If you recall in my Valentine's Day Wishlist post, I asked my husband for a mouse pad. I know its not a very romantic gift, but I really needed one. About 2 years back, I ordered my iMac on Black Friday and I got a great deal. I didn't actually take it out of the box until the following May. Sadly, I've been using it for almost an entire year without a mousepad! I've just been using whatever paper, notepads, or folders I had near by.

That's when Shutterfly came to the rescue! Over the last few years, I've gotten so many free gift offers from Shutterfly and I always try to make the most of them. I've used the free puzzles and magnets as gifts for my husband. I've used a free 16x20 print for one of my waterfall photographs in the dining room; and I used a free 16x20 and two free 8x10's for our wedding pictures! We even hung two free 8x10's in our bedroom for our engagement pictures! Last but not least, we've used their free 101 4x6 prints for our wedding reception photos!

As I'm sure you can tell, I love the free Shutterfly gifts. So, I was more than excited when I saw that they were offering a free mouse pad!

I created the marble texture using an online tutorial and Photoshop CC 2014. The quote I used was inspired by my PAB: Feature with Rachel Kelley. She said that this was her favorite quote and I just fell in love with it. I've always been a bit of a perfectionist, so it really resonated with me. Putting it on a mouse pad just made sense, since I use my computer every single day!


Review: 
The process creating the mouse pad was super easy. I just went to their website and searched for a mouse pad. I picked the layout I wanted and uploaded my picture. At first I was a little nervous that it would come out blurry, so right before I completed my purchase I used the Shutterfly chat feature and made sure it would come out ok. The woman on the other end ensured me that my file was large enough that it would be fine. So I went ahead and placed my order, paid for shipping, and awaited my confirmation email.

The confirmation email informed me that my item would arrive between Saturday 3/12/2016 - Thursday 3/17/2016. When it still hadn't arrived on 3/17/2016, I decided to check the tracking. It said that it had been delivered to my front door on 3/12/2016. I didn't think that could be possible. The mail delivery people usually leave our packages at our apartment office. So of course, my husband checked, but it wasn't there. We had also been home on that day, so we weren't sure that it was truly delivered as we didn't hear anyone at our door.

I went back to the Shutterfly website and opened the chat box once again. I was quickly answered by someone regarding my issue. I explained that I had placed an order and though it was marked as delivered, we never received it. She looked up our order and explained that since it's after the estimated delivery date it would be marked as "lost in transit." She then had me confirm my address and said she'd send a replacement order for me. I was incredibly happy with the customer service. They were easy to reach and very professional.

This order was guaranteed to be delivered on 3/23/2016. To my surprise the package was delivered to my door (with a door bell ring) on 3/22/2016! It was delivered a day early!


I immediately opened the package to see how it turned out. As you can see above, it looked perfect!

The only thing that I didn't like about it was the smell. As my husband said, "It smells like a fresh new tire." I went ahead and sprayed it down with some Febreze and let it air out for a little bit. Eventually the smell faded and my nose felt better. I'm writing this review a few days later and I can honestly say I don't notice the smell anymore. It's still there if I bring it up to my face, but I don't plan on using the mouse pad on my face so it shouldn't be a problem :)

I've noticed that with each of my Shutterfly packages, I've also received a free $100 wine voucher. This would be a nice touch, but it isn't a good fit for me or my husband. Neither of drink and I'm not even 21 for another month. There's also the fact that wine can't even be shipped to the state that I live in. I wish Shutterfly would consider these facts before sending this voucher. I think that a more family friendly voucher or gift card would be more acceptable. Since I have family members that suffer from alcoholism, I can only imagine how tempting and hard it would be if they opened up their package to see a voucher for free alcohol. I've honestly thrown away about $500 in these vouchers.

Overall, I 100% recommend using Shutterfly. All of my products have printed beautifully over the years. The only probably I've ever had was shipping and the Shutterfly customer service solved that problem very quickly.

If you're interested in getting this same mouse pad, feel free to email me and I'll send you the file I used.