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I love the look of pre-cut mat openings for wedding photo albums; they give the photos a clean and modern look. But it’s hard to find readymade matted albums and buying matted wedding albums from a studio photographer can be very expensive. Fortunately, there are a few albums out there with pre-cut mat openings. One of my favorites is the line from Adesso albums, which I’ve written about before. Here are some other ideas.

Celine Countryman Matted Albums – These albums have pre-cut mat openings and are of archival quality. They come in a range of colors (Ruby Red, Black, Platinum Blue, Sage, Ivory or Lavender Haze) and can be personalized for an additional $12. Small $17, large $22.

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I just read about Perpetual Kid over on Funky Finds. Not only do they sell this cool picture frame with backlight for illuminating photo transparencies, they also sell the tic tac toe puzzle frame I wrote about for the photojojo newsletter, which up until now I had only found for sale in the UK. Check out the sliding puzzle frame, too. Fun frames for adults and kids alike.

I’ve been loving orange and blue combos lately, like on these beautiful cards that Grace posted on. Paper Source has some lovely photo albums and supplies in two great shades, pool and poppy.

1. Photo corners in pool and poppy ($4 per pack of 240) – lots of other bright colors, too
2. Pool Luxe Kimono Flowers Album ($30)
3. Poppy Luxe Sunburst Album ($30)
4. Blank poppy three leaf frame labels ($.60 each)
5. Pool accordion book kit ($4) – make your own photo accordion book
6. Linen spiral albums in poppy and pool ($16)

I love these woodgrain photo magnétique frames! From the designers at Presse Citron, these magnet frames are hard to find in the US. But I think these would be a fun diy project using woodgrain contact paper and magnet sheets (inspired by the inventive projects with contact paper over at It’s Knot Wood). Pick your favorite woodgrain paper and stick on the magnet sheets, then cut out frame shapes with openings for you photos. Put ‘em on the fridge, or get a magnetic bulletin board in a fun color and hang anywhere you want (fridgedoor has a good selection of magnetic boards).

As someone who is in the midst of plastic toy invasion, I welcome any and all toys made of wood. So I was very happy to see this wooden toy camera for the youngest shutterbug in your family. The camera is made from walnut, oak and alder with a non-toxic oil and features moving parts and a view finder to look through. Plus it’s made by a small family-owned company in the US. Get it at Romp ($24).

If you love FOUND Magazine and you love photography, then you’ll definitely want to get the new FOUND Polaroid Book, which ships on October 1st. (Pre-order the book and get a FREE FOUND T-SHIRT!)

This threaded memo board from Crate and Barrel is a great way to keep a rotating bulletin board display of photos without damaging them with pushpins.

On sale at Red Envelope, I think this photo wall clock ($19) would look pretty cool with photos of numbers from old road signs.
Via the possibilities are endless (thanks Jessica!)

Jessica sent me a bunch of cool goods with camera designs and thank god she did! My computer died on Friday and I’m just getting fototiller back up and running – so I’m so happy to post her finds. Thanks Jessica!

(BTW – Jessica is one of the nicest bloggers around; be sure to check out her blog Funky Finds!)

1. Shutterbug tote bag – canvas bag with felt applique from iHook’s Etsy Shop ($18)
   
2. Shutter bug patch – these felt patches are $3 each at Moxie Madness’s Etsy Shop
3. Hot shot! camera ring – Fred Flare ($10)

New line of Weegee at the International Center of Photography store.

Snapshot key caddy from Chiasso…

Another modern design where simplicity breeds elegance and function. This cool caddy keeps your keys under your favorite artwork. The sleek, modern frame holds two 5″ x 7″ photos or art. Five notched pegs keep keys and such organized. Stainless steel frame and pegs with glass. $38

I’ve been loving orange and blue combos lately and I think this orange frame from MoMA would look fab with some sunprints. Also comes in white for your favorite minimalist. Made of plastic and glass, the 4 x 6 frame ($18) can be placed horizontally or vertically.

Some pretty personalized photo albums from Neiman Marcus – these would make lovely bridesmaid gifts.

The Collection has been making the blog rounds and with good reason – they have some stunning wall coverings. There’s also this set of flocked vinyl frames to stick up on the wall for your photos.

Who doesn’t love a good giant camera/giant bunny print? Spotted by Jessica over at Funky Finds, this print is on sale for $13.50.

