Start simple - make a card

December 11, 2013Lorrie Stapleton

Whether it is a personalized Christmas card with a year full of commentary or a quick thank you, photos cards are a great gift.

Favorite email jokes

December 5, 2013EverydayLorrie Stapleton

For a good friend's birthday party we were all asked to bring our favorite jokes. It was so much fun as the cocktails flowed and each of us got up to try to out-do each other. I collected up the jokes at the end of the party and created a book full of party photos and the jokes.

Scanning your print photos

December 4, 2013Organization, Tips & TechniquesLorrie Stapleton

In order to get your print photos into photo books, you'll want to scan them into your computer. This is relatively straightforward if you have a printer at home with a flat bed or access to a flatbed stand alone scanner. As each printer and computer setup is very different, I cover only the basics here, and provide links to additional detailed articles.

Screenshots on your iPhone or iPad

December 4, 2013Tips & Techniques, Mobile DevicesLorrie Stapleton

Let's face it - iPhones and iPads have revolutionized the way we document our lives. I used to take out my camera only for vacation shots or prom pictures. Now my iphone camera is an intrinsic part of my day as I take shots of where I parked, books I may want to read or that shirt I really liked. Screen prints from the web on my iPad document directions, recipes, restaurants and articles to read later. These are the digital 'post-its' of my life that will hopefully enable me to survive my impending Alzheimers.

Bringing Christmas to you

December 4, 2013Holidays, Gifts, FamilyLorrie Stapleton

Do you have someone in the military or studying abroad who won't be able to come home for the holidays? Since you probably have boxes of pictures from Christmas' past, gather up a bunch of your favorites over the years and put together a humorous collection of pictures and stories about your favorite holiday memories.

Household Inventory

December 2, 2013EverydayLorrie Stapleton

We recently reviewed the insurance coverage on our house and realized that we hadn't done an inventory in over 10 years. Our insurance agent recommended that we take pictures or a video of the house's fixtures and contents, then make a few copies to put away in safe places.

Instant Facebook album

November 28, 2013Photo Books, Gifts, EverydayLorrie Stapleton

Although I may not be the most accomplished Facebook poster out there, I am glad to say that lots of friends and family keep me constantly amused with their photos, funny cards, recipes and hysterical stories. Blurb has an automated system to help you create A book directly from you and your friends' albums on Facebook.

Costume Mania

November 28, 2013For kidsLorrie Stapleton

My niece's kids love to get dressed up in costumes and I really get a kick out of the shots she posts on Facebook. How about a Photo book of them in their favorite costumes?

Deals and Discounts

November 28, 2013Photo Books, Tips & TechniquesLorrie Stapleton

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PhotoBookGirl

Most photo companies are always running some sort of discount program, so make sure that you always look for coupon codes before you buy your book or cards. Once you get comfortable with different services, you might want to decide which company you want to use for a project based upon the discounts available at the time as they can be up to 60% off.

There is an excellent site that tracks all the deals and discounts daily called PhotoBookGirl.

Which photo company to use?

November 28, 2013Lorrie Stapleton

If you are new to making photo books, it can be really intimidating with so many choices of software and places to print your books. I use iPhoto, Blurb and Shutterfly for most of my projects and you'll find that they all use very similar steps to create a photo book or card.

Talking Books

November 28, 2013For kids, GiftsLorrie Stapleton

Shutterfly has a new app Photo Story that lets you create printed books from the iPad. An interesting twist is that you can add up to 30 seconds of audio to each page and send the book electronically to someone for free.

Hard or soft cover?

November 27, 2013Tips & TechniquesLorrie Stapleton

Your book's cover is the most important part, as it is the portal to your story.

Shutterfly

November 27, 2013SoftwareLorrie Stapleton

I think Shutterfly provides the best quality product of all the on-line photo sites for creating books, cards and other gifts.

Blurb

November 27, 2013SoftwareLorrie Stapleton

I think that Blurb is a fabulous, versatile program that it good for both the novice who wants to use simple templates and the pro who wants to design their books totally free-form. It is free and you can use it on Macs or PCs.

Aperture

November 27, 2013SoftwareLorrie Stapleton

Once you have a very large library of photos, you should probably invest $80 in Aperture. It has professional level photo editing capabilities and unlimited options when it comes to making books, but more importantly has an incredible library management system.

Making cards with Walgreens - Instant Gratification

November 25, 2013CardsLorrie Stapleton

Walgreens and many of the drugstores have a same day pick up option for cards and photo books. Although the quality is not as good as that you will find at a Shutterfly, they are great for quick birthday or thank you cards.

Photo organization gift certificates

November 25, 2013GiftsLorrie Stapleton

There are many people who don't have ability to scan photos in or to create albums or screen savers. Why not give someone the gift of your time to help them organize and memorialize their photos?

Take a Speed Dating approach to organizing your print photos

November 25, 2013OrganizationLorrie Stapleton

Most of us are intimidated by our piles of photos and never get around to organizing them. However, if you consider that you are just going in to grab the 'highlights' and leave the rest for another day, it's a much less daunting task. You can always come back later for more.

Create a card with iPhoto

November 25, 2013CardsLorrie Stapleton

Cards are pretty simple to make in iPhoto '11. Here are a few instructions that should get you well on your way.

iPhoto

November 25, 2013SoftwareLorrie Stapleton

Although I have both PCs and MACs, I do most of my photo work in a MAC framework as I find it so much easier. I grew up with iPhoto and no matter what version you are one, it is rather intuitive and enables you to edit your photos throughout the workflow of creating a book or card.