It’s hard to believe that we’ve nearly reached the end of another school year. Graduation season has begun! If you have a high school or college graduate in the family and are planning a party in his or her honor, you can make your invitations extra special by choosing the perfect photo card invitation. Here are some graduation invitation wording and design ideas.

Formal
If you’d like to keep your graduation invitations traditional, try formal wording such as:

You are cordially invited
to celebrate the commencement
of
Emma Williams

from Franklin Park High School
by her parents Henry and Mary Williamson
Saturday, June 1st 2013
5:00PM
The Anytown Banquet Hall
in Anytown, Pennsylvania

The favor of a reply is requested by May 21st
212.555.1212

Pair your formal wording with a posed portrait for a traditional, elegant look. This option is perfect for dressier events, such as dinner parties or Sunday brunches.

Casual
Give your graduation picnic, party or casual event a classy yet relaxed vibe with this casual graduation invitation:

Join us as we celebrate
Amy Smith’s Graduation

 Class of 2013
University of Notre Dame

Saturday, June 1, 2013
1:00PM
Anytown Park
Anytown, PA 

RSVP to Sally or Frank (Amy’s parents) by May 21
212.555.1212

This type of wording looks great with many different invitation styles. Look for invites with simple block letters or a basic handwriting font to match the tone of the event.

Humorous
If your graduate is always the jokester, why not choose wording that matches his or her personality?

No more pencils
No more books
No more teachers’
Dirty looks 

Simon is graduating! 

Join us as we help him party.
6/1/2013
413 Mockingbird Lane
Anytown 

RSVP 212.555.1212 by May 21

This wording idea is great when compared with a collage photo style of the guest of honor hamming it up in front of the camera.

Remember: there are no definitive rules for graduation party invitation. As long as you provide guests with the necessary information, you can feel free to word your invites as formally or informally as you desire. When you match the personality of the graduate and incorporate photographs, your cards will become much more than just invites; they’ll become keepsakes.

Start your Grad’s party or commencement invite today!

Share Life’s Happy,
Katie

Instagram filters are perfect for adding your own artistic touch to your photographs. Each filter has a special quality and finish, but in the heat of the moment (aka, right before posting that photo), you might be confused on which filter to choose.

Here are our top three favorite Instagram filters:

Inkwell – This black and white filter is perfect for giving your photographs a vintage vibe. On paper, you’ll notice a much stronger contrast between light and dark, making the details of your photograph even more clear and vibrant.

Valencia – This filter increases the exposure of an image and adds a warm tonal quality, resulting in a faded appearance. Backlit screens can actually lighten the colors of your printed image, so you can expect the colors to be more prominent when you print photos with this filter.

Hudson – This filter is great for outdoor shots, as it increases the depth of shadows and adds a cool tint. With the heightened contrast of paper printing, a photograph filtered with Hudson will look very modern and icy.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your photos! Fun tip: you can even create collages of the same photo with multiple filters. Print Instagram photos as 4×4 prints at any Walgreens today!

Share Life’s Happy,
Katie

We are finally ready to announce our Prom Contest King and Queen of the Prom Instagram contest!  We had a hard time trying to pick our favorite, while sifting through so much satin and charming bowties but we finally decided on a winner.

Our 2013 Photo by Walgreens Prom King and Queen winners are lisaalonso23 and jakeandkgmom!

Congrats lisaalonso23 and jakeandkgmom, you’ve won Prints from Instagram for a year!

Thanks to all you brave individuals that entered with your past and present Instagram prom pictures! We enjoyed looking through your magical moments (and even some of those you had rather not remembered).

Share Life’s Happy,
Taneisha

But with the change of the weather comes weddings, BBQs, graduations, and birthday parties almost every weekend. Time to make the perfect Photo Book! Because we know picking the right template might be a little overwhelming, Photo by Walgreens decided to give a helping hand.

Here are some of our favorite Photo Book templates:

Starry-Eyed Grad
This Graduation template is simply the best if simply for that lime green and navy argyle print. It gives a 1960’s vintage vibe (which is ever so popular, by the way) that makes it perfect for everyone. Fun and vibrant, just like their future!

Bright
Birthdays, road trips, scrapbooking those abroad traveling adventures: this template can do it all! The bright colors will instantly remind you of all the fun you had this summer. I especially love those charming flowers; they can’t help but make everyone happy.

Lovey Dovey
Break out the champagne, your favorite couple is finally tying the knot!  This cutesy lovebirds and sparkly ring template should fit the bill. And you might notice that the light blue resembles a certain jewelry company known for its extravagant diamonds. The bride won’t help but love that.

And if these templates don’t grab you, no worries.  We have plenty more to choose from on our website!

Need help on how to find these sassy templates? Just go Walgreens and choose your Photo Book. Next, upload your photos and then choose any template you’d like! That’s it!

Share Life’s Happy,
Taneisha

Quick!
Mother’s Day is just around the corner. Have you picked out a card yet? Don’t panic. The Photo by Walgreens team has picked out a few of our favorite cards to help all of you last-minute shoppers out there.

