MyStory Gifts Personalised Scarf

MyStory Gifts started when creator, Lou, wanted a scarf made up of pictures of her twin girls to gift to their grandparents at Christmas. She and her husband searched but found nothing so they created their own and MyStory Gifts was born! 

When I was approached about reviewing a scarf, my first thought was "that is so odd, but I love it!" I'm constantly snapping photos of my children so it's right up my street. 

I received a gift voucher worth £28.99 (the price of a scarf) in the post first and put it through as though I was a customer. Although the scarves are made from your own photographs, you can get a pink, purple, green, blue , beige, red or grey hue over the top. I opted to beige as I thought it would go with whatever outfit I wear. 

The scarves can be made with anywhere between 10-100 photographs but tend to work better with 75+. I chose 100 photographs of C and E, saved them into a WeTransfer folder and emailed it directly to Lou. 

A few weeks later, my gorgeous scarf arrived. It would beautifully packaged and I couldn't wait to open it out. 

I was in absolute awe at how beautiful the scarf is. It's a thin chiffon and the images are immaculate. 

These scarves are so unusual and unique. They would make the perfect for any family member and at only £28.99 they are a steal! If you're interested in buying one yourself, Lou is offering a discount through June so you can pick up a scarf for only £25! All you have to do is email her directly at lou@mystorygifts.co.uk with your colour choice and she can process that for you. 

You can find out more at the MyStory Gifts website or you can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

(Disclaimer: I received a scarf for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own).

Christmas Gift Ideas: Polagram

If you're a regular reader of my blog (because I've mentioned it a lot) or you follow me on social media, you'll know that I take a lot of photos of my kids. When Polagram recently got in contact with me about their app I was eager to try it out. 

Polagram is really a web store where you can purchase photo prints, gift boxes of photographs, posters, photobooks, calendars and cases but you do it through their smartphone app. I take 95% of my photographs on my iPhone so I knew that Polagram would be something that I'd love. 

I downloaded the app (which is free, by the way) and decided that I'd love a new iPhone case. I'd just taken a gorgeous portrait photo of both of my children a few days prior so I knew that that was the image that I wanted displayed for everyone to see.

Ordering is easy. I selected Cases > iPhone 5 then you can choose where to pull your photo from; either your phone itself, Facebook or Instagram. Once you confirm that it looks great then you fill in all your order details and off it goes to be made. I ordered mine on the 13th November and it was sent on the 14th so delivery was very prompt. 

I fell in love with it as soon as I opened it. The finish is amazing and the image wraps nicely around the case and all of the ports and buttons are accessible.  It fits like a glove too. 

I think I'll probably use Polagram a lot in the future for simple photo prints. It cuts out all the hassle of faffing around with leads and computers at kiosks and you can order straight away from the comfort of your own home and you don't have to waste time uploading individual photos one by one to printing websites. 

The prices are great value for such high quality products. A personalised iPhone 5 case for only £19.90! The gift boxes would make a great Christmas present for family members too and they are only £12.69 for 36 photos! 

You can find out more about Polagram at their website, Facebook and Twitter.

(Disclaimer: I received this iPhone case free of charge in exchange for an open and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)

Smartphone Mums - are you backing up your photographs?

We're truly in a era of technology with 92% of mums using smartphones to snap precious photos of their children. New research conducted by Nero shows that 42% of these mums would lose everything if their phone was broken or lost. A fifth of these have lost a treasured photo already.

Out of the 67% of mums who do back up their photos, 76% use their computer and 49% use their social media accounts despite the fact that some sites "own your images" when you do this.

On average, mums will snap around 1.1 photos per day but 7% snap 100 a month (I'm probably a heck of a lot more than that!). A quarter of the mums surveyed said that they have over 200 photographs saved on their phones and one mum even admitted that she would lose 12,000 pictures if she lost her phone!

Please, please, please back up your photos so that your children will still have their childhood photos when they are older! Nero actually have a FREE cloud storage called BackItUp, what are you waiting for? Get saving!

Canvas Design - Review, Discount Code & Giveaway

I take a lot of photos (mainly of C) and because we live in a rental property and can't decorate the way we want to, I like to inject a little bit of 'us' in by displaying family photographs. I love canvases and I have quite a lot of shop bought ones but none with family pictures, surprisingly!

Canvas Design were offering the chance to review a canvas and I jumped at the chance. I take my photographs on my iPhone 5 so they aren't the best quality. As the quality wasn't so great, I received two small canvases instead of a large one as my image would be a bit distorted. 

They arrived really well packaged and upon opening them, I was so pleased. I had chosen two gorgeous photographs from a recent visit to the park with C. 

