Blankie Bear personalised childs comforter and photo placemats new shop buttons - shiny!

Yes - we have some shiny new shop buttons on the Fabulous Photo Gifts website - take a look.



Although it was a popular item for children, we were always unhappy with how the personalised Blankie Bunny was shown on the shop page button, so we've given it a massive makeover to: a) show the large scale of the actual bear by showing a child cuddling one of them and b) by showing a separate picture of the popular bear option.

Whilst we were in button frame of mind, we got around to updating our ever popular personalised photo place mats and serving mats shop button with some updated product specification - all place mats and serving mats come with a baize backing and not cork backing as was previously stated on the shop button.



We hope you find our new buttons useful and descriptive.

Fabulous Photo Gifts.

Photo Beach Bags and Deckchairs - make the most of Summer with Fabulous Photo Gifts

Make the most of this Summer....

Dare we mutter Summer is officially here? Some glorious weather the last few days has really made sitting out in the garden a pleasure, not to mention drawing up plans for a little summer holiday.

So why not make yours (or someone else's) Summer extra special this year with our fantastic range of personalised photo gift ideas - ideal for the garden or the beach....

Quality wooden framed photo personalised deckchair.
You'll be the envy of everyone whether that's reclining in your garden or relaxing on the beach with our hard wearing and comfortable, traditionally styled deckchairs, which can be personalised with your own photographs.

As well as making a great Birthday present idea, they also make a great anniversary or retirement presentation gift idea too.

So comfy, you may find that sandcastle never gets made.

Quality wooden framed personalised garden stool.
Featuring the same heavy canvas material as our popular deckchair, you can have your choice of photograph printed onto the hard wearing canvas seat of this comfy and practical garden / beach folding stool.



Garden cushion.
Our practical hard wearing garden cushion measures 60cm x 60cm - the front panel can be personalised with the photograph of your choice and makes a really stunning gift idea.

The practical hard wearing underside means our garden cushion is equally at home on the beach, campsite or picnic in the park, and oh so comfy too. Even the cover is removable.

And whilst we're heading out for the day, what about something to carry it all in?

Amongst our range of personalised bags and handbags, we have a couple of ideas you may not have noticed.

We have two 'beach bags' that you can choose from and personalise with your own photographs. Ideal for carrying picnics or beach gear, swimming stuff or towels, with comfy handles / shoulder straps.



Strong and durable, these cloth carrying bags make another great birthday gift idea or how about a new baby gift? Something personalised that's strong enough to carry all of babies requirements for a fun day out.

For new parents, we even offer a baby changing bag which can be personalised with a photograph. Click here to see more details on that.

Finally, if you're traveling then how about our personalised wash kit bags? Strong and with a practical waterproof inner, there'll be no mistaking whose wash kit is whose this summer holiday.

More great personalised photo gift ideas from Fabulous Photo Gifts.

P.S Whilst we always pray it won't, we can even help out with the 'rainy days' with a huge range of personalised photo, date and address sensitive jigsaw puzzles. Some previous customers have used photo's of their holiday homes and caravans as the photo. If you own a holiday home/villa or caravan, then these jigsaws are a great idea to leave 'in stock' for your guests to amuse themselves with on rainy days and evenings.

spade handles image credit: doug88888

Online quotes for building home extensions - what will they think of next?

Came across this interesting little site that offers instant online quotes for having an extension built on your home.

Called simply ExtensionQuoter - you're invited to enter your address details and then proceed to enter your own approximate desired measurements, whether it's a single storey or double storey extension you're looking for and what you intend to use your new extension for.

The website then returns an estimate of what you could expect to pay.

We really like these online quoting websites - it does enable you to get a rough expectation of cost before you start having loads of tradesmen traipsing through your home, clipboards and tape measures in hand.

If you want to take your quote further, then the websites owners will call you back, confirm your details and offer to pass your details onto up to 3 companies, local to you, that offer the service you're looking for. No hassle, just written quotes.

