CalendarwizardPersonalised Photo Calendars

Put your Photos in the picture!

2011-03-22T07:53:00.000-07:00

Frame your favourite Photo of you and your mum and create the perfect Mother's Day gift that lasts all year!

Want funky images? Adding a simple boarder to your photo can quickly turn a standard picture into a modern masterpiece and with so many frames to choose from your sure to find the perfect one. Here my favourite sites for frame, they look perfect on all our personalised calendars, dairies and notebooks! The perfect Gift for your mum this Mother’s Day!

Add a traditional frame or a funky flower frame, perfect for framing your favourite photo of you and your mum!

There are loads of different frames to try, take a look at www.picnik.com

Use Photo Collage to create the perfect Photo Gift

2011-03-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

So what if you’ve got loads of photos? You want to create a montage on each month of your favourite Photos - Maybe it’s a wedding or a holiday or just lots of family photos? Fotoflexer.com allows you to create collages of your photos which you can simply save out and then upload to your calendar. These photo collages work best on our Large Photo Calendars as there is more space for the photo, but if you want to include two photos on one month then all our photo products work really well, even our photo Notebooks!

Use the basic tab to create your collage. Choose the number of photos that you want to include and the upload them. You can amend the space of the collage and change the spacing between the photos by using the slide rule to the left hand side - ‘spacing’. Amend the position of the photo and choose which part you want to 'show'. As you can see I have cropped the image to show the two boys with the ice-creams.

There are lots of formats to try and you can include and as many photos as you want. Perfect for creating a montage of photos for your photos gift.

Top Tip: Make sure that the final collage is the right proportions to fit on your photo calendar, landscape works best on most calendars.

Adding text to your Photos

2011-03-08T07:17:00.000-08:00

Capturing a special moment in time and adding them to a calendar with a different photo for every month creates the perfect gift, but what if you want to add a caption? You can simply add text your photos, reminding you when it was taken or you could even add speech bubbles to make the photo more comical. Using Fotoflexer.com allows to simply adding text to your photo to create the perfect addition to your photo gift. Simply upload a photo and then add the text you want, you can see below that they work really well and can be quite amusing!

Choose the font, text style colour of text along with size. Move the text around to best suit your photo, www.picnik.com also allows you add text to your calendar, but allow more complex editing such as fading the text and giving it transparency, which can make your caption more of a feature of the photo. Perhaps combine your text with another effect to create a great unique photo for your photo calendar or diary. The perfect gift for Mum this Mother’s Day!

Little Tweaks make the perfect Pic! Part two – Dark Photos

2011-03-01T04:31:00.001-08:00

We used pixlr.com and looked at amending photos simply by changing the Hue, saturation or lightness of the photo in the adjustments tab. This week, what do you do if your photos too dark?

So you’re thinking ‘My Photo’s too dark and I’m no photo editing wiz!’ No problem! ‘Autofix’ quickly sorts the issue. I used fotoflexer.com on this image and although it might still need a little work you can see the change in the photo immediately.

Your photo will automatically be amending to ‘correct’ the lighting. As you can see the previously grey sky is now white and the image is slightly darker.

With one click you can make the smallest changes and create the perfect photo calendar. All our photo calendars and diaries are printed digitally so if you photo are too dark you may be disappointed with the final product so this week’s Top Tip is always make sure your photos are light enough on your computer before uploading

Mums the Word – Photo gifts from £3.99!

2011-02-22T04:04:00.000-08:00

With Mother’s Day fast approaching, here at calendarwizard we're thinking of perfect gifts for Mums.

Traditional Mother’s days gifts are great, flowers and chocolates are never turned down, but as we’re battling the new year diet , chocolates aren’t going to help and flowers never seem to last very long. That why this year you should give a gift that ticks all the boxes and is one of a kind, just like your mum!

Photo gifts are becoming popular alternative gifts to those traditionally shop bought presents. They’re thoughtful and beautiful as well as guaranteeing to make your mum smile.

Transforming your photos into stunning photo gifts is an easy way of creating a unique present that your mum will treasure. Collect your favourite photos; those ones taken on holiday or at Christmas – There are always loads on your computer or even grab some from facebook! Upload your photos quickly and easily to calendarwizard and if you’ve chosen a photo notebook or diary, you can even choose a diary cover design. Add holidays and events in the personalised date section of your creation – even add her birthday for that added wow factor! They’ll arrive with 5 working days ready for your expertise wrapping or you can send it straight to your mum!

