Picture

CanvasPress.com is an online company that creates photo to canvas masterpieces. When I was offered a 16×20 canvas from one of my own photos it took me more than 2 weeks to choose the perfect picture. I couldn’t decide between pictures of my kids, the entire family or just myself and my husband. I knew this was going to be a treasured heirloom for years to come.

I finally chose the only good picture of myself and my husband from our intimate wedding. Once I had made that decision, which was by far the hardest part of the process, I went to CanvasPress.com. There are 4 thicknesses to choose from. Standard is 3/4 in and then you have 1 1/2, 2, and 3 inch gallery wraps. For this review I was offered the 1 1/2 thickness.

Next choice was the size of the canvas. The company had offered me a 16×20 which one of the smaller sizes, but still a great size for a smaller wall. Sizes start at 8×10 and go up as high as 36×48. These are the standard sizes. There is also a choice for custom which can go much larger and in dimensions that the standard won’t cover.

Now it starts getting more difficult. The decisions I mean, not the process. The border style is your 3rd choice and one that took me a few minutes to decide. CanvasPress.com offers you three choices for your border. I’ll explain below:

Image Wrap-We use the image itself to wrap around the canvas
Mirror Border-The part of the image closest to the edge is copied and flipped around to extend around the edge of the canvas, leaving your image cropped the way you want.
Color Border-Your image will fill the front of the canvas completely and a solid color will
create the border. Select black, white or custom.

I had a hard time deciding between the image wrap or the mirror border. They both sounded great. I finally decided that the image wrap was the best bet for the picture I chose, which had a lot of different aspects that might not mirror well.

The enhancements were not offered in this review but I can tell you a bit about them. You can choose to make your picture black and white or sepia for a fee of $15. The retouching options are really neat and offer options such as removing something from a picture like the date stamp or red eye, to bringing a picture back to its original likeness if it is very old. Finally if you want to get really fancy an actual artist can paint your photograph so it is actually an oil panting of your picture. They can also create a new masterpiece from your picture by embellishing it. On the CanvasPress.com website you see an airplane in a hangar transformed into an airplane flying in the sky. You can also add text to your canvas.

When my Canvas arrived only days after ordering I ripped the box open so quickly because I was excited to see what it looked like. I hadn’t known what to expect and the wedding picture translated really well to the canvas. Keep in mind that it is a photo transferring to canvas, so it is going to look a bit pixelated due to the grain of the canvas. But it also gave it a really authentic look which I love.

Right now I have the chance to offer one of my lucky readers a free 16×20 canvas from CanvasPress.com Read the instructions below to enter.

To Enter (worth one Mandatory entry):

Tell me which picture in your life is so meaningful that you’d choose to make it into a 16×20 canvas to hang up for all to see.

Extra Credit (worth one Separate entry EACH you do):

1. Friend both MySentimentExactLee and CanvasPress on Facebook and then post Win a 16×20 Canvas of your favorite photo on MySentimentExactLee.com” then add this link http://mysentimentexactlee.com/2010/05/canvaspress-com-review-and-giveaway. come back and tell me who you are.

2. Follow both @mysentiment and @canvaspress on Twitter and Tweet “Win a 16×20 Canvas or your favorite picture from @mysentiment and @canvaspress http://tinyurl.com/24nrmt5″ you can do this once a day. Come back and link me each time.

3. Digg, Stumble or Technorati this post by using the Share button on the left. Come back and show me the link for which you did.

4. Follow me via email subscription by using the form on the left. Be sure to verify your subscription!

This contest is open to US Residents ages 18+ only. Contest will run until Monday May 24th 2010 at Midnight EST. Winner has 48 hours to claim their prize. CanvasPress.com is offering one 16×20, 1 1/2″ thick canvas with your choice of border style. Any other enhancements you need are at your own expense.

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2010-06-11 17:28:42 UTC

Congrats Sarah

{ 86 comments }

Lately, almost every night at Midnight EST, far too late for my brain to really preserve any information, I’ve been sitting in on The Stage Right Show on Blog Talk Radio. The Stage Right Show is a talk show hosted by Larry O’Connor thats sole premise is to chat about right wing politics.

You may be wondering why I sit in on such a thing, being a liberal and all. The reason is I have recently met someone who really enjoys challenging my belief system. He also calls me close minded. So I decided to open my mind, broaden my horizons a bit. Between you and me, I don’t understand much of what they say on the show and the parts I understand I don’t usually agree with, but I am learning both sides of the story and it is refreshing. It is empowering to be able to draw your own conclusions and form educated opinions.

However one story they talked about last night really did get my attention. One of the members of the shows chat room, coined The Hollywood Chat Pack, is a gold star mom, meaning she lost a child serving our country. She spoke to us about The Gratitude Project and ThankASolder.net.

The Gratitude Project is meant to tell our troops that we are grateful for all they are doing. This is going to be for all members of the coalition deployed in operations around the world. It is also for all branches of our service. All you need to do is have someone take your picture with the words Thank You somehow incorporated. You can make a sign, draw on yourself, create a craft with your children, spell it out in t-shirts or whatever else you can think of to make it creative.

I want to get as many people as possible to support this amazing cause. So often people want to help but they don’t have the financial means to do so. This costs you no money, just be creative, take a picture, send it in. It is that simple.

I’m going to run a contest for a $25 gift card to Restaurant.com. I want you to follow the rules on ThankASoldier.net and then instead of submitting the picture to them I want you to post it here on my site in the comments section. At the end of the contest I will choose a winner via Random.org and I will send all the pictures to my friend so she can send them to the soldiers.

This contest is going to be for US Residents ages 18+ only. Someone under 18 can be in the picture but someone 18+ needs to submit. You have until Sunday the 21st to submit your picture. Like I said, be creative, have fun and remember how meaningful this will be for someone who misses their own loved ones.

In order to post a picture in the comments you are welcome to simply post a link to the picture uploaded somewhere else on the web.

*This is a private contest and in no way affiliated with Thankasoldier.net

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2010-03-19 12:49:38 UTC

Congrats Tina! Winner was drawn from the 4 entries, not from the 9 comments.

{ 9 comments }