Fabulous Photo Gifts.

Fancy a bit of Squash coaching in Derbyshire?

We came across another local 'champion' at the weekend - Lisa Mckenna.

Lisa is a professional squash coach based at Lumb Farm Country Club, Ripley (just up the road from us), and also offers squash coaching at other venues as required.

She also works developing squash in schools and leisure centres in Nottinghamshire through her work with England Squash and Racketball. She coaches juniors in the East Midlands who go on to represent the area at National (inter area) championships.

As Lisa says "Squash is an energetic sport which at all levels, provides enjoyment and fun".

So whether you want to compete or simply play for pleasure, you can brush up on your squash playing technique with a visit to Lisa's website for more details.

Local Community Magazine round-up

Local community magazines round up.

Regular readers will know I seem to share a bit of an affinity with local community magazine publishers in particular, from helping them with web designs to upkeeping their blogs, providing seo services and yes - even delivering a few hundred copies - well it keeps you fit doesn't it?

All Things Local - http://www.allthingslocal.co.uk
They've just published their June / July 09 editions including a new Ripley Edition which will deliver to 9000 homes in Ripley, Marehay, Waingroves and Codnor.

This is in addition to the 9000 copies distributed around Kilburn and the surrounding villages as well as the more recently introduced Belper Edition which is delivered to 9000 Belper homes specifically.

In addition to all previous issues being available to read online, you'll also find all the regular editiorial columns, guest writers, recipes and derbyshire hill walks online to read as well.

If you're new to the area, or used to live in the area and like to keep up with what's happening where you used to live, then the online editions are a great source of information, available 24/7. For locals, there's emergency numbers, community diaries and local clubs and meetings highlighted in each issue.

Click here - http://www.allthingslocal.co.uk to take a look now.

Local Magazines Ltd
Covering the Sandiacre, Stapleford, Ilkeston and Long Eaton areas of Derbyshire / Nottinghamshire, these 3 very popular local magazines - The Eaton Extra, The Ilkeston Directory and the Stapleford & Sandiacre Connections magazines feature adverts and editorial features on local businesses.

The website provides a useful portal of contact information for would be advertisers and editorial submissions, and features profiles on the 3 different publications and the areas they cover.

Click here to visit http://www.localmagazinesltd.co.uk now.

Living In Magazines.
Living in Richmond and Kew is a monthly community magazine aimed at the residents of these popular London boroughs, encouraging them to use businesses on their doorstep, rather than having to travel further afield.

Each edition features a recipe and a local restaurant review. Editorial features on other local businesses are also featured on a regular basis and for the Richmond and Kew communities, provides a wealth of local information. It currently has a circulation of 7,000 copies drawing an estimated readership of 18,000.

Their new website design provided by the designers of Fabulous Photo Gifts, now allows readers to read new editions online. Back issues are also being added and if you want to know what the local weather is going to be like before venturing outside, then there's even a handy daily weather forecast on the home page.

Click here to visit http://livinginmagazines.co.uk - the community magazine for RIchmond and Kew boroughs of London.

And if the above inspire you run your own community magazine, then check out two other sites we've designed and provided seo services for:

Mags2Riches - a complete start your own community magazine package from someone who's been there and continues to do it herself.

The website also answers questions like 'Is a franchise better?' and offers practical advice on making a real success of your new venture. If you'd like to be your own boss and dream of hours that work around your family then take a look.

Mags2Riches new website was part of a planned expansion into Europe, the french version of this community magazine opportunity can be found at http://www.kipubli.fr

Finally, http://www.findlocalmagazines.co.uk is a portal site where community magazine owners can lost their publications and appeal to national advertisers in one place.

As national advertisers grasp the benefit of reaching smaller, more targeted local communities, comes the problem of how do the national advertisers find the local community publications relevant to them? Whilst at the same time how do local magazine owners get in front of the national advertisers?