Create perfect personalised photo gifts Mum will love at Calendarizard! We love the Photo Notebook – It’s perfect for shopping lists, little memos and even doodling while watching Corrie!

You do have to be organised and get ordering before the big day, as each photo calendar, diary and notebook is printed especially for the recipient. But this just shows you’ve made an effort and not a last ditched attempt with petrol station flowers on the way over to hers on Sunday.

Last order dates for delivery before Mothers day is 30^th March – Midnight. We’re helping you save the pennies too. Save 20% off all calendarwizard photo gifts by entering code 260209 at your basket

Little Tweaks make the perfect Pic! Part one Light Photos

2011-02-18T07:18:00.000-08:00

Usually your photos are nearly perfect. You just want a little tinkle and tweak and it would be perfect! Often changing the Hue, saturation or lighten of a photo can be all it takes. A small change could make all the difference to your photo gift.

I’ve chosen some stills from our recent Personalised Photo Calendar video and this week I’ll show you one way to quickly tweak your photos. So this is the photo I’ll use this week. So your photo’s a little lighter than you wanted – but don’t worry, simply upload it to pixlr.com

As you can see my photos a little bit light and I want to darken it a little so you can see the colours better. So I upload my photo; select Adjustments and then Hue and Saturation.

By amending the lightness to -10 you can see the difference that it makes to photo. My image is now perfect and ready to use on my Photo Notebook. I simply save the image to my desktop ready to upload and use on my photo notebook at calendarwizard

Calendarwizard's Tuesday Top Tip

2011-02-15T08:33:00.000-08:00

Photo gifts are perfect for creating a present that last all year, but what if your photo you want to use isn’t quite right? It’s too light, too dark or just needs a quick touch- up before you upload it to your calendar, dairy or notebook? Here at calendarwizard we’ll post our top tips on how to create the perfect photo by using simply easy photo editing software. The best bit is, that like calendarwizard photo uploading - they‘re all FREE!

I’ll use real photos that are taken from our recent Personalised Photo Calendar video and show you simply ways to improve your photos or create fun pictures that create quirky gifts for friends and family. Top Tip: Try it on your facebook photos.

Next week- Little editing tweaks to create the perfect Pic!

Calendarwizard video shows how to create a photo calendar and diary

2010-11-30T04:02:00.000-08:00

I understand that I’m biased but for me photo calendars and diaries are some of the cleverest things to result from linking a website to a digital printer, at Penwizard we call this linking ‘web to print and it’s how we make our living.

I still can’t believe how many people take photos with a digital camera but never look at them again. To be fair we are all slightly guilty of this when the photos are spread between a multitude of home computers and other devices. I secretly admire those people that have their photos neatly indexed on a photo storage website but I also wonder when they have the time to sort it all out. So for most of us we’ve taken loads of photos during the various events of 2010 but have little idea where they are and therefore never look at them again.

So it’s still pioneering when you can get your photos from your digital camera to a properly indexed set of folders and in one location. But they can still remain unseen except for the occasional airing on the computers screen saver. Hence my point about photo calendars and diaries, once you’ve created your photo product then a different photo is seen for each month of the year!

So why isn’t everyone buying a photo calendar for their home and others as presents for their family? Why hasn’t everyone who uses a diary got a photo diary with photos of the events in the year to make them smile? All these photo products can include those important birthdays and anniversaries!

Here’s my theory! Firstly, I still don’t think many people know that photo calendars exist, even when I talk to close friends I get the response ‘what a great idea, how do I buy one’. Which brings me to my second theory; even when people know about photo calendars many of them still don’t know how to create one! It’s not that surprising as Microsoft Windows is hardly the most intuitive of operating systems. A straw poll of friends and family suggests that 75% of them don’t even know how to create a folder and move photos from one location to another.

So we thought we’d have a go at giving people a hand with creating a photo calendar and we’ve produced a tutorial video which is posted on YouTube and http://www.calendarwizard.co.uk/info/help.htm I’m realistic enough to understand that informing the total UK population about photo calendars is a step too far! But at least those customers that do manage to visit our website can have a bit of a hand.

We’ve designed all our own photo products and built www.calendarwizard.co.uk so that the products are hopefully easy to use. Again I’m biased but I think our family photo calendar is very clever in allowing a separate column for each family member and is unique to calendarwizard. Our new case bound photo diaries are also ground breaking and very easy to create.

The more innovative the product the more support the customer requires, hence the launch of our video. Please have look and give us your thoughts!

