Who needs to send their pictures off to be printed?

We did a post awhile back about the HP A526 and have been loving the convince of being able to print our photos online. We even printed our own birthday invitations and thank you cards with the A526. The only issue has always been that it only prints 4x6 prints and I end up having to send my 5x7 photos out. Its so rare that I print anything larger than a 5x7 but usually if I do its normally for a gift so those I send out for professional printing anyways.

I almost had a heart attack when I heard that the new A536 would print not only the 4x6 photos, but 5x7s, and even 4x12s. (All of which can be printed without a computer except for the 4x12s!)

In comparison the A526 and the A536 are both great home picture printing options, both are totally portable, both offer 4x6 and 4x12 prints.. but there are some major diffrences as well. The A530 is a massive upgrade with the ability to print 5x7 prints as well as having a truely flip up LCD screen instead of a fixed screen. The coolest upgrade is the one that is the least obvious. The A530 has built in internal memory and when you hook it up to any computer it installs its own software. No cd to bring with you.. no reason to download drivers. They are all there right on the printer the moment you hook up the usb cord. That really brings a whole new aspect to the ability to the fact that you really can take you printer everywhere and hook it up to any available computer to edit and print photos. Otherwise the most obvious change you will see is that the A530 is a bit wider and a tiny bit heavier than the A526 but it has to be to print the 5x6s.

You know I have always been a bit skeptical about photo printers. Back when they were first popular it was a neat option but sometimes the colors ran and the print quality was acceptable but still obvious that it was not a photo lab print. These days and especially with the A536 side by side with my professionally printed photos there is absolutely no way to tell with the naked eye which one is the professional print and which one I printed at home. Ironically I just recently had some photos taken at a major photo chain which prints them there while you wait and I took the same photos home on CD and printed out a few extras to give to family and the ones I printed at home were far nicer than the ones I had printed at the photo place itself! I actually ended up giving away my originals and kept the ones I printed for myself.

If your looking for something a little diffrent, you can edit your photos without ever having to hook the A536 to your computer. That even includes adding designer tints or changing your pictures to black and white. I just printed the cutest picture of Connor in his new super hero cape in a metallic overlay and it came out really neat!

The best selling point about the A536? Well thats really simple, though its not available yet for sale when it is its said to be priced at around $99 which is super super cheap for all those options! Talk about a perfect gift for the grandparents!

I am so excited about the A536 that I decided this would be a perfect time to give away our A526 that we tested a few months ago.

To enter :

• Leave a comment on this post. Check out A536 and tell me what features you like best and what you would you print most often if you were to win our A526!
  
• No "i want to win" stuff without a little effort (and I do mean little!)
• Make sure there is a way for me to contact you - if your email address is not on your profile or you are not a blogger you may leave it in your comment or email it to me directly (angelaandconnor at gmail dot com) We have had to disqualify a lot of potential winners as of late as many people do not have emails available in their profiles or leave anonymous posts without any way to contact you.
• Please US entries only.
• To get extra credit :
• For an extra entry :
• Bloggers - Blog about this contest and leave me the link on your comment, or add me to your sidebar and let me know its there.
• Non Bloggers (or bloggers) subscribe to my mailing list/RSS feed and earn another entry!
• One extra credit per person. Please post your extra credit in a separate post.
• This contest will end July 31st at midnight!

A big thanks to all our party guests from Seven Dogs and Annoucements Galore

Thank you so much to all our birthday party guests!! Our Birthday Bash for Connor and Seven Dogs and a Baby was a huge success. I am a bit pooped out but it was all worth it and I can't wait till next year (though I wont enjoy my baby getting any older!!).

We will be announcing the winners of the door prizes here shortly but be patient as there are a lot of prizes to award over the next week, but we will announce the whole list when its all finished on the blog. Keep in mind that once you get your winning email you will have five days to respond to claim your prize. So check those junk folders just encase ladies!

Our great thank you cards were provided by Announcements Galore! With everything from great shower and birthday invitations to really amazing wedding invitations, and with the Uprint option you can get a design for $40. Though remeber Uprint designs only include a high quality jpg of your design for you to print yourself, no actual card stock or printed layouts. I personally love this option as I am lucky enough to have a photo printer, and I can just load up the design, hit print and away we go! For a wedding invitation especially thats an amazing deal!

Announcements Galore does not just offer cards, but you can get some pretty cool photo magnets and of course one of our favorites the keepsake collages. I try to make collage or photo book for every six month's of Connor's life.. and honestly sometimes its a big pain in the butt, and with the multiple discount option (three or more collages are $15 each) they would make for a great christmas or even mother's day gifts. I ended up buying everyone in the family a photo calender and collage for Connor at Christmas, and believe me I wish I would have known about Announcements Galore's pricing then as I spent WAY more than that.. even with a coupon!

Our card is made from the Block and Dots party invitations though I did highly consider the One Is Fun invitations as well!

Announcements Galore is currently having two specials at the moment. The first one requires you to order bridal or baby shower invitations and you will get a separate coupon for 20% off so the bride/mommy to be to order her own cards. And invitations and graduation announcements are currrently 15% off with the coupon code : 15GRADUATE

Thank you Sweet Baby Designs!

I just wanted to take a moment to thank Sweet Baby Designs for the great invitations she made us for both our blog party and real party! Both cards had the same design minus the party details and boy they were cute!

Sweet Baby Designs offers invitations, birthday cards, shower cards, and of course holiday cards! You can have your designs printed and mailed to you or you can option like we did to get the design emailed to you and you can print it yourself.

Sweet Baby Designs is currently moving to a new storefront but they will resume taking orders after May 5th!

My recycled mailers actually are starting to look pretty again!

Anyone who has ever won one of my giveaways by now has figured out that though I love great paper products I cannot and will not let a perfectly good mailer go to the landfill before I at least see it make one more trip, what happens to it after that is up to the person who receives it! My only regret up till now is that the packages going out of here are not always as pretty nor do they look as thoughtful as the ones coming in. Though personally I would rather save some trees than have the most beautifully wrapped mail, it sometimes does make me a bit sad to see my recycled packages beside the beautiful ones arriving for review.

Well, PSA Essentials made my day, as their self inking stampers makes a HUGE difference in the way I feel about my outgoing mail. I got a personalized stamper for our return address that actually makes me giddy when I am making my address labels! Along with their AWESOME stampers they sell a line of note cards with a blank in the middle just the right size for your stamp. You can impress your friends and family with your new "personalized" stationary!!! I just love the stripes and argyle patterns. I have to admit I am so excited about my personalized stamper that even though the postage rates are going up AGAIN.. I still feel a bit giddy when its time to start packing up all the giveaways to send them off. I know its just an address stamp, but the fact that it was made just for me, makes me feel kinda special.

Want one of your own? Check out the PSA Essentials store locator!