Shutterfly Products and Repurposed Gifts
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Do you have a hard time finding the right gift, especially for your parents or grandparents? It can be difficult to find the perfect gift for parents who have collected a lifetime of gifts. I decided this year to give photos of the family to both sets of parents. But I didn’t want to do a traditional print photo. I had some photo products from Shutterfly in mind. And, you know me, I just had to do a repurposing twist as part of the gift.
I knew that I wanted to give each set of parents Shutterfly Photo Coasters. By giving Photo Coasters, I knew that these photos would be a part of our parents’ daily lives and not just stored in a drawer or in a photo book on a shelf. As they move through their day, they’ll unexpectedly see a happy Photo Coaster to remind them of their loving family.
There are 5 grandchildren on one side and 6 grandchildren on the other side, so I purchased 3 sets of Photo Coasters (4 come in each set), splitting one set between them. This way each set of parents received 6 Photo Coasters (and this helped me incorporate more photos). I carefully planned the photos to make sure that each family and all the grandchildren would be represented for both sets of gifts. The upload was quick and easy on the Shutterfly website. My only tip is to choose photos where your subject is in the middle of the photo. Because you’re cropping a rectangular photo to fit onto a square Photo Coaster, it was easier to fit everyone on the Photo Coaster when the part of the photo I wanted was in the middle of the rectangular photo.
When the Shutterfly Photo Coasters arrived I was impressed with the quality of the photos. These were photos just taken with my little point and shoot camera and were not edited at all. They images are clear and sharp and the color quality is vibrant. I was also impressed with the quality of the Photo Coaster itself. This is a sturdy coaster that will hold up to years of use. Look how thick it is.
Because I had a repurposing twist in mind, I also ordered a Photo Luggage Tag from Shutterfly. My parents do a lot of traveling and I thought they’d enjoy an original Photo Luggage Tag that would make their bag stand out from the rest of the seemingly thousands of bags on the luggage carousel.
Again, uploading the photo on the Shutterfly website was super easy. And, just like with the Photo Coasters, I was very impressed with the quality of the photo and of the Luggage Tag.
The Photo Luggage Tag is made of thick plastic that will stand up to many trips and still look great (of course the looking great part may be due to the lovely people in the photo!)
So, now for my simple repurposing twist.
I usually repurpose items that are headed for the recycle bin or the trash. What a treat it was to get to repurpose new items!
I started by grabbing my supplies; paper cutter, corner rounder, decorative paper and paper scraps.
I cut a piece of decorative paper to fit the back of the Photo Coaster and rounded the corners to match the coaster’s rounded corners. I used repositionable poster tape to attach the paper to the back of the Photo Coaster. You can use any type of repositionable tape. You just want to make sure you can remove it easily after Christmas so it won’t damage your brand new coaster.
I added a ribbon and a To/From label and voila! A personalized gift tag that can later be used for it’s original coaster purpose.
I put the rest of the Photo Coasters and a bag of favorite coffee into a crocheted gift basket that I made and attached my repurposed Photo Coaster as the gift tag. After the parents ooh and ahh over the creative gift tag on Christmas morning, I think they’ll be thrilled with with the Photo Coasters of the family and enjoy seeing and using them every day..
After the easy repurposing with the Photo Coaster, I was excited to repurpose the Photo Luggage tag into a gift tag also. I simply cut a piece of decorative paper that would fit between the edge of the luggage tag and the hole for the loop.
I rounded two corners of the paper and attached it with repositionable sticky dots.
Another voila! and a gift tag repurposed from a Photo Luggage Tag.
I put the other Photo Coasters (designated for the other set of parents) and a bottle of wine into the repurposed wine gift bag I made and attached the repurposed Photo Luggage Tag gift tag.
I know my in-laws are going to enjoy the Shutterfly Photo Coasters just as much as my parents. And hopefully, the repurposed Photo Luggage Tag gift tag will be a fun little twist on Christmas morning.
I think it’s a fun and surprising twist to repurpose part of the gift into part of the gift wrapping. Gift giving should be about surprises, so have fun looking at your gifts this year and seeing all the surprising repurposing possibilities.
Be sure to drop back by on the 21st for a chance to enter a giveaway for a $100 credit to Shutterfly. Just think how may repurposed gift tags you could make!
To see more great gift ideas from Shutterfly, take a look at the special Looksi Square/Shutterfly holiday gift collection on Friday, November 22
I’m a mom of 3, a veteran and military spouse. I’ve moved into 20+ homes all around the world. My passion is helping busy people make the space and time for what’s really important to them.
I am in love with these coasters! I have been going crazy trying to think of gifts for a few people on my list and these would be perfect. The luggage tag is perfect for Big! I think the great thing about personalized luggage tags is that it will be easy to spot in the airport, so much luggage looks the same!
What a great idea to make a gift tag out of something that can also be a gift itself!
I especially like the wine bag with the luggage ‘card’!!! Fabulous idea!!!
Very cute idea to make them gift tags, too! Love this!
They turned out SO cute! That paper is adorable too!
You know I love this idea and am so glad you brought it by the In and Out of the Kitchen Link party. See you next week.
How clever!
What great ideas! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks so much for sharing this at the Home For the Holidays party. I just love this idea!