Unique Wedding Favours

2010-10-08T08:35:00.000-07:00

Photos are a great way to capture the magic of a wedding. Transform Wedding day photos into beautiful wedding favours for bridesmaids – creating the perfect memento of the special day.

Personalise a notebook by uploading your photo, choosing from a range of beautiful cover designs and adding the bridesmaid’s name. Each gift can be uniquely personalised for each guest, creating a truly unique gift.Turn your big day into an event every month! Calendarwizard’s personalised photo calendars create a great memento of the big wedding day that last throughout the year. Each month is personalised with a wedding photo and there’s even an option to include special personalised dates such as birthdays and first anniversary!

I hate waiting to upload photos once I’ve chosen them!

2010-10-05T04:35:00.000-07:00

It’s hard enough to decide which of my latest batch of photos has captured those important moments in the year but then I have to wait while they upload. Creating a photo calendar or personalised diary can be a time consuming experience on other websites. Sadly we can’t help you decide on your photos however, we can help speed up the photo upload!

We’ve just launched a little ‘widget’ that allows you to select 13 photos in one go and then upload them all while you go and make a cup of tea. We have learnt over the past few years that the most important thing with photo gifts is to keep them simple and quick to create. So hopefully you’ll appreciate our new widget, just click on ‘photo upload’ and you’ll have the option of uploading a single photo or all 13.

If you bought a photo calendar or personalised diary last year then maybe you want to reuse some of those photos, you’ll find them waiting when you log in. We’ve also stored those important events for you to use again, so all those family and friends birthdays that you carefully collected can be used on this year’s calendar.

If you want an even quicker inexpensive gift then don’t forget our photo notebooks are a great buy. It’s so easy, just choose a cover design and upload your photo.

Photos released from pc prison by new concept photo diaries!

2010-09-23T02:23:00.000-07:00

Summers over! Fabulous digital pics languishing on your pc? Set your digital pics free from their pc prison to rampage through and then set up camp in our new photo diary! This year include your favourite holiday and family photos in your diary– upload both digital pics as well as important dates to your unique personalised diary at calendarwizard.co.uk

In collaboration with Letts, calendarwizard have produced a new concept diary where you upload photos and dates to our site and 3 days later we deliver your unique printed diary - a constant reminder of your 2010 magical moments. No more digital black hole for your photos – release them and actually see them in your diary.

Our new personalised photo diary allows you to display 13 of your favourite photo’s and as many personal dates as you like. You need never forget those special birthdays again!

The ‘slim’ is the perfect size to pop in your handbag and if your handbag is big enough upsize to the lovely A5! Choose from a variety of cover options and turn an ordinary diary to an ultra chic handbag must have! Add a super stylish coloured wallet and embossing your name on the front to make it completely unique and yours!

There’s no need to wait for the end of the year to order, they can start in any month so visit www.calendarwizard.co.uk and order yours today.

Photo Diaries and Photo Calendars

2010-09-16T08:15:00.000-07:00

Capture the moment of the season with a Photo Gift! Give your loved one a year they will never forget with a range of Calendarwizard photo diaries and calendars, ensuring your gift will last the whole year. Those special moments of each month or season can be captured quickly and easily on the Calendarwizard website; simply choose your calendar, select those moments that matter most to you, upload the images online and even add your very own personalised dates.

The whole process is simple, quick, and at prices to suit every budget, just a few clicks can create a perfect Christmas gift that will last the whole year.

It's easy to create your own photo calendar at www.calendarwizard.co.uk

by Charlotte Iggulden

Perfect Personalised Calendar Gifts

2010-09-07T06:14:00.000-07:00

It's easy to create your own photo calendar at www.calendarwizard.co.uk

Photo Academic diary - The personalised addition to going ‘back to school’

2010-08-10T06:13:00.001-07:00

With the start of new school get organised with the new photo academic diary from www.calendarwizard.co.uk, which includes your favourite photos as well as essential dates such as term times, holidays, exams and birthdays in a stylish diary. This trendy academic diary in a week to view format is perfect for busy students, parents and teachers. Simply upload your favourite photos, add your name and choose from a range of funky cover designs, then add those essential dates.

Our photo note books are the perfect accompaniment for your photo diary and great for quick notes and doodling. Simply drag and drop your favourite photo from your diary onto your photo notebook, choose from a range of trendy cover designs, and add your name. Your notebook and dairy will be printed and dispatched within 5 days.

Create your photo academic diary and photo notebook at www.calendarwizard.co.uk

READER OFFER - 15% off your photo academic diary using code 986532 at your basket until 30.09.10

Perfect Personalised Photo Wedding Favours and Gifts

2010-08-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

Finding unique favours for your wedding guests can be a dilemma but Calendarwizard.co.uk makes it easy with their range of personalised photo gifts.