Find Local Magazines is addressing this problem head on by bringing the two together. The portal also proves valuable to homeowners who move area and may be looking for local information, but may not be aware of local publications. Especially if they've moved from an area that had a high profile community magazine.

Wherever you are, we at Fabulous Photo Gifts hope you make the most of your community publications, and if you see our adverts in any of them, please let us know how you heard of us.

*Fabulous Photo Gifts does not endorse any of the services or products mentioned in this review. Readers of this article use the above sites and services at their own discretion.

New website design for Compass Distribution brings back Ice Hockey memories...

Having just finished a new web design for my friend Alan Fenn at Compass Distribution, whilst updating the news page with a new Sheffield Steelers team picture (pictured with Alan and the ice hockey league cup), bought to mind a more recent visit as a guest of Alan to watch a Steeler's game.

The 'problem' had arisen during the run up to the first interval - Alan had promised to provide two 'guests' from his VIP box to take part in an organised hampster ball race across the ice.

Basically, you don gloves and protective pads and helmets, get zipped up in a man size plastic beach ball and have to roll yourself to the half way line and back.

Sounds easy except that you're on ice so you quickly fall over and realise that the only way to move is by a 'lolloping crawl'.

So there's much hilarity both outside and inside the ball as you quickly loose all sense of direction and where the opponent is in relation to you. Plus you soon start exerting yourself - misting up the ball etc and then comes the panic as you begin to run out of usable breathable air.

So as a guest, I felt almost duty bound to help Alan out and step in at the last minute as a contestant.

It was a great laugh, extremely tough and quite an experience. An heroic feat I've regaled family and friends with since - and now you.

If you ever get the chance to have a go then do.

Alan is a big fan of the Sheffield Steelers and as their long time trusted partner for delivering all their direct marketing leaflets etc, continues to support the team both on and off the ice.

Compass Distribution provide direct marketing, leaflet and magazine distribution and delivery services to companies and individuals in the UK. Based in Sheffield, they currently have distribution contracts in over 14 counties and the list of city, town and area names reads like the largest rock tour t-shirt you ever saw.

Alan and his distribution team can be contacted via their new website - http://www.compassdistribution.co.uk

Last chance gifts for Father's Day - June 21st

Doesn't time fly when you're still struggling to find the perfect gift idea for Dad on Father's Day?

However, all is not lost! At Fabulous Photo Gifts - we still have a range of ideas that can be personalised and despatched in time for delivery by next weekend if you get your order in straightaway.

Among the personalised gift ideas we can still add your photo's too and get in the post (the rest is up to the Postman), are:

Wooden Photo Jigsaw Puzzles
Photo Mugs and Wow Mugs (excludes newspaper front page mugs and 'office mugs')
Glass Chopping Boards
Mousemats

But Hurry! We have limited stock of certain printable items.

Take care and we wish you and yours a very happy Father's Day.

Fabulous Photo Gifts.

Link That Halibut - (from our photo gift blog archives)

Isn't it fun looking back over past blog posts?

Earlier this morning, I took a little trip down memory lane to see what Fabulous Photo Gifts was blogging this time 2 years ago (June 2007) - the Halibut headline caught my eye - I didn't actually remember writing that one!

Anyway, I read on and had a good giggle - there's even a still relevant SEO piece in there somewhere.

Join me as we turn back time to 2007 when I was writing this.... Link That Halibut

photo credit: oskay

I'm communicating - part 2 (seo article)

Why create your own fantasy 'Desert Island Discs' iPod playlist?

When I first came across Tumblr - I thought "Wow - what an amazing platform - now how can I use it?"

The answer didn't come quickly I'll admit. I knew I wanted to do something special with this social sharing platform - something that I could tie-in to forwarding interested visitors to this blog and the Fabulous Photo Gifts website.

Initially I used it as another platform where I posted blog headlines - not very inspiring.

