Make Stunning Photo Blankets for the Holidays with Collage.com

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Personalized photo gifts are one of my favorite things to give my family during the holidays. Over the years, I’ve made everything from ornaments to canvas gifts to pillows, but my all-time favorites are the photo blankets! I partnered with Collage.com to review two of their most plush and fabulous photo blankets. I know you’ll love them as much as I do!

A couple of years ago, I made my son this super cute blanket with Collage.com with his favorite dog smack dab in the middle of it. Back when I made it, all three of my dogs were still alive. As you may know, we lost them one right after the other over the course of a year. Tasha first at age 14.5 in March of 2015, then Maia (almost 15) passed away on the 4th of July that year after suffering from a massive seizure. We lost Cooper almost exactly a year after Tasha, to congestive heart failure. He was only 10. His loss hit my son the hardest because we thought we still had years with him and Jake was the closest to him. Jake’s “Cooper blanket” was a huge comfort to him.

I wanted to make Jake a new blanket that honored the pets that we’ve lost while celebrating the furry family members that are still with us. I ended up making two blankets. One Sherpa blanket with all of Jake’s favorites (while I love all my pets equally, Jake was more attached to some than others), and one Plush Fleece with every single furry family member that we’ve had since my very first cat 23 years ago. The second one was supposed to be mine. Jake stole that one too, because he’s a mad blanket thief!

Let’s talk about the Sherpa first, because I am in love with the feel of this blanket! I got this one in the 60×80 side, because it’s just right for my son’s bed and for snuggling up on the couch. The front, with all of the photos, is soft and velvety. The reverse side features a 1/8″ Sherpa backing. It feels kind of like when you pet a sheep (yes, I’ve pet a lot of sheep!). You know, that super soft, “like sticking your hand in a bag of cotton balls” feeling? Love it! I actually thought that Sherpa was made from wool. I looked it up though and turns out it’s a cotton/poly blend. Definitely easier to wash than wool.

The Sherpa is also a huge hit with someone else, as you can see! Spoiled pooch! Pharaoh Hounds LOVE blankets.

I had a lot of fun making the Plush Fleece blanket. Since we’ve had A LOT of pets over the last 23 years, I went with a larger size: 90×90. That’s over 7 feet wide and long! I’m only 5’3″ (and that’s pushing it), so I can completely wrap up in this one!

As you can see, a couple of our pets got to appear twice. Mostly because I have very few high-quality pictures for some of them. Gypsy and Tabatha, two of my first cats, passed away 14 years ago. Digital photography has come a long way since then. The nice thing about the heart layout is that there are a few smaller sizes that work just fine even with slightly lower quality pics.

FYI, if you’re trying to decide between regular fleece and plush fleece, go plush! It’s only about $10 more than regular fleece, and it’s crazy soft. Don’t get me wrong, the regular fleece is fabulous too, but I am absolutely in love with the plush. The only one I really haven’t tried yet is the woven blanket. I think of woven blankets as being more for decoration.

The print quality has been outstanding on every blanket I’ve gotten from Collage.com. They always have some sort of amazing deal going on, too, so you can get your photo gifts at a huge discount. Right now, for example, they’re offering 50% off most of their gifts. The code automatically applies before you start working on your project. I’ve had so many great experiences with Collage.com that I really can’t say enough good things about them. I highly recommend them for making all sorts of fab photo gifts!