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.

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!

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!

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! 🙂