Photo books by ShutterFly, Great Christmas Gift !

[Jleu22]

I was chosen by Cafe mom to be one of the many Shutterfly Influence-rs. I am so thankful for the opportunity and wanted to not only share my experience in the designated group but also to share with any one else browsing journals. So this will be posted in my journal as well as the Cafemom Shutterfly group.

So here is my official opinion, as well as my suggestions.....

Shutterfly is a great site and has many great uses. For anyone who hasn't checked out the site before I highly recommend it for personalized and special Christmas gift ideas.They have everything from coffee mugs, posters, cards, purses and the photo books.Cafemom gave me the opportunity to actually get one of the photo books for free.

The idea is really simple. You register for the site, upload your pictures and you are ready to begin. Choose from several different Photo Book styles. Once you have chosen your style you can go about making your photo book one of 2 ways. The first is to just stick to the layouts and backgrounds that already are set for the style you have chosen...But where is the fun in that? Thus Shutterfly gives you option 2, for each page you can choose your own layouts, backgrounds and even frames. This is the funnest way to do it because it gives you more creativity.However there is a draw back to this.You are still limited to layouts that Shutterfly has pre set. I have gone to another "scrap-booking" site that shutterfly should check out. At this other site you can put the pictures where ever you want to and add images or embellishments anywhere you want to on the page. I think if they could do this on Shutterfly it would be a little more fun for those of us who are  everyday scrapbookers  and like to have full creative license.

Now here is another suggestion...for anyone who wants to make a photo book . It is a wonderful gift idea without the fuss of trying to buy all the materials and spending the extra time on making a regular scrap book.My first book took me 2 nights and about 4 hours each night to make. It took so long because it was my fist time on the site. So first suggestion: TAKE YOUR TIME. You can save your projects at any point and come back to them. You don't have to do it all in one take and chances are if you do , you will not be as happy with your results.Suggestion 2 : MAKE A PRACTICE BOOK. You do not have to buy the book as soon as you are finished with your project. I did . I am happy with my idea but once I started to think about it after i had looked at some of the books the other moms had made and the gallery of other albums at Shutterfly I started to think that I should have waited and then decided if it was really what i wanted to do. Besides from my experience after you have made one, you want to make another.

I was really happy that I recieved my order in short time. It was estimate to arrive in 7 days and took only 4. My husband was also surprised by our book because i had the oppertunity to honor his mom on the back. (I decided to do my wedding album).When you go to buy your order it gives you the oppertunity to send it any one.Thus making it a really good idea for presents especially for those family members out of town.

Also you have the opportunity to make a share site. On this site you can up load your pictures and projects to the web site. Then any of your family members can go to your share site and get pictures and projects right off the site. here is my site, feel free to go check it out. http://jolenesmemories.shutterfly.com/

And yes I made another project. This project only took me an hour and a half to make (the spring pictures 07-08 album). I also made the second album because i wanted to finalize my opinion on the site. So here is my official opinion. The site is a great way to save time and still have quality gifts for friends and family. It's is addicting so I will probably continue to use and recommend the site. THANK YOU SO MUCH CAFEMOM AND SHUTTERFLY. I hope this isn't going to be my only time as an influencer :( But I am still grateful for the opportunity.