Gifts
The last minute pet gift
Made from a photo already on your phone, delivered by email in minutes, and nobody will ever know it was organised the night before.
4 min readUpdated
What pet gift can you still get today?
A custom portrait or a custom calendar of their pet, delivered digitally within minutes of ordering. Both are made from a single photo, both show you a free preview before you pay, and neither needs the recipient's address or any warning.
Most personalised gifts stop being possible about two weeks before the day, when the production and shipping cutoffs pass. A digital portrait has no cutoff, because there is nothing to ship. The artwork is generated from your photo and arrives by email.
This is not a lesser version of the gift. The digital file is the same 4K artwork a print is made from, and it is theirs to print, frame, or keep on a phone screen.
How long does it actually take?
Choosing a photo takes a couple of minutes, the free preview generates in moments, and the finished files usually arrive within ten minutes of paying. At the very busiest times delivery can take up to 24 hours, so the evening before is safer than the morning itself.
| Step | How long |
|---|---|
| Finding a photo on your phone | A couple of minutes |
| Free preview of the artwork | Moments |
| Finished files by email | Usually within ten minutes |
| At the very busiest times | Up to 24 hours |
Honest advice for the day before
Order the evening before rather than the morning of. The files almost always arrive in minutes, but December is the one time of year when almost always is worth a night of margin.
What do you need?
One clear photo of their pet. It is probably already on your phone, or in a message they sent you. You do not need their address or their sizes, and nothing arrives at their door to give the game away.
If the best photo you can find is a screenshot, it will have lost some detail on the way. "Send me that photo of Biscuit, it made me laugh" gets you the original file without raising a single suspicion. If a screenshot is genuinely all there is, the preview will show you honestly how it comes out, before you pay.
How do you give a digital gift so it feels real?
Print one copy and wrap it. A single page from a home printer in a frame from the supermarket turns a file into a present, and the full resolution artwork is already in their inbox for anything bigger.
- Print and frame one copy. Any home printer or high street print shop handles it. An inexpensive frame makes it a real object to unwrap.
- For a calendar, print the first month. Wrap January, and tell them the other eleven months are already waiting in their inbox.
- Write it into a card. A card with the portrait printed small inside, and a line saying the full artwork is in their email, is a gift that took thought, whatever time the order was placed.
There are more ways to hand over a digital calendar in the Christmas gift guide, and all of them work for portraits too.
Does this only work for Christmas?
It works for any date that arrived faster than expected: birthdays, anniversaries, a leaving gift for a colleague whose dog the whole office knows. Custom calendars can also start from any month, so one bought in June is a full twelve months, not half a year.
The calendar's start month is worth knowing about for birthdays especially. A calendar that runs from their birthday month feels planned to the day, and the details of how that works are in when to order a pet calendar.
Common questions
Is the digital version the real product or a voucher?
The real product. It is the same 4K artwork a print is made from, delivered by email. Nothing about it says placeholder, because nothing about it is one.
Can they get it printed later?
Yes. The file is print ready, so any local print shop can print and frame it. Printed versions with shipping included are also available from us in the countries we deliver to.
What if the likeness is not right?
You see a free preview before paying, so try a different photo until it looks like their pet. If something is wrong after ordering, email us and we fix the detail rather than starting you over.
Will they be able to tell it was last minute?
No. The artwork is identical however early or late it was ordered. Last minute only describes when you thought of it, not what they receive.