I also collected belly photos and pics from our baby shower, as well as snapshots from everyday life to gather the components of my pregnancy photo book. About a year after Photo Book Baby’s birth, I finally had time to lay out my book.

Even after it was done, I actually held onto it for quite some time as I wanted to make sure it was the way I envisioned it before sending it to print. Some font changes and sizing changes later, I finally used a Groupon I had from Photobook America for its pro series and I couldn’t think of a better topic on which to use the voucher. Here’s some shots of my maternity masterpiece!

I opted for the matching leather slipcover for my book. I love the debossed letters. I went for an Hermes-like orange color. Very chic – don’t you think?

The debossing comes on both the cover of the slipcover as well as the book.

I thought I was going to take more belly photos than I actually ended up taking. I mean after all, I’m Photo Book Girl! But time really flies when you’re pregnant, so I’m happy to have the photos we took. Some of the best shots we snapped were on a short babymoon trip to Sanibel Island at week 21 when I enlisted daddy-to-be to take these shots of me and the bump. We took these during the golden hour (at sunset when the lighting is warm and doesn’t cast harsh shadows. If you want to read more about how to catch the golden hour check out this post.)

I also took screenshots of my Facebook posts. Here’s one just a couple weeks prior to delivery.

And here’s the one where I told all of you – my awesome Facebook fans about becoming Photo Book Mom! I received so many lovely well wishes and tips about how to document a new baby with photos.

Then of course I had to create a two-page spread of just belly bump photos. I captioned each with the week and the weight I was at the time of each photo.  (I wouldn’t say that I had any specific baby-induced cravings, but I did eat more ice cream than usual!)

This book officially ends with the birth of Photo Book Baby. He’s already had so many photo books made in his honor, but this one is just for mommy!

What to Include in Your Pregnancy Photo Book

1) Belly photos
Weekly shots can be a lot fit into a busy schedule, so at least aim for monthly shots if you can. It’s helpful if you can enlist hubby or a friend, but a tripod and wireless shutter release can work well too. You can keep a similar plain background to highlight the progression, but if that’s too much work, just take a photo whenever you remember. If you already have little ones, it would be lovely to include them in some belly shots as well;

2) Journal
What really helped me put my book together was to sit down and write about what I was feeling, new things I was experiencing and all the important pregnancy milestones such as telling our families, getting our ultrasounds etc.  To make it more of a fun thing and not a chore, I just wrote when I felt like it. So while some months I may only have had a couple entries, I tried to catch up writing about what happened since the last entry so I feel like I didn’t miss anything. Some weeks I only took photos and they weren’t all about being pregnant – I wrote about birthday parties, trips etc. If you’re not the journaling type, a visual journal with photos works fine too;

3) Ultrasound photos
I scanned all the printouts from my ultrasounds for my book and captioned them with the information we gleaned from them. We were lucky to have some 3D ultrasound shots as well;

4) Baby shower photos
Make sure to enlist someone to take lots of photos of your shower. If you can swing it, get a professional photographer. If you get a pro, see if you can add on a maternity shoot for some special photos of you and daddy-to-be. This would also make an awesome gift for an expectant mother!

5) Cards and Facebook screenshots
You’re bound to get some congratulatory cards and messages from your friends and family on Facebook – scan some of your favorite shower cards and capture a screenshot to add those Facebook messages to your photo book;

6) Baby registry
If you registered, perhaps include a the list of items you had on your wish list and who gave them to you;

7) Nursery shots
Some before and after shots of your baby’s nursery would be great to document along with a shot of your inspiration board. I had so much fun planning and shopping for Photo Book Baby’s nursery.

Hope that gives you some inspiration to make a pregnancy photo book of your own, or for a expecting friend or family member. If you’re short on time I did find several pregnancy themed photo books with layouts ready to go. I took some screenshots of them in the post I linked. Please share any tips you may have! Have you made a maternity photo book or contemplating one?

The super lucky PhotoBookGirl reader who will receive a $49.99 photo book credit each month for a full year is…

Michelle P.

Michelle says she plans use the nearly $600.00 prize to scrapbook her last couple trips and use some as gifts for her family!

