Father’s Day Gift Ideas: Take Dad Down Memory Lane

Dads are notoriously tough to buy gifts for. Something about them having everything they need already? So this Father’s Day, why not surprise dad with the gift of memories – something we’re sure he’ll be happy to receive. Give him the gift of memories of his childhood, memories of his first years as a father, memories of his worldly travels…whatever you think will resonate best with your dad! Here, our Photolab Experts will show you how to compile your own Father’s Day gift using throwback photos of dad.

Dust Off the Shoeboxes & Photo Albums

First, you’ll need to find some old photos of dad to work with. That means digging through old photo albums and dusty shoeboxes full of old photos to find some treasures. If they’re not in plain sight, you may need to check the basement, attic or storage unit. Be very careful when handling the old photographs you find. After being exposed to light, dust, heat and other elements over the decades, they are likely to be quite fragile.

Dad thought all evidence of that bowl cut was gone…little does he know it was just buried in a shoebox, waiting to be uncovered! You know it’ll give him (and everyone else) a good laugh.

Give Damaged Photos some TLC

If you come across some great oldies while sorting through the shoeboxes of photographs, but they’re a bit worse for wear, we may be able to help. Our Photolab offers digital restoration services to help restore your photos to their former glory. Simply bring the photos into the Photolab and our LDExperts can digitally edit each individual image to bring back a little colour worn by dust and heat, fill in scratches, or restore parts of an image that was destroyed by water damage. You’d be amazed at what we’re able to restore!

Digitize Dad’s Old Photographs

Once you’ve picked some real gems of dad ‘back in the day’, you’ll want to digitize those original photographs so that you can turn them into a unique Father’s Day gift. You can do this yourself with an at-home scanner, but if you’re looking to digitize a large selection of photos (it’s hard to choose, we know!), we recommend using our Photo Scanning Box service.

Just pick up a free box in-store and fill it with up to 800 photos (and other precious documents). Then return the box to your local London Drugs Photolab and we’ll digitize your photos for only $179.99. Once finished, your photos will be returned to you, along with all the digital files on a USB drive.

We also offer a Slide Scanning Box service, if you dug up some great slides of dad and want to get those digitized too.

You might even consider digitizing all of dad’s old photos and slides a Father’s Day gift, while you’re at it! After all, those are precious memories worth protecting in the form of digital files. He’ll thank you later, if anything ever happens to the originals!

Create Your Father’s Day Throwback Gift

Now that you have all the digital files of dad’s photos at your fingertips, you can get creative with how you want to gift them! One of our favourite ways to showcase photos as a gift, especially if you have quite a few, is with a photo book. Our high quality photo paper and exceptional inks will give the images new life – and you know dad will love flipping through them all and reminiscing. Our photo collages are another great way to showcase a whole selection of your dad’s best snapshots from over the years. Both our photo books and collages also have themed Father’s Day templates!

We also have lots of unique keepsakes that we can customize with your chosen throwback photo of dad. Add his ‘mug’ to a Father’s Day themed mug, or put an image of him on a photo box.

Then, finish off your gift with a thoughtful, personalized card which you can also add your own photo to and customize with text. We have Father’s Day templates for those too.

Happy Father’s Day!

Craft Your Own Unique Gifts on Make a Gift Day!

Let Your Kids Be the Artist with our Take and Create Photolab Books

The best gift you can give this holiday season is something from the heart. That’s the inspiration behind Make a Gift Day, which is celebrated on December 3rd each year. Make a Gift Day encourages us to hand craft our own gifts, employing a little DIY skill and whole lot of love, to create something entirely unique and thoughtful.

With Christmas just around the corner, Make a Gift Day is the perfect opportunity to make some extra special Christmas gifts for your loved ones. Don’t worry if you’re not an expert-level crafter – we’re here to help!

Our London Drugs Photolab can print your photos, and customize all kinds of creative products like mugs and fleece blankets with your photos – but did you know we also print your (or your kids’) artwork on these items too? All we need is a paper copy of the artwork, and we can scan it and put it on any of our creative Photolab products.

To celebrate Make a Gift Day and make the process of customizing your own gifts easier, our Photolab now has free Take and Create Books for you to use! Inside you’ll find templates for designing your own personalized ornaments, bookmarks and 11oz mugs.

Just pick up your free Take and Create Book from your local London Drugs Photolab, bring it home, and let the kids have some fun with drawing their own designs on the templates. If you fancy yourself an artist, why not fill in a couple templates yourself, too? Once you’re all done, just bring in the book with the templates you chose to colour in, and we’ll scan each one and create your unique gifts for you!

