I make it no secret on my blog that I am a sucker for a good personalised product, especially when it involves being able to use photos of my friends and family to create those extra special gifts and unbeknownst to me, ASDA photo offer a huge variety of products. I'm almost embarrassed to say that I didn't even realise that ASDA even provided a photo service (obviously I do now.)
Last week I was kindly offered the chance to try out their services. In order to do this I was provided with two gift voucher codes that enabled me to purchase two of their items, this meant there was no cost to myself.
So I guess you're now wondering what kind of products do they have to offer? ASDA photo has a wide range of personalised products. These include:
Canvases
Cards
Calendars
Cushions
Photo books
Mugs
As well as other items which would be perfect for your home, office and kitchen areas or indeed as generous gifts for friends and family members.
Your space, your photos
All of these items allow you to capture all of your favourite moments in some unique and quirky ways.
In the end I finally decided on ordering a canvas print and one of their slate panel photos.
As we make our way towards the end of the school year I find myself feeling a mixture of emotions. On the one hand I am almost breathing a sigh of relief because juggling work life, home life and school life can be hectic (parents will know what I'm talking about!) but I'm also left with a sort of sadness because it's another year of my children growing up that has simply flown by. Another years worth of memories made and I want desperately to remember it all and I know others do too.
And it isn't just the mums and dads that want to look back on these days gone by, it's other family members, teachers and even the kids themselves as well. Lucky for all of you, I've teamed up with Snapfish to share with you some budget-friendly, easy ideas for personalised gifts that can hopefully capture these memories or perhaps an item that will allow you to remember a certain day or a specific pupil. Each one making a perfect keepsake that although simple will look more high end.
So lets start with the teachers because lets be honest, they work hard all year and they love our children just as much as we do and deserve nothing less than a big thank you for all their efforts throughout the year. I mean I applaud my children's teachers, especially putting up with my five year old because boy has she got .... character. And what better way to thank these adults who inspire than with a gift that's unique to them.
I don't know about you but when it comes to buying for your significant other, I always struggle. We've been together almost fourteen years and honestly it was tough in the beginning to choose him a present, now it seems nearly impossible. This is because he is a man that will always buy what he wants when he wants it so when you ask him what he'd like, even he'll struggle to tell you because he's just bought the latest thing on his wish list.
Own a Moment are a company which are setting out to change that buy allowing you the buyer to give the gift of time. Now doesn't that sound like the perfect gift to receive this Valentine's day. They are allowing you to capture those treasured moments that you hold so dear and share them with your nearest and dearest in a way that is both special and affordable all at the same time and lets be honest who wouldn't want more time!
The way it works is this. On the site you pick a significant moment in your life, choosing the year, month, day and the time including whether it was am and pm, if you can't remember the exact time you can of course give a rough suggestion. If your moment is available you will then have the option to upload an image, one that perhaps gives special meaning to this moment as well as personalising with the name of your chosen recipient and a message too.
Way back in 2013 I reviewed the Portable North Pole, back then I was creating free personalised videos and even then my kids were in awe, it just added that little bit more magic to Christmas.
Portable North Pole 2017 lets you create highly personalised video messages delivered directly from Santa in just a few minutes on the web, smartphone or tablet. Watch your child's (or friends or other family members!!!!) smile light up the minute Santa greets them by name and shows their picture. PNP brings the magic of the North Pole Village to life and lets kids be kids a little bit longer as they see real-life Santa’s home, the magical reindeers, and the hustle and bustle of the elves.We want to work with you to showcase PNP and the joy it creates.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am a sucker for all things personalised and that even includes the wrapping paper and that's just what Pretty Gifted have delivered to me this week, personalised gift wrap!
"Make what's on the outside as individual as what's on the inside."
Pretty Gifted are a company that are experienced in paper and printing and what they aim to give to you is quality wrapping using the finest papers and metallic foil finishes. And not only that, they want to make this bespoke wrapping paper completely affordable.
With Christmas fast approaching it is not only a time to think about what gifts to buy but to think about family, especially those of whom perhaps don't live near enough to see on a regular basis. I personally have grandparents that I don't get to see as often as I'd like and I think personalised gifts are a great way to give them a sense of having family nearby even if in reality they are further away than you'd like.
