That being said, a lot of you had questions about what site I use, how I do it, etc. I use the site Blurb (www.blurb.com). I have looked at other sites (and my sister actually ordered from another site) and I wasn't impressed with the results. Blurb prints off a fantastic quality of book and has a lot of options for you as far as size, color, and covers. Here is the front of my book from last year (cover picture credit goes to our family's photographer)...
This is a sample of one of the pages...
Now, all of that being said Blurb definitely has some pros and cons. On the positive side the end result is a high quality book at a REALLY great price (compared to other photobooks I've made using other sites). The cons are that it is NOT the easiest thing to put together. You slurp your blog into the website (that part is easy) but from there you have a lot of cutting, pasting, rearranging, etc. Last year I figured it took me about 9 hours to do the whole book...which sounds bad, but it really wasn't. I just sat down and worked on it a few nights after I got the munchkins in bed. Have a glass of wine while you are doing it and you may just consider it FUN! Ha! For some of you the other con is that Blurb does not print off the comments you receive on your posts. This does not bother me because as much as I looooooooove hearing from all of you I see my end result (my book) as my personal journal and I'm content with it just being what I have written.
Soooo....that is it in a nutshell!! If you have ANY other questions please feel free to contact me!
14 comments:
This is such a great tip! Thank you!! I've been looking for a way to print out my blogs simply and easily. Now I'm eager to get started!
Fun! Looks great... I TOTALLY am going to do this, as soon as I find some time! 3 years of blogging is not going to be easy to narrow down! Can you pick and choose which posts you want to go in the book?
I think I may have to try this! Very cool idea!! Love it friend!
I, too, have used blurb to make a blog book and was very impressed with the results. Mine took quite a while to put together too, but it is well worth the effort. (I did take the time to copy and paste the comments at the end of each post, and that was VERY time consuming. I don't know if I will do it again). Thanks for sharing! Your book looks great!
A week or so ago I downloaded my blog onto Blurb. I agree, it looks like I am going to have to spend quite a bit of time getting it to look how I want. I am sure once I get it started it will get faster.
One problem I have found is that my pictures must not have saved at a very high quality so my pictures cannot be very large (like your sample page of Eva). I think I am going to have to do some work from my original pictures and then add them to Blurb again. Did you have this problem?
I am excited to get out book started,...of course I will have questions for you! Looking forward to seeing yours as well, last years was awesome!
Did you do a book wrap, softcover, or the 3rd option?
Great questions ladies...
Loukia, it slurps the whole blog into your book, but you can delete the posts you don't want. It will also slurp in posts you have saved in "drafts" and haven't published.
Jami, my sis had that problem with her pictures too. I can ask her more about it if you are still having trouble with it...just let me know.
Jenna, last year I did a dust cover and I would not do that again. I would do an image wrap.
Keep the questions coming...happy to help!!
Jamie
I used blurb, after your recommendation, last year. I love my book and have been working throughout the year on my 2009 book. Thanks for the great advice.
Embarrassed to say, I still haven't completed my book that I asked you about last year. I have the same "Jamie" question about the resolution of the pics. Almost every photo has an exclamation mark that says they may print fuzzy? That brought my project to a screeching halt! I just don't want to spend the time re-doing the resolution of every photo! I was going to ask ... "how fuzzy are they, if I don't change them?" But it sounds like you didn't have that prob. Every couple of months I look at the downloaded book again, and just loose heart.
Hey Cindy and Jami...I talked to my sister about the resolution thing. She said that if she kept her pics somewhat small she was fine...but as she got bigger they printed off pretty fuzzy. She can't find a rhyme or reason to it because pics taken with the same camera in other posts didn't have that issue. She wondered if Jami's idea would work where you upload your pics to Blurb first. I hope this helps!!
Jamie
Oh I just LOVE IT!!!! Very good idea. It would be an awesome coffee table book.
Can you tell me how much it was to make your book?
Hey Heather....my book has 147 pages and it was around $40.
Great idea! I did my first digital scrapbook in December and loved it ... so I will definitely keep this in mind for 2010. :)
Post a Comment