(Right) Metal tree ornament template

We have all kinds of ornament designs to choose from in the book – from stars and Christmas tree shaped ornaments, to hearts and marquee shapes. When you order your custom ornament, you’ll also be able to choose from a variety of surfaces, including metal, ceramic, crystal and pewter. Our personalized 11oz mugs can be ordered in a selection of colours, or we can even put your drawing on our Magic Mug! This mug will magically reveal your hidden artwork once hot liquid has been added to it.

(Left) Bookmark template, (Right) 11oz mug template

To start crafting your own unique gifts, just visit your local London Drugs Photolab to pick up your free Take and Create Book!

Holiday Gift Ideas for Neighbours, Teachers, Co-Workers & More

During the holidays, surprising your loved ones with the ‘big ticket’ items they’ve been dreaming about all year is easy – what’s hard is finding a way to really wow with the smaller gifts meant for neighbours, teachers, co-workers or anyone else on your holiday shopping list. This year, consider foregoing the usual box of chocolates in favour of something that will really make them feel special: something personalized.

Our LDExperts recommend personalizing a photo mug, water bottle or carafe with a photo (and even a personal message if you like) to create a truly unique gift for all of the special people in your life. It’s sure to not only spread some holiday cheer, but will show them you’re thinking of them.

To help get you started, here are some ideas for customizing your own photo gifts:

For Your Neighbours

Do you have a snapshot of your neighbour and their family from a block party this summer? Or do you have a photo of your kids and theirs playing together? Maybe you can easily snap a photo of their pride and joy sportscar in the driveway. Whatever it is, find an image that will showcase some of the favourite things or people in their life, and use it to customize a mug, water bottle or carafe for them. It’s a small way to thank them for being such a wonderful neighbour this past year!

For Your Teachers

If you’re looking for a thoughtful way to thank your child’s teachers for all their hard work, a personalized gift will go a long way. Teachers generally get a lot of mugs as gifts, so why not switch it up and personalize a water bottle for them instead? Employ your child to draw up some artwork – maybe a simple ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Thank you Ms. ______’ theme – and we can help you scan that artwork and put it on a water bottle! Or if you have a scanner at home, you can then simply upload that digitized artwork to our Photolab site to customize your bottle.

For Your Co-Workers

Co-workers aren’t always easy to get gifts for, especially when you’re trying to keep it to something small. Here’s a creative gift idea you’ll know they’ll appreciate: personalize a mug or carafe for them, so that no one in the office will ever accidentally use their mug again! Add some custom text to it like ‘This is Gary’s Mug’, or simply add a photo of their face to the mug, so there will be zero confusion who’s mug or carafe it is. Now they won’t have to fear leaving their mug in the office cupboard! That might just make you their new favourite co-worker.

For Your Friends

This is an easy one – just pick a favourite snapshot of you and your BFF. We’re sure you won’t have any difficulties finding lots to choose from. Or take a quick peek at their Instagram, for a particularly special moment from their year, and surprise them with that on a water bottle or mug.

 

Our LDExperts also suggest making your gifts even sweeter by including some treats inside! Add a packet of hot chocolate mix, a candy cane, and a small baggy of marshmallows – all wrapped up in some cellophane.

To get started on your own personalized gifts, just visit our London Drugs Photolab online, in-store or simply download our London Drugs Photolab App for iOS and Android.

And don’t worry – if someone surprises you with a gift you weren’t expecting…you can order our 11oz and 14oz mugs same-day!

How to Next Level Your Christmas Stockings

Are you stockings starting to look a little shabby? No, we’re not talking about the ones on your feet – we’re talking about your family’s Christmas stockings! For lots of families, hanging stockings over the fireplace is a long-standing holiday tradition. But sometimes those traditions need a little sprucing up. If your stockings are looking a little worse for wear after years of use, we can help you upgrade to some truly next level stockings…completely personalized for every member of your family!

Customized Stockings

Our Photolab offers customizable Christmas stockings in a variety of styles. If each member of your family gets a stocking, give them the opportunity to make it their own. Let them choose a photo for their stocking, and they can even add their name or nickname to it. Don’t leave out the family pet either – we can help you make one for them too! You also have the option to have the photo featured on just one side, or on both sides of the stocking. Of course, all of our stockings will come with a small loop so they’re ready to hang!

Customized Stocking Stuffers

While you’re at it, you can take your stocking stuffers to the next level too! It’s always great to have some stocking stuffer fillers in there like candy canes and chocolates, but stockings are also a great place to include some more thoughtful, small gifts as well. We have lots of items you can customize, that will fit perfectly into your family’s Christmas stockings.