The wood is very sturdy and the images are wrapped around well and securely. They are the perfect size to hang along my staircase and even come with hooks to make the hanging process even easier! They're very lightweight too so no worries about them falling off the wall! 

I would definitely recommend Canvas Designs and their canvas start at £5.99 to £60 depending on size and the thickness of the wood. You can view their pricing and size guide here.

They very kindly given my readers a discount code for 15% off your order if you use BLOG15

You can find out more about Canvas Design at their website and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

(Disclaimer: I received these canvases free of charge in exchange for an open and honest review. All thought and opinions are my own.)

As well as the discount code, you now have the opportunity to win a canvas with your photo on it! All you need to do it fill in the Rafflecopter widget below. This is open to UK entrants only. Good luck! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Truprint

If there's anything I love more than personalised items, it's something that I can get my own photographs printed onto. 

Truprint is my idea of heaven. They have been up and running for 30 years and only employ the highest trained staff and the latest technology to ensure great prints and great service. 

Truprint offer a wide range of products from your regular photographs to canvases, coasters, calendars and many, many more!

I was lucky enough to receive a few items from Truprint's range of fantastic products. 

Canvas print

Isn't this gorgeous? This print is 12"x12" and is a price of £29.99. The quality is absolutely fantastic and it looks great hung up on the wall. As you can see, my photograph is placed on the front. It wasn't a brilliant quality photo so I decided not to stretch it as I didn't want it pixelated. I went for a black background and I think it works really well!

Photo book

This photobook comes with 20 pages of photographs and measures 11"x8". I love the hardback cover (you can choose your own colour too!). The process of creating the books makes it really easy to insert your backgrounds onto each page or you can automatically fill them. You can even add text to the bottom of each photo. The hardback cover and glossy pages definitely make it worth the amazing £19.99 price tag.

Coasters

These coasters are amazing! They are like nothing I've ever seen before. They are shiny and glossy and are printed on so I don't have to worry about the picture peeling off. They're thick too and give a lovely personalised touch to your dining room. Would you believe that they are only £9.99 for 6!?

Note cards

These are my favourite! From New Baby to Wedding, there are so many different occasions and designs to choose from. With Christmas approaching I had to opt for the Christmas cards. Again, they have a glossy cover and you are giving a blank page inside to write whatever message you want. They are available in a pack of 12 (with envelopes included) for £11.99.

Photo calendar

I'm always forgetting birthdays and appointments and I'm not a fan of the plain calendars that you can buy in the shops. I love the idea of having my own photos on my calendar. The boxes for each day and month are big enough to fill in whatever appointment that you need to remember. As with the photobook, you are easily able to put coloured backgrounds behind each photo. This 12 month calendar measures 11"x8.5" and is available at a price of £14.99.

Inserting your photographs into any of these products is so easy. There is an online editor and you are able to choose whether to upload your photos from your computer or you can import them from Facebook or Flickr.

I would definitely recommend Truprint and I know for sure that I'll be purchasing from them again in the future. The quality of all the products are fantastic.

You can find out more about Truprint at their website, Facebook and Twitter.

(Disclaimer: I received these items free of charge in exchange for an open and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)

Vistaprint Photobook Review

Anyone who knows me will know that ever since having C, I've become a bit snap happy. I take around 10 photos on average every day so when Vistaprint contacted me to trial a photobook, of course I said yes. We went for a family photoshoot shortly after C was born so I thought that those photos would look lovely in a photobook.

Off I went to the website and found you can choose to have it in portrait or landscape, choose different sizes (S-XL) and the number of pages (24-120). I decided to go for a medium landscape photobook with 44 pages.

You can either download the editor or just edit your book online. I opted for editing online as this is better for "fast and simple designing" which was perfect for me as I haven't got a creative bone in my body. If you download the editor, you have a lot more creative freedom.

You have the option to auto-fill your photos onto the pages or manual fill. I auto-filled mine and dragged them into position so that they weren't cut off. I could believe how easy it was to create and how professional it already looked!

You're able to choose a background. There are pre-loaded ones (I chose their pastels ones) and also put text on your pictures. I didn't add any text except to the free personalised photocover.

The pages on your book can either be done on a standard matte finish paper for free or high-gloss paper for an additional £4.99. These are professional photos and I wanted to make them look the best they could so I opted for high-gloss.

It states that standard delivery is 14 days. I placed my order on Sunday afternoon and it arrived on Thursday morning. 

As soon as I opened it, my partner said "If that was £22, what do the more expensive ones look like!?" I couldn't believe the quality. The hardback cover and glossy pages are just so beautiful and they make the pictures look even better. I'm so stunned that this was the finished product for only £21.88. 

This was my first Vistaprint order but it definitely won't be my last!

(Disclaimer: I received this photobook free of charge in exchange for an open and honest review. All opinions are my own).