I love a good jigsaw puzzle, it is another one of those things, along with colouring that I find relaxing, almost therapeutic so when I was asked if I'd like to review a personalised puzzle from Wentworth I was eager to accept.
Each puzzle is made to order and can be created as a 50 piece (£25.95) or a 100 piece (£30.95). Ordering is simple, the only hard part is deciding which photo you'd like to use. Your image must be a jpeg which is between 1mb and 5mb to ensure that it prints clearly on the puzzle.
Father's day is getting closer and I already shared with you guys my gift guide for all the different dads out there but I saved my best ideas for last and they all have to do with Truprint.
I'm a huge sucker for a personalised gift and what better way to personalise something than with photos of loved ones. And this is something that Truprint can help with as not only do they print high quality photos, they also produce gifts such as magnets, calendars, mugs and puzzles.
The only problem is deciding just what to ordered. I opted for a few different items which are pictured below :
I love crafting at Christmas. I shared with you last week how my kids and I made our very own festive wreaths, well this week I have an even simpler craft for you and your family to do, personalised baubles.
You will need :
* Baubles, whatever colour you like and however many you like.
* Christmas stickers
When getting organised ready for the kids to go back to school, there was one task that I avoided, labelling the kids clothes.
I admit, I just can't sew.
Luckily for me, my mum can, so this job has always been one that I've left up to her.
But not this year.
Stuck On You were kind enough to send me a set of clothing labels personalised with Gracie's name as well as left and right shoe labels. This meant that I could take on the task of labelling the clothes myself.
With Summer making an appearance in recent weeks, now is the time to get prepared for the warmer weather and Stuck On You want to help.
Originally started in 1995 as a cool kids label company, Stuck On You have added many more personalised products to their range including lunchboxes, ideal for transporting those picnics, summer pyjamas for the muggy night times, puzzles to play with in the garden and beach towels, perfect for whether you are at home or abroad.
I was kindly allowed to choose a couple of items from their range to review. After much delibiration, I decided upon the budding artist kit and the personalised short sleeve pyjamas.
Considering my items came all the way from Australia, I was extremely impressed with the short 5 days waiting for the delivery to arrive and the girls and I couldn't have been happier with what we received.
There always seems to be some sort of occasion on the horizon, we've just bid farewll to Valentine's day and Pancake day is round the corner but another special day to start thinking about is Mother's day because lets face it, us mums do a lot and deserve treat every once in a while. Penwizard are launching their latest book to their personalised collection, the Peppa Pig 'My Mummy' book.
The wonderful story shows the many reasons why your child and Peppa love their mummy. From jumping in muddy puddles to making paper aeroplanes, it is a fun and adorable way to show their mummy why she is loveliest mummy of all.
February is fast approaching and with it comes Valentine's day. This is a day that I have come not to expect anything from Daddy Hazelden, not the most romantic person and he certainly isn't good with dates. However I always like to buy him a little something to let him know that even after another year of listening to him snore, I really do still love him loads. The trouble I have is what to buy the fussiest person who seems to have everything already?? This is where Getting Personal kindly stepped in to help.
Getting Personal is a company that was created in 2005, starting by selling personalised calendars. Over the years they have extended their range and they continue to stock unique and personal gifts that you just can't find on the high street.
I had a good look through their Valentine's range, the choice was immense, from personalised mix tapes, to posters, jewellery and even naming a star. I decided the best way to my man's heart was through his stomach ;)
My packages arrived quickly and well packaged. Inside the parcels were a personalised bottle of wine, a chocolate pizza and a Valentine's kit for making my own Valentine's cards.
Recently I reviewed the new Santa Sprint app made by the lovely people behind Portable North Pole (PNP). I was kindly given the chance to review their premium video from Santa.
I have always love the Portable North Pole, this is the third year that I have used their site. Every year they expand what they do. As well as videos and phone calls, available in their store this year are letters from Santa, certificates to let your children know they are on the nice list and even personalised colouring books.
The Portable North Pole has actually been running for 6 years now and their videos allow family members to create a personalised message to their children from Santa himself, letting them know whether they have made it onto the naughty or nice lists. With a database holding thousands of names, you should be able to find your child's name and you can even listen to make sure the pronounciation is correct.
