Shutterfly Photo Books

Last year while P was away at trial, I created a “Year in Review” book to commemorate the year we got married. We kept it on the bottom shelf of our coffee table with our wedding album and it was often looked at when we had guests over. I quickly decided that this was something I wanted to create at the end of each year to capture our favorite memories and see how our family grows. I used to rely on srapbooking as a way to capture memories but busy schedules have made it hard to keep up the hobby. Photo books are an easy way to organize photos each year while still adding unique touches that fit your needs.

My favorite company to use to create photo books is Shutterfly. Not only did I use Shutterfly for my year in review book last year, I have also used it to create our wedding guestbook a Father’s Day book for my dad from my sisters and I, and recently a book for my best friend.  The thing I like most about Shutterfly is that they have TONS of book designs available.

I always choose the Custom Path because I love being able to add embellishments, text boxes, and play around with layouts (probably because it feels like scrapbooking). But if you are limited on time or want to use Shutterfly’s layouts, you can choose the Simple Path and simply upload the pictures you want in the book.

Next you choose the size of your book. I went with the 10x10 book this year.  It is a new book size to Shutterfly and I thought it would be ta great size for the coffee table. It is also similar in size to our wedding album so they will look nice stacked together. After choosing the size, you then have the hard task of choosing the theme you want. I probably spent a good thirty minutes scrolling through the different themes and looking at the idea pages to get a sense of the colors and embellishments available. One thing to remember during this step is to not feel like you can’t use a certain design because it doesn’t fall into the theme you want.

For example, I first looked under the “Year in Review” category but none of the options were jumping out to me. I eventually found the Chalkboard Chic book under the “Family” theme. I liked the simple and classic look of the book while still feeling like it was on point in terms of current design and décor trends.

The next step is uploading all of the pictures you want to include the book. I recommend uploading at least 10-15 more pictures than you think you will need. That way when working with the page layouts you have several options or can use multiple pictures on each page. I always have the pictures placed in the photo strip versus automatically having Shutterfly place them in the book. That way I have the ability to move them around as I want to.

On the far left of the screen is a really great and easy-to-use toolbar. For each book theme, Shutterfly provides at least five different background options, lots of fun embellishments to add to each page and many page layout options based on the number of pictures you want to use. You also have the option to purchase extra embellishments for your book that aren’t automatically included in the book theme.

One of my favorite features is the “Customize Page.” When this option is selected, you have the ability to arrange the pictures, add/resize text boxes, add additional embellishments and more. This allows you to customize your book even more. In the screenshot above, I had to resize the text box on the page on the right so all of the words fit.

Another feature I use a lot is the “Arrange” view. This really allows you to create your story. Since I did this year’s review by month it was pretty easy to layout the story. But I did find myself playing with the order of the pages that highlighted our vacation.

I cannot speak highly enough of Shutterfly’s photo books. They are easy to create, beautifully made and always arrive quickly. I look forwarding to making these books each year!

The cover of our book!