Second Lulu Blog Book!

Guess what?! (Hint: If you read the title, you'll probably win.) My second Lulu book came! I ordered it on July 13, and it came on Monday (July 25), so it had a 12 day turnaround. Not bad.

I love my second book even more than the first one. After looking at the first one and seeing how things transferred from monitor to book, I made a couple changes so now it's pretty much exactly how I want it.

First of all (and pretty obviously), I did more with the cover. I like the title bar on the first book, but I wanted this one to be different. So, I simplified the title bar by removing the strip of pictures. I then made a collage on Picmonkey (an awesome site I found a couple weeks ago that I love, and that you have unknowingly seen evidence of on my blog in form of those picture collages I've been doing) using some pictures from the year, and centered that underneath the title. I put both of those (the title and the picture collage) on the polka dot background, which I slightly enlarged (so the polka dots are bigger) and changed to a more yellow-blue tone. I also changed the font on the spine.

I really like how it turned out!

Secondly, I changed the main inside font (Trebuchet) from size 12 to size 11. The size 12 seemed just a bit too big, but the size 11 is perfect. And it takes up less space! Which is great, because this book was also quiet a bit (40 pages) longer than the last one.

Lastly, I added more space in between the date stamp, title, and body of the posts. It just looked better on the printed page. I made the decision after seeing the spacing in the first book, but it was actually kind of tough as I was formatting this book; I kept wanting to put less space in between them. Some things just look different in Word than on the printed page. In Word: less space = looked better. Printed: more space = looked better. Anyway, I'm glad I did add a little more space. It looks good.

So that's my second blog book! I'm really happy with how it turned out. The price (for 188 pages, hardcover, black and white) was $20.02 with $4.99 shipping. I used a coupon code that got me $3.60 off, so my total was $21.41.

Again, I totally recommend Lulu for printing your blog into a book. It does take more time and work than Blog2Print or Blurb (actually, scratch that - I think Blurb would have taken more time. But Blog2Print would have been less), but it's way cheaper and you can format it exactly how you want to. It's good quality printing and binding.

I updated this post on how to make a Lulu blog book, adding what I learned from this time around.

I'm working on this year's book already. I've copied and pasted all the posts up to this point, and I'm working on formatting them. From this point out, my plan is to work on the book once a month. I'll copy all that month's posts and format them in one go. That way, at the end of the year, I'll just have to do the last month's posts and be done with it. 

 

So, yeah! Lulu's great.

Be sure to check out these posts too!

How to Make a Lulu Blog Book

Blog2Print vs. Blurb  
 

Another blog book on the way

I ordered my second Lulu Blog Book! This one is for the year 2011. I'll let you guys know when it comes. I changed a couple things this time around, and I'll let you know how that went.

I'm so excited!

We made Onesies!

So, when Jason's mom was here last time, she spoiled us quite a bit. We went shopping for Ellie at Kohl's, and she bought us these (along with a bunch of really cute baby clothes):

That's right, plain white onesies. Jason wanted to get them, because his creative mind could see the possibilities in them. We had to think about it for a while, though, before we really figured out what we wanted to do. And then we just went for it!

Drum roll please......dumdumdumdumdumDUM!

Tada!!!

Our custom-made onesies! We had a lot of fun making these. I'll go through and show how we made each one.

First of all, the sun onesie with attached skirt!

Both Jason and I wanted to attach a skirt to at least one of the onesies. Jason had a couple old t-shirts that we could use the fabric from, so I chose a nice yellow one. I cut off the whole bottom to use for the skirt, and then followed the tutorial here to attach it to the onesie.

I then made the sun using fabric from one of the sleeves. I attached it (the circle and the rays) using a zig-zag stitch. (I also used a zig-zag stitch when attaching the skirt to the onesie, to give it more stretch and allow it to slip over Ellie's head easier.)

Next, the cloud/sun/tree onesie!

Jason did this one. He used the design from this Threadless t-shirt. He sketched it out and drew it by hand! He's so dang talented!

Then we have the turtle onesie:

I made this one by making a stencil and using spray fabric paint. First I drew a turtle on paper and then cut it out.

I then attached double-sided tape to the back of the turtle and stuck it on the onesie.

Then I sprayed! I sprayed the front first, waited an hour, then sprayed the back and shoulders. I messed up a little, though; after I sprayed the shoulders I put the onesie down without thinking about it, and several paint drops got on the front. So, if you look at the finished picture, you can see some bigger drops on front. I'll be more cautious next time.

After waiting overnight, I peeled the turtle off. And voila!

Okay, next we have the flower onesie!

This one was really simple. I already had the flowers (made of yellow silk; I made them like a year ago. I made a ton of them. I've been trying to find ways to use them ever since) and I simply sewed them on to the front. Done!

