Tuesday, December 31, 2013

You Can Be Published Too

My hubby received a free " make your own" book from photos  as a reward from a hotel chain.  I have been tempted to make one of these books for a while and I like free, so this was the perfect opportunity to pick a bunch of my quilts to put in a book.  It's a great way to show people what I do.

 This offer was from Shutterfly.  It  was for an 8"x 8" hardback book made up of 20 pages.  Looking through a bunch of my quilts, my Judaic quilts seemed like a cohesive body of work that would fill 20 pages nicely.  I decided to do it as an experiment and not obsess over the photos and whether it should be chronological order or it should just look nice.  I wasn't even sure if the colors would print true to the original.

Shutterfly offers different page layouts depending on how many photos are to be included on a page.  I decided that a mixture of close-ups and full view gave a lot of movement and kept the book from becoming static. I liked the black background.  It made the photos pop. I couldn't choose just one photo for the cover, so I did a collage.

So I just started.  Honestly there was a bit of a learning curve.  It was a bit more difficult than drag and drop, but I eventually got the hang of it.  My photos aren't cropped perfectly. It warned me about a few low resolution photos.  They did come out a bit blurry.  I even found a typo. But I like it.  I am happy with how the photos and color reproduced.  I now have a nice photo book that I would rank as a positive experience. It's a nice New Year present to myself.

This is what came in the mail, inside of a cardboard sleeve.









Total Cost?  $9.00 for shipping.  Worth every penny.
It's a perfect end to 2013.
 
Happy New Year and may the coming year be filled with happiness and creativity for everyone.

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14 comments:

  1. Your quilts look beautiful in the book, fun idea.
    I hope you have a wonderful New Year.

    Debbie

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  2. Great book! I've used Shutterfly several times and have always been pleased with the results. One of my goals this year is to get all my photos from memory cards into books/albums, so I bought several Groupons from Shutterfly and other similar companies. When I look through photos on the memory cards, so many are of quilts/blocks. I will definitely be making several books of my quilting. I may be the only person to look through them, but so be it.

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  3. Great book! I've used Shutterfly several times and have always been pleased with the results. One of my goals this year is to get all my photos from memory cards into books/albums, so I bought several Groupons from Shutterfly and other similar companies. When I look through photos on the memory cards, so many are of quilts/blocks. I will definitely be making several books of my quilting. I may be the only person to look through them, but so be it.

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  4. Awesome! I've used Shutterfly several time and was pleased with the result. One goal I have is to get pictures from memory cards into photo books/albums. To further my effort, I've purchased Groupons from several photo book companies. When I look through my pics, I have LOTS of quilts and blocks. I know a quilt book is in my future!

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  5. Cheryl, it looks WONDERFUL!!! I can't believe I let all those coupons go by - next one I get I'm going to make a book! What a great way to force visitors to look at my quilts! (By strewing the book(s) on the coffee table!) Thanks for the idea!

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  6. Fantastic. Thank you for sharing!

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  7. It's a lovely book and it has great quilts in it. I'll keep my eye out for those coupons as well. However, I'll have to do a lot more quilting to even have enough to print 20 pages! Happy New Year to you and yours!

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  8. I'm so impressed. Thanks for the gift--to yourself, and all us fans!

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  9. A very nice way to memorialize your wonderful quilts. Awesome!

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  10. Your book is beautiful! What a nice way for you to document and enjoy all your Judaic quilts since so many of them were given away. You can visit them anytime by opening your book! It would also make a nice portfolio. Thanks for sharing it with us.

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  11. Wow your book looks professional. Can't wait to see it in person.

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  12. Wow your book looks professional. Can't wait to see it in person.

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  13. This is impressive! What a great idea.

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  14. I love those free offers and have done several of them with different companies. I usually do them from our trips to national parks and to visit family. I have also had parts of my blog printed, but I never really thought about making a book about my quilts. I've thought about making a notebook of my quilts, but never done it, so maybe this would be a better idea. Thanks for sharing!

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