This review is not directly on point with making photo books, but I’m a sucker for personalized gifts and anything “techie”, so I couldn’t pass it up!
Snapily is an easy to use website that offers 3D effects on a variety of products such as invitations, business cards, flat cards, greeting cards, notebooks and even scrapbook pages. It’s extremely eye-catching, different and affordable. For example a custom greeting card with envelope is $3.99. That’s not bad at all for a customized card, considering I’ve spent more than that on a nice store-bought card. In my experience, friends and family treasure anything personalized rather than the average card which is likely to get thrown away.
This type of effect would also result in an eye-catching invitation for the non-traditional bride, or a save-the-date card or birth announcement. I wish I had an upcoming party so I could have an excuse to try these invitations! At $2.00 each and with volume discounting, that’s not a bad price for an invitation.
I made a sample card for fun below with a photo of my favorite pug and my favorite stingray. You can click to view the effect.
What’s nice is that you can send this animated version for free to anyone via email, or post it on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress etc…
The animation preview may not show the effect as clearly as the end product, but the idea is that when the card is moved, it will transition from the first image to the second image. The process is called lenticular printing. It’s not really a new technology, but the average consumer’s ability to customize this type of printing surely is. My earliest recollection of seeing one of these cards is at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box, but now, you can make your own!
You can also personalize the text and you have a few choices of fonts to choose from.
The templates provided for the greeting cards are a bit cheesy, as are most templates for photo books, but you can choose to use your own photos/designs to make your own cards by choosing the flat card option. This allows you to add two photos that will “flip” and then a personalized message on the back. I would choose this if I were making a card for someone and it’s not hard to do.
Other customizable styles allow you to try your hand at 3D and morphing effects. The 3D effect allows you to select the areas of your photo to which you want to apply the 3D effect. The tool was easy to use, but if you have a small area that you want to project out, the tool is not easy to control as the brush is too broad and it takes in too many pixels. It would help if you could zoom into the photo to get a closer view of your work. Hopefully they will add that feature soon.
I ordered a number of Flat Card samples (and got a bit carried away), but the more you order, you can get 20% to 25% off your entire order. Also, a $20.0o order gets you free shipping.
And, for photobookgirl.com friends, I’m posting this FREE coupon code so you can go to Snapily and print your own FREE Flat Card:
LetMyFriendTry
I ordered mine yesterday and I should have the order in about 5 to 7 business days. I’ll be sure to post when my package arrives! If you try it, please comment about your experience with Snapily.
Is this coupon code still valid for a free 3D card from Snapily?
Rivka, you could try it – it’s a bit old, but I may be able to find another one for you or a promo. I’ll check…
This Snapily promo code will get you $2 off any order, which will give you about 50% off – depending on what you choose. Promo code is: HOT2OFF
okay! I can’t wait to try it. This looks so cool.