nephews were here as well. Here is just 1 of the many pics I incl in the book

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b18/disnychck/punkinptch08038.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b18/disnychck/4July08007.jpg

And then I made a collage poster for my parents- it was only $7 I think at Snapfish, and I got to include a TON of pictures in it. My parents bought a lot of DVC points in 2007, and this year they treated us (room-wise) to 10 nights in a 2 bedroom villa at BWV, and then my mom and I went back in Sept with my DD for 7 nights. So I included a ton of pics from our trips, like:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b18/disnychck/wdwsept08085.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b18/disnychck/wdwsept08072.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b18/disnychck/photopass08043.jpg

Got my credits VERY quickly!

[disney_girl]

I did so many photo related gifts! The usual gift for the grandparents and us is a yearly calendar from Shutterfly. I have been making these for 4 years now. I used to use one picture per month, but a few years ago, I started doing a collage for each month. I love the look of it and have so many pictures that I want to share! We give one to each set of grandparents, send one to work with DH and keep one at our house. Here is the December picture.

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l306/tcmata/Dec2009.jpg

I also made some desk calendars from Vista Print that I love. These are going to be for the Aunts, Uncles and close friends (as well as me)! I really like the quality of these as well as the size! I got one of these last year in one of the Vista Print offers and loved it!

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l306/tcmata/IMG_8080.jpg

I also used Snapfish to make some coffee mugs. Again, I went with a collage look rather than a single picture. The one I made for DH to take to work has pictures from our October trip to Disney. I love the way it came out! Forgive me on the picture- it was hard to take a good picture of it. The pictures on the mug are NOT blurry- they look great! I just wanted you to get an idea of what it looked like...

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l306/tcmata/IMG_8087.jpg

I also used Snapfish to make some photo books. The Grandparents are the type who don't need anything and they always love pictures of their grandkids- especially something that they can carry around and share with other people! These have a nice hardbound cover and the layouts look great! Here is a picture of one of the layouts.

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l306/tcmata/IMG_8110.jpg

I also used Vista Print for Christmas Cards that came out awesome- great quality and design! I used Shutterfly for a collage 8x10 picture for DH to have in his office- easier than having a bunch of different smaller pictures. I'm sure that there are more because as you see...I love photo gifts, but I'l stop with those!

[MdCaterer]

http://images.kodakgallery.com/photos4617/3/35/8/40/9/1/109400835307_0_ALB.jpg
This was for a calendar we made for my Mom and her cousin Ann a Christmas gift reminder of their first Disney Cruise in September! We talked my Mom who is 86 into taking a Disney cruise with us for my 50th birthday. She brought her cousin Ann as a traveling companion. Those two had a blast. They went to the spa almost daily and loved the cruise. Here they are at the character breakfast with my son.
Ordered this calendar from Vista Print. Downloaded pictures of vacations with other friends and made calendars for them too. The deal was sweet 50% off so I got 5 gifts for $50 dollars plus a $4.09 boost to my SR account AND free shipping!!!!

YAHHHOOOO I just realized I passed The $1000.00 mark!!!

[sselig2000]

I made 10 photo calendars for family members. I saw Tricias post about making them and thought that it would be a great way to share the year past with family members that we don't get to see and share things with anymore. One of my brothers passed away last year and it made me realize that my family members were not as in touch with one another as we used to be, and sometimes you find out it is too late to change that. I know this is really morbid, ( I hope not too inappropriate, if so, please delete) When I saw my brother at his funeral, I was really upset, because I thought that they had done a terrible job of preparing him. then we saw some recent pictures of him, and found out that they had done just fine. The problem was that we had not seen him/or pictures of him for so long, that we didn't recognize hime the way he was. So, I have been taking a lot more pictures this year, and I know that the family is absolutely going to love these calendars. The photo is of my daughter Marti, 8, on our vacation to see her uncle that she had never met before

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8cf39b3127ccec5f052ce481a00000080O00CctGjZyyZMg e3nwk/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

[OhMari]

I had a really good time, looking at everyone's pictures. I went to Shutterfly and ordered a poster, Christmas cards and some prints.

So thanks for the great idea.

If I could figure out how to post pictures, I would post our Christmas card.

[missangie]

I loved all of your creations. In fact, it was so hard to choose a winner by myself that I had to ask Tricia and Cindy to offer a vote.

Our winner is Post #5 disney girl. Thanks for showing us your creations. It was fun to see the variety of ways photos can be used as gifts.

Please open a trouble ticket with your mailing address, and I will get a prize to you in the mail.