I’m Hooked On Snapfish

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Snapfish.
Be sure to read to the bottom to find out how YOU can win a $50 gift from Snapfish.

Father’s Day is around the corner (June 21st), and I had to scramble! I had been given a wonderful opportunity to make a super gift for my husband for Father’s Day. I could use family photos to create a unique gift from Snapfish. The catch was that I only had a few days to make it so that I could be included in the product reviews, and my family photographs were scattered on three different computers.

I went to Snapfish to peruse my choices, because they said I could make anything my heart desired. Dang! There were too many choices!
I could have made it easy on myself. I could have made something simple. I could have used this photo of Mr. Tucker when he was young and wild to make a coffee mug. Oh! Or better yet a frosted beer stein! That picture would have been more appropriate on a beer stein, don’t you think?

I could have made a set of playing cards, but I wanted to use LOTS of pictures. If I put a different picture on the back of each card, then the deck would be marked and he could beat me when we play “Go Fish.”

I could have made him an apron, but then I would have to teach him how to cook. They offer really cool golf towels, but he doesn’t play golf either. A desk organizer would have been a “joke” for my beloved husband (it would have remained empty, while everything was scattered over the desk!).

Then, I saw it! The custom cover photo book! THIS I had to have for him. AND, it is what I made.

Photo Book From Snapfish.com

I was really worried about being able to make this by the deadline, because I have never tried to make a “scrapbook.” But Snapfish makes it extremely simple to do. Once I had uploaded the photos from my computers, Snapfish gave me the option of “populating” the book for me (putting the pictures in at random), or I could design my own pages. There were many different layouts, and a myriad of background designs from which to choose.

Notice the variety of page layouts!

I decided to keep it simple, since this was my first attempt at a photo project. On some of the pages, I could put text, if I chose. I was pleased to find that if I didn’t put text in those boxes, there would be no blank text box on the finished product to show that I was lazy.

The finished product is magnificent. Yes, I couldn’t wait and gave it to him ahead of time. He cried! He was so touched by this gift with photos of his children and his family that the tears flowed.

This Photo Book from Snapfish made my husband cry.

I’m excited about these photo books, and I highly recommend them as a gift for Father’s Day … unless you don’t want to see the Dad in your life start bawling. There are three things I’ll tell you, if you think you want to make one of these photo books:

1. Get all your photographs into one folder on your computer before you upload them to Snapfish. I duplicated a lot of my content by not being organized and it confused me. In fact, now I’ve started immediately uploading my favorite family photographs from my camera into my Snapfish account (it’s free and I can even share the photos on-line). Next time, I won’t be scrambling to find those photos. And, yes, there will be a next time!
2. A higher resolution gives you more options. I had some photos that were fairly small, and I couldn’t include them, because they would have been grainy. Don’t worry about re-sizing them (unless your internet connection is very slow), because Snapfish will re-size them according to the layout you choose.
3. Start early so you have plenty of time to make your book! Although it doesn’t take long to make, it’s a treasure for a lifetime, so you want to be as creative as possible. If you are wanting these for Father’s Day, your order should be made by June 13th.

Snapfish offers gift options in a range of prices. This custom cover photo book (at $39.94 for 30 pages) was one of the most expensive, but it was worth every penny. You could make anything from a customized Grandfather card to a square key chain to a collage mouse pad.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

YOU CAN WIN A $50 GIFT CARD TO SNAPFISH!!!

There’s nothing “fishy” about it. All in the world you have to do to enter is leave me a comment below. I want y’all to use that comment box to share with me the answer to one of these two questions:

1. What the “dad” in your life (father, husband, grandfather) mean to you?

2. Why does the dad in your life deserve a gift from Snapfish?

If you are a blogger, you can get extra chances to win! Comment here, go write your own post, then come back for a second entry with a comment that contains the link to your post on your own blog.
The contest will begin at 9:00 a.m. (PST) May 11, 2009 and ends 5:00 p.m. (PST) June 13, 2009.

Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.

Rules:

* No duplicate comments.
* You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
* You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.
* This giveaway is open to US Residents only, age 18 or older.
* Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
* You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

In fact, if you will go to BlogHer, you can actually enter this contest FIFTY-SEVEN TIMES (one on each review and 10 weekly on BlogHer.com)! See the official sweepstakes rules for more information.

Start talking to me so that you can win! I’m rooting for you … and if you create something from Snapfish, I want to hear about it.