Michelle, please look out for an email from me and be sure to check your spam folder…

Thanks to everyone who entered and to MyPublisher for sponsoring the giveaway!

If you didn’t win this time, don’t be discouraged – check out these awesome deals from MyPublisher below! Also make sure to check out the photo book deals page as well as the photo book Groupon tracker page for awesome discounts!

Exclusive Photo Book Girl MyPublisher Coupon Codes 2013 – Still Valid!

My special codes that I released in March have been extended! As I mentioned, one of them is one my favorite promos that MyPublisher runs every now and then (but not frequently) – the FREE EXTRA PAGES deal.

If you’ve printed with MyPublisher before, you know that this is probably the best deal they offer if you’re wanting to make a large book. It’s about 70% off!

$35 for a Classic Photo Book (with up to 100 pages!)

$70 for a Deluxe Photo Book (with up to 100 pages!)

Coupon Code: PHOTOBOOKGIRLPAGES

PLUS my canvas deal is still valid too!

Coupon Code: PHOTOBOOKGIRLCANVAS

Deals Expire: 3/1/2013 EXTENDED! 5/31/2013 (11:59pm PST)

This promotion entitles select MyPublisher users to receive a $35 classic photo book including free extra pages and photo finish or book jacket cover option ($115.19 value) OR a $70 deluxe photo book with free extra pages and photo finish or book jacket cover ($229.19 value). Other paper, printing and cover options, slipcases, and any additional pages may be added to the order at full retail price. This offer does not apply to any other photo books, cards, calendars, scrapbook pages, canvas prints, gift certificates, or any other product.
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The mother of all giveaways has arrived in time for Mother’s Day!

Dear, dear readers that’s not a typo you read in the headline of my post. One lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky reader will win a prize package from MyPublisher worth nearly $600.00!

Yes, I said “lucky” 12 times because you’ll get 12 months of photo books!

I was so excited working with MyPublisher to come up with this prize package in honor of Mother’s Day and I appreciate the company’s generosity to our readers! I love spreading the photo book love, especially when I know it’s a prize I would be personally excited to win!

I’ve written numerous reviews on MyPublisher’s products. My very first photo book was created with MyPublisher about 8 years ago as a present for my mom and I’ve made lots of books with them since.

You may have heard recently on my Facebook page that MyPublisher was recently acquired by Shutterfly. Although it had already been made public, I didn’t realize that I had actually posted the news on my page before either company had posted it on their Facebook pages. Boy, I had no idea what kind of response it would get! Lots of folks expressed their hope that MyPublisher would still retain its own identity and its quality products. I’m sure the folks at MyPublisher appreciate the loyalty shown by their users and I’ve been assured that production of the books and the software will remain the same. You can read more about it here in their own words.

I had already been working on this giveaway with the company before the news came out as these promos take a while to develop, so the timing of this was unintentional, but I think it shows the company’s commitment to its users.

Click here if you’re interested in seeing my MyPublisher photo book reviews including overviews of the lay flat option, super gloss paper and photo finish cover (scroll down to “MyPublisher Reviews from the Blog” for a complete list of all of MyPublisher articles).

Okay enough jabber right?

ENTER MY CRAZY AWESOME MYPUBLISHER GIVEWAWAY!

One (1) darned lucky PhotoBookGirl reader will receive a $49.99 photo book credit each month for a full year! That’s $49.99 x 12 folks!

(Do the math – it’s a prize package worth $599.88!)

You can use it for any hardcover photo book on MyPublisher’s site. Use it for a Classic Hardcover with lay flat or super gloss paper – whatever you want for a full year! Create a twelve-volume set of past family vacations, make that series of baby books you haven’t made for your toddler yet, or all those wedding albums you’ve been planning on!

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HOW TO ENTER THE MYPUBLISHER GIVEAWAY

You have 6 possible ways to enter, but you must do the REQUIRED ENTRY for the others to count. For EACH entry, you have to COMMENT ON THIS POST below with a separate comment for EACH entry, telling me what type of entry you did.

