Or better yet Photofiddle the kids, you, the family pet or his game-winning touchdown. No matter what you Photofiddle, Dad’s going to love it! How do I know? Because my hsuband and I were Photofiddled and thoroughly enjoyed it; we’ll definitely be back for more!

Before your imagination runs wild let me clarify: Photofiddle is not some new-age massage therapy or an update on the bronzed baby shoe. It is a super cool, totally unique way to turn photos into works of art. And did I mention it’s quick and easy? Photofiddle allows users to create their own artistic creations using free online photo effects software. The software takes a picture and transforms it using over 50 photo art styles. You’ll find everything from oil painting (my favorite) and Warhol pop art to watercolor to abstract art and film-strip photo collages. You can also add a photographic tint like sepia, blue, red or green. Once you’ve turned your photo into the perfect painting or chalk art drawing or abstract work, you can take your design and have Photofiddle put it on stretched or rolled canvas or turn it into a framed art print or even art poster.

Photofiddle gave me the opportunity to try out their site. It took me a while to decide on a test photo but when I saw this one (my favorite one from our trip to Kauai last year) I knew I had a winner:

It took no time for Photofiddle to apply a gallery of effects (remember, there are over 50!) to the photo. What took a lot of time was deciding which effect we liked best! Though my husband had a favorite or two of his own (I forget which ones…we obviously chose my favorite) I loved the oil painting effect the most. We selected that effect and our canvas was shipped just a couple days later. It arrived in very little time and I tore carefully opened the box, anxious to see our newest work of art. I was impressed to see how well the canvas was packaged, always a good sign:

When I flipped it over I immediately fell in love. Photofiddle officially took its place in my top 10 list of favorite reviews. I really wanted to show you all the canvas hanging on one of my walls but we have yet to decide the best place for it. It’s so awesome it makes all my other wall hangings look inartistic and uncool. But I do have the image Photofiddle created taking our original photo and applying the oil painting effect. It’s not as nifty as the real thing but it still makes me smile:

You totally need to Photofiddle the whole family! Just think what a wonderful Father’s Day gift a Photofiddled photo would be—he might even thinks its cooler than the Old Spice soap-on-a-rope and matching cologne gift set you originally planned to give him!—Emily

*** Giveaway Photofiddle is giving away a $50 gift certificate to one lucky Daily Dish reader! Please visit Photofiddle.com and leave a comment telling us your favorite Photofiddle effect. Include a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winner from the comments and contact her via email. Deadline: June 23, 2009 (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.

For an extra entry, tweet about this giveaway and leave a separate comment with the URL to your tweet!

* Promotion! Photofiddle is offering Daily Dish readers 15% off their purchase! Simply enter code “cafe15” (without the quotes) in the Promotion Code box when checking out.

tags Art, Artwork, Father's Day, Gift Idea, Photofiddle, Photos

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 12:45 am and is filed under Daily Dish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.