All The Free Photos and Books

Just in time for Christmas, I've noticed in between the mail and e-mail, I'm getting endless offers for free prints, photo books, photo gifts and enormous discounts off my orders.  If you haven't created a photo gift yet, you are missing out as they are the best gifts to give anyone.  I have created a variety of tear responsive gifts through the various businesses over the years.

Your options are endless and I'll include some of the ideas I have done:

• Gather old photos of a loved one (i.e. father/mother) and create a story book.  I created one for my father-in-law last year of his father who was a WW2 veteran.  I included his Marine photos, statistics of the various islands he fought at, pictures of the various campaigns he was involved in, old war posters and so forth.  I will state he had some of this mostly created so all I had to do was retype it into the Blurb photo software package, organize it and add to it.  It induced numerous tears!
• My mother-in-law has a family photo blog site (after loving mine, she got one).  Without her knowledge, I was able to download a few of her pictures and one in particular of her and her sister with Santa was touching.  I had that picture turned into a ceramic keepsake Christmas ornament through Kodak.
• Through Zazzle, I created a personalized photo calendar for my oldest daughter.  Each month had a picture of her sisters in it as well as pictures of all three.  She loved it!
• Another year, I made her photo cosmetic bags that still sit on her dresser as she refuses to use them as she though they were too pretty.  I purchased those at Photoworks.
• I alternate on the Christmas cards as two year's before, I used Kodak as I love the accordian style cards where you can have multiple photos in one card that spans out for a lovely display.  Last year, I used Zazzle to create my cards, matching postage stamps and matching stickers. They were gorgeous!  You can go here to see some of my Zazzle projects.
• This year, I just purchased a personalized photo book from YourPictureBook.com.  I was provided one to review and liked it so much that I had one created for my other daughter.  They will have matching books personalized with their photos.  Want to see the review, read here.
• TrendyPrints.com is another soon-to-be Christmas shopping stop as I was able to review their scrapbook and loved how easy they were to create and they beautiful quality.  Want to see the review, click here.

If interested in all the free and reduced codes to the various photo gift sites, leave me a comment with your e-mail (if you are not registered) and I'll send those out to you.  I'm still gathering them myself as I want to start ordering and taking advantage of the free offers from places such as Kodak, Shutterfly, TrendyPrints and more!

'Twas The Night Before Christmas with AniMotion™ Book Review & Great Gift Idea

'Twas The Night Before Christmas with AniMotion™

Product Details:

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
• Hardcover: 26 pages
• Publisher: Accord Publishing, a division of Andrews McMeel (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0740784323
• ISBN-13: 978-0740784323  

I received this great opportunity by Mom Entrepreneurs and Christa to review this great new technology incorporated into an age old classic 'Twas The Night Before Christmas.  This is an Accord Publishing exclusive with AniMotion™.  Each full-color AniMotion™ window that appears within the festively decorated pages, provides the children with a thrilling, come to life experience.

My two girls literally fought over the book and both wanted it.  The bigger one won so now I have to buy one for the little one.  I have to admit that this is a great family book to start or continue a Christmas tradition with.  The illustrations are rich and colorful yet have an old fashion appearance.  No review can do the animation justice as it's really innovative.  At first you think it's a hologram type image but you quickly learn that as you move the page, the animation comes to life. 

The picture above on the left is a screen shot of what is posted on the Andrews McMeel Publishing site.  The picture on the right is my photo which shows a very rich, beautiful picture of the cover.  I love the deep colors and how it has the appearance of a pricey book.

This photo of the book shows an area on Santa's belly that shakes.  When you move the left side of the page, his belly moves up and down.  The girls laughed when they saw that one. 

To purchase this wonderful, festival book, visit here.

I highly recommend this book to children of all ages and those that love Christmas!  This would make a wonderful Christmas present that can be handed down through the generations.