Do you keep a family blog? My private blog serves as a scrapbook/journal for my family. At the year’s end, I publish/print it, through Blog2Print, in the form of a hardcover book with colored photos, written descriptions and all. It serves as a treasured keepsake that my kids look at frequently, and reminisce about all the fun they had when they were “littler”, as they call it.
Here’s our book from the year 2013. Isn’t it happy-looking? Just like the little family on front. I’m not going to lie…we bribed the kids with candy if they would remain pleasant for the shoot, and it worked. When all else fails with them, I can usually count on sweets to achieve the desired result. 🙂
I’ve maintained our blog, sporadic as the posts may be at times, for almost seven years now. I remember because my oldest daughter was just a baby when I first opened a blogger account to keep record of her cuteness as she grew. We lived away from both sets of grandparents, so they would visit it when we alerted them of an update. This is before FaceTime, Skype and Facebook were big. I’m feeling old now. 🙂
Since I’m such a horrible journal keeper and since I quit scrapbooking after I had my second child, I’m so grateful for these physical books that I’ve printed over the years, of our growing family and the milestone events that take place.
Because I’m a busy mom, I don’t have much time to spare in my day, which is why I stopped scrapbooking in the first place. So I’m a huge fan of the simplicity of making books on Blog2Print. Just select your blog platform (Blogger, Typepad, or WordPress), enter the URL of your blog, and click “Print My Blog”. You’ll need to be logged into your account. If your blog is private, you’ll need to give them permission to access it.
There’s no re-uploading pictures and having the frustration of arranging them on the pages. The book will be formatted exactly like your blog, if you so choose. Or if you’re like me and want to conserve quite a bit on costs, you can opt to condense the pictures and text to use the least amount of pages as possible. The down side to this, though, is that if you have descriptions below the photos, they’ll all lump together in one text section.
You can customize your book by selecting a cover design, a title for the front and side, a cover photo, and write a dedication to appear on the first page, if you’d like. You’ll also be prompted to select which posts to include in the book.
One option that I wish was available, but isn’t currently, is the ability to customize the fonts. I weighed the pros and cons a few years ago when I became a customer of Blog2Print and decided that my time was well worth the few aesthetic touches that were lacking in the final product. The kids mainly care about the photos anyway.
I really like the option to include a photo on the back of the book as well.
Mine was 118 pages this year! Wow! That’s a lot of memories!
Though the posts come in spurts, I’ve made a priority of keeping up with my family blog so I can have something to show my kids at the end of the year and for years to come. It’s so important to them and to me. We’re building volumes of recorded memories that they and even their own children down the road can cherish.
Would you like to make a Blog2Print book of your own? If so, I have great news! One very lucky person will win a $45 gift certificate to Blog2Print!
Simply leave a comment in the section below and let me know what your favorite memory was from last year. **Please leave your email address so I can contact you if you win.Terms and conditions: This giveaway is sponsored by Blog2Print. It is open to U.S. residents, 18 years and older, only. Contest will close Friday, March 21, 2014 at 11:59 pm.
Good luck and happy blog printing!I was given discounted product in exchange for this post, but as always, all opinions are 100% my own.
roddjackson at hotmail dot com
lisag983@aol.com
My favorite memory from last year was getting to go home to Utah and bless our baby boy and spend the 4th of July (my favorite holiday) with family. :)
danifrisby@yahoo.com
rebekahdawn_ak@yahoo.com