Archive for the ‘Photo Gifts’ Category

Christmas is only days away and New Year is right after! Can you believe it? I’m preparing myself to begin working on photo books and albums from all my 2011 endeavors. My 2011 was certainly a year full of so very much. I have been looking for place to easily make photo collages, calendars, digital scrapbooks, and cards to share with family and friends. I had been using one program currently but it’s been very limited in what I can do. And though I love the look of scrap-booking by hand, it often becomes quite expensive purchasing papers, embellishments, and more.

I recently was given the opportunity to try out Picture Collage Maker Pro.  This is a useful and helpful software program that gives people the opportunity to easily create and share photo collage projects of all kinds. In fact, right now they have a Special  Christmas Edition that contains 26 abundant brand new professional Christmas templates to create Holiday cards to send along to friends and family. I love that you can choose whether or not if you’d like to print or send your creations by e-mail or regular post. You can even create desktop wallpaper of all your favorite photos!

I’ve been using this software for about a week now and I’ll have to say that it’s very user friendly! There are options to use pre-made templates, but you can also customize and create your very own quite easily. There are backgrounds, stickers, photo frames, and any more items and tools to create a one of a kind gift or greeting that’s specific to you and your family to share or keep for yourself.

There’s a resource page which you can download add on templates to include in the program! Tutorials and design ideas and suggestions also can be found. If you fan the software created Pearl Mountain on Facebook you’ll be able to download some great bonus templates too! If you sign up for their free newsletter you’ll be in the know of when new templates and updates are available.

Overall I am really happy with Picture Collage Maker Pro. It’s user-friendly. It doesn’t slow down my computer like other collage sites and programs I’ve used. It has lots of great pre-made templates to choose from for holidays, seasons, and so much more. I couldn’t be happier!

You can purchase Picture Collage Maker Pro for $ 39.90 off their website or you can try to win 1 of 20  license for free here on my blog! Please enter below through Rafflecopter!

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I don’t know about you, but I prefer to make photo books online with my photos! One reason is because  I’m able to share my family memories in a fun creative way without having to spend extra money on scrap-booking supplies to beautify my collection. And another reason is that I can not only make myself a book but I can easily purchase more copies to share with family and friends as gifts even if not immediate, I can save my projects to purchase again later.

Have you heard about Mixbook? After having a large collection of books from numerous places, I was surprised that I hadn’t already. I am very happy that I was given the opportunity to review a complimentary 20 page 11×8.5 hardcover photo book to enjoy and share my thoughts on. I couldn’t be happier with my experience with using Mixbook and the quality of the book I have received.

So to get started, you’ll be able to pick what type of book you’d like to create either one of their templates or completely blank! There’s no download of a book editor necessary which just takes up time and extra space on your computer. The next option given has where you can pull photos from your computer and/or popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Picassa, and more! I couldn’t believe how fast the transfer process was to bring my collection of photos to use in my book was!

I choose one of the premade themes from Mixbook called “Spring” to use to create my book. I was impressed to find that everything in the book was completely 100% customizable from the background, frames, text, stickers, and more! I loved I could easily drag and drop my photos from page to page and the great custom features offered to me! For instance there’s Photo Zoom, Rotations, Custom Frames, Custom Color Matching, and more!

After ordering, the processing of my book and shipping was very quick! The book was well packaged to ensure it got to me safely without any wear or tear. I love the feel of this book and am happy that Mixbook uses archival-quality silk paper to ensure that my sentimental snapshots have a glossy look and feel! The quality beyond met my expectations! I’m very happy with my photo book and will be using Mixbook again for my photo books needs!

Buy It: Photo books start at just $5.24 for mini albums and range in price up to $37.49! Mixbook also has other products available which include holiday cards and customizable photo calendar.

Coupon Code: You can receive 20% off your first photo book by using code: TOMOSON20! Hurry on over and create a beautiful photo book you’ll cherish for a lifetime.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com created by WebBizIdeas.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Tomoson Product review & giveaway Disclosure.

I recall the days of searching for a photo album that was safe for my daughter and that would also protect my photos from becoming bent and torn. I came across plenty of cloth type albums but those weren’t going to cut it. Disappointed, I never did give my daughter an album of photos of friends and families.This all changed a few weeks ago when I came across The “Take Your Pix™” photo album by Board Book Albums!

How Board Book Albums came to be…

In January 2007, when my daughter Lucia was a year old, we realized that she was somewhat behind her peers in meeting certain developmental milestones. We began having regular sessions with a physical therapist and an early learning specialist. It was amazing to see how much progress Lucia made very quickly! By age 2, she began walking well and trying to say lots of words. In order to encourage her speech development, the early learning specialist (who is like a speech therapist, but works with children before they begin to talk) suggested that I find Lucia a photo album to fill with photos of her family, toys, and other familiar objects in her world. When I was unable to find a kid-friendly photo album, I came up with the idea to create a board book photo album. This album has been a wonderful learning tool for Lucia. She loves to turn the pages and look at photos of her family, toys, and other familiar objects in her world. Studies have shown that young children only have object recognition with photos. This means that before the age of two, they can not relate a drawing of an object with the actual object, but they can relate a photo of the object with the actual object.

My hope is that many children will enjoy our board book style photo album. Kids with autism, speech delay, or other special needs may find it particularly beneficial as a learning tool, or just something fun to create with their own favorite photos. We hope that you and your children enjoy it as much as we have!

My Thoughts…

Out of the generosity of Board Book Albums, I was sent a yellow”Take Your Pix™” album to review along with my daughter.  The first thing I noticed when I received this album is that it is very thick and durable, which is what I can’t even say for some of my daughter’s own board books! There is no way this album is going to get bent or destroyed.

I easily added photos of family, friends, and items my daughter likes  to this album. Each page has an opening at the top where you can slip in the photos. There are also notches added to each page which I think is a great idea and help people turn the pages very easily.

Each of the albums are 7″ x 7″ with 10 pages. It holds 20 4″ x 6″ photos and has a cover photo frame that holds a slightly smaller photo (about 4″ x 5″, so you can just trim a 4″ x 6″ photo to fit). All of their Board Book Album products are free-standing and perfect for display.They come in blank white and pink, blue, and yellow “My First Photos” styles.

I am at peace that I can give this album to my daughter and not have to worry about it. She loves looking at this album each day and brings it to me so I can tell/show her who or what is in each photo throughout the pages of this album. I love the fact that I can easily switch photos out of this album too to give my daughter something new to look at!

These albums aren’t just built for babies, you can use these albums for all sorts of things, especially if you choose to purchase the plain white album which I’ve read that some people enjoy decorating it with their scrap-booking supplies! Can’t you imagine the cutest wedding album? Oh, the possibilities!

These albums make wonderful gifts for anytime and are perfect for everyone!   Each album costs $24.95 regularly, but they are on sell sale for $19.95 right now!  Check out http://www.boardbookalbums.com/ today and you can even view some examples of  what people have done with their albums while you are there!  I give this product five stars!

Win it:

Board Book Albums has generously offered one of my readers a board book album of their choice!

To Enter: Visit Board Book Albums and tell me what color you would like if you won!

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Giveaway running till 11/30/09 . Winners will be notified shortly afterward by email. Please respond within 48 hours or you forfeit your prize to another participant.

Disclaimer: I was given a Take Your Pix Yellow Photo Album for review from Board Book Albums . This review is 100% my opinion and has not been edited or reviewed by anyone. I was not compensated in any other way for this product review.