Review: Shutterfly Photo Books for Picky People

shutterfly Review: Shutterfly Photo Books for Picky PeopleEver the procrastinator, I always put off creating my annual family year-in-review Christmas books until the very last moment. One year, I had to give them as New Year’s gifts, that’s how bad I am about it. And it looks like its shaping up that way again this year, with only 10 days until Christmas.

I’ll tell you honestly that I haven’t decided which brand of photo book I plan of creating this year. I’ve used Kodak and Snapfish before, primarily because of the lower cost, but I also spent hours (literally) creating these books. This year, if I order early enough to take advantage of the free shipping and 50% additional books coupon codes, I’m going with Shutterfly.

book Review: Shutterfly Photo Books for Picky PeopleA few months ago, I got a code from Pampers to create a free 7×9 photo book and used the Simple Path technology on the Shutterfly site–letting them arrange and design the book for me. Huge time savings. And great result too!

I’m a magazine editor, so I’ll admit I’m way too opinionated about the placement, cropping, design and type styling for each page of my annual book. But the Simple Path nailed it. A new record time for me creating a book! (Anyone who’s stayed up late making their annual book knows the pain.)

Shutterfly even offered to let me try their Holiday and other Everyday Occasions greeting cards if I’d write a post about my past experiences with them. The deadline? Dec. 15 at 11:59 p.m. Check the post time… Dec. 15 at 10:57 p.m.

Cheapskate Santa: Give (free) Photo Gifts as Presents

One of the best ways to save money on your holiday shopping is…  spending no money. Cool photo freebies abound on the interwebs. Here are a few for you:

Free Photos and Cards

snapfish Cheapskate Santa: Give (free) Photo Gifts as Presents

Get two sets of 20 FREE 4×8 flat photo cards from Snapfish with two separate coupon codes: BABIES and BABYMAIL. It’s valid on any set of 20 4×8 single-sided flat photo cards with envelopes (find them under Products, Photo Cards). Expires on 10/31. Hint: Use these codes separately since Snapfish doesn’t allow you to enter multiple codes for one order.

Snapfish is offering 75 FREE photo prints when you use the code ISTOCK75. If you’re a new member, you’ll also receive an additional 50 free photo prints for registering. Expires on 11/30.

This offer looks pretty stingy compared to Snapfish’s free stuff, but Shutterfly is offering a FREE folded 5×7 photo card with the coupon code CARD4U. Expires on 11/17. Hint: The nice thing about Shutterfly is that you can save this offer for a future order (before 11/17), whereas Snapfish you have to enter the code and order at the same time.

Free Photo Gifts

desk calendar1 Cheapskate Santa: Give (free) Photo Gifts as PresentsGreat for Christmas gifts, order a FREE Snapfish desk calendar or photo mug from Hershey. If you don’t have a UPC code from a Hershey product,  just click on “Don’t Have UPC’s?” and the form will automatically be completed.  Then you will receive a unique coupon code by email. Expires 1/15/11.

Hint: To redeem this offer, you have to follow the link sent by email. Enter your emailed code and login. Create your calendar and checkout, If the credit doesn’t appear automatically in your cart, then click on Account. Look in the upper right corner for FREE Desk Calendar, and click redeem. Then click Open a Saved Calendar, select and checkout. Hoops to jump through, I know, but worth it! I made the mistake of creating my calendar first, before using the link, so I’ll have to contact Customer Service, but hopefully this will go more smoothly for you.

I haven’t personally redeemed this offer, but other folks are raving about FREE Picaboo photo books. New members can receive a free 20-page Large Classic, Classic Leather, or Classic Custom photo book from Picaboo with coupon code 1FBLGB-7W.

Another offer I’ve yet to try, but sounds incredible is a FREE 8×10 photo canvas for new Canvas People customers. You can upgrade for a larger size, or special framing–which in the case of framing I’d recommend. Had my wedding portrait done years ago as a canvas and the frame really made the difference. When I redeem this one, I’ll report back here.

free advil1 Cheapskate Santa: Give (free) Photo Gifts as PresentsFinally, for your holiday headaches…

Free bottle of Advil: A coupon for a free 20- or 24-count bottle of Advil. If orchestrating your family, extended family and family-in-law is anything like FatHeadDog’s, then you’ll need this with the ensuing holiday stress.

Check out other posts in the Cheapskate Santa series:

Cheapskate Santa: How to Earn Extra Cash for Your Holiday Shopping

Cheapskate Santa: Earn $5 Amazon from iRazoo

How to Get Up to 125 Prints Free

Snsnapfish How to Get Up to 125 Prints Freeapfish is offering everyone 75 FREE photo prints when you use the code ISTOCK75. If you’re a new member, you’ll also receive an additional 50 FREE photo prints for registering. Expires 11/30.

Here’s how to get your FREE photo prints:

Don’t forget, you can order 20 Flat Photo Cards free too with code BABIES!

Order Your Xmas Cards Now… for FREE

I work for a personal development/entrepreneurial magazine snapfish1 Order Your Xmas Cards Now... for FREEcalled SUCCESS that offers business inspiration as well as time and stress management tips to help make the most of your day. One tip I picked up from an upcoming article:

Get started on your holiday to-do’s as early as possible. Order your holiday cards early and start buying gifts. You have the same “deadline” every year, so why not get started now?

