Holiday Photo Gifts with the Walgreens Mobile App

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This holiday season has been like none other for us; hosting family for both Thanksgiving and Christmas is a first in our home.  The last time we saw my family was over a year ago when we traveled up to Canada for my brother’s wedding.  It is such a treat to see our loved ones face to face, instead of having to print photos from Facebook.

Living in a different country from family means we watch the kids grow up via photos.  It’s bittersweet for all of us.  It’s so fun to see all the neat things my nephews and nieces are doing on Facebook and my siblings and parents can catch up with what’s going on with our daughter, but you also realize how much you’re missing.  And when my parents were here for Thanksgiving and I prodded them about what they might like for Christmas, they said being with us for the holiday was present enough.  To be able to wake up and say good morning to Amber and to give her a kiss good night.

That got me an idea in my head just days before they were ready to leave.  I would get them a canvas print done of one of Amber’s senior photos that they could mount in their home, and when they looked at it they could remember the great times they had here while they visited.  But where to get something like that done not just on such short notice, but in a way that my mom wouldn’t see it before I was ready to give it to her?

Walgreens mobile app saved the day!  Since I have access to all Amber’s senior photos on Dropbox, I just downloaded a couple of them to my iPad to make some gifts.  I also have the app on my iPhone and actually started there but I was having a tough time getting my phone to want to download the large picture files.

I always thought canvas prints were really expensive, but Walgreens surprised me on their price.  An 11″x14″ unframed canvas print is $39.99, and I just so happened to notice on their website while browsing that they had 50% off photo gifts the day I did this, so I actually got mine for just $19.99! Oh and did I mention that you can pick up the canvas, in about an hour (!!), at your local Walgreens?  Talk about convenient!

It’s super simple to make a canvas print through the Walgreens mobile app;

1. Just choose Posters and Canvas Prints from the menu. And then Canvas Prints.

2. Use a photo from your camera roll, Facebook, Instagram or take one right then!   

3. Choose your canvas size.  (For a canvas print the resolution of the photo must be high, so certain photos that are imported to your phone may get a warning that image quality may not print with the best results, just so you are aware.  I had to experiment with this to get it right.)

4. Review your canvas; this is also when you can reposition your main focus area for the front of the canvas. (The pink line is what will be on front, the outer edges of the photo will be the side wrappings of it.)

5. Choose the number of canvases of this photo you would like, apply any coupon codes you have found online and send it to your local store to print!

My parents also have a wall of 8″x10″ photos of all their grandchildren and so I ordered an additional print made through the app in that size for them to refresh Amber’s frame with an updated picture.

So I created the canvas through the app in the afternoon, right after we had gotten home from some shopping and I had my epiphany of what to get my parents.  My mom thought I was just playing Candy Crush on my iPad as we watched “Love It, Or List It” together .

Amber just so happens to work at a grocery store that is right across the street from Walgreens.  When I went to go pick her up from her shift, I left a little early, popped in at the Walgreens, picked up the canvas and the print, paid for them and was in and out.  True to the signage in the store, I really do think with our photos Walgreens made something special.

I can’t think of anything grandparents like more than custom items made with pictures of their grandkids, and the Walgreens Mobile App and Same Day Pickup makes it easy for you to design, print and pickup a canvas print all on the same day, within hours even.  It’s a perfect way to stop a moment in time, for that last minute photo you took where all the kids are looking at the camera and smiling, or you caught that one precious moment on your smart phone of all devices.

Have you ever used the #WalgreensApp to print pictures? What did you think? Would you use it to make a photo canvas for a gift?

*The awesome senior photos of my daughter were taken by Brandy Arnold of LoudMouth Photography.  If you live in the DFW area and need photos done of your family, check her out.