And, last but definitely not least, we have the happy organ onesie!

Jason (of course) did this one as well. He is just so amazing. He got the design from this fellow, and then did it all by hand. He is so amazing!  Also, at one point when he was drawing it out, he was like, "Look, it's an organ trail!" (Organ...Oregon...yeah :) ) He also noted that the kidneys should be in the back, but if they were we wouldn't be able to see them. So, everyone, please come to terms with them being in the front.  And, one more note, I think the gallbladder is my favorite.

So that's our onesie extravaganza! It was seriously so fun to make them. We still have lots of supplies (we used fabric markers, spray fabric paint, and extra fabric), so we plan to make more in the future. (And, in case you were wondering what the supplies cost: We bought the fabric markers and fabric spray paint from Michael's. We used 40% off coupons we printed off from online, so the total was something like $13. Not bad at all.) We already went to Deseret Industries (Utah's version of Goodwill) and got some white onesies that we can decorate that were only 50 cents each.

Seriously, we had so much fun!

Photobook Comparisons

Okay, so if you're our friend or family member, or if you've been reading my blog for a long time, you know that I love photobooks. (My poor family, whenever they come to visit, has photobooks shoved in their hands to look at. And my friends, too, when I visit them. Sorry everybody! I hope you don't mind. I don't think you do. Right?)

I really love how they preserve memories in such a clean, classy way. I've never been a big traditional scrapbooker - too much glue and cutting things into odd shapes, and once you've made a layout, you can't change it. Digital scrapbooks are perfect for me - they offer flexibility (you can rearrange the layouts until they're just perfect) with no glue or glitter or scissors! I'm super comfortable with computers (as I think everyone in our generation is), so, perfect!

I was thinking about it today, and I had the idea of compiling a couple resources for photobooks so that you (if you're interested) can kind of scope out the market and see what's best for you.

When I was first starting out in photobooks, I found these photobook reviews that I found very, very helpful: 

The Great Photo Book Round-Up Review: Who Makes the Best Photo Books?
This review was started in April 2010, but the author has updated since then as some of the companies have updated their software and started offering different sizes or options.

The Daily Digi: Photobook Reviews - 12 Different Companies Compared
This was written in May 2010, so you should take that into account. As stated above, most companies have updated their software and have begun offering newer sizes and options since then.

I also just found this website this week, and I'm totally psyched to read this girl's comparisons of all the different companies:

PhotoBookGirl - Photo Book Reviews
This girl started this site in March 2010, but she's been updating her site and reviews regularly since then.

Personally, I'm a big fan of Shutterfly.  I've made several books with them now (close to 10, I think), and I've always been pleased with their quality. Their cover, binding, end pages, paper quality, and color accuracy are all very good. If I could change one thing, I would make their photo printing a bit higher resolution. But I'm still very happy with the books they make.

Plus, you can get great deals with Shutterfly. Like, really, really great. For example, this week I got a book for free. By sharing Shutterfly with five friends, I got a free book code, and Jason got a free shipping code from them in his email (he has an account he's used once, so he gets the promo code emails). By combining the two, we got a free 8x8 book with free shipping. We didn't pay a dime! Usually, you don't save so dramatically, but you can get a good deal (very commonly 30-40% off).

Some tips to save money with any photobook company:

• If you're thinking about using the company, at least sign up for an account (you can use your junk email) so that you can get their coupons through email. 
• Before you order a book from anyone, google search for their coupon codes - I've saved money that way.
• Check out their facebook page, and look at the wall posts posted by regular people (not just the company) - often, people post coupon codes they're not going to use, or are looking to coupon code trades
• Make your book, and if you don't have any particularly good coupons or there's not a sale at the moment, wait. Don't order it. Just let the book sit in your account, and wait for good deals to come along. My stepsister does this, and by waiting for a 50% off sale she'll save a ton of money!

Right now I'm looking into AdoramaPix or MyPublisher to do our wedding book. Both are pricey, but have really good reviews, and (to me) would be worth it for a wedding book. Both have lay-flat pages, too, which I want; I like the look of AdoramaPix's lay-flat pages better. AdoramaPix has thicker pages, too, which would be good for a wedding book. But since I watched the second video on this page (the video where he reviews his vacation book, which has super-glossy pages) I'm torn. I really want the best picture quality, but I also want thick lay-flat pages that don't have a gutter. Sigh. I'm just don't know.

Anyway, I hope that was all helpful to you. Good luck preserving your family memories!

To check out my photo book reviews, check out these posts:

Shutterfly Photo Book Review
Shutterfly Premium Leather Layflat Photo Book Review
Shutterfly Calendar Review
York Photo Photo Book Review
MyPublisher Photo Book Review
AdoramaPix Photo Book Review
Collage.com Photo Book Review