Book Making

My first go at scrapbooking in the 80's was in black paged photo albums and then I moved on to acid-free colored papers. These early scrapbooks are some of the ugliest things you have ever seen.  In the mid 1990's I had a wonderful neighbor named Stacey Julian.  Those of you into scrapbooking might recognize the name.  She was a stamper when I met her and was just starting into scrapbooking.  She and my other friend, Terina, self-published a book called Core Composition and they used some photos of my kids within their pages.

I learned a lot about design from Stacey and Terina.  I also learned that the self-publishing world was hard and expensive!  In the last 20 years that world has completely changed.  It can still be very expensive to come up with the initial investment to publish 10,000 books and then there is the issue of finding a place to store those 10,000 books while you find places and people who want to buy them, but thanks to a company called Blurb you really don't need to!  If you have a book idea, just go WRITE IT and then publish it with Blurb.  Your audience will be able to purchase your book directly from Blurb.  The books are published as needed.  No more books sitting in the garage hoping they don't get damaged before they sell, if they sell at all!  AND you still make a profit on the books you sell when they sell!  It's a fabulous idea!

Now if you are like me and don't have a book idea in mind you are probably wondering why you are still reading and I'll tell you why: deep down we all want books about ourself and our family.  Scrapbooking supplies can take up a lot of space and sometimes, honestly, I'm just not very good with my composition, despite years of learning.  Now I don't have to worry about that problem.

When I made my first book I simply stuck the photos into pre-designed pages and then ordered the book.  The quality was fabulous!  There my photos were in a professional quality book.  It was amazing!  Now that I have a few more skills under my belt I can use tools on Blurb and design things exactly the way I want them!  I love it!  I've given my kids, husband, sister and mother-in-law several books of photos of themselves.  They love it!  It is really the perfect gift.  I've even made a cookbook of family recipes.

And now the best part of the holidays is the sales that Blurb has  - Today through Monday (the 3rd) create a book and 25% off with Blurb when you use the promo code HOLIDAYTHANKS.  To receive your Blurb book by Christmas, using ground shipping, the deadline is 12/10.  

Time to get to work!