Review and Giveaway: Expressly Yours (CLOSED)

When searching for gift ideas for family and friends – whether during the holiday season, or any other time of year, one option that always comes to my mind is to search through my photos to see if I have something that the recipient would appreciate. For example, I always try to give pictures of my girls to my mom and my husband’s mom – either just loosely included in a card, or framed if possible. More often than not, I tend to skip the frame though – out of frustration at never being able to find something ‘just right’, that I can afford as well. One option I’ve discovered recently is a company called Expressly Yours, that provides picture frames or photo magnets for just about any occasion that you can think of.

What they are:

Expressly Yours offers a large variety of picture frames, photo magnets, framed wall art, and other gift items. Whether for a specific holiday or a particular recipient in mind, they have an option to meet your needs, from great-grandparent to godparent, parent, aunt or uncle. The frames are made for photos that are 3-1/2” x 5”, while the photo magnets work best with wallet-sized photos. From their website:

At Expressly Yours!® we’ve been manufacturing specialty picture frames for nearly twenty years.  Everything we produce is made locally in the beautiful Pacific Northwest…nothing is imported.

The frames are created by original designs from talented artists which are reproduced on archival cover stock and then hand-assembled on a lightweight yet durable resin easel back. The optional custom-designed gift box makes a terrific presentation. This personalized gift is easy to do and will be truly appreciated.

Every day we are challenged to provide a unique high-quality product… backed up by unparalleled service.  And we always look forward to doing our level best to meet that challenge.

We appreciate the opportunity.

Courtesy of Expressly Yours, we received an assortment of frames and photo magnets to try out and review.

Here’s my take on them:

When I first saw these frames, I was amazed at just how cute they are. And then I went on the website and was completely impressed with just how much of a variety there is to choose from. They have a frame to fit just about any occasion you can think of, including baptism, Halloween, Mother’s or Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, school, Kwaanza, birthday and more. You can also have them personalize a frame with your baby’s name and birth information, which would be such an amazing gift for any new parent. Some of my favorites of the more non-traditional frame sayings are:

• To Daddy on our First Christmas (perfect for families with multiples)
• Holiday Hugs for My Awesome Aunt/Uncle
• If You Think I’m Cute, You Should See My Uncle/Grandpa/Aunt, etc.
• With Love to Nana & Papa (because not everyone has a ‘Grandma’ and ‘Grandpa’)
• I Get My Good Looks From My Foxy Grandma!
• I Lost My First Tooth!

The package that we received contained a large variety of both frames and photo magnets, along with a couple of gift wrappings so I could see how nicely they’re boxed, complete with ribbon and tag:

Once you open the box, the frame is all set to go. All you have to do to put the picture inside is simply snap the plastic ‘trim’ off from around the picture opening on the front of the frame, place the picture inside, underneath the clear plastic protective cover and then press the trim back into place until it snaps. You can replace the picture as often as you would like. The frames can be either hung or they stand alone on a table or desk – there’s a plastic tab that extends outward on the back of the frame to stand it upright. The frames are lightweight but seem to be quite sturdy.

Here are a few of the ones we were sent, along with the photos that I put in them:

I love the bright colors and the graphics are very attractive. There’s a good variety of designs, so whether you’re looking for something cute, pretty or more plain, there are a lot of options to choose from.

We were also sent some of the photo magnets, and I’m going to use several of them as gifts this holiday season. For my middle daughter, who’s been ‘best friends’ with my friend’s daughter practically since they were both born (I already gave it to her, and she’s got it posted on her bulletin board):

For my husband’s parents:

And for my friend, whose littlest boy has blue eyes that almost exactly match the blue of this frame (and yes, I’m giving away the gift here – sorry!):

I really only have one (slight) complaint about these frames – and it’s that every one of them holds a ‘portrait’ or upright photo, with no option to put a ‘landscape’ or sideways photo in there. Since the frames can only be displayed in one direction due to the text and graphics, there’s no way to turn the frame sideways to accommodate a wider photo. In most cases it’s not really a problem – especially since school portraits and most other professional photos tend to be taken in portrait setting anyway, but as an example the photo I really would’ve loved to have put in the ‘Santa & Me’ frame shown above has all 3 of my girls with Santa, but in order to fit them all in the frame, the picture had to be taken in landscape. The picture would only fit in one of these frames if re-sized down considerably.  In general though, since you’re usually buying a frame with a specific photo in mind, I don’t see that being much of an issue.

The bottom line:

The picture frames and photo magnets from Expressly Yours are a wonderful and personal gift option whether for the holidays or any other time of year. With options for all sorts of occasions, there’s sure to be a frame to meet your needs.

Where can you find them?:

You can purchase products from Expressly Yours directly from their website at http://expresslyyours.com. The picture frames range in price from $7.99 and up, and the photo magnets cost $2.99 each. For an extra $3.50 your frame can be gift-wrapped with box and colored ribbon as shown above.

Would you like to try one?:

I have one of the Expressly Yours frames that we were sent to use as a giveaway for a lucky reader. The frame comes wrapped in the box and burgundy ribbon shown above, ready to use as a gift. This particular frame is for godparents with the text, “With Love to my Godparents”, and is ready for your favorite photo to be inserted. Either use as a late holiday gift, save it for another special occasion to come, or give it to them ‘just because’.    If you’d like a chance to win this frame, here are the rules:

1. Enter by visiting the Expressly Yours site and leaving a comment here to let me know which frame design is your favorite. Or if there’s one that you didn’t see but wish they had, you can put that too. Please don’t just say ‘choose me’, or your entry will be discarded.
2. The contest will run until Wednesday, January 6th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be selected through random drawing, contacted by e-mail, listed on this post and also submitted to PRIZEY. US entries only, please.
3. Please leave a valid e-mail address or other way to contact you! If the winner hasn’t responded within 3 days, an alternate winner will be chosen by random drawing.
4. If you’d like extra entries, you can:

• Subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the orange icon in the upper right sidebar) or subscribe via e-mail – leave me a separate comment to let me know.
• Mention this contest on your blog with a link back to this post, and leave a separate comment with the link to your post so I can find it.
• Either Twitter about, ‘Digg’ or ‘Kirtsy’ this post – leave me a separate comment with your username at whichever site(s) you chose (one extra entry per method).
• Become a ‘fan’ of this site on Facebook – there’s a link in the sidebar or you can click here.
• Add my ‘2009 Holiday Gift Guide’ button to your site (the button code is in my sidebar).

So that’s a total of 8 comments/entries if you do all of the extra entry options.

Good luck! 

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED – the random number generator has chosen comment #6 as the winner:

Congratulations to Steve and Nicole (no blog) who said, “I love the God parents one. I think it would be a great gift for Hubby’s sister and husband who will be the God Parents of JoHanna once she is here in March! I Love all of the Holiday fames too!  thanks Nicole“! I will be e-mailing you shortly to work out the details.

This post courtesy of: Expressly Yours. No payment or compensation, other than product samples as described above, was received for this post.