I am putting on the finishing touches of my blurb blog book...for 2007! Wow, what a process...my editing fingers are tired--isn't there some sort of new diagnosis for tired fingers from texting and typing?
14 years ago
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Blurb blurb blurb......
For those that don't know, visit blurb.com and upload their software to your computer, and you can then slurp up your blog to the software and go to town creating a book out of all of your great entries and photos... it wasn't working with blogger for a while, but now it is... so go slurp!
What I learned is that I don't post enough pictures on my blog (thus, the last entry of Vivie's faces)...I'm way too selective in what I share compared with the amount of photos that I take. I had to go through my photo files and add quite a few photos to my 2007 book to make it more complete.
I also learned that all the cutesie layouts and storyboards I've been doing lately and uploading to flickr don't really work wonderfully with the blurb pre-set page layouts. They are too low-res to work in the blurb book, so when I do my '08 book I will need to go back to my original files and upload from there. You can also upload from picasa and some other hosts, which is nice. If I created my layouts in a full-bleed size for the 10x8 landscape book I chose, it might work, but I'm not so sure I like a cutesie scrapbook-like blog book anyhow...
***(note--you can upload from flickr if you use that as your photo storage and sharing tool, but what I'm talking about is the storyboards I upload to flickr and then to my blog that are 12x12)
However, using photoshop to change my photos to enhance or edit them works very well, perhaps with a little bit of journaling right on the photo, as I sometimes do. The photos should be 300 dpi...that is the most important thing for a nice printout.
The blurb pages are not customizable at this time (layouts are preset) and therefore, so are the photo/text layout sizes. A lot of my time in editing this was cropping photos in photoshop at 300 dpi to the dimensions of the photo layouts I chose in the book.
I also found that rather than using their preset stripes and other designed backgrounds, it looked cleanest and sharpest using one preset background color with different photo and text layouts. After tinkering with some different layouts and backgrounds, I ended up used a black background with white text for a uniform look throughout the book.
You can add page ornaments on top and bottom, as well as borders around your photos in blurb. It spices it up just enough to end up with a clean yet sophisticated and sharp book about your family!
Once my blurb layouts were complete I had 126 pgs for my blog from October-December 2007 alone... my layouts were quite a bit of TEXT... I learned that I am definitely NOT short, sweet, & to the point with my writing style. And I decided that to keep 2007 to itself and to make it comprehensive. Since I started my blog so late in the year, I added in my '07 photos prior to blogging (including enough of Vivie to show her story by photos alone), since it was a pretty important year. So I'm ending up with 162 pages for 2007.
I'm going to make a separate book with ALL of Vivie's photos to tell her story, including all of my email entries and journal entries that I wrote while in the hospital as well as her updates throughout those vital first months.
What a process... and I'm sure blurb will only become more customizable in time. But for now, if you keep it under 160 pages, you can choose the option of a silk 100 lb. paper which I'm told prints up super nice. Mine is 162 pages, so I'm going to have to cut out somewhere! For 121-160 pages 10x8 landscape, hardcover with silk finish paper, the cost is just over $60 with shipping. It's about $15 less for a soft cover. My friend had a great idea of getting a hardbound (with a dust-jacket) to keep nice and clean, as well as a soft-bound specifically for the kids to enjoy.
Now, I'm on to 2008, and thinking I am going to be BUSY for a long while putting together books. My digital photos need a home so that the kids can see their lives and we can enjoy the stories these pictures will tell. I'm going to try out the Mac books....what have your experiences been with shutterfly and any other digital photo book brands?
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9 comments:
Last I checked, blurb stopped slurping from Blogger. I guess they changed that?
My husband made me an AWESOME book of how we met, our love story, etc. for our anniversary in Nov. It was awesome and I am a fan!
Shayla - you have motivated me to blog & now that you are figuring out how to make a book! Even Better! Love it! Thanks
I am so excited to see your book when you get it. It sounds so affordable. It is great you can have so many pages. The Mac books can only have 100 pages or maybe 125 pages and it was about $125 per book.
I still want to get together and learn a few things about my blog and now the book. I will make lunch and bring it over if we can have that little lesson. No excuses now that the holiday is over and your book is done. Congrats! What a great feeling to be done with a book.
can't wait to see it! Sounds awesome. After seeing the quality of the Mac book and calendar I may start out that route unless blurb turns out as nice. I'd love to know how you think it compares to Ama's book.
isn't it fun!
Way to go!! The editing really is a procee! I have been working on my 2008 blog book...I have a LONG way to go. You will have to post when you get your book. I would love to see it!
I've done photo books (less than 30 pgs) on MAC and through Snapfish. In my limited experience, MAC is definitely better quality, but a little more expensive. The big bonus is that with MAC you create it on your hard drive, so you don't have to be online while you're working on it. The down side is that there seemed to be fewer options for page layout for photos and text than with Snapfish (note: my knowledge is basic, so it's possible that I'm just not aware of more options).
I just did a free book with snapfish & it was okay. I've seen blurb before & the quality is better. Stick with blurb. Mac is good too but more expensive.
Hi, Thats great about you making a book of your blog! I found your blog from another blog I was reading and have been looking at all your posts! You are able to express all of what I feel as a mother. "Listening" to what your children say is like listening to mine. Amazingly fun and thought provacative. Anyway, I wanted to drop you a line and tell you about a company called Heritage Makers that does books also. They would be great for your book about Viv. They archive all the books that you create, are hardbound and if something happens to your copy you can get another usually for half price. Anyway, I've done one for my son Parker and his turned out wonderfully. If you would like to see a copy, just email me at vonnyh1@cox.net . It was a lot of fun to create.
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