My Blurb book is here!

We returned home to find a little package waiting for us - the photo book I ordered a couple of weeks ago! Since a few of you commented/emailed me for a review of the finished product, I might as well share it with anyone who reads.

BlurbBook1

So here are the details...
I ordered the 10 inches high by 8 inches wide size. Layout would have been easier if I got the landscape orientation but I really wanted it to fit nicely on any shelf so I went with the portrait layout. I picked that size with the same concept in mind but now that I have it, I think I could have gone bigger without any issue of the book jutting out. For the cover, I went with the "image wrap" hardcover option which lets you put whatever you want on front and back. Kind of like a school textbook. If I could have had anything I wanted, I would have preferred charcoal linen cover with an embossed title on the spine & cover. That wasn't an option and I hate dustcovers so I went with the image wrap. And lastly, I paid extra for the "premium" lustre paper. I did this because most of the reviews I read seem to strongly urge to go that route and Im a paper snob. Can't speak to the difference in quality from the basic paper though.

BlurbBook2

What I think of the finished product...
I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened the envelope. I was pleasantly surprised. Its a great keepsake and I'm so happy I finally got around to it. Its going to make it a lot easier to look over whenever the mood strikes us now that its sitting on the shelf rather than filed away on the computer. The image wrap cover is actually better than I expected - its been applied well and neatly. (I still wish they offered a more classic linen cover option that included a title - Blurb, are you listening??)

BlurbBook3
I've angled it under the light so you can see the sheen of the paper - there isn't a glare problem when viewing in person.

The paper quality is very nice - thick enough to make me feel like it will last a long time with a slight sheen (not matte nor glossy) to accentuate the colors. I do think that the service is fairly expensive for what it is but I understand custom printing is expensive so I can forgive that.

BlurbBook4
Overall, I'm really happy with it. I'm definitely going to do more books for my other photos.

Hope that helps anyone who is on the fence. If you have already done a photo book and want to share - I'd love to see what you've come up with. Maybe you can motivate me to finish another one.

50 comments:

  1. my husband got me one of these for christmas! (different company though) i love it. he chose all the photos and surprised me! i was pretty impressed. hehe.

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  2. It turned out