REQUIRED ENTRY:

• Check out MyPublisher’s photo books and come back here to comment below – IF YOU WON THIS PHOTO BOOK BONANZA, WHAT WOULD YOU MAKE?
  

OPTIONAL ENTRIES:

• Subscribe to my newsletter (look for light blue box at top right) AND tell me in the comment below that you subscribed and the name you subscribed under (first name is fine). If you already subscribe to my newsletter, tell me in your comment and give me your name. (Please remember for it to count, you must confirm the subscription. Sorry RSS doesn’t count);

• “Like” me on Facebook (if you are already a fan, or become a new fan, tell me your Facebook name in the comment form);

• “Like” MyPublisher on Facebook (if you are already a fan, or become a fan, tell me your Facebook name in the comment form);

• Give your review of any photo book/canvas company you’ve tried on the company’s main reviews page. (Click here to give a canvas print review). Click on the “Read Review” button. You’ll see a place to add your review at the bottom of each company’s page. Let me know which company you commented on by telling me in a comment in this post below. (Limit to two (2) entries using this method. Reviews given prior to the start of this Giveaway don’t count – they must be new ones please!);

• Blog about this giveaway on your blog. Be sure to comment on this post with a link to your blog post (Counts as 3 entries!)

Make sure to do the REQUIRED ENTRY!

This giveaway is open to anyone 18 or older. No country restrictions (so it’s international but please check if MyPublisher ships to your country if you have any doubts). Void where prohibited. Void in Quebec. Entries must be received by Tuesday, May 14, 2013, at 11:59pm CT and any entries not in accordance with the rules will be disqualified at our sole discretion and at the discretion of the sponsor. Winning entry will be chosen using Random.org. After compiling the results, I will announce the winner thereafter and will email the winner. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or I will redraw another entry. Canadian winner may be asked to answer a skill question to be eligible, to comply with Canadian laws. Codes only applicable towards hardcover books. Winner will be issued a monthly code for the appropriate value. Each code will expire by the end of each month and final code will be issued for April 2014. May 2013 code will be valid through June 30, 2013. Cannot be combined with other promotions. May be used towards shipping costs. Shipping varies by location – see MyPublisher site for details. Winner may apply code value towards a higher priced book, and pay for any additional charges. Full value of code must be used in single transaction. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of the company. The links on these pages go to the company’s sites. If you click on a link to MyPublisher’s site and make a purchase, I may receive a referral fee from the company. Regardless of affiliation my opinions are always my own.

Exclusive Photo Book Girl MyPublisher Coupon Codes 2013 – Still Valid!

My special codes that I released in March have been extended! As I mentioned, one of them is one my favorite promos that MyPublisher runs every now and then (but not frequently) – the FREE EXTRA PAGES deal.

If you’ve printed with MyPublisher before, you know that this is probably the best deal they offer if you’re wanting to make a large book. It’s about 70% off!

$35 for a Classic Photo Book (with up to 100 pages!)

$70 for a Deluxe Photo Book (with up to 100 pages!)

Coupon Code: PHOTOBOOKGIRLPAGES

PLUS my canvas deal is still valid too!

Coupon Code: PHOTOBOOKGIRLCANVAS

Deals Expire: 3/1/2013 EXTENDED! 5/31/2013 (11:59pm PST)

This promotion entitles select MyPublisher users to receive a $35 classic photo book including free extra pages and photo finish or book jacket cover option ($115.19 value) OR a $70 deluxe photo book with free extra pages and photo finish or book jacket cover ($229.19 value). Other paper, printing and cover options, slipcases, and any additional pages may be added to the order at full retail price. This offer does not apply to any other photo books, cards, calendars, scrapbook pages, canvas prints, gift certificates, or any other product.
____________________________
BEST OF LUCK TO EVERYONE! Wouldn’t it be awesome to see a package like this every month on your doorstep!

The idea was started by mommy blogger Iliana Wiles of Mommyshorts.com who took a photo of her 5 month old in a mug and posted it on her blog. Now it’s gone viral and has been featured on the Huffington Post, Today.com. You’ll see lots of funny pics there!

It’s easy to do – basically you take a photo of your baby so it looks like your little one is sitting in your mug. A bit of surrealist photo trickery.

