I love giving and receiving comments on blogs---sharing thoughts and support; keeping in touch that way.
And then there's the main reason.... last week I spent 3 consecutive days putting my first book together based on my blog. 
I used Blurb and their BookSmart program. It felt GREAT organizing my 2008 blog posts and making this book for my family. I left out a few misc. posts, and focused on our family memories of '08. There's a sidebar on the left of BookSmart that links my iPhoto albums, my blog posts, and the imported photos or photos that I posted on my blog. I loved being able to easily add more photos, or better quality photos than the flickr photos I've used now and then. It was easy to edit the book, choose from lots of layouts, and create my own. For the last page I copy/pasted the '08 "quotables" from my right sidebar. I was amazed that in 3 days I pulled together an entire year (although the laundry sure piled up). I'm going to order one hard cover copy for Wayne and I and one softcover copy for the kids to thumb through whenever. As the kids get older and leave the nest, I'll order them their own hard cover copies of our family history, and they can order more copies themselves.
A major family Christmas gift and labor of love checked off my list!
xo,
Rebecca
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17 comments:
GREAT ideas!!! Keep them coming...I'm with you and I want to get my stuff done EARLY this year. I never quite got into the spirit of Christmas last year with all of the "things" to do & have vowed to make this year very different.
Way to go! I would love to do something like that.
What size did you end up going with? You'll love having both the hardbound and the softbound books:) I didn't freak out when Vivie tore a page out of the softbound one, because I know she loves looking at pics of her as a tiny fragile little 1 1/2 pounder!~ (and I have the hardbound for ME!
I'm debating on size!!! I chose the classic landscape and will probably do that for paperback, but for hardcover I think I'll copy/paste a new book in either large landscape or the new large square.
I can't believe I was able to condense my '08 blog posts to 160 pages! And I can't get over that it only took 3 days to "scrapbook" 160 pages/an entire year.
That is amazing, 3 days, 160 pages. And with all of your cute layouts, borders, etc it really is like you scrapbooked. I'm going to do this soon too. It's my plan each year to print it and Christmas is a great time to do it.
How much did it cost for a 160 page book?
8x10 landscape softcover is $37 & hardcover is $50.
When I grow up I want to be like you.
I love this idea. Blurb is awesome! I can't believe how amazingly fast and easy it is to make! I made two last year, one of Juliana first 6 months and one for my mom of all the grandkids for Christmas, which was a BIG hit. And btw, congrats on checking off a major item off your list. 160 pages.... woohoo!
inspiring... really
SO GREAT! I'm impressed. Oh, if I make it out your way, I'd love to see it. :)
Yeah! I totally plan on doing this. I'm glad to hear you can pick and choose your posts. Some of mine aren't worthy of a book, that's for sure.
Oh I just got chills. My bog is my family scrapbook too and I love it. However I have not made it into a book yet and have thought about how to do it but wasnt quite sure. Thanks for sharing this, now I know where to go and know how easy it is. Congrats on your big project accomplishment, doesnt it feel great to actually finish something?
It's good to know you can make a book out of your blog. What a fun (and huge!) project. Good for you!
This is so wonderful. I've been wondering what resource to use to pull everything together!
Thanks for visiting our blog too!
ditto Whitney's comment...
I knew this resource was available, but I get so overwhelmed just thinking about getting started!
You make it all look so effortless!
You rock.
I'm so glad you did this first. I'm excited to a) first update our blog, and b) create our family book. I can't wait to see it--hope you can bring it at Thanksgiving so we can get a sneak peak at the finished product!
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