These photobooth wedding invites (as seen in the ReadyMade love issue) are the super cool idea of designer Cindy Ferguson of Invite Delight. You can have your very own invites custom made at Invite Delight. You can also DIY them by following these instructions on the ReadyMade blog. Or use the suggestion of ReadyMade readers Margaret Cox and Aaron Swingler and buy some Envelopments, cut out a viewing square and insert a card with your two photos. They made a cute save-the-date card by taking pictures of themselves holding signs (see the latest ReadyMade).

These simple leather albums from Kate’s Paperie are great for archival storage of your wedding photos. They come in a range of colors (brown, black, cream, red and orange) with ivory pages and interleaves and are priced between $45 and $175, depending on the size.

Our little fashionista is turning three next week, and we decided to buy her a camera (her first). We went ahead and got her this little cow camera, but when I saw this Hello Kitty digital camera I almost bought it on the spot. Luckily, l took a moment to read the reviews. It sounds like it’s pretty crappy! Anyone ever use one? It’s so hard to judge a product based on Amazon reviews, but these were pretty harsh. She loves Hello Kitty (as do I) so I was really hoping it would be good. Ah well, it is fun to look at.

Another cool camera shirt from this Japanese shop – boy I wish I knew japanese!

Great posts over at poppytalk: the change-it-up fotote and albums from rag-and-bone bindery.

These re-cord photo albums are fun (and made of mostly recycled materials).
Capture your memories…eco-style! These classic photo albums are created using a vinyl record cover – with the record still in its jacket! Each record has lived a full life and was rescued from its slumber and bound with 20 pages of thick, black, acid-free and recycled paper. Re-cord pages contain the most reused and recycled content possible.

$30 CDN and ships to both Canada and the US.

There are a lot of places to get a customized bag with your favorite pic on it, but they are often oh so boring. I like these personalized denim bags from pixel girl shop for their hot color contrast stitching and the dark (washable!) denim. Send them a photo, and they’ll make it black and white and use the colors of your choosing to make a bag for $40 for or $48 for two photos. Not bad!

If June is the month of weddings, then August is the month of wedding photos – and figuring out what the heck to do with them. This month on fototiller, I’ll be featuring some products and ideas for showing off your wedding pics (plus some fun photo ideas for those of you in mad wedding planning mode). Check out the new wedding category in the weeks to come.

Since our fifth wedding anniversary is this fall and we (a) still don’t have an album for our photos and (b) don’t want to spend a ton on one, I’m going to start with some posts on albums that don’t break the bank.

I think these albums from Ecklectic are gorgeous and simple and not too girly (ok they are kinda girly with the bow and all). But I still love these, and almost all are under $100 – a great deal considering these are handmade bound albums withglassine overlays and archival paper in your choice of ivory or black.

I wrote about these really cool dry-erase quote magnets over on the photojojo blog, but I haven’t been able to find somewhere to buy them online in the US. So I decided to make some of my own – they are super easy and super fun!

Here’s how:

1. Download one of the template files I made below (you may need to right-clicking the link to save the file)
2. Print template on regular white paper
3. Stick the back of the printed paper on an adhesive magnet sheet (buy at office supply store or online here)
4. Cover design with a peel-and-stick laminating sheet. I used SelfSeal Repositionable laminate pouches. Remove the non-adhesive plastic (use it for something else). Take the adhesive laminate sheet, peel off the backing and stick to the printed design already on your magnet sheet. Tip: I cut out just enough of the laminate to cover the design; this minimizes waste of the laminate.
5. Cut out the magnet with very sharp scissors.
6. Stick it up and write away!

Template Downloads:

Magnet quotes with text -magnetquotes_text.pdf
Magnet quotes without text – magnetquotes.pdf
Note: I first tried this using ink-jet printable magnet sheets. These are just not strong enough to hold up photos.

Other ideas to try…

Create your own text bubbles by overlaying text on the template.
Use photos with a lot of white space to make magnetic dry erase boards. Just print the picture in the size you want and stick on the magnetic sheet. Then cover with a large enough piece of peel-and-stick laminate.

I’m not usually one for photo keychains, but I like these from CB2 and Plum Party.

Love these tiny color flashes that you can attach to your cellphone camera or point-and-shoot. Also a fun little mirror that you can attach to take better self-portraits. Read more over on Popgadget.

Katey found these gorgeous frames over at zakkaweb, designed by Lizet Hoevenaar. Also found them here, but alas, this site is also in Japanese.

Kind of kooky… French company YOVOP Your Own Very Old Portrait takes photos and makes them into – you guessed it – old portraits. Fun site to check out (and I love the name).