Picsticks Review and Discount Code

I was offered the chance to review some photograph magnets from Picstick.  They offer nine photo magnets 50mmx65mmx0.75mm for £9.50/$14.99. You can upload photos from your computer, your Facebook account or your Dropbox. Postage is free worldwide :)

Picstick encourages people to create photo magnets from photos shared on Facebook. On the FAQ page it states "You can also browse your Facebook friends and groups you follow and select from the photos they have shared. (Perfect for creating surprise presents!)". I can kind of see the lovely friendly gift-giving idea behind it, but I don't really want my Facebook friends or random group members making magnets from my photos. I also felt that this suggestion contradicts the Terms and Conditions which state that "You warrant...that you have all required rights or permissions necessary to incorporate third party material into your Products". So those surprise presents could cause you some problems :/

Setting up a Picstick account is simple and free. For some reason, I was unable to link my Picstick account to my Dropbox account where most of my photos are kept. It kept timing out or giving me a blank page. I don't know if that's a Picstick thing or a Dropbox thing. I didn't try connecting to my Facebook account , so I don't know if that process is easier or not.  In the end, I chose to upload photos from my computer which proved to be fairly easy because of the straightforward instructions on the website.

Because I was writing a review, I tried to choose different subjects rather than all family photos.  I went for colour, brightness, detail, landscape vs portrait,a  computer generated image and some family photos. Any editing that needs doing has to be done before you upload the images to Picstick as the only editing tools available are crop and rotate. One or two pictures looked like they had a black line across the top of them when I placed them in the grid, but I had no need to worry about that as it wasn't on the magnets when they arrived.

I quickly got an email to say that my order had been received and my magnets were being made. I received another email the next day saying that my order had been shipped and they arrived the day after that. Speedy service!!

The magnets arrived in a strong cardboard envelope which also contained a card with a thank you message and thumbnails of my photos. Very cute. I was, however,  a bit disappointed in the magnets. They looked very grainy and mottled. At first I thought this might be because I had cropped some photos as far as the website would allow, but when I checked the image I'd made in Photoshop I knew the colours should've been solid and they weren't:(

But all was not lost. I contacted Picstick via the Contact form on their website and quickly received an automated email saying that replacements would be sent out sharpish. The next day, I received a more personal email that addressed my questions directly and asked me to let them know if the replacements were ok or not. They were. Not a mottle in sight :)

The colours are vibrant and details are clear. . Although next time, I may make my images brighter before I upload them and use more close-up photos as they definitely work better. That said, I think they're a lovely size, they stick very nicely to my fridge and I can see all sorts of uses for them :)

They'd be ideal to slip in a Christmas or birthday card to friends and relatives.
You could add text and use them as magnetic business cards to give to customers so that they never lose your contact details again.
You could make your own large print magnetic flashcards to help with reading or maths or language learning.
Every member of the family could have their own photo magnet that holds their personal 'To Do' list or messages to the fridge door.
You could scan your children's artwork and make magnetic copies to send to friends.
Or you could make your own magnetic calendar, or timetable if you're very structured, or a chore chart......

I'd love to know what other ideas you can come up with. I like to find an educational use for everything if possible :)

Picstick have offered all my lovely blog readers a 25% discount. Just use the code below at the checkout.

WEATHER25

Disclosure: I received a free set of photo magnets in order to be able to give a complete and honest review. All opinions are my own. No money exchanged hands :)