By simply uploading your favourite Wedding photos and adding personal dates such as birthdays, anniversaries and Your Wedding Day to your calendar - you are able to create the perfect memento of your Big Day that lasts throughout the year. Calendars can be personalised with 13 different photos and as many personal dates as you wish - making perfect favours for wedding guests and Friends and Family.

Calendarwizard's photo notebooks make perfect favours for your wedding guest and are great for quick notes. Simply drag and drop your favourite photo from your calendar onto your note book, choose from a range of trendy cover designs, and add the recipient’s name.

Make your happy memories last with a personalised photo gift from Calendarwizard. Personalised photo calendars and notebooks make unique gifts for friends and family that can be treasured all year round.

Visit www.calendarwizard.co.uk to order your personalised photo Wedding favour calendars!

Save up to £5 - Exclusive offer 25% discount on your Wedding Calendars at www.calendarwizard.co.uk with voucher 232621 at your basket

Turn your photos into presents!

2010-08-04T09:01:00.000-07:00

Turn your photos into presents! It's easy to create a Personalised Photo Calendar, Photo Diary or Photo Notebook...

Simply select from our range of photo gifts and then add your own photos to create a unique personalised gift! You can even add names and personal dates to make each one special!

Even Arthur the dog is on YouTube!

2010-08-04T04:25:00.000-07:00

You’ve met Arthur, he’s the family pet and was wearing a hat in last week’s blog on photo storage. I’ve recently been focusing my thoughts on digital cameras because they provide content for our photo calendar and personalised diaries but actually there’s been a revolution in video which I completely missed. Most good cameras can now generate quality video content and the latest professional digital video cameras are even more fantastic. Gone are the days of needing a complete film crew with lighting and even a catering van to film an advert. You just need a cameraman and director to create quality video that looks great on a website but is also TV broadcast quality.

How does video relate to my dilemma when selling a photo calendar? How can we explain to a prospective customer about buying a calendar and how to upload photos? When I heard that YouTube was the second most active search engine behind Google I decided action was required. It seems obvious now but a video is a simple way of explaining products to customers, however providing video content two weeks ago seemed like a big leap for Calendarwizard.

So last Saturday morning found me dressed up as Father Christmas pretending that Christmas 2010 had already arrived. Saturday was very hot and I had on the complete Santa Claus kit including beard and wig, I’m presently losing weight for a triathlon but hadn’t planned to lose it all in one morning sweating. We also videoed a water fight, skateboarding in the park, on the beach, and even Halloween, all possible magic moments in a year that could be included in a calendar. How does one decide what constitutes a magical moment? For example, my family gets a large personalised calendar every year and this month’s image has the family dressed up in swimsuits designed for protection from jelly fish stings, not flattering and definitely embarrassing but a magical moment

However, back to Arthur and his appearance on YouTube. Our number one subject for calendars is families and number two is pets, so Arthur was commissioned to appear in the park with the family and a chase a ball. Never work with children and animals! After two hours of Arthur and the children fighting we finally got some video and you can see a short clip on YouTube including me in the Father Xmas suit. The complete 90 second version will be launched later this year as part of our Xmas promotion.

Checkout the lastest Calendarwizard video on YouTube

Calendarwizard Photo Calendars

2010-07-29T05:33:00.000-07:00

Calendarwizard Photo Calendars Trailers - Create unique photo gifts!

Where did I put my photos?

2010-07-26T07:04:00.000-07:00

We had two computer crashes last week, one was a mother board failure on my wife’s Sony laptop - write off! The other was an ongoing Microsoft lock up- never sure whether this is really hardware or software.

Anyway the outcome is a need to move our family photo folders. I don’t know if we are unusual but we’ve ended up with duplicate folders and have never cleaned up the original folders to remove the rubbish pictures. So the task gets ever more complicated. You might think that being in the photo calendar and diary business that everything would be slick in the Adey household, well its not and the problem seems to be getting worse. I’m sure there is some clever software out there to compare and manage our photos but I’ve never managed to use it effectively and every time we get a new smart phone or digital camera then someone loads some more useless photo management software.

I console myself that I can’t be unique and others even less technical must find photo storage to be hell. I’m not about to provide an answer but I hope one day to have one of those Eureka moments like the first time I used Google. So someone will make a lot of money in the next few years sorting out all this photo storage.

