By Stephanie from Our Cherry Tree

When it comes to giving gifts on a budget it really does pay to get creative and go for a personal touch so I’m quite excited to share with you my experience of using Snapfish to create wonderful stocking fillers for friends and family this Christmas.

The Snapfish website has quite a range available for personalised stocking fillers, from cute acrylic keyrings and fridge magnets to photo canvas prints. I decided to go for these fun photo mugs which I could tailor-make to my own requirements using some designs of my own and some of Snapfish’s handy embellishments.

As much as I love my friends, and as patient as they are when it comes to them listening about my children’s achievements, I didn’t really think that photos of me on the side of their work coffee mug was going to go down well. Instead, I picked some a couple of quotes and created the main design myself .

It was then very easy to upload the files to the Snapfish site. First, choose which product you would like to create, then upload the files and play around with the size, additional texts and fun extras. The system was intuitive and I’m sure that even those who aren’t that confident with PCs and the internet could use this feature happily.

These gift ideas are also perfect if you already have an account with Snapfish as it saves your pictures in an album for you to return to again and again. I found this particularly useful when the children kept interrupting me!

These photo mugs are priced at €11.99 plus P&P which seemed reasonable to me when buying simple gifts for friends and family. Once you’ve placed your order you will receive a confirmation email from Snapfish and also an email letting you know when your product has been dispatched.

I was expecting my order to take a while, each item is created to order afterall, but my items only took a couple of days to get here. When they did, they were nicely packaged – protective and secure without being ridiculously awkward to open!

And once opened, wow. I was so pleased with how they turned out!

The photo mugs themselves feel like good quality. I like that they’re proper mugs but not too chunky and they don’t look cheap.

The printed designs came out exactly as I hoped they would. It’s good to know that the colour of your photos or designs won’t look hugely different once printed onto your chose product.

Creating gifts this way has the advantage of being unique to each recipient. Each photo mug has been created with a friend in mind (or my hubby, I couldn’t leave him out).

Closer to Christmas, I think it’d be nice to fill each photo mug with some mini homemade shortbread biscuits and wrap in cellophane to complete the gift. You could also try filling with marshmallows for a hot chocolate lover or even wrap a mug along with a mini bottle of liqueur – Baileys Latte anyone?

With so many stocking stuffer options available on the Snapfish site I expect I’ll be heading back soon to do even more Christmas shopping. I have my eyes on these modern acrylic desk prints for Grandparents and I think these coasters would be cute for friends moving to a new home!

Do you have any tips for creating personalised Christmas gifts?

Don’t forget to tag your photo stories on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest with @snapfishIE and #snapfishie. We love seeing what you create.