Know a traveler that just can't seem to get their pictures organized? Here's a suggestion for a gift.
For Christmas one year we gave a really fun gift to my mother-in-law. Yes, this is the same lady who makes angels in the snow (see the story in A Scrapbook of Christmas Firsts). She was a member of the Robbins' Antarctic Adventure in 2006 which was undoubtly one of the best trips we have ever taken. I don't know that she ever got her pictures organized into anything other than the envelopes they came in from the drugstore developer. So I set about making her a photobook.
There are several websites to choose from for making photobooks. The one I started out with was Shutterfly.com. They have an easy online program which allows you to follow one of their templates or get creative and design your own pages. They supply all the backgrounds to choose from and the page layouts and fonts and colors, etc. All you do is upload your digital photos and click and drag them to the pages. Or you can just let the program fill them in for you. The books come out looking very professional. Prices are not bad. Most of the books I've made have ranged between $15.99 and $30.00. They run specials every so often.
Since I started, I'
ve also found Lulu.com with a similar program. I have made serveral books for grandkids when they visit or we visit them. A couple of years ago, I made one for the big brother and sister when the newest arrival came. Lulu had some very colorful backgrounds suited for a kid's book. I put together the pictures of things we'd done while Mommy took care of the new baby and added a storyline so that it read like a simple children's book. Prices here were similar to the other sites I found.
If you don't mind downloading and installing a program from the net, Picaboo.com has a terrific design program that is easy to follow and allows for lots of creativity. You can even put a picture as a background on a page. It's very flexible in what it allows you to change on the page layouts. I had a terrific time putting together a nice book of some of my travel stories with my own pictures.
My mother-in-law was delighted with her photobook of Antarctica and has it displayed on her coffee table. Think of all the ways you could make someone smile with their very own travel book.
There are several websites to choose from for making photobooks. The one I started out with was Shutterfly.com. They have an easy online program which allows you to follow one of their templates or get creative and design your own pages. They supply all the backgrounds to choose from and the page layouts and fonts and colors, etc. All you do is upload your digital photos and click and drag them to the pages. Or you can just let the program fill them in for you. The books come out looking very professional. Prices are not bad. Most of the books I've made have ranged between $15.99 and $30.00. They run specials every so often.
Since I started, I'
ve also found Lulu.com with a similar program. I have made serveral books for grandkids when they visit or we visit them. A couple of years ago, I made one for the big brother and sister when the newest arrival came. Lulu had some very colorful backgrounds suited for a kid's book. I put together the pictures of things we'd done while Mommy took care of the new baby and added a storyline so that it read like a simple children's book. Prices here were similar to the other sites I found.If you don't mind downloading and installing a program from the net, Picaboo.com has a terrific design program that is easy to follow and allows for lots of creativity. You can even put a picture as a background on a page. It's very flexible in what it allows you to change on the page layouts. I had a terrific time putting together a nice book of some of my travel stories with my own pictures.
My mother-in-law was delighted with her photobook of Antarctica and has it displayed on her coffee table. Think of all the ways you could make someone smile with their very own travel book.
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