Well, I guess I should admit that it wasn’t as easy as I hoped, cause a toddler just doesn’t sit still. It would be much easier for those babes who aren’t mobile yet!

Here’s my first attempt:

I may try this again when he’s more cooperative. Have you given this a try yet? I’d love to see your baby mugs! Come post on my Facebook page!

Which Pen To Use for a Guest Book

What kind of pen works best if you plan to have folks sign your photo book as a guest book?  I recommend Sharpie Ultra Fine Point Permanent Markers.  Other brands of permanent markers may work fine too, but I’ve only personally used Sharpies for signing photo books (and photo canvases for that matter).  A permanent marker is important as you don’t want it to smudge.  They dry so fast that smudging is very unlikely.  For my guest book, I used black backgrounds, so I couldn’t use a black marker.  I used silver, but at the time I couldn’t find that color in the ultra fine point, so I had to go with the Sharpie fine point, which in retrospect was a little too large of a nib.  It made the writing look a bit messy, but lucky for you, you get the benefit of my hindsight.

Although I said this is not a permanent marker review blog, I did test out a number of different pens with the various the paper samples.  When I was putting pen to paper, I was looking for two things: smudging and bleed through.  Smudging is self-explanatory.  Here’s the summary:

1) Sharpie Fine Point

I don’t recommend using this.  There were no issues with smudging as it dried super fast (I rubbed my finger over the writing right after) but the tip is too thick which makes the writing look a little “blobby”.  Also, because it’s so bold, you will see it show through on the reverse which could potentially interfere with the image on the other side.  By the way when I say “bleed through” I don’t mean the ink seeped through to the other side, which would instantly eliminate the pen from consideration, but just that it shows through the page when held up to the light.

This fine point Sharpie is very bold – it shows through on the opposite side a bit. The ink does not seep through, but it’s visible.  This is the (MyPublisher) Superior Matte paper.

You can hardly see any of the writing show through here (it’s very faint above the trees) – this is the (MyPublisher) Deluxe Matte paper.

2) Sharpie Ultra Fine Point  (THE WINNER)

This is the one I recommend.  Like it’s thicker tipped cousin, there were no issues with smudging, but it was much more readable and no bleed through.  As mentioned it comes in lots of colors too if you don’t want to use black.  Black is always a classic “go to” color, but Sharpies come in a myriad of colors.  So you can choose your wedding colors or whatever color you want.

3) Uni-Ball Deluxe Stick Roller Ball Pen, Black Ink, Micro Fine

I don’t recommend using this. It didn’t dry fast enough (it smudged) and it didn’t write as well on the satin finish paper.  I just decided to give it a try for comparison purposes.

4) Sharpie Extra Fine Point Oil-Based Opaque Paint Marker

The tip was perfect, readability was very good and no issues with bleed through because the tip was extra fine, but this is a paint pen so it smudged.  So, I wouldn’t recommend it since it doesn’t dry fast enough.

CAUTION: Smudging! So pens number 3 & 4 (the Uniball and the Sharpie paint pen) are NOT recommended.  It does eventually dry, but I don’t think you’re going to sit there and blow on each page in between guests signing your book!

Here’s a shot of all four on the (MyPublisher) Deluxe Matte 170 lb. paper.  There isn’t much difference as to how the signatures looked on the various papers.

As you can see the fine point Sharpie on the far right is the most bold, but as mentioned the tip is too thick and can make writing look a bit messy and hard to read.

Here’s a close-up.  I still like the bottom one best (the ultra fine point Sharpie).

Notice I picked a very popular recently married couple as a sample!

So there you have it! Besides for weddings, I love photo guest books for all sorts of events – anniversary parties, birthdays, graduation parties, baby showers etc. Unlike typical guest books that may be packed away and never opened again, photo book guest books are meant to be displayed and enjoyed. Check out my wedding guest book here!

The winner will receive 50 (FIFTY) 5 x 5 or 5 x 7 cards from Shutterfly!

And the winner is:

Drumroll please…

Melissa W.

Melissa said in her entry that she is having twins this summer and is planning to make birth announcements. Congratulations on the win and the babies Melissa!