Facebook is great and I look at more photos from my family and friends than I do anywhere else, but the images are low resolution and are no answer to my storage problem. Or maybe this is the answer and that we don’t really all need to keep high resolution images? It seems counter to the present strategy of camera manufacturers which is to create ever high resolution images and it’s only getting worse with high resolution video content. I know all you Apple types use iPhoto but I’m not about to change platforms and I don’t think the bulk of the population will.

It will be interesting to watch the impact of the iPad and iPhone 4 on the photo market, my experience is that dominant standards do occur in maturing markets but we still have some way to go on this one. It’s particularly relevant to my company www.calendarwizard.co.uk as we rely on everyone’s personal photos not being captured on massive and remote servers.

So back to the scrapped laptop and the desktop at the menders. I will continue to struggle by moving ever bigger and duplicated folders between computers. I have considered some network attached storage but it all seems too complicated and I’ve just realised that I actually see most of the family photos on a screen saver when duplication doesn’t matter. Let’s all hope Moore’s law continues to work and I can afford the storage.

Transform your magical Wedding moments into beauiful gifts

2010-07-22T01:59:00.000-07:00

Photos are a great way to capture the magic of a wedding. Transform Wedding day photos into beautiful wedding favours for bridesmaids – creating the perfect memento of the special day.

Personalise a Photo Notebook by uploading your photo, choosing from a range of beautiful cover designs and adding the bridesmaids name. Each gift can be uniquely personalised for each guest, creating a truly unique Wedding gift.

Turn your big day into an event every month! Calendarwizard’s Personalised Photo Calendars create a great memento of the big wedding day that last throughout the year. Each month is personalised with a wedding photo and there’s even an option to include special personalised dates such as birthdays and first anniversary!

Photo Wedding Gifts www.calendarwizard.co.uk

Unique Holiday Gift Idea – Personalised photo calendars!

2010-06-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

Calendarwizard produce a range of personalised photo calendars; simply upload your favourite Holiday snaps and add your personal dates such as birthdays and anniversaries. Calendars start in any month and make the perfect memento of your holiday that lasts throughout the year.

Prices and Sizes

Family Calendar A3 - £19.99 (Available from July)

Mini Desk Calendar A6 - £5.99 (Available from July)

Slim Calendar - £9.99

Desk Calendar A5 - £10.99

Wall Calendar A4 - £14.99

Large Wall Calendar A3 - £19.99

Desk planner – 10.99

Slim Photo Diary from £12.99

A5 Photo Diary from £14.99

Get your calendars now from www.calendarwizard.co.uk

New Personalised Baby Gifts for Baby’s First Year

2010-05-28T02:20:00.000-07:00

Your beautiful baby photos can now be seen thoughout the year in your own personalised photo calendar or diary

Upload your favourite photos to your calendar at www.calendarwizard.co.uk and even include all your important dates, such as baby’s 1^st birthday, and calendars start in any month so make great unique gifts for any time of year. There’s even enough space to write key events on your calendar such as baby first word, first step and first hair cut, making the perfect memento for you and your child.

Photo diaries work around you and start in any month you want. Simply upload your photos and add all your important dates, including birthdays and anniversaries. Choose from a range of beautiful diary covers and even add a personalised diary wallet to complete your diary

New! Photo notebooks with your baby's photo on the cover. Include your baby's photo on the cover of this beautiful but practical notebook - great for all your little notes, to-do lists and shopping lists. These cute notebooks are practical too coming in two sizes, A5 and A6 which are perfect for your handbag!

Calendars from £9.99, Diaries from £12.99 and Notebooks from £4.99 all available at www.calendarwizard.co.uk

Photo Wedding Calendars

2010-03-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

Personalise your own photo calendar or diary at www.calendarwizard.co.uk and transform your favourite photos into beautiful photo gifts, for your Wedding. Personalised diaries and calendars make perfect gifts throughout the year as they can start in any month. Simply upload up to 13 photos, which feature throughout your calendar or diary with a different photo for every month and include your personal dates, like your first anniversary.

Personalised Diary Gift for Mother's Day

2010-03-03T02:15:00.000-08:00

Treat your mum this Mother’s Day with a special gift that lasts the whole year through. Personalised diaries make a perfect gift for busy mums and can start in March or any other month. You can upload up to 13 photos, which will feature throughout the diary with a different photo for each month. Include as many special dates as you wish, adding birthdays, anniversaries and special events. To make the gift even more personalised, add a wallet to protect the diary and have your mother’s name embossed on the cover. Diaries are from £12.99