Nicole's photo book

Di has been hounding me, patiently asking, to see my most recent photo book. This is my present to my parents last Christmas. I have been making a photobook of them and mostly their 7 grandchildren each year for the past 5 years or so. It is their favourite Christmas present and they really look forward to it each year. My mum carries it around in her handbag and shows all her friends for months afterwards. I actually order 2, so that I can keep one for our family too.

This book is by 'blurb'. It's quite small, only 7" square. I might go a bit bigger next time, but it is quite cute. I have used snapfish in the past and have been happy, esp with the price, but the quality was a bit nicer with blurb. I was very happy with this book and I like the dust jacket. I went with their basic design, which had pretty limited layouts, but the layouts were nice and graphically pleasing.  I also really like the date on the spine - looks nice in the bookcase.

FYI, I designed a square image on photoshop especially as a cover image, and dropped it on as a jpeg. I've also popped on a screen shot of the book in progress. 

The kids still enjoy looking through this book three months later - they like looking at themselves and their cousins through the months of 2011 - I place them in chronological order starting with the new year and ending with Christmas.
So I'm sharing my last book, just in case you have a holiday to document, or want to start thinking about a present for a grandparent, maybe?

Lets talk about...

Photobooks. Blogging. Using these tools to keep the process of memory keeping quick and simple.

 

This is a topic that we have been talking amongst ourselves about for a little while. A couple of us have even made a photo book or two. Some of us are confused, have had trouble finding a place that makes the process easy.

 

Amy had this question: What is a quick and easy, but looks good, platform for photo books? I feel I need a simple no fuss arrangement. How to resize your own template for the books? Why are they so slow to use?

 Emma made a photo book about a holiday her family went on - instead of scrapping the photos, she dropped them into a book. Done.

 

I'll share a little about the one photo book I've made, via Snapfish,   I used CZ templates which I filled in PSE, resized to 8x10, and then uploaded. One thing I did learn: this gave me a far better result than trying to upload and manipulate my photos using the template Snapfish provided. It turned out perfectly.

 

I love it, but then, as much as I love its simplicity, its missing the "meat"  - the little stories that made up our year - ones I won't ever get to scrap.  I've come to realise that my blog itself is a place I've been recording memories. Sharing a photo and a little story - its recorded. Sure, I've scrapped a few of them, and taken my journaling straight from the blog. But as a whole, its out there on the www - and who knows where my blog will be in a few years? Will it still be around?

 

How to get those stories and photos, in a quick and easy way, and in a manner pleasing to my eye ;-) into a book of some sort? I thought I would like to take my blog content (the stories about life/kids/family and leave out the fluffy bits about things I've found on the internet of course) for 2010 (and years thereafter) and make each year into a book. BUT! I don't want to have to spend hours and hours cutting and pasting!  So far though, it seems my options are limited - given I want QUICK, EASY and PRETTY.

 

What are your experiences with photo books and blog books?

 

Do you make photo books of holidays? Special occasions? Or a photo book summary of the year?

 

Have you made a blog book?

 

Please post your experiences, thoughts, and questions of your own, in the comments. Leave a link to your own photo book/blog if you have one! This topic is open for discussion and dissection! (I've just had a thought: afterwards I'll drop all of the comments into the body of this post, to make it easier re-read and take notes!)

 

I look forward to seeing everyone's thoughts.

 

Sharon

 

OH! Just one more thing......DRUMROLL PLEASE! The winner of the Stampin' Up package of goodies (oh how I wish I was eligible!) is:

 

"I love the simple pages that I can lift, so the photos and stories are the focus. Love sketches and moving the challenge towards the weekend is a smashing idea. Must give one a go. Keep up the good work. Simple is great. I'm definitely not a tizzy girl"
Annette !!!

Annette, can you leave a comment or email us on sag (at) hotmail dot com and we will get your STAMPIN UP goodies out to you!