Woman in Real Life: A gift for my little girl...and a photo book giveaway!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

A gift for my little girl...and a photo book giveaway!

It’s now the middle of November, and I am still in denial about Christmas. The kids are busily cutting out toy ads from store flyers and making lists, complete with prices and store availability. They know me well. A thorough source of information will better ensure I actually remember what they want. Don’t be like me. Start planning your presents now, so you can better enjoy the days leading up to the holidays. Make some cookies before Christmas instead of rushing to a crowded mall.

One great gift for the holidays is a personalized photo book. Blurb.ca allowed me to make and review a custom photo book, and I have to say it was a lot of fun. I chose to make a photo book for my daughter, but I also love the idea of making my very own cookbook using my favourite recipes. A real coffee table cookbook. How cool would that be? You can transfer your book to an ebook and share it with your family and friends too. Or, make a book of your Instagram photos or favourite photos from your blog. I really want to make an Instagram book too. I just need a bit more time to match all of my plans.

Beautiful Girl

I chose to make a small, square (7x7-inch), 20 page book for my little girl’s birthday. I thought a small book would appeal to a child. Small books start at $11.95 (CAD), so they are great for gifts for grandparents or other people on your Christmas list. I received a $40 credit to try a book, so I upgraded my book, making it hardcover, with an image wrap on the cover, premium lustre paper and black end sheets inside the covers. The cover of my book is the first picture in this post. I also added a pdf for $4.99 more, so I could share the pages here before I actually receive the book. This brought the total to $36.68, plus tax and shipping. I chose to download Blurb’s free BookSmart software, so that I could create my book offline. The software allows you to fully customize your book, and then connect with the website when you are ready to order.

I am excited for my daughter to see the book. Production and shipping takes about two weeks. (Yes, her birthday was in October.) I hope she treasures her little book for years and knows how much her parents treasure her.

Tips

I have tried to make photo books in the past and found it time-consuming, so I decided to use fairly recent photos (from the past year) rather than taking the time to track down several years’ worth of photos. To make your job easier, choose a specific subject, like photos from a recent vacation or use a year’s worth of photos for your child’s next birthday, like I did.

Create a folder of chosen photos before you begin your book. This way, the photos are all in one place, and easy to import into your book. Edit the photos in your photo editor before you begin.

To save time, many of the pages I created are just one large photo. I did add a poem to one page and put two or more photos on a few of the pages to jazz up the design a bit.

Cool feature

You can convert your book to an ebook for the iPad for $9.99. I don’t have an iPad, but that option sounds cool to me!

To make your own personal gift for this holiday, get started on your Blurb custom photo book now! Blurb’s custom planners and photo books make thoughtful gifts for family, friends, co-workers and clients.

Create your book at a 15% discount now, using the banner below. Or, enter to win a $75 credit here. You can buy a few books with that!

Win a $75 credit for your own Blurb book or books!

Enter using the rafflecopter below. Contest is available to residents of Canada, the US and anywhere else Blurb.ca ships. Please check their website for shipping information. Please note that the credit expires on December 31, 2012.

a Rafflecopter giveaway