I've always loved the free version however the premium version is fantastic, costing just £2.99 you get a lot extra for your money. The video itself is twice as long as the free version. You are able to choose from a wide range of scenarios and exclusive clips including watching the elves making certain toys and Santa standing with the reindeers. You can even make it that much more personal with extra images being added.
Making the video is extremely simple and relatively quick, the only problem I really had which was the same as last year, was that I couldn't get the right pronounciation of Freya.
The video itself is emailed to you once it is completed, it can be watched as many times as you like and unlike the free version which can only be watched during the holiday period, the premium version can be viewed until march.
My girls got all excited whilst waiting for the video itself to load.
You also receive a bonus personalised video for your child to watch on Christmas eve, this is a really magical touch.
I even enjoy watching the video, watching the reaction on my childrens faces is priceless!!!
I can't recommend Portable North Pole enough, it has become a great tradition in our house, my girls were actually asking last week whether they would be receiving a message from Santa this year!!
As a lovely gift to all my readers, Portable North Pole have provided me with a code for you all to use, helping make Christmas magical. This code will give you 20% off all digital products in the PNP store and is valid until the 1st January 2014.
BLG20BKP
xxxx
Disclaimer : I was provided with a code for a free premium video however all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Christmas is coming, all my girls have been writing their letters to Santa, ok I may have leant a helping hand to Layla and Gracie.
I have also been writing my own not so little wish list, although I'm pretty sure I'll end up buying most of my own presents (Daddy Hazelden never takes the hint).
Included on my wishlist is :
A Soda Stream
Calvin Klein CK one perfume
A Kindle
New Diary
Shoes
Luckily for me the lovely people at Personal Planner have already knocked one thing of my list because they have asked me to review one of their personalised planners, yay!!! Keep an eye out for that post.
In the mean time Personal Planner have been ever so kind and have allowed me to giveaway a personal planner or notebook of any size to one of my lovely readers.
To be in with a chance of winning you just need to fill in the rafflecopter form below. This competition is open to UK residents only and will close at 11.59pm on the 27th November 2013. All entries will be checked so make sure you fill the form in correctly.
I love buying gifts for people, I especially buying personalised gifts, something a bit more unique for the recipient of the present.
With Christmas coming up I am on the look out for new present ideas, ideally ones that don't cost too much as my present list seems to have doubled since last year.
I was recently asked by the love Hayley from Handmade by Hayley to review one of the items from her new and growing range.
Hayley makes beautiful personalised items, including door plaques, fairy doors, echanted toadstools and christmas decorations.
Each item can be personalised with any name or of course you can choose to not have the item personalised.
I decided on a lovely wooden stocking which is an ideal size as a Christmas decoration. Hayley was kind enough to make a stocking for each of my daughters.
You can choose to have either a pink, blue or red stocking, having all girls I opted to get the stockings all in pink, best to have the same, minimises the arguing!!
I was so pleased when the arrived. With the string already added, they are ready to be hung on the tree, it has made me even more excited about putting my Christmas decorations up. And with no sharp edges in sight, they are completely suitable for your little ones to hang up themselves.
With glitter sprinkled over to them to give them the magical element, they really are perfect, a lovely keepsake. I had the girls names written in white but you can always discuss having a different colour.
Priced at £2.50 each or £5.00 for 3 I really can't recommend them enough. I am planning to surprise my girls with theirs on the day we put our decorations up (December 1st!!).
Why not pop over to Hayley's facebook page and have a look for yourself.
xxxx
Disclaimer : I was sent these items free of charge for reviewing purposes however all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Earlier in the year I was lucky enough to review a personalised book from Penwizard. Recently they have introduced a lovely Me To You range of books to the selection you can choose from.
There are four different books to choose from : Baby, Why I love My Mum, Why I love you and A Christmas Gift. I was asked to choose which one I would like personalised, now since Christmas is creeping up on us, I decided to choose the Christmas Gift one and have it personalised to my mum from the kids.
Each book costs £9.99 which in my opinion is more than reasonable for a lovely unique gift. The process to create the book is extremely simple, you just need to enter in the names that you would like used and they will appear throughout the book. There is also an option of uploading a picture to be used on the first page as well as writing a personal message to go alongside it. I signed the book from my daughter's.