Around this time I was hoping to get an iPhone (contractual ties meant it would be Christmas before I actually got one) but in he meantime I decided it would be great to start compiling my own 'fantasy' playlist - songs I'd want on my iPod/iPhone.

And so it began.

OK so I haven't always been able to post every single day and some days I get carried away and feature a double bill for my visitors delight. But on the whole, I have managed at least one track pretty much every day - a proud achievement.

Of course it's all very well doing these things but if you don't tell anyone and nobody see's it then what's the point? Well admittedly, I haven't been too worried about traffic to (or from) the Tumblr account - it's become a personal obsession to keep it going - at least for a full 12 months and I've seriously enjoyed hunting down the music and videos I've shared.

Then came Twitter. Suddenly the perfect platform to post a quick 'Tweet' advertising that days music choice.

Believe it or not, I have now developed one or two followers and even get the very odd comment when someone thanks me for reminding them of a particular band or song. Most are '80's tracks (the soundtrack of my young adult life) but because my music tastes are so varied, there's classical to Meatloaf, film scores to adverts in the mix.

The point of all this? I'm communicating - reaching out and extending a hand to all who are interested to share a song or a memory. If music be the food of love - play on.

Catch up with my daily selection at: http://fabulousphotogifts.tumblr.com or follow us on Twitter and I'll tweet whenever I post a new song (which is usually daily).

Click here to read I'm Communicating - Part 1

photo credit: backpackerben

Urgh! It's got sugar in it!

Did you miss our latest emailed newsletter earlier today?

Not to worry - you can catch up with the latest personalised photo gift news right here or if you prefer, read a copy of our popular newsletter by clicking here.

This issue focused on our new Office Mug which you can personalise with your name, choice of drink, milk and sugar levels. Your choices are then cleverly printed onto the dishwasher safe mug.

We also advised our customers that the last order date for Father's Day presents was upon us- our delivery times vary between 5 days and two weeks depending on the photo gift you choose so if you're thinking of surprising Dad with a more personal gift, then the time to order is now.

Visit Fabulous Photo Gifts for an ever growing range of quality printed, hand optimised photo and personalised gift ideas - perfect for Father's Day or any gift giving occasion.

We must Communicate - seo article

It seems you can hardly click on a news website or trip over a social marketeer without hearing about Twitter or 'social networking' these days.

Whilst some will be yawning, others think its the greatest thing since sliced wholemeal bread - you know, the one with the seeds on top.

But what does it all mean?

In a nutshell, it means that website owners, bloggers and social commentators - in fact anyone who has a website (whether that's an online business like Fabulous Photo Gifts) or a private individual, blog or participates on Twitter and Facebook etc want to talk to you ... and want you to talk back.

It's never been easier to leave a comment or post a reply - there's a multitude of 'instant share links' available and any savvy webmaster or blogger will offer you numerous ways to share or comment on what they're saying via your favourite platform.

What's in it for them?
Not only the warm fuzzy feeling you get from knowing someone thought the words you'd slaved over were worthy enough of reading in the first place (akin to wetting yourself in a dark suit - it gives you a nice warm feeling but nobody else notices).

But also, the opportunity to engage with readers, consumers or customers across the globe in ways like they never could have dreamed of before.

What's in it for you?
Not only the truth that you've made someone's day or by passing something you've read on to your own 'community' you might actually enlighten someone else's day. Dare we suggest it might even be helpful sometimes?

No! The other really important aspect of being allowed to comment is that it allows an instant two-way correspondence to take place with the writer. If you want more information, you can ask there and then. Don't understand a point raised? Disagree? Then commenting is for you.

Of course, if that topic catches other readers attention, then a public comment 'conversation' is suddenly enriched by others.

Not forgetting that your 'storyboard' of a conversation will be available for others to review and learn from at a later date.

If the Internet is all about finding information, then the new 'social explosions' are all about sharing what you've found out with others.

Whether you're a Twitterer, Blogger or webmaster - go share!

Photo credit - Yngrich