Photo Gifts Made Easy with Picasa

Still have some people on your gift list?  There are lots of gift ideas that can be made from your own photographs.  Some of them can be ready to pick up at your local Walmart or Walgreens today, and some can be mailed overnight for an extra charge.  Normally, it takes a week or so to receive the gift.  You can even have it shipped directly to your recipient.  It’s all done online with your digital photos, a credit card, and a shipping address.

What can you Order?

You can order anything from simple prints of your photos, to framed or ‘floated’ wall masterpieces.  You can also order professional hard-bound books of your pictures – I love these books for special keepsake gifts.  Then there’s the fun stuff.  Photo gifts that are also useful, like mugs, tshirts, or mouse pads.  Most of the providers listed offer all of these things, but they each have their specialties.  You can check them out on their various websites before selecting one thru Picasa.  Here’s a partial list of the websites, but make sure to come back to Picasa before actually ordering!  Read on to see why.

Check out the offerings at these providers, then come back to Picasa to order:
CVS, Kodak Gallery, PhotoStamps, fotoflōt, Walmart FOTO.com, Lifepics, Snapfish, Walgreens, RITZPIX, Shutterfly, American Greetings PhotoWorks, Snaptotes

Picasa’s ‘Shop’ button makes it easy

If you use Picasa, all you have to do is select the photo, or photos you want to use and click the Shop button.  Whatever pictures you select will be uploaded with all edits applied – what you see is what you’ll get.



After you click ‘Shop’, you will see the list of providers.  More are added all the time, so be sure to look them over carefully.  Once you choose a provider, you will be asked to create an account – it’s free – they just need some identification for your photos.  Fill in your email and a desired password.  When you click OK, the photos you had previously selected will be uploaded to the provider’s servers under your account.  This takes a while because it is uploading the full-sized file.  It needs the full size to create the best print possible.

Picasa hands you off to the print provider

Once your photos are uploaded, you will find yourself on the provider’s website.  Each one will have very different procedures.  If you are ordering a coffee mug, for example, it is a simple matter of selecting the mug, and selecting the picture you want on it. That should only take a few minutes.

If you are ordering a photo book with 50 photos, this will take you some time to learn how to use their software for designing the book, placing the pictures, adding text etc.  It took me several hours before I was happy with the finished product.  I also kept changing my mind about the pictures I wanted, so I had to go back to Picasa and re-upload each time I added more!  But the finished product, with 80 pictures, is a keepsake that I am confident will be a cherished gift.  It cost me about $50, plus another $12 for expedited shipping … I’m always a little late!

When you’re done with creating your products, you will need to provide a shipping address, or select a store where your gifts can be picked up.  You will also need to provide a credit card.  That’s it!

Happy Holidays everyone!

This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour

Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.

Members may want to view the following tutorial videos.  Not a member?  Join now.

Where’d the Buttons Go?

 

Picasa Tip: Make your own Photo Holiday Cards

One of the subtle changes in Picasa 3 is on the bottom row of buttons, what used to be called 'Order Prints' is now 'Shop.'  I actually don't see any difference in what the button does, but the fact that it now says 'Shop' might get a few more people to try it.

Here's how it works - you select one or more photos, click 'Shop' and you'll see a list of stores. 



Choose one of the stores, then you will need to set up an account.  There is no cost for the account, but it is necessary in order to upload your photos and store them for you.  Once the photos are uploaded you can choose your products.  The upload takes a while because, for printing purposes, it uploads the full original size.

They all offer to print the photo(s) you upload, and they offer lots of special ways to print them, including notecards.  This is a great way to get custom, photo Christmas cards.  The price at Walmart is about $12 for a dozen simple notecards.  At Shutterfly, a dozen nice greeting cards will cost $25.  You can check out the products offered before choosing by browsing directly to each store.  So, for example, Walmart's offerings can be found at http://photos.walmart.com/store.    Shutterfly's at http://www.shutterfly.com/store/index.jsp.

And, don't stop at cards!  You can buy the gifts to go with the cards as well.  One of my favorites is photo mousepads.  Or, how about coffee mugs, or t-shirts, or tree ornaments?

You don't need to use Picasa to order these gifts, but, just like so many other things, Picasa makes it so easy.  Just select your photos and click 'Shop!'  And, if you use Picasa, you'll know that the photo that gets uploaded is what you see in Picasa, cropped the way you cropped it in Picasa, color corrected or retouched by Picasa.  You can even add text to the picture in Picasa, and that will become part of the photo to be used for your card.

Happy Holidays!
Chris Guld

GOT Class? 

Join the Geeks On Tour Classroom today.  For only $39 you'll have one year of unlimited access to over 100 tutorial videos on Picasa, Blogger, and others.