What a custom photo blanket actually is
A custom photo blanket is a soft fleece blanket with your own photo printed across the full surface. The print sits in the fabric rather than on top of it, so the colour holds through the washing machine and the image does not crack after a winter on the couch. You do not design one from scratch. At CoolGift the layouts already exist, so you upload a picture, type a name or a date, and your version is finished in a few minutes, the same way the rest of our gifts with a photo are made. That is the whole trick behind a personalised photo blanket: the object itself is completely normal, and the picture printed on it belongs to one household only.
Which photo works on a photo blanket
Use one photo, taken close, with the faces near the middle. The file matters more than people expect. A picture forwarded through a chat app has been compressed twice already and goes soft the moment it is printed a metre wide, so upload the original from the camera roll instead. Faces that fill the frame still read from the doorway, while a wide holiday landscape with three small figures in it disappears into the pattern. Leave a little air around heads and feet as well, because the edge of the blanket is stitched and the last centimetre of the print curls over it.
Which size of personalised blanket to order
Order the large size if the blanket is meant to be used, and the small one only for a baby, a pram or a toddler's bed. The size people regret is the small one, chosen by someone who pictured a bedspread and unwrapped something that covers one adult to the knees. Measure the sofa before you order. A large fleece blanket covers two people and still hangs over the armrest, which is why it ends up in the living room instead of the linen cupboard. Small blankets have their own market, and that market is grandparents ordering for a first birthday.
Who to give a printed photo blanket to
A photo blanket suits anyone who sits still: parents, grandparents, a partner who owns the couch by default, a student moving into a first room. December is the peak, and the photos are almost all grandchildren, ordered by parents who know that a grandmother will use it every single evening. In June the orders shift to pets. A dog photo blanket with the name of the dog underneath is the most requested version we print, and cats follow close behind. It is a lasting present rather than a funny one, so keep the joke for a printed mug and put the picture you genuinely love on the blanket.
Ten photo blanket gift ideas
Start from the relationship rather than from the picture, and the photo chooses itself. The list below is inspiration taken from what people actually order, roughly in order of how often it leaves the workshop. Each of these works as a birthday present, a Christmas gift or a housewarming gift, and not one of them needs a special occasion to make sense.
- A grandchild in close-up, printed for grandparents
- A dog photo blanket with the dog's name underneath
- A wedding photo, given on a first anniversary
- A newborn with the date of birth, in the small size
- A couple's photo for a partner, in the large size
- A team or class picture as a leaving present
- A cat asleep in an absurd position, which is funny and true at once
- A holiday landscape for someone who dislikes portraits
- A child's drawing, scanned and printed exactly as it is
- A photo of the old family home, for parents who are moving
What a personalised photo blanket costs
A printed blanket sits above the cheap end of personalised gifts and below the expensive one. Under 10 euro you are looking at a keyring or a card, and under 25 euro at a small gift such as a printed mug or a cushion cover. Between 25 and 50 euro the standard blanket sizes come into reach, and that is where most orders land. Above 50 euro you pay for extra surface and for a heavier, denser fleece. The print is identical at every size, so with a tight budget you are better off ordering the smaller blanket than a cheaper alternative.
Questions about custom photo blankets
Can I get a photo blanket the same day?
No. Every blanket is printed after the order comes in, so a same day photo blanket does not exist here, and a shop that promises one is shipping stock with a generic print. Order roughly a week before the date you need it, and earlier than that in December, when the queue is at its longest.
Can a photo blanket go in the washing machine?
Yes, on a cool wash. The photo is printed into the fleece, so it does not peel or flake the way a pressed transfer does. Wash it inside out, skip the tumble dryer and skip the fabric softener, which coats the fibres and dulls the colours over time. Treated that way, the blanket outlasts the sofa.
Which photos do not work on a blanket?
Screenshots, heavily filtered pictures and group shots taken from far away. A blanket is a big, soft surface without sharp edges, so it forgives a great deal but never a low resolution. Dark evening photos lose their detail as well once they are printed on fleece. Bright daylight and a close subject win every time.
Can I put a name and a photo on one blanket?
Yes, and most people do exactly that. The layout carries your photo across the blanket with a name, a date or a short line of text underneath, so you get a gift with a photo and with a name in one object. The same idea runs through our personalised gifts and our printed decoration for the home.