Photobooks......

I have done both the hardcover and paperback shutterfly books and have been very pleased with the outcome. I put every year into a hardback, and I've used softback for one-time events, for instance my sister's wedding or a fun weekend getaway. You can do it as simply or ornate as you want! If you sign up to shutterfly you will get email offers, my suggestion is to wait for a good one. I've gotten a book for free, free shipping, X% off...don't pay full price if you can wait.

I Love Walgreens!!! It is so easy to use and you can go pick it up the same day. They have a good selection too! Have a Great Christmas.

MyPublisher is great. If you are a costco member, you will get significant discounts. It is very easy to use and their books are high quality. I also love that you can create a book and email a link for others to view it and if they want, they can purchase it also.

I use Shutterfly.com. I've created 6 books with them and they are all BEAUTIFUL.

shutterfly.com or even cvs stores have specials on the books every now and again.

Check out www.picaboo.com. I find the software is the most versatile and easiest to use.

I've been using Shutterfly for years for books of all different styles, and they're great - easy software, free photo storage, fast turnaround. The only disadvantage is that they are now partnered with Target (which is good if you want to pick up your photos at Target, but means that they charge sales tax now.)

Shutterfly, shutterfly, shutterfly! Can't say enough about their photobooks. They come out vibrant and beautiful with many choices. Customer service is top notch, too. I love them!!!! You can do it at your leisure on your home computer.

I have made a few books through mypublisher and loved them. Make sure you google for a coupon code or go to retailmenot.com or couponcabin.com and put in the site name (mypublisher or other). There are always specials going on! The hardcover books at mypublisher turned out beautiful, the shipped fast, and I felt the freeware was very easy to use. You just download the program to your computer and it explains everything from there. You can design your own covers too with pictures, words, colors, etc....Have fun!

I am LOVING http://www.mixbook.com right now. It allows me to be SUPER creative or use their layouts. They even have stickers that can be used. It is more like traditional scrapbooking in a digital format which is what I was looking for. You also don't have to download anything onto your computer. I had a book almost finished when my desktop PC totally died on me and I couldn't get the book. That is when I found mixbook.com. You can even pull up your books in process from different computers. Good luck deciding.

H. L.

I've used Snapfish and have always been happy with them. I only use 1 "place" b/c I put so many photos into my albums...it would take me forever to move them from site to site each time.

You have a lot of responses already, but here's my two cents. I've used Snapfish and Shutterfly both. I like Snapfish better. I've also used another company called Smilebooks. These books are NOT cheap- but they are 100% customizable, from the size of the picture, to the angle (you can tilt it anyway you want), to even photo effects, and you can also put captions ANYwhere on the page you want- also any color and lots of fonts...it's a simple program, once you figure it out, but with all the customizability, it does take a while- but if you've got something really special and you really want to be creative (sounds like you do!), this is a cool one. You can even put a photo as a background and then other pics on top of it- even a two page spread photobackground and then pics on top! Very cool. I will say their general backgrounds selection is not too great- if you care about that. Snap and Shutter are "cuter". You can sign up on smilebooks and get good deals- they recently had a buy 1 get 1 free sale. So I've got this one up my sleeve for those times I want to make something of my very own and be really creative and the others for "cuter", quick and easy books.

Have fun! I LOVE making photobooks.

Happy Holidays!

I work at walgreens and we have alot of cool photo books. you can order then online at www.walgreens.com or order it instore. The instore ones only take an hour to make. Good luck

I have done digital scrapbooks on Shutterfly, Snapfish, Kodak, and a new one from American Greetings. I use so many because I find coupons for free stuff all the time! This time of year has been great- right before the holidays, but I think most of the deals are winding down.

Google, "Coupon code" + Snapfish, for example and you will get a code to use at check-out to reduce the price, get free ship, etc.

There is a great local mom who has a blog called Frugalista. I don't recall the actual website address, but you can google Frugalista + Chicago. This week has been slow as its the holidays, but she usually posts 1-2 times a day all of the free stuff and savings on all sorts of sights, including the photobooks.

Have fuN!

definitely snapfish....

I use www.shutterfly.com
They allow me to update my pictures from my home computer to their website.
I can order prints of my pictures or just have a place to share them with other people and they kept there forever.
I have made multiple photo books and been very pleased with how they turn out.
As you explore different websites, please notice that some sites will delete your material if you don't keep ordering prints of pictures from them. Shutterfly does not do this!
Enjoy!

Shutterfly.com gets my vote too! Very easy to use and the books turn out awesome.

I know alot of people like shutterfly. I personally use snapfish, because that's where all my pictures are. I had a cupon for buy one get one free, so I ordered 2 photobooks for Christmas. I thought they turned out very nice and the people who got them really enjoyed them.

We did snapfish and had it mailed to us -- it turned out great! We did one for my daughter's entire first year (purchased the black leather cover) and plan to do it for my son's (he turned 1 in November)....instead of having a ton of loose photos lying around -- plus I do not have time to scrapbook (my semester in Europe photos from 1998 are still unlabeled!). Of course, I realize in hindsight I should have probably purchased an extra copy....one for us to keep and one to give to her when she is older :) Have fun! If you plan to do snapfish, they have deals sometimes so just wait till you see one in your e-mail (if you already have an account with them, they send you discount e-mails from time to time).

I use Shutterfly often and they do a great job. I always use retailmenot.com for discount coupons for them also. I ordered some prints and calendars the other day and found $36 off in discounts from retail me not and their free shipping offer. Also, with Shutterfly, they take multiple coupon offers so you can combine them.

Adorama.com does some real nice ones and affordable.

I had been using Shutterfly for years, but was really frustrated with the templates and the text boxes!! But there really wasn't much out there - at least that's what I thought.

I became a consultant with Heritage Makers when I saw that the templates are 100% customizable. You can change the backgrounds, add pictures, rotate them, add text boxes wherever you want, the font color can be whatever color you want, etc. Plus, the company adds artwork each month - there are over 40,000 pieces of artwork to choose from. And, it's all online!

Watch this 5min video to give you an idea of what we are about! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irdqtq7mF6Y

For more information, please contact me at ____@____.com.