Most weeks I receive an email from a company making personalised canvas prints or photo gifts and if I'm honest I groan a little as I have made so many over the years that I've exhausted the mug, mouse-mat, keyring, phone cover routes for gifts for people. I have to admit to being intrigued when Bags of Love contacted me though as they suggested I might like a personalised leather backpack and this was something quite different to anything I'd seen on the market before.
I headed over to their website for a search and what did I find? Absolutely tons of products that I have never seen personalised before - tea towels, blankets, duvet covers, wash bags, wallets, aprons, tea trays, bowls. I could go on and on as they have so many products to choose from and they all look stunning.
Yes, it really was gift heaven. My family are not easy to buy for as there is never anything they want, they are not material but what they all love most are their family, so personalised gifts with the grand-children's faces smiling out at them are just right.
On this occasion I decided to be a little selfish and make something for myself. I've been away to London a couple of times recently and struggled with the dilemma of what overnight bag to take as I didn't have any and a small suitcase felt like overkill so I choose myself a leather and canvas holdall. The holdall is available in small (28 x 33 x 15cm or 11x13x6") or large (33 x 46 x 22cm or 13x18x8.5") sizes and with either a leather or canvas trim. The price of the holdall obviously varies according to the trim and size.
I went for the luxury version, with leather trim and in large size and this retails for £159, which of course there is no denying is a goo amount of money but when you consider that the last holdall I bought was when I went to Uni 25 years ago it is a small price to pay and I believe it will last this length of time as it is very well made.
I spent a while trying to choose what pictures to have on the bag, I wasn't keen to walk around London with my kids faces showing off to everyone and actually as I want the bag to have longevity I didn't fancy family snaps at all as they would easily date. So I remembered back to some pictures of London that I took from the View from the Shard when I visited with a friend last April and thought they'd look classy. So you've seen the front of the bag above and here is the back -
Let me show you some of the features of my beautiful holdall -
- Black rolled leather handles to provide added comfort when on-the-go
- Super soft interior, it feels like a soft moleskin
- Two internal pockets, one with a zip to keep valuables secure
- Studs on the bottom to protect the leather or canvas bottom
- All canvas used is 300gsm and the leather is genuine Italian soft black leather
- All hand made, first the photo is printed onto canvas and then the leather cut by hand
- You can choose as many or few photos as you like. It could be a mosaic kind of design, or just one large photo like I had and you could even put a motivational or personal message over the image
- 10 year guarantee on print, build quality and stitching finish
I think they have done a great job making my holdall, don't you? The only thing I might have liked to make it even better was the option to have a shoulder strap attached, as that is how I most often carry my large bags when travelling.
Ordering and Delivery
I'd definitely recommend that you take a look around the Bags of Love website to see what you might like to order for Christmas. I found the website very easy and intuitive to use and you can easily upload your choice of photos from Facebook, Instagram or your camera/ computer.
The delivery was quick and efficient. My bag arrived well packaged in a box and I had been kept informed by email that it was dispatched and I had a tracking number as it was sent Royal Mail signed for delivery. My bag took just 3 days to arrive from ordering,
I think it speaks for itself that Bags of Love has a TrustPilot score of 9.6 out of 10 for over 1700 reviews and when you read them you can see just how pleased their customers are, especially with quality and speed of turnaround.
Other products
I'm thinking of ordering some tea towels as they are on a special 3 for the price of 2 deal at the moment, as are a few other items like cushion covers, blankets and beach towels. You might also want to check out the personalised wrapping paper as that would be great for a really special gift to have something hand made wrapping it up!
Ohh and I can't not mention. They have a free one page calendar that you can design with a photo of your choice and then have it emailed to you as a PDF for you to print and give out. What a fab idea for a value promotional for a small business!
Thanks so much Bags of Love, it has been great to wok with you.
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