Photo Book By Blurb.

Remember how I went to Paris earlier this year? 

I took approximately eight million five trillion photos. TC's parents were doing their best to ignore my obsessive picture-taking. I'm sure they went into the trip expecting me to have my camera in hand at all times, but I think I managed to take it to a whole new level.

What can I say? I'm a little crazy. Maybe a bit obsessive too. 

On the other hand, I had a plan. I had a legitimate reason for taking all those bazillion photos. I knew the plan, TC knew the plan, but his poor parents were kept in the dark.

There were several times that I told TC that I wished we could explain my obsessiveness. Really, they were starting to think that their son was married to his own personal Saturday morning looney-tunes special. We just didn't want to ruin the surprise. 

I like to think that I took the high road here by staying silent. I really took one for the team. 

So, why was I doing all this? 

Well, mainly because I like taking photos. I like to document everyday life so it stands to reason that a fabulous trip to Paris would warrant a little extra attention.

The real reason though, was the surprise. It's such a simple idea, but one that I'd never taken advantage of before. A BOOK! Yes, a photo book - a novel idea, I know. 

There are plenty of companies and ways to go about doing this. Originally I was just going to pop the photos right from iPhoto to iBook, which by the way is super affordable and easy. 

But then TC and I decided we wanted something a little fancier. After all, this was our way of saying thank you to his parents for taking us on such an amazing trip. 

Enter Blurb. It's a free website that lets you create your own photo books. You can choose from lots of different sizes and styles too. It was just what we were looking for.

Blurb came with good reviews and I had a great experience with it. First and foremost, it is user friendly. It took me less than thirty minutes to get a feel for the software. Secondly, there were tons of cool layouts to choose from for each page. Plus, if you are technically inclined, each layout is easily customized. Since I had so many photos, I needed layout options that let me have anywhere from one photo to sixteen photos. 

I chose a square 12x12 book and organized the book in chronological order and included some text that listed out our daily agenda. 

I read mixed reviews about the quality of printing, but I loved how well our book turned out. The colors were vibrant and the paper quality was great too. 

Truth be told, my favorite part was the cover. You're given the option of a dust cover and I totally went with it. How could I not? Everyone knows that only real and fancy books that belong in libraries have dust covers. People, this will probably be the only time in my life that I create a book that has a dust cover! I couldn't pass it up. 

Plus, one of my favorite photos of the trip graced the back cover in all it's glossy glory. 

Here's my point: consider making a book for either yourself or someone else who is especially cool. Is there a better way to commemorate a special trip? Or maybe a baby's first year? Or maybe just make one to document all the fun things you did over the summer. The ideas are endless!

There are plenty of routes to take, plenty of sizes, styles and price ranges too. It's pretty easy and actually really fun to make. 

Let your creative juices flow, man.

(Oh, last thing. If you make a book on Blurb, at the very end of your purchase they'll offer you a second copy of your book for 50% off!)

Have a great weekend, folks. Make sure to do something fun.

*not a sponsored or paid post. i wish it was...blurb, contact me! we can work something out. 

*i just like blurb and wanted to share!