I am genuinely completely obsessed with photos.
Taking them, sharing them on social media, and displaying them around my home. You name it, and if it's photo-based them I'm interested.
Being surrounded by the smiling faces of the people I love and having photos everywhere to remind me of truly happy memories is so important to me - without a doubt my photos are my most treasured possession.
Not only do I display them all over my home, I also store and catalogue old photographs. I'm a stickler for organisation and order, so a while ago I went through every photograph I own and organised them into themes/folders. They now live in an old recipe divider tin where I can access them quickly and add more photos with ease.
Everyone catalogues their photographs, right? ;-)
Stating the obvious with the label, I know!
As well as storing my photographs to have a peek through on a rainy day, I also like to display as many as I can around my home. I try to present my photos in various different ways: from conventional photo frames, to door hanging photo wallets, and washing lines of small prints. These days, not many people actually print their photographs - so often our images are just virtual - on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, so I make a concerted effort to get my very favourite images printed and then use them to prettify the walls of my home.
My Kitchen Pantry Door - A Half Door Photo Pocket
Photo canvases in my living room.
A full door photo pocket in my living room.
Over the years I've used many photo printing services - from shops on the high street, big online retailers to small online companies with a point of difference: I've had my photos printed as square prints, traditional prints, onto canvases, into photo books, onto wrapping paper - I even had a mouse mat (remember them!?) and a set of coasters printed with personal photos many moons ago. There's so many wonderful things that can be done with our images these days - but at my core I'm a traditionalist and I don't think you can beat a good old paper print.
When Hayley from ReallyReallyDesign asked me to review another item from her Etsy shop, I jumped at the chance to review her polaroid-style photo prints ("Fauxlaroids" if you will). I made the most of the opportunity to update my walls with some recent photographs from our holiday to Hopton, and some other recent images of The Bertster.
[If you missed my last review from ReallyReallyDesign check it out here: I ReallyReally Love Tea: Quirky Word Banner Review]
On the ReallyReally Etsy store you can order either 12, 24 or 48 polaroid style prints:
12 photos cost £7.24
24 photos cost £14.48
48 photos cost £26.33
Once you have ordered from the Etsy store you email your photo choices (from any digital source) to the ReallyReally Design email address - who will then send them to print. Easy peasy!
Your photos are then professionally printed on thick, glossy card stock, before being gift wrapped as standard and then sent on their way.
The dimensions of the prints are 85mm × 105mm with a printed area of 75mm × 75mm.
The polaroid-style shape means that once your photos arrive you could even scribble a little caption underneath your photo! How cool!
I eagerly awaited the delivery of my prints (I opted for 24 different images) - they arrived quickly, and came beautifully gift wrapped - making them a really great gift option (you could give a set of photos with some coloured bakers twine and a set of mini pegs as a 'DIY Photo Washing Line' kit).
I was blown away by the quality of my prints: each photo is printed on really thick card with a glossy finish, and the image quality is so bright and clear. I love the polaroid-style shape and little white bottom perfect for caption writing.
As soon as they arrived I set to work using them around my home.
Firstly, I selected my favourites and displayed them on my study wall using bakers twine and mini pegs. My study is where I work, and where I write all my blog posts, so it is really nice to fill the room with things that make me feel happy, calm and inspired.
Disclaimer: I was sent a set of polaroid-style photos for the purpose of this review. All words, images and opinions are my own.
I eagerly awaited the delivery of my prints (I opted for 24 different images) - they arrived quickly, and came beautifully gift wrapped - making them a really great gift option (you could give a set of photos with some coloured bakers twine and a set of mini pegs as a 'DIY Photo Washing Line' kit).
I was blown away by the quality of my prints: each photo is printed on really thick card with a glossy finish, and the image quality is so bright and clear. I love the polaroid-style shape and little white bottom perfect for caption writing.
My fab "fauxlaroid" prints!
As soon as they arrived I set to work using them around my home.
Firstly, I selected my favourites and displayed them on my study wall using bakers twine and mini pegs. My study is where I work, and where I write all my blog posts, so it is really nice to fill the room with things that make me feel happy, calm and inspired.
My polaroid-style prints hanging on bakers twine.
Such incredible image quality and such dinky little images - anything miniature is so appealing to me!
I also added some of my prints to the mini bunting hanging across the dresser in my dining room.
I love how 'busy' and full up of pretty things my dining room is - a homage to all things vintage, biscuit, baking, tea and cake!
It was fun to write captions under some of my images, so I don't forget those extra details - like dates and place names.
Finally I used a couple of my favourite 'fauxlaroids' to fill some smaller frames that I'd not gotten a chance to yet. Because of the small 75mm x 75mm image size they are perfect for smaller projects like mini frames, collages, scrapbooks and albums.
Using my polaroid-style prints from ReallyReallyDesign to fill smaller frames around my home.
Look at that cheeky face! I ReallyReally do love fauxlaroids!
I would completely recommend the ReallyReally Design photo printing service - the photos are terrific quality, great value for money and such a versatile product. I will definitely continue to use the ReallyReally store for all of my photo printing needs.
Bye for now...
Mrs B
xxx
