It’s October And Holiday Shopping Starts Now!

I hate to do this. I know it's not even Halloween yet. But . . . I'm already giving a Tennis Fixation Holiday Gift Guide pick. I wouldn't do this if I wasn't really happy with this particular item. But I am so I am.

First, just to be clear, I never recommend anything to my Tennis Fixation followers unless (1) it's tennis-related and (2) I've tried it out myself. While my definition of “tennis-related” is pretty loose (remember when I recommended Stella McCartney flip flops for post-tennis relaxation?), even I wasn't quite sure how I could tie tennis into an offer I received from Easy Canvas Prints to try out their product.

What Easy Canvas Prints does is turn your photos to canvas. They offered me a chance to get an 11″ x 14″ canvas print with whatever I wanted on it. I really couldn't see what this had to do with tennis. I certainly didn't want a large canvas print of myself playing tennis (Yikes!). And I wasn't too sure what my friends and family would think of a large canvas print of someone like Roger Federer or the Bryan Brothers hanging in my house (“She may be taking this tennis thing just a little too far.”).

But then I came up with the brilliant idea of getting a canvas print made of my 11-year-old baby, who has taken up tennis in the last few months. And here are the fabulous results! First, the full-on shot. Please do not look too closely at his backhand grip (although it really seems to be highlighted in this photo):

This is just a regular old digital photo that my husband took. I downloaded it and edited it a little bit with on-line photo editor Picnik (very, very easy to use), cropping it, softening it and making the optic yellow of his shirt and the tennis balls a little brighter. I then put it through the Easy Canvas Prints site and got a great preview of just what it was going to look like before I ordered it. Just so you know – their site is very easy to navigate and they offer all kinds of options and upgrades to make your canvas print look incredible.

Now, here is the cool part. Take a look from the side:

See how the canvas print wraps around the frame? Isn't that cool? It looks like I really made an effort in getting this done. And take a look at the texture:

I hope you can see that there is some real canvas texture here. (Again – ignore the backhand grip. We are working on that.)

I really love how this came out and have hung it right out in the family room for everyone to see. My son is very proud that his picture has such a place of honor (especially since my other two kids have no such honor but that's what they get for not playing tennis).

So here's my thought – it's October so you have plenty of time before the holiday shopping season heats up. Wouldn't this make a great gift to someone special? You've got plenty of time to find that memorable photo and turn it into something really unique and special by visiting Easy Canvas Prints. And, should you actually get a canvas print done with a tennis theme, please, please let me know and send me a photo. I would love to see that.

© Kim Selzman 2011 All Rights Reserved