What can you do with your favourite holiday photos? I was walking though a supermarket car park when i spotted a postcard on the ground advertising something. I picked it up.
The company makes your photos into blankets, cushions, tablecloths at £50-£100. Artido.co.uk
Vistaprint also does lots of useful items such as hats and shirts. Their original business was printing business cards. I have had business cards, a business cad holder, a cap, a tee-shirt and a bag.
Once you have ordered your first set, you will probably go back and re-order higher quality.
At checkout you are likely to be sold a business card holder or a second set of cards.
Checkout Mistakes
This website, like many, might also try to make you sign up for something which involves a monthly payment. If you notice, and are happy, fine. But some students have been caught out and ended up with a huge bill which they could not pay.
Endless Repeat Charges and Cancellation
I am not good at remembering to cancel and tend to get stressed out if I want to cancel something and it proves difficult. So I have learned to avoid anything which commits me forever on the basis of cancel any time. If you are one of those people who keeps good track of your finances and regular payment.
I wish I were highly organised. I have a friend who checks his bank balance daily. He is a do it now person. He devotes three hours every Sunday after noon to managing accounts.
I am a creative. I am the one who orders either no sets of business cards, then for the rest of their life ten sets a year in six colours and styles!
Order Early For Xmas
Here's a recap. A good idea for Xmas presents for business or family. I tend to find I need cards just before a conference or trip overseas. Then it's a rush. I underestimate how long it takes to order. Postage time is unpredictable. I've had orders of business cards and books which arrived within three days, just in time. Others took weeks. You have a choice of times and payments for postage at checkout. You save money if you order early and opt for the cheapest and slowest rate.
Allowing Ordering and Postage Time
To allow time to get your orders in for Xmas, get your plans made, then allow for postage times, so start checking out the websites now. Then make sure you know the room and place where you have hidden the gifts from others in the same household. You can wrap items when they are out of the house so the recipient does not rummage through a cupboard and come across a supposed surprise.
Travelling With Gifts
If you are travelling, you may have to unwrap parcels at security or the customs for inspection. So rather than sealing, you can make concertina folds of the paper, and pretty coloured elastic bands you can slide off. You might want to pack sticky tape and a ribbon or bow to add at your destination.
Re-Oordering and Updating
Vistaprint, once you have made an account, keeps all your past designs permanently available so you can go back and re-order without having to create again.
Seeing Samples In Supermarkets and Stores
In the UK at one time you could order photos on mugs and other items at supermarkets such as Tesco and some of the department stores such as Boots. This may be a seasonal offer, or they may run it until the market is saturated and then stop.
Checking Choices
The advantage is it gives you a chance to check out whether the product will suit you and the recipient. What is the quality of the fabric, the cut of the sweater, the size? Will you and the recipient consider the colours are pale/subtle/faded or shouty/lively/vibrant? Are the mugs are good enough for a gift, solid so they won't break, or too chunky and heavy.
Selling Your Photos
Another site allows you to sell your own photos or illustrations to others to decorate their cards, key-rings, hats and so on. You set up a site selling your designs within their system and they take a cut from the price of every sale you make. Some artists make a good proportion of their living though online sales.
Look at it another way. The hard work of setting a business is done for you. All the planning of the production of the standard items, the cards, key rings and so on, is done from the central ordering and factory. You are just adding your design to their collection and getting a share of their profit.
To sum up, poor quality, not suitable, or just right? Too expensive for the size you need, or must have it, ever mind the price, or excellent value? Check out the choices. I'll add more websites later, or you can add your comments and suggestions.
Gift Photoproducts Websites
artido.co.uk (High price tablecloths etc)
vistaprint (huge choice of business card designs and add the same picture to caps etc)
photoshelter.com (selling your work)
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and author.
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