Need a good gift idea?

Before I order a product for the first time, I always feel more comfortable if I’ve heard an enthusiastic recommendation from someone I know. Of course that’s not always possible and sometimes you’re just on your own. That was the case for me several months ago, but I thought you might like to hear about my experience.

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Have you ever had your pictures made into a little book with captions and all? I took the plunge around Christmas time and made a hardcover book with holiday pictures of our family at the online photo website, Shutterfly. It turned out better than I could ever have imagined!

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The software was very user friendly. You upload your photos and then use the drag and drop method to “fill” an album. You can choose from a wide array of pretty backgrounds, layouts, colors, fonts, captions, and more. If you wish to change styles from page to page – no problem! This is not necessarily a speedy project, but you can work on it over an indefinite period of time, as all of your work is saved and stored for you. I must have spent about a month or so but I usually only worked for half an hour at a time. You may be more decisive than I was and just plough through quickly. It really is so much fun! In the end, you’ll have a little treasure!

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These days, when we all do so much digitally, we’re less likely to have hard copies of photos to hold in our hands. That might be a good thing from a storage angle, but there’s still nothing like curling up in a comfy chair with your favorite memories of a holiday or vacation. This photo book is the perfect blend of hardcopy pictures and minimal storage. The books are slim and compact, yet they hold quite a lot. I guess I sound like a commercial, but I thought you might need a good “gift idea” in the near future. If so, I highly recommend this! 🙂

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Comments

Need a good gift idea? — 8 Comments

  1. Nice idea. You’re right about the cyber storage of pictures now. I have 1166 stored on Photobucket. Its just as hard for me to find time to sort and edit them there as it would be all those pics stored up in the closet in a shoebox!

    This is a really nice idea for a lot of presents. Wedding for your kids. Graduation for your kids best friends. I can think of a hundred occasions. Thanks for the tip. I’ll check it out.

    XX
    Carol

  2. Oh, Shutterfly is amazing! I made my mom a calendar this year from photos that I had taken! Of course, they were nature photos and not me/my siblings, but I think she’ll enjoy it just the same.

    There are usually special offers you can take advantage of too.

    Definitely something I recommend!

  3. iPhoto also offers an option to create a hard or soft cover book. It’s the same concept; I wonder what, if any, difference there is in price…

  4. I’m fairly new to digital photography but as soon as I have enough photos, this would be a great idea!

  5. I do miss photo albums. It is funny to watch my kids look through our old ones, sad they are a generation that will likely never have photo albums.

  6. My sister bought her wedding dress from David’s Bridal last year. They give you all kind of goodies after you actually purchase your dress. She got all kinds of things, tuxedo discounts, a free dinner for two, but her fave was a free photobook just like this one from Shutterfly.

    She loved making it, she filled it full of photos of her and her fiance and family and friends. She gave it to her husband to be as a gift and he almost started bawling he loved it so much.

  7. I’m a scrapbooker so haven’t checked into these books as of yet but they do sound like a great gift idea. I ordered photo Christmas cards for the first time online this last Christmas and spent WAY too much time on it! I had to figure out how to use the website, and then pick photos that fit into the designated squares. It should have been simple, but I made it complex, lol! I like to physically move the photos and embellishments on a page…so will probably stick to actual scrapbooking for my own albums but thanks for the review! This would be a great idea for multiple albums (such as for a wedding!)

  8. Hi Crystal! This sounds like such a nice idea. Since I’ve started taking digital pictures, I hardly ever have any real photographs. That’s so sad, but I really find it such a pain in the neck getting them. I liked just dropping off the film! I’m going to look into Shutterfly. I know any recommendation from you, is a good one! Hugs, Paulette 😉

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