Photobook Advice

[Miss Mouse]

Okay - a little backstory. My parents, BF and I took a vacation to Cuba together last January. It was my first big trip with my parents in about 10 years or so. Then, this last July, they both flew out to Disneyland as a surprise to spend a few days with us on our vacation and to be there when my BF surprised me by popping the question. Needless to say, we all have a TON of photos from both of these trips.

I'm thinking that for my parent's Christmas gifts I would design and order a photobook for each trip. One thing my mom is always complaining about is the amount of pictures she has and how none of them are journalled or in albums, and how she just doesn't have the time to organize them. So I thought that this would be a gift that they would really appreciate. Ideally, I would love to make them scrapbooks of the trips, but with the university semester ending I just won't have the time to get them done before Christmas.

Has anyone used an online service to make a photobook before? If so, who was it and what was the end result like? Any tips for making the end result fantastic? I thought about using Disney Photopass for the Disney one, but it would be nice to design and order both books from the same site. Chapters also has a photobook service, but I don't know of anyone who has used it.

So basically, any advice about the photobook process you all could provide me with would be very much appreciated!

[DisneyWhirled]

My friend recently created and ordered a photobook from the Disney Photopass website. It took a while to upload photos, but it was fun working on it (I helped her get started) and it came out great!!

There are other photo websites that offer this as well. My SIL created one that came out beautiful as well!

I think it is a lovely idea! I will do one for my family in the near future, too!

[Blfarm]

I've made a few online books using OurHubbub and have been very happy with the books I've received. They also happen to be a partner with Disney

With OurHubbub, you create the memory book online and can either completely customize it or use one of their templates. Once it is done and printed, it is similar to a yearbook (pictures, frames, graphics, and backgrounds are all printed on the page). They have a lot of sporting related templates, but have just added a bunch of generic, family, and vacation ones as well.

[Cinderelley]

I know Creative Memories has a digital scrapbooking program. You can print out the pages at Costco. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but I haven't paid too much attention to it. I thought it would be nice at some point so that I would have it all the time.

[Miss Mouse]

Thanks for the input so far, everone. Keep that advice coming!

[ElenitaB]

Three you might want to check out are: snapfish (a wide variety of different sized books), picaboo, and shutterfly (several different sized books as well, lots of different backgrounds and layouts — they're offering 20% off on their photobooks for a "limited time only"). The Shutterfly books came highly recommended in several different scrapbooking magazines I read. But don't let that put you off. I was just playing on their site and the whole process seems very easy (and fun).

For both trips, think about including things that aren't just pics of the trip... like maybe include a favorite recipe for a dish you enjoyed, your tickets (just spray them first with archival spray or take a picture of them and include it in the book), etc.

Have fun with this project. I bet your folks are going to love it. (Oh, and on Shutterfly you can get different sizes of the same book... like an 8x11 and then a 5x7.)

[Chrisx2]

I use Shutterfly. I make a photo book for Christmas gifts for our parents, sisters and grandmother. They love them and love showing them off. Shutterfy is really easy to use and there are usually discounts. I would highly recommend them!