The winner will be getting an e-mail from me – if you’re the winner and you haven’t gotten an e-mail from me, please check your spam folder cause this is one e-mail you don’t want to miss! Please e-mail me back so I can confirm your info and give you your prize. You will have 48 hours from the time of my e-mail to reply, so please make sure to do that so I don’t have to redraw!

Thanks for everyone who entered! Even if your entry wasn’t drawn, be sure to check out these deals from Shutterfly!

Deal #1

Get up to 50% off photo books and 20% off on most other photo gifts, check out Shutterfly’s site for details.

Deal #2

The FREE 5 CARDS has been extended! Choose from 5 x 7 or 5 x 5 cards.

Deal Expires: 4/28/2013 (11:59 P.M. PST). Offer is good for five free 5×7 flat stationery cards or five free 5×7 folded greeting cards at Shutterfly. Offer valid for one-time redemption per billing address. Customer must choose only one of the two offers. Taxes, shipping and handling will apply.

Deal #3

Don’t miss out on any photo gift deals and reviews! Subscribe to my newsletter (see light blue box at top right) and fan me on Facebook!

Also, check out my “what’s hot” for Mother’s Day gift guide! It’s all about personalized gifts!

Okay, enough of the sob story and down to business.

What happens when a photo you really like or cannot recreate comes out less than optimal? Perhaps the lighting was really tricky, the photo is slightly blurry and no matter how you try to tweak it the skin tones are not coming out right? Try converting it to black and white (actually greyscale).

Here’s a shot of Photo Book Baby playing in Nemo’s Reef on the Disney Fantasy. (FYI non-potty trained children are not allowed in the pool even with swim diapers. Makes sense. He didn’t miss the pool at all – he absolutely loved Nemo’s Reef.) There was some tricky lighting here – it was a shaded area on one of the otherwise very bright upper decks which obviously is going to create a lot of backlighting.

Here’s the shot straight out of camera. My little guy’s face is underexposed and the photo isn’t as sharp as I would like. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I always err in favor of brightening my photos because they always seem to print a little darker than what I see on my monitor. There is no way this photo is going to look good in my photo book without doing some post-processing to it.

My first line of defense is iPhoto – the photo organization and editing program that comes pre-installed with Mac computers. Ninety-nine percent of the time iPhoto works just fine for the slight tweaking that I’m doing to my photos and it’s fast. When you’re reviewing hundreds of photos you need to get through them fast. I’m showing you a close up of the editing adjustments below the photo, in case you were wondering what I did.

I’m still not 100% happy with the photo, but that’s pretty much all I can do within the program and it’s passable as a supporting photo in my layout (versus being the “star” photo of the page). I could do more fine-tuning in Adobe Photoshop, but for the sake of this post, let’s assume I don’t want to spend the time doing that.

Let’s see what it looks like if I turn it into a black and white photo. There’s a tab called “Effects” and the “B & W” button is the first one. Just click on that.

After converting the photo to black and white, you’ll see that I made a lot of additional adjustments. (B/t/w I always make a duplicate of the photo before I do any significant changes so that I have both versions in iPhoto. Although iPhoto keeps an original version in its library, I still want to see the original version in the program workspace side-by-side with the new version.) In terms of adjustments, the contrast usually has to be increased, and you may have to play with the exposure and levels settings. In this case I also brought down the highlights quite a bit (by moving the slider to the right) to get more detail back in the background which had gotten really overexposed (blown-out). I also set the temperature all the way to the right (the yellow end of the spectrum) because that was helping me get the tones I wanted in his face. Although it’s not perfect, I’m more happy about this photo in black and white than I am with the color version.

I also decided to make a duplicate of this photo and crop it to focus on my main subject.

I did catch a few other shots that turned out great. In those I purposely turned him towards the light to better expose his face but you can’t always catch the same expression. For me this shot was all about his gleefulness and that’s a memory worth capturing (and worth the time to do some tweaking)! If you come across a photo of yours that’s not quite right, but that you still like, I hope you’ll give black and white a try!