In that spirit, here’s an offer from Snapfish to get started on your holiday cards–for FREE! Get 20 free 4×8 flat photo cards from Snapfish with the coupon code BABIES. The cards are a $14.99 value; just pay shipping of $5.99. It’s valid on any set of 20 4×8 single-sided flat photo cards with envelopes (find them under Products, Photo Cards). This coupon code can only be used once per account and it expires on Oct. 31.

Here’s another tip: Tell everyone you know how awesome that FatHeadDog is. But I didn’t read that in SUCCESS.

Free Shipping on Snapfish

snapfish Free Shipping on SnapfishSnapfish is offering free shipping this week when you use Labor Day coupon FREELDSHIP, now through September 11th. You can only use the coupon once, so be sure and include everything you’ve been saving up for a free shipping event until now. For me, that includes a few hundred prints (back from when the pup was a newborn), a mousepad I picked up free somewhere along the way, and my Christmas presents. Yeahh, friends and family of FatHeadDog, you can expect some Snapfish gifts from me this year.

Free Snapfish Cards

snapfish save date Free Snapfish Cards Snapfish is offering new customers 20 FREE Save the Date cards with offer code SAVEDATE (expires 8/31). These personalized photo cards are great for weddings, party invitations and various bridal or baby showers.

How to get your FREE cards:

  • Register for a Snapfish account (you’ll also get 50 FREE prints for a new account)
  • Create your custom 4×8 or 5×7 photo card and add to your cart
  • Checkout using coupon code SAVEDATE
  • You’ll pay only for shipping.

While you’re at it, you can get free shipping on orders of $30 or more with code 30FREESHIP.

If you still have unwritten thank you notes, read this

shutterfly If you still have unwritten thank you notes, read thisIt’s just too embarrassing to write them now.

My son’s 2nd birthday was in April. Yo Gabba Gabba theme. Cupcakes, balloons, good friends and lots of great photographs. The perfect little boy birthday party that my superwoman-complex mind had dreamed of. Perfect.. save the fact that I still haven’t written my thank you notes. Has anyone seen my P’s and Q’s.. because I seem to have misplaced them.

Thank goodness, then, that Shutterfly is offering 3 FREE custom greeting cards. These make great personalized thank you cards. For even the thank you-ly lazy like me.

Here’s how to cash in your FREE prints:

  • Login or register with Shutterfly
  • Click on “My Shutterfly”
  • Scroll down and click “Enter Special Code Offer”
  • Enter code SUMMERCARDS to have the prints credited to your account

Shutterfly shipping is approximately $0.99 when you send all three cards to yourself. PLUS, new members will receive 50 FREE prints when they sign up! Free greeting card sale expires 9/1/10.

A Smooch from FatHeadDog (and LIFE magazine)

MONTAGE OUTPUT309x400 A Smooch from FatHeadDog (and LIFE magazine)You know, that’s FatHeadDog on the right. Not really, but Snapfish has teamed up with LIFE.com to offer the iconic magazine’s historic photos as printed cards, which make great personalized stationary for thank you cards and the like.  These selected number of photographs from LIFE.com’s archives can help capture the exact emotion you’re looking for in your greeting cards, notecards and notebooks. It plans to introduce more offerings in the coming months, according to a Snapfish press release.

I can personally recommend the high-quality greeting cards and notecards, but Continue reading

Have thousands of unprinted digital photos?

When it comes to printing your digital photos, you have plenty of choices–you can take your memory card to your local drugstore for in-store printing, printing at home on a photo printer, or uploading them online for snail mail delivery. Here’s a great starter’s guide from Cnet to printing your digital photos:

Print at home

Printing at home is cheap and long-lasting if you use the right printer, ink, and paper. A 4×6 print will typically cost between 25 and 50 cents, depending on the printer and the ink. Of course that doesn’t include the cost of the printer or user error. Be sure to read Cnet printer reviews to get an idea of how often you’ll need to replace the ink cartridge.

Highlight: convenience

Lowlight: inferior quality

Print at a store kiosk

Store kiosks are convenient, and they let you do a lot of basic editing right on the spot (cropping, adjusting brightness, removing red-eye, etc). If you shop around, you can find stores that let you create 4×6 prints for well under 50 cents each. These do-it-yourself machines are a good alternative if you’re not in the mood for the care and feeding of your own photo printer.

Highlight: great option for those less adept at photo editing

Lowlight: time consuming unless you organize which photos you want to print first at home

Online printing services

Online print services such as Shutterfly, SnapFish, Kodak EasyShare Gallery, and many others are often the least expensive and can give great-looking prints. However, like the good old days, you’ll have to wait to see the results. But that’s fine when you’re printing a large number of images—for instance, all your vacation photos.

Highlights: plentiful coupon codes can be found at Slickdeals.net and this site

Lowlights: can be daunting for less-skilled users

Source: Cnet.com

Great Snapfish Coupon Codes

Here’s some great new Snapfish dollar off total amount coupons and Snapfish Free Shipping coupons:

state fair 101708 131 150x150 Great Snapfish Coupon Codes

Here's what I'm planning to print with these Snapfish discounts

  • 50 4″ x 6″ prints for $5 [Exp. 03/29] (Pick up at Walgreens)
    Use Snapfish Coupon WAL505
  • Free set of stickers with purchase of photo books [Exp. 03/26]
    Use Snapfish Coupon ARTSHOW
  • $5 off $15 or more [Exp. 03/31]
    Use Snapfish Coupon MARCH1
  • $15 off $40 or more [Exp. 03/31]
    Use Snapfish Coupon MARCH3
  • $10 off $30 or more [Exp. 03/31]
    Use Snapfish Coupon MARCH2