Holiday Gift Guide 2010: Photo Gifts From Kodak Gallery

Kodak Gallery recently invited me to create my own photobook on their website so I could share the experience with my readers. They sent me a $50 American Express gift card to order my creation with, and I figured it would probably be enough to pay for one book plus shipping – $45-50 seems to be a fairly standard price for photobooks on many websites. (Which is why I always wait until I can find a great deal! 😉 ) But once I saw the prices on Kodak Gallery, I realized that I’d be able to make much more than one photobook:

This is my total haul: 8 photo gifts! Thanks to sales on the Kodak Gallery website and a free shipping promotion, I was able to get all of the above for $50 exactly – and was able to cross several people off my Christmas list without spending a penny out of pocket! After all promotional discounts were deducted, I saved a total of $46.94, or 93%. I’d like to show you each item that I purchased:

This is a Black Leather Medium Picture Window Hard Cover photo book. I used this book for our engagement photos which we just had taken at the beginning of the month.

I love the high quality leather cover – this photo book is a beautiful way to preserve our memories and show off the photos. One of the photos looked a teensy bit washed out, but I was very pleased with how crisp and clear all the others were.

For my next creation, I made a 5×7 Together Forever photo book as a wedding present for a family member. I have a gift card for the couple, and wanted to find something else to go with it – so this was just perfect. In order to surprise them, I pulled photos off the bride’s Facebook page, and was warned during the creation process that they would look grainy because of the low quality. However, I was pleasantly surprised with how well these pictures turned out – it’s a really cute little book! The reason why I blocked the photos out in these examples is for the couple’s privacy.

Next, I made another 5×7 photo book filled with family photos as a Christmas gift for my future father-in-law and his wife:

I was impressed by the quality with which these old, grainy family photos printed out.

I made a similar 5×7 photo book for an uncle:

After creating four photo books, I still had money left on the gift card, so I decided to check out the other photo gifts offered on Kodak Gallery:

I made this magnet bearing a family photo for Grandma. It turned out even better than I had expected – the magnet is high-quality and the photo looks great. This is the perfect gift for someone like Grandma who doesn’t need or want a lot of “Stuff”, but can always use something practical like a magnet, and will enjoy seeing this photo of the family on her fridge.

I had $1.04 left on the gift card, and figured I would find another small gift and pay the difference. But believe it or not, I found that I could actually order 2 photo prints for $1.04 – which would make my total $50 exactly! I chose to make two prints of our engagement photos – one for a relative who wanted one, and one to frame and display in our home:

But that’s not all. I was still able to add another item to my cart without spending a cent! This is because Kodak Gallery offers 50 totally free photo contact cards. The cards print out with the Kodak Gallery URL on the back of the card. Of course, I couldn’t turn down something totally free! I came up with a great use for them:

I made these cute contact cards to promote aunt Kim’s D.O.G.G. Etsy shop. I used a photo of one of the products for the front of the card, and added her name, shop URL, and email on the back. I think they turned out great and I know she will be very surprised to get them! If you’re looking for an inexpensive way to promote your online shop, it doesn’t get any better than this!

All in all, I was very impressed with my Kodak Gallery experience. I got way more out of it than I expected, and I was so thrilled to take care of so many gifts in one fell swoop! I had a blast making my photo creations – it was so much fun! I really enjoyed deciding on the products, choosing the photos, and customizing them. The website can be confusing to navigate at times, and some of the features are counter-intuitive, but in all I found it fairly quick and straightforward to create my items. I would certainly be happy to shop with them again!

There’s still time to make a fabulous photo gift just in time for Christmas! Visit Kodak Gallery.com and place your order by December 23rd to receive it by Christmas Eve with expedited shipping.