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***Don’t forget to enter my Shutterfly Giveaway! Ends tomorrow (4/22)***

This is my first Shutterfly giveaway and I’m so excited to be able to offer it to you!

One lucky winner will receive an exclusive code for 50 (FIFTY) FREE 5 x 5 or 5 x 7 Shutterfly cards! The value of this prize is approximately $100.00!

What’s awesome is that this code doesn’t expire until the end of the year. I don’t know about you, but this would take care of my holiday cards! Talk about early Christmas present!

If you haven’t made custom cards with Shutterfly before, they have a huge selection and for every occasion. The cards are of a nice weight and standard envelopes are included. I’ve made Christmas cards, birthday cards, Mother’s Day cards, thank you cards as well as Valentine’s Day cards with Shutterfly and I’ve always been happy with the result. I also notice Shutterfly is a favorite among my friends during the holidays. Because I blog about a lot of these companies, when I get a custom card in the mail, I always pay particular attention to where the cards are printed!

HOW TO ENTER THE SHUTTERFLY GIVEAWAY

You have 6 possible ways to enter, but you must do the REQUIRED ENTRY for the others to count. For EACH entry, you have to COMMENT ON THIS POST below with a separate comment for EACH entry, telling me what type of entry you did.

REQUIRED ENTRY:

• Check out Shutterfly’s Cards and come back here to comment below – IF YOU WON, WHAT KIND OF CARDS WOULD YOU MAKE? (Christmas, birth announcements, graduation announcements, party invitations? etc.)
  

OPTIONAL ENTRIES:

• Subscribe to my newsletter (look for light blue sign up box at top right) AND tell me in the comment below that you subscribed and the name you subscribed under (first name is fine). If you already subscribe to my newsletter, tell me in your comment and give me your name. (Please remember for it to count, you must confirm the subscription. Sorry RSS or Google Reader doesn’t count);

• “Like” me on Facebook (if you are already a fan, or become a new fan, tell me your Facebook name in the comment form);

• “Like” Shutterfly on Facebook (if you are already a fan, or become a fan, tell me your Facebook name in the comment form);

• Give your review of any photo book/custom card company you’ve tried on the company’s main reviews page. It can be, but doesn’t have to be about photo cards, it can be about any product from that company. Click on the “Read Review” button. You’ll see a place to add your review at the bottom of each company’s page. Let me know which company you commented on by telling me in a comment in this post below. (Limit to two (2) entries using this method. Reviews posted prior to the start of this Giveaway don’t count – they must be new ones please!);

• Blog about this giveaway on your blog. Be sure to comment on this post with a link to your blog post (Counts as 3 entries!)

Make sure to do the REQUIRED ENTRY!

Applicable taxes and shipping will apply. (Base shipping within the U.S. is $9.99.) This giveaway is open to anyone 18 or older. No country restrictions (so it’s international but please check if Shutterfly ships to your country if you have any doubts). Void where prohibited. Void in Quebec. Entries must be received by MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013 (11:59PM CT), and any entries not in accordance with the rules will be disqualified at our sole discretion and at the discretion of the sponsor. Winning entry will be chosen using Random.org. After compiling the results, I will announce the winner thereafter and will email the winner. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or I will redraw another entry. Canadian winners may be asked to answer a skill question to be eligible, to comply with Canadian laws. Winner will be issued a code for the appropriate prize. The code will expire December 31, 2013, and is valid for one-time redemption. Cannot be combined with other promotions. Taxes, shipping and handling will apply. Shipping varies by location – see Shutterfly site for details. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of the company. If you click on a link to Shutterfly’s site and make a purchase, I may receive a referral fee from the company. Regardless of affiliation my opinions are always my own.


Thanks to Shutterfly for sponsoring this giveaway prize!
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MORE ABOUT SHUTTERFLY

Check out my detailed Shutterfly Reviews and find all the latest Shutterfly promos here!

UPDATE: 4/18/2013 – FIND OUT HOW TO GET 5 FREE SHUTTERFLY CARDS HERE! (Through 4/24)

*******

By the way, if you haven’t tried Shutterfly for custom photo cards before, click here to get a FREE card from Shutterfly! Make your card and enter the coupon code below at checkout:

Coupon Code: CARD4U

Deal Expires: 4/17/2013 (11:59PM PT).