Two of our LDExperts’ top picks for personalized stockings stuffers are photo keychains and ornaments. Both are small enough to fit perfectly in your stockings, and are a nice, thoughtful gift they can cherish beyond this holiday season.

Keychains can be customized with your choice of photo, and come in a variety of styles, from a metal heart to a metal square with leatherette backing. We can also include a name or personal message on the photo for added customization. The same can be done with our ornaments.

The ornaments are available in 20 different styles: on metal, pewter, crystal or ceramic. Our metal ornaments can be printed on the font and back, and all of our ornaments come with a pre-drilled hole so you can easily hang from your tree with a small ribbon. We think the personalized ornaments are a great gift to make a yearly tradition! Each Christmas, simply pick a photo that best represents that person’s year – and add the year in text to the ornament so they’ll always remember when that memory was from. It’s a sweet custom that will be so special to look back on, as you collect new ornaments over the years.

 

Ready to take your Christmas stockings to the next level? Visit our London Drugs Photolab online, in-store or simply download our London Drugs Photolab App for iOS and Android to get started!

Celebrating Life and Special Milestones Through Photos

Life is filled with all kinds of defining moments and milestones. From birthdays to anniversaries, and even funerals, these moments in time are an opportunity for us to appreciate and celebrate the life we have lived.

For over a hundred years, photos have been an essential way of preserving life’s moments, allowing us to look back and celebrate each and every one of them. What has changed in those one hundred years, however, is the expanded variety of ways to showcase those precious photos.

 

Milestone Birthdays

Every birthday is special, but milestone birthdays, like the 30th, 40th, 50th (or even 90th!) birthdays, are extra special. A great way to commemorate that special year is with a Poster Collage or Photo Book of their best moments – from birth to now.

Dig through old snapshots to find some adorable baby photos, some of the awkward teen years, and some that are more current. In the end, you’ll have compiled a collection of photos that tells the story of their life…so far! We even offer a variety of birthday templates, to help design and customize your Photo Book. Wrap it up as a gift, or put it out on display at their birthday party so guests can flip through it.

If you need some help digitizing a collection of old photos to add to your Poster Collage or Photo Book, our Photo Scanning Box Service will make the process seamless. Just fill the box with up to 800 photographs and documents, bring it back to your local London Drugs Photolab, and our Experts will digitize them for you.

You can even use those digitized photos to create all kinds of other birthday gifts, from personalized t-shirts and puzzles, to photo calendars and jewelry boxes.

 

Anniversaries

Whether it’s your first wedding anniversary or your 15th, you’ll want to make that relationship milestone special. Why not celebrate by surprising your significant other with a gift that truly captures your love?

If you’re planning to give your hubby or wifey a traditional anniversary gift, we have a few suggestions that will show them just how much you appreciate the time you’ve spent together.

 

1st year: Paper

Don’t just go with regular old paper for your first anniversary, gift them luxe, glossy photo paper! Choose from any of our Photo Books, Enlargements, or Poster Collages and customize with your favourite photos together. Your wedding photos are a good place to start. In fact, we have lots of wedding-themed templates you can use while personalizing your photo gift.

2nd year: Cotton

Get creative with your second anniversary gift by ordering a Canvas Gallery Wrap. The textured print surface is made of cotton, so you’ll be on the dot with the traditional anniversary gift, plus your other half will be super impressed that you’ve turned a photo of you two into a piece of fine art for your home!

 

9th year: Pottery

A Photo Mug is the perfect way to fulfill that traditional ‘pottery’ anniversary gift, while also making them something thoughtful and personal. Just pick a mug colour (their favourite colour, perhaps?), a few photos, and some text (your anniversary date?) to completely customize your gift. It’s sure to impress!

 

10th year: Aluminum

The traditional ‘aluminum’ anniversary gift is meant to reflect your marriage’s resilience. What better way to share that than with a beautiful photo, printed on one of our highly durable Aluminum Metal Panels? Pick one memory you’d like to showcase from your 10 incredible years together, or if you can’t choose just one, create a collage with all your favourite moments.

15th year: Crystal

Just when they think you’ve run out of great anniversary gift ideas…you gift them a beautiful, personalized Photo Crystal for your 15th anniversary! A truly unique gift that showcases a favourite moment in time together. Choose from our selection of photo crystals, or our crystal ornaments (we think the heart-shaped ornament or crystal with base would be especially fitting).

 

Funerals

There’s a reason funerals are often called a ‘Celebration of Life’. It’s a time when family and friends can come together, in memory of someone special, to celebrate a life well lived.