The book itself measures roughly 6 x 6.5 inches and is in paperpack form with a gloss cover. It is 24 pages long, so you get a lot for your money.
As you can see from the images above, the illustrations are beautiful, classic tatty teddy, all in full colour. Each picture has the name you had the book personalised with somewhere on the page, all in different style fonts and colours.
And with sentences like "I followed my heart and it led me to you", "Christmas is magical with you" and "You're always top of my Christmas list", I think it would be hard not to smile if you received this gift.
This personalised book from Penwizard is a great addition to their selection, although I would say these are more suited to adults than they are children, they are still perfect for the recipient to sit down and look through with their children/grandchildren. And it makes for a lovely keepsake.
xxxx
Disclaimer : I was sent this book free of charge for reviewing purposes however all thoughts and opinions are my own.
A couple of weeks ago I celebrated my 5th wedding anniversary. I know what you are all thinking, how did I manage to put up with him for so long ;)
Now Daddy Hazelden is a tough person to buy gifts for, he tends to buy everything he wants for himself which leaves nothing for the rest of us to get. So as usual I was drawing a blank.
By chance I happened to notice that Treat Republic were looking for bloggers to review items from their site, I call this fate!! If you haven't heard of them, Treat Republic is a website that has bought TreatHer.com, TreatHim.com and TreatBaby.com all under one roof. It sells handpicked and personalised gifts, catering for men, women, babys and those special occasions like anniversaries, christenings etc. Working closely with designers across the UK, they bring you a wide range of unique gifts that won't be found in the high street shops.
I had a good look throughout the whole of their site, now I am not the most technological so I was happy to find the site is very easy to navigate, the pictures are clear and their whole range is very affordable.
I came across their range of cufflinks. There are 80 different pairs of cufflinks to choose from, whether you are looking for something quirky, fun or simple, there is definitely a pair to suit any man.
I chose a simple silver plated pair of cufflinks. This pair are a square shape and measure roughly 16mm x 16mm. I am no expert when it comes to these sorts of things but they seemed like an ideal size and something that would go with any suit.
You can get the cufflinks engraved, you are allowed to have a maximum of 6 characters on each cufflink. This means you have to think a little about what to have written, needs to be short and sweet. I would like to see a few more characters allowed, would be nice to be able to write a bit more of a message or allow for someone whose name is longer than the characters allowed on there.
I decided to have the pair personalised with mine and Daddy Hazelden's initials and our wedding date., thought it might help him to remember in the future when our anniversary is :) The engraving is nicely done and easy to read.
The cufflinks come presented in a beautiful gift box. A lovely added touch, keeps you guessing just that little while longer when you are opening up your gift but it is handy for somewhere to keep them safe when not in use.
Daddy Hazelden had no idea that these were coming and I am pleased to say that he approved, they are actually his first ever pair of cufflinks!! He is just waiting for an occasion to wear them out now.
Price at £19.99, these are a lovely present for any man, whether it be for an anniversary, birthday or Christmas. Simple yet with the personalised touch, something unique to the recipient and what I love is that having them personalised doesn't cost anything extra.
Not only would I recommend the cufflinks, I would highly recommend Treat Republic as a whole. I have already started eyeing up a few things for various family members ready for Christmas!!
How many of you have started thinking about Christmas already??
xxxx
Disclaimer : These cufflinks were sent to me free of charge for reviewing purposes however all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Having so many people to buy gifts for throughout the year, I always struggle with what to buy!! I do love personalised presents, it is something about unique for the person receiving them.
My mother in laws birthday is fast approaching and again I was finding it hard to think what to get for her and as if by magic, love2read approached me and asked if I would like to review one of their personalised photo books, this was perfect because I haven't given an updated picture of my children to my mother in law for quite a while and it was something she could sit and read with the kids.
Love2Read was an idea created by the lovely Caroline when she was helping one of her children learn to read. Caroline is actually a qualified teacher and she studied how children learn to read at university. With this is mind, she had made a book using pictures of her family and she found it was a real hit, even with her two year old!!
When you order your book, you literally create everything, you choose the title, the pictures and the words.
There are plenty of pre written titles to choose from, ranging from books for dads, mums, birthdays and so much more. If like me, you can't find the title that quite fits what you want the book to say, then you can choose your own title. The picture above shows what I chose the book to be called.