Graceful Florals
Casey loves this Photo Card because of its gorgeous floral illustration, which is a plus for her Mom as well. “These flowers are so pretty!”

Happy Mother’s Day Loving Words
Troy can’t help but think of his Mom when checking out this cute and charming Card. The soft pastel colors are a plus in his book, too.

Banner Celebration
Janelle comes from a big family, so the option of adding a different picture for each sibling is a no brainer. The super simple and clean look also helps.

Mother’s Day Heart Snapshots
Lauren lets her Instagram adoration shine with this Card. “Super cute font and [you can] use a lot of different pictures, especially Instagram because they’re square!”

Blossom
Melissa knows that her Mom has a green thumb, so what better way to say happy Mother’s Day than with a Photo Card inspired by the garden?

Have you picked out your favorite Card yet? Find the perfect Photo Card here!

Share Life’s Happy,
Taneisha

Break out the back-to-chest poses and boutonnieres, it’s prom season!

Time for oversized flowers, fancy photo opps and layers (and layers… and maybe one more layer) of tulle. Or maybe you still have the occasional flashbacks of flammable crimped hair and ill-fitting rented tuxedos. Let’s relive it all together!

Show us your best photo from your prom on Instagram! It could have been taken this year or 30 years ago – the Photo by Walgreens team wants to see it all! We will choose our favorite two photos and crown our Prom King and Prom Queen. Those two lucky winners will be rewarded with free Prints from Instagram for a year (a $150 value)!* How you can say no to that?

Make sure to tag your photo with the hashtag #WalgreensProm when you post it to Instagram by May 10. For official rules, click here.

Have you ever printed your Instagram Photos with the Walgreens app? Find out about them here!

So, dig out those photos for the world see! We promise we won’t laugh hard.

Share Life’s Happy,
Taneisha

*Prize valued at 365 mobile prints from Instagram redeemed in store totaling a $150 Photo by Walgreens gift certificate.

Hello, friends!

For Mother’s Day, I wanted to get simply the best Photo Book for my Mom. We both have a habit of flattening the middle of the book to see all our photos, sometimes creasing the pages (very annoying, if I say so myself). So, I decided to get Mom the best with a Layflat Photo Book. Like the name says, the book lays flat, so the pages don’t curl in the middle. Leaving my photos with no place to hide!

You can customize the book cover with your favorite photo. And while you’re at it, make sure to try the freeform design tool. You can design your Photo Book anyway you want – you can place pictures and text anywhere on the page. You can also layer, rotate and resize those photos with just the click of a mouse. With the controls in your hands, you’re the designer. You can personalize each page just the way you want.

It’s easy to tell the story your way with the Layflat Photo Book!

Make yours now!

Share Life’s Happy,
Taneisha

That’s great and all but being stuck in the house because of it is not. It’s been raining like cats and dogs for the last few days so you are probably feeling a little cabin fever. You’d have to be really brave to battle those huge puddles and gusty winds.

Why don’t you do a little window shopping with our brand new Spring 2013 catalog? Shop from home and you’ll never have to worry about getting your hair wet or water in your flats again! Our catalog is available online to shop, plan and create your next gift(s). You can even order straight from the catalog!

What are you waiting for? Go ahead and start shopping online today!

Share Life’s Happy,
Taneisha

Does she keep a shoebox full of all your old colored pictures and hand-written cards you’ve given her throughout the years? Put them in a Classic Wall Calendar. Add themed collages for each of your Picasso periods and let her marvel at your skills.

Or maybe Mommy has been holding on to that one special picture – your first attempt at coloring or stick figures of the family. Put that drawing on a Canvas Print so she can hang it up in the living room and remember that special little tyke forever (that tyke is you!).

Got a Mom that loves to cook? Sure, you could put all of her favorite recipes in a cookbook but wouldn’t it be better to put those recipes on a Porcelain Plate? You could treat it like fine china and the printed plate will be ready for display. Bonus points if it’s a secret family recipe!

Just make sure not to forget your photos/images! You can scan them from home or bring them into the store and an associate can help.

Share Life’s Happy,
Taneisha

Welcome back!

I hope you enjoyed our blog last on Friday on indoor photography tips. For our second part, we are going to give some tips on how to take your best photographs outside.

Here are a few pros to shooting in the wilderness:

• You can get the best wide shots of scenic landscapes and skylines!
• Those big, bright studio lights? Those actually mimic natural sunlight. So what better studio would there be than the great outdoors?!
• Lighting will always be much stronger outdoors. In fact, try taking photos with overcast. Shadows will look softer and will seemingly illuminate the skin.

But as you know, all good things must have a downside:

• Daylight is not a steady source. It’s constantly changing due to time, weather and location.
• It’s pretty tough to time your schedule around the sun. So many restrictions (you can only shoot from 6am to 7pm, decent weather conditions, etc.) makes it very difficult to plan the best time to shoot.
• Last but not least, you must beware of photo-bombers! There’s nothing worse in this world than realizing your favorite picture has a stranger in the background jumping and making a goofy face.

If you follow these outdoor photography tips, you should have no trouble taking photos indoors or out! Have any tips we missed? Send us a comment!

Share Life’s Happy,
Taneisha