A very touching way to help preserve and celebrate their memory is with photos. Start by combing through old photo albums and digging through shoe boxes full of old photographs. To make things a bit easier, use our Photo Scanning Box Service to have up to 800 photos and documents digitized for you by our Photolab, so you can easily personalize all kinds of beautiful photo keepsakes with the digital files.

To create a truly sentimental and heartfelt memento, personalize a Photo Book with images of their life, and blank sections for family and friends to add personal message and stories by hand. It’s a keepsake the family can take home at the end of the funeral service, and read over the kind words from supportive family and friends.

Another thoughtful gift for the family is a personalized Fleece Blanket. The cozy blanket will feel like a warm hug, as they cuddle up in the memories of their loved one. Choose one photo, or a selection of photos, to feature as a collage on the blanket’s surface.

 

Need a little help creating your photo gift? Speak with one of our Photolab Experts at your local London Drugs! Or, if you’re ready to go, you can start personalizing your gift on our Photolab website, or at any of our in-store Photolab kiosks.

Make a Gift Day: Craft Your Own Personalized Holiday Gifts for Loved Ones

Photolab Gift ideas

With the holidays just around the corner, it’s fitting that December 3rd is Make a Gift Day. Let’s think of it as a subtle nudge to get started earlier this year. This unofficial holiday encourages people to hand craft gifts for loved ones. After all, that little bit of effort to personally customize a gift goes a long way to making it special.

Photos are a great way to personalize gifts.  You’ve likely captured hundreds if not thousands of them over the year, so why not put all those memories to good use? Do some digging through your virtual photo albums and see if you can find some gems to work with.

Even if you don’t consider yourself Pinterest-level crafty, our Photolab can help you tap into your creativity and produce personalized photo gifts.

Here are some of our favourite DIY gifts for the holidays:

Photo Mugs

Personalize a mug with a special photo or artwork. It’s an easy, inexpensive gift that shows you put some thought into it. Find step-by-step instructions for adding photos or text to a mug on our Photolab website or at our in-store Photolab kiosks. Photo mugs are available for same day pick-up. If you want to order in time for the holidays, make sure to get your order in by December 24th.

Photo Mugs

Hand Print Mugs

Have the kids create their own handprint artwork on pieces of paper, which can then be digitized using an at-home scanner. Or visit us in the Photolab, where you can use our self-serve scanner, or have one of our LDExperts scan it for you. Then you can upload those digital files to our Photolab site (or use our in-store kiosks) and customize special mugs with that artwork, to be given away as holiday gifts.

Personalized Stockings

If your family does stockings every year, a fun pre-Christmas gift to make would be personalized stockings for everyone. Brand new to our Photolab, we have a selection of different Christmas stocking designs to choose from. Customize one for each member of your family, by choosing a design, selecting a photo of your choice, and adding their name (you want Santa to know who he’s delivering to). Then we’ll do the printing for you.

Personalized Stockings

Photo Ornaments

Photo ornaments are a gift that will show the recipient just how much you care. It’s something that can signify a special moment or milestone in their life, and they can hang it on their Christmas tree year after year.

Our Photolab can help you create your own customized photo ornaments. You pick the design: metal, crystal, ceramic or pewter, in a variety of shapes. Then choose a design template that fits your giftee perfectly. We have everything from baby’s first Christmas to first Christmas as Mr. & Mrs. Then, you can add the right photo, and get as creative as you like by editing the colour scheme, text and layout. Knowing you put the time and effort to customize every aspect of the gift will make it that much more meaningful for them.

 

We hope you’re feeling inspired to use your images to make fun and personal gifts that your friends and family are sure to cherish. We have lots more items you can customize. Just check out our Photolab site to see them all, from bobbleheads and crystals, to photobooks and blankets.

Need a hand getting started? LDExperts at many of our Photolabs are hosting workshops throughout December to help you personalize your holiday gifts. For workshop locations and times, click here.

 

Holiday Order Deadlines

A great selection of products are available for same day or next day pickup, up to Sunday, December 24th including Enlargements, Canvas Gallery Wraps, Express Books, Photographic Calendars and Mugs. See a Photolab expert for details.

Be sure to place your orders for the below products before the listed dates to ensure Christmas delivery.

Photobooks, Calendars and Traditional Greetings Cards…………Sunday, December 17

Creative Products………………………………………………………Sunday, December 17

Crystals…………………………………………………………….……Sunday, December 17

Crystallize-it 3D Photo Crystals………………………………….Wednesday, December 13

Yes Video……………………………………….……………………..Saturday, November 25

 

If you need some help creating your holiday gifts, our Photolab Experts can answer any questions you may have, and walk you through the ordering process. Just visit us at any London Drugs location, in the Photolab department.