Best Valentine's Day Custom Gifts and Hottest Deals

Valentine's Day is right around the corner (February 14, 2015)! Are you looking for a gift for that special someone who already has everything? Are you looking for something that's original and memorable? Well, one type of gift that I love to give and receive are personalized custom photo gifts. (Yes, I'm sure you're shocked at my recommendation...) I've taken a survey of several companies offering photo gifts and poked around for the latest and/or best on my list!

#1. Photo Canvas (Cost: $20 and up) (b/t/w Groupons can save you up to 79% off!)

Photo canvas prints make a great gift, and are one of the easiest and quickest gifts you can make. It only takes one photo! You can also opt for a collage of photos and many companies are now providing ready made layouts, so all you have to do is pick your favorite design and add your photo. My favorite canvas is the one I made of Photo Book Baby's growth over the his first 12 months. That one always gets compliments from guests at our home and as you can see, my little guy loves it too.



Here's a cute Valentine's themed collage canvas from Photobook America:



Another idea I love is a wall display of canvases. When I think Valentine's Day, I think of "cute" (yes I may use the word cute a lot in this post!) and what could be cuter than some mini canvases (ones below from Photobook America) displayed in a grouping?  Photobook America has canvases as small as 6" x 6" and Shutterfly and Snapfish have canvases as small as 8" x 10". Smaller canvas are more affordable especially with the deals I've been seeing. Some as low as $10.99!



Possible canvas themes or topics:

1) Favorite photos from the past year;

2) If your recipient is budding photographer surprise him or her by enlarging a favorite one to highlight;

3) Collage of photos of you and your recipient, or of grandparents and grandkids, or of mother and child, father and child etc.

I have all of my canvas deals here, be sure to check my canvas groupons page for even more special deals. Click here for more tips and ideas on how to make your own canvas.

Current Hot Canvas Deals!

1) 50% off all canvas prints at Photobook America and Photobook Canada! Be sure to check out the other ongoing promos on canvases and other gifts too! (Deal ends: 2/23/2015)

2) Shutterfly - Check for the latest special offers

3) Snapfish - FREE 8 x 8 canvas on orders $30 for a future order (Deal ends: 1/31/2015) & 50% off canvases (Deal ends: 1/25/2015)

#2. Photo Calendars (Cost: Under $20 to $30)

Yes, I know the year is already underway, but there are 11 months still to come. Did you know that you can start your calendar any month of the year? So make one that goes from February 2015 to February 2016 (and in some cases you can even make an 18 month calendar!) For a Valentine twist, enter dates that mean something to you and your Valentine: first date, birthdays, engagement, wedding anniversary, honeymoon. Then add the photos to match! You can also create a "12 Reasons Why I Love You" themed calendar. Either way, your loved one will get to enjoy it for a whole year! This calendar at left is from Mixbook - check out more details in my review here.

Current Hot Calendar Deals!

1) Mixbook 40% off all Calendars - Photo Book Girl Exclusive! (code: PBGCAL15) (Deal ends: 2/15/2015)

2) Photobook America - 55% off all calendars (Deal ends 2/23/2015)

3) Snapfish 60% off calendars (Deal ends: 1/25/2015)

4) Shutterfly - Check for the latest special offers

#3. Photo Books (Cost: Softcovers: $2.50 to $12.99; Hardcovers: $16 to $20)

Any photo book you make will be a welcome sight for any recipient, but for Valentine's I especially like the idea of going small. Think of it as an extended Valentine card. Shorter and smaller books are also easier to put together as you can filter out just the very special photos to use. Several companies make mini to small sized books (usually 2 x 3 inches or 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 in size). What's great about this size is you can just put a single photo on each page for an easy layout and you're done. Softcover books work especially well and they're so nice and portable. Grandparents in particular love to have small "brag books" to put in their pockets or purses to show off.

This pocket softcover photo book from Mixbook is 8 x 6 inches and starts at $12.99 (before applicable discounts) for 20 pages.





This mini book from Photobook America is 6" x 6", softcover and 40 pages for $24.00. (Now on sale for 55% off or about $11.00.)



Here's another new Valentine's design "Our Love Diary" from Photobook America.



Several companies have pre-made templates like the ones above so you'll be done in no time!

Also check out the Instagram and Facebook books offered by Blurb. Just let Blurb's software slurp your feed and get an instant gift.



Okay, what if you're the kind of person that likes to make a statement? You can go bigger!

Current Hot Photo Book Deals! (Lots of Photo Book Girl EXCLUSIVES!)

1) AdoramaPix - 30% off 10 x 10 photo books (code: pxpbg1010s) & 40% off 10-page 8x8 photo books (code: px4valpbg) (Deals end: 1/25/2015 & 2/14/2015 respectively)

2) Mixbook - 40% off 8.5 x 8.5 and 11 x 14 photo books (Deal ends: 1/30/2015); & 40% off all books (code: PBGVDAY15) (Deal ends: 2/15/2015)

3) MILK Books - 40% off albums (Deal ends: 1/23/2015)

4) MyPublisher's FREE Extra Pages is back! 100 pages for the price of 20 pages. Nearly 70% in savings! (Deal ends: 1/31/2015)

5) Blurb - 20% off your order of $100+ when you add any two: proline papers, colored end sheets or imagewrap hardcovers (code: PHOTOBKGRL20); 25% on large square or landscape books $100+ (code: PHOTOBKGRL25) (Deals end: 1/27/2015); Blurb - Save 20% no min spending, up to $50 off (code: PBGVALENTINES) (Deal ends: 1/31/2015)

6) Photobook America - 55% off photo books! (Deal ends: 2/23/2015)

7) Shutterfly - Check for the latest special offers

8) Snapfish - 60% off books (Deal ends: 1/25/2015)

You'll find other photo book deals on my constantly updated mega deals page!

Be sure to check out the daily deals Groupon page for more deals on all types of custom photo gifts.

Want to see more gift ideas?

Please note, this post contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and place an order, I may receive a referral fee. Regardless, my views are entirely my own and an honest review is always given.