The book itself is made up of 12 pages, 10 of these pages you can place pictures of your choice on. I love that on the inside cover you have written who the book belongs to and you can even write a little message too, the picture below shows you what it looks like.
The book is a lovely size measuring roughly 7 inches square, a perfect size for little hands helping to hold on to it. The small size also means you can also take it out with you too as it would fit easily in most bags.
Each page you create, you choose what picture you would like to use, what words you want to use and even what colour border goes around each photo. The process is extremely simple and the best thing is that you don't have to rush. There is an option to save the book that you are creating so that you can come back to it at a later date, great if there is photo you really want to get to place in the book.
When creating the book, you are asked to pick two key words which you would like printed, this encourages your child to read and as my children do love nannie, I thought these keywords were approriate to sit and learn with nannie.
The final page of the book is my favourite, it is a collage of all the pictures that you have put in the book. I think it is really lovely seeing them altogether!!
You can purchase one of these personalised books from love2read for the amazing price of £14.99. I can't recommend them enough. The process of making them is very simple and the printing and posting of the book is extremely fast. What I really love is how they stay in contact with you throughout the process, you get emails letting you know that your book is going into printing and when it is going out for delivery. And if like me, you choose to create your own title etc, they contact you to check on just how you want things worded and send you proofs of how your book will look. This is such a nice touch and makes the process more enjoyable.
You can keep up to date with love2read by following them on twitter or liking their facebook page.
xxxx
Disclaimer : This books was sent to me free of charge for reviewing purposes but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Baker Days is a lovely company situated in the Sherwood Forest. They produce personalised cakes for all occasions and can deliver them to anywhere within the UK.
Now anyone that knows me, knows I can't say no to cake, so when I was kindly asked to review their letterbox cake, the only thing I could say was yes.
I immediately love the fact that you can make the cake personal, I chose a one direction cake and sent through a couple of pictures of my daughters to be placed on there too, seen as they are their biggest fans!!
The video below demonstrates just how well the cake really does fit through the letterbox :
As you can see, this cake really is the perfect size, it fits through the letterbox with ease, making it the perfect gift because you know that if the recipient isn't in for whatever reason, they will still get their cake on time, no waiting for redeliveries or going round the sorting office to collect it. I love the goodies that you receive with it, not just the cake but ballons, party blower, candles and of course the stunning cake tin which makes a lovely keepsake after the cake has been consumed.
On the underneath of the cake it tells you :
* your order number
* what type of cake it is
* all of the ingredients which have been used to make the delicious cake
* the date which you need to eat your cake by (although I'm pretty sure it will be eaten well before the epiry date!!)
The picture to the right shows you the cake which we recieved.
I was blown away at just how well made it was, as you can see, not only do we have a one direction picture, two of by daughters have also been placed on there too. The detail is truly amazing, I really couldn't have asked for anything better and of course the pink colouring of the background was the perfect choice for my girl girls.
In some ways I didn't want to cut into the cake because I didn't want to ruin it. Both Gracie and Freya decided that they each wanted the pieces of cake with their faces on.
I just wanted to show you the inside of the cake once I finally dared to cut into it.
The icing is nice and soft and the cake itself was very moist.
We chose carrot cake but you can also choose from fruit cake, madeira cake, double chocolate chip cake and even gluten free cake, there really is something for everyone.
I think the letterbox cake was actually the perfect size, we managed to get 8 pieces of cake from it, this meant there wasn't anything wasted but also that they weren't eating too much, as they always seem to suffer from the classic eyes bigger than belly syndrome!!
Of course I couldn't do a review of cake without showing you the cake being eaten so take a look below :
We have the all in one method.
The breaking little pieces off method.
And the get crumbs everywhere method.
The final verdict was a big thumbs up!! Costing just £14.99, you have yourself a real bargain. Whether you want it made for a birthday, christening, aniiversary, or maybe just a treat for yourself, this is an amazing treat. The fact that you can get a unique design really adds to the value. I can testify that it really does come through the letterbox and because of the lovely cake tin that it comes in, no squashed cake in sight.
What flavour cake and design would you opt for??
xxxx
Disclaimer : This cake was sent to me free of charge for reviewing purposes, however all thoughts and opnions are my own.
