Blog Book

Do you keep a blog about your family?  I highly encourage you to get started on turning your blog into a book right away!!  OR, you might be inspired to start blogging today!  It's the beginning of a new year, a perfect time to start recording the memories of 2012 and look forward to turning into a book at the end of the year. Don't let another year go by without getting your photos organized!

Aren't they beautiful!? An entire year of family pictures and journaling packed into a cute hardcover book!  I thought that while I'm working on figuring out my next thing to organize, I would post about something that I've already done in the past.  I used to be an avid scrapbooker, but as I had more kids, I got WAY behind and it really stressed me out!  I started a family blog through www.blogger.com and when a year was through, I turned it into a book.  I've never been so excited....a way to ORGANIZE my photos that is easy for me!

There are 2 ways that I know of that are best for doing a book.  I used www.blurb.com where you are able to transfer your blog into book format and then customize it in a way that makes you happy.  There are many different sizes of books.  You can even transfer your 12X12 digital scrapbooking pages into a book. Easy!  My 8X10 book between 81-120 pages costed $47.95 plus shipping.  I will be honest though...it can take some time to customize your book.  The more you work on it, the faster you will get, but it can't be accomplished in one day. 

If you don't feel like you have the time to customize your book, there is another option : www.blog2print.com. This website also imports your blog into book format with only one size option, the 8X10.  And they lay it out just like your blog, with the captions in between pictures, etc. Super easy and it doesn't look too bad either.  My problem is that I couldn't figure out how to make pictures bigger if I wanted them to be...but again, if you are not too picky, then this is a great way to save some time! The 8X10 book of about 100 pages could be $52.95.

When you finish your book, you can delete all your pictures?! NO!  Pictures should be kept in 2 different places, if not 3 or 4.  You blog book is just ONE of these.  Once I've finished my blogging for the year, I put all of the pictures into a file labeled for that year.  These are kept on my computer, but then copies of these files are also on my external hard drive AND I burn them to a high quality dvd.

 I found the cutest box at Target for $14.99 to store my picture dvds! 

What do YOU do to organize your pictures??