Offer is good for one free 5 x 7 flat stationery card or one free 5 x 7 folded greeting card. One-time redemption per billing address.

MORE DEALS!

Save up to 40% off on photo books from Shutterfly.com! Deal Expires: 4/17/2013

Save 20% off your order! Coupon Code: YAYMOM Deal Expires: 4/17/2013

Don’t miss out on any photo gift deals and reviews! Subscribe to my newsletter (see light blue box at top right) and fan me on Facebook!

Also, check out my “what’s hot” for Mother’s Day gift guide! It’s all about personalized gifts!

You may have read elsewhere on my site that Mom is the reason I got into photo books in the first place, so without her, there would be no Photobookgirl.com! My mom isn’t into computers and she’s not on Facebook (thankfully). I couldn’t share photos with her or email her pics so about 8 years ago I researched how to get my photos into printed form and stumbled upon photo books. The rest is history.

Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 12th.

It’s no secret that my favorite Mother’s Day gift idea is a photo book. If you’re looking for some ideas for possible themes, check out my earlier post on unique photo books for mom. Brag books, kids’ artwork, year in review etc. are all great topics for a Mother’s Day photo book.

Want to see what I made for my mom? Check out the photo book I made for her for Mother’s Day 2011. I gave her a family history book full of her old photos and written in fairy tale form.

If you’re looking for a quick but stylish photo book with drag and drop ease, check out some of my favorites below. I like to make the rounds to survey new or relevant themes and here’s my picks of the latest…

Hello Spring theme from Shutterfly.

Familygram theme from Shutterfly

Handmade for Mom by Shutterfly

Mother’s Day Florals by Mixbook

Bold Mother’s Day Florals theme from Mixbook.

Mom-isms by Mixbook.

If you decide to make one of these lovely books or a similar theme like the ones above, you just upload your photos and then drag and drop into the pre-designed pages. You can still modify the layout, remove clip art or add embellishments to your liking. My main point is that it doesn’t have to be time-consuming to make a customized gift!

If you’d like some other options other than photo books, check out my custom photo gifts page for my TOP TWELVE PERSONALIZED GIFTS.

Honestly, you can’t go wrong with any gift you make for mom – remember that unidentifiable thingamajig you made her for Mother’s Day 1993? She loved it and said it was a work of art didn’t she? Happy Photobooking!

There are a few things I thought could translate well to photo book design:

I like the simple clean layouts. Two smaller photos on the left and one large one on the right and lots of open space to let the photos take center stage. Same goes with the layout below:

Also note the catalog stuck to some basic colors for backgrounds: white, black, red, beige, purple and blue. Keeping a cohesive color scheme helps tie the whole book together.

This next photo below illustrates the same concept of simplicity but with text. If you plan to write a narrative, think about giving it some breathing room. Crowding the text or having too much text on the page makes it harder to read and may discourage your reader from wanting to read it if it looks too cluttered. I also like the bold background color and contrasting text. Just make sure there is enough contrast between the background color and text color so it’s easier to read.

Additionally, my preference for adding text to my photo book layouts is more minimalist. I don’t like to caption each photo. I like to write one block of text that explains all the photos on the page. For example, if I were making a travel photo book, I like to write one paragraph of text that explains everything we did on “Day 5″ of our trip so that one paragraph takes care of explaining all the photos that follow on the next set of pages.

Along those lines, this next photo illustrates a great idea for a “title page” or “table of contents” page.

If I were making a travel book, I might use a similar layout to create an overview of our itinerary. Picture each column being a day of your trip with a small narrative of where you went that day, what you ate etc. You could use a favorite shot of the day at the top of each column. I could also see using this as a “cast of characters” page. I did something similar in a collaborative book I made with my friends where each person featured in the book answered a short list of questions, sort of like a mini bio with their photo above it. I think it adds a great personal touch to your books, rather than just your standard layouts of your vacation snapshots. I’m planning to do something like this for my Disney photo book. I may even add Goofy and Mickey to our cast of characters!

I hope you get some good ideas for your projects!