Unique photo gifts?

December 10, 2013 4:51 PM

Last Christmas I gave my parents a snowglobe with a family picture inside and they flipped their shit. What non-traditional photo-object can I get them this year?

They have tons of framed pictures. They hate the aesthetic of those collage frames you can buy at wal mart or michaels.
Ideas I have come up with -
Photo magnets
Photo mousepad
That's it. I'm looking more for photo decor (snowglobe) rather than for a useful object with a photo on it (mousepad) but all suggestions are welcome. Bonus would be an object ready made for putting a photo inside as I'm not so into DIY, but again, open to anything.

posted by pintapicasso to Shopping (16 answers total)

How about a hunk of acrylic with a laser-etched photo? Or wood?
posted by hydrophonic at 5:05 PM on December 10, 2013

viewmaster!
posted by koroshiya at 5:06 PM on December 10, 2013 [6 favorites]

You can make a calendar where you have a picture for each month. Places like Kinko's will make it for you if you give them the pictures, or you can of course do it yourself if you do that sort of thing on a printer. Or you could do a calendar that has all the months on one big page and just one big picture on top. Think about the calendars that grocery and other stores hand out for free this time of year.

Here's a company that does this, Snapfish.
posted by DMelanogaster at 5:16 PM on December 10, 2013

Calendar made from family photos?
posted by chaiminda at 5:16 PM on December 10, 2013

Shutterfly and Things Remembered have some nice options. I think the blankets and iphone cases look great.
posted by acidic at 5:23 PM on December 10, 2013

Ooh, also games! The memory one looks good.
posted by acidic at 5:29 PM on December 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Coffee mug!
posted by bq at 5:33 PM on December 10, 2013

Someone gifted me a personalized Rubik's Cube--'twas really cute.

I've also printed photos on mini throw pillows. I have a set with my closest friends' portraits in a Brady-Bunch-Family-Style eyeing each other.
posted by inevitability at 5:35 PM on December 10, 2013

Nthing calendar. My brother gave my mother one with photos of her grandchild (in bathing suit in July, with a pumpkin for October, etc.) and it was a huge hit.
posted by southern_sky at 5:35 PM on December 10, 2013

I once had a jigsaw puzzle made from a meaningful family photo for a Christmas gift, and it was very well received.
posted by Empidonax at 5:50 PM on December 10, 2013

Lenticular prints? It was an FPP this week.
posted by mhz at 6:00 PM on December 10, 2013

If you're into DIY, try a photo transfer onto wood. Very cool.

Link:
http://content.photojojo.com/diy/diy-photo-transfers-on-wood
posted by jrchaplin at 6:48 PM on December 10, 2013

Yeah, I just came in to mention using laser cutters/engravers. You can take about any digital image and put it in metal or wood.
posted by klangklangston at 8:34 PM on December 10, 2013

The MeFi Mall is back again this year, and anastasiav is selling customized candles again! I got one last year for my mother with a photo of my mother, my sisters, and me. Anastasiav was incredibly helpful with getting the colors right (we're a family of ghostly pale ladies). Very talented, and the product was Beautiful! My mother loved it! Other members of my family will be getting other photo candles as soon as I get un-lazy enough to pour through the old albums.
posted by MuChao at 8:53 PM on December 10, 2013

You could turn a photo into a paint-by-number kit for them to paint?
posted by W.S (disambiguation) at 10:47 PM on December 10, 2013

I used shutterfly (above) the last two years, recommend them highly.
posted by canoehead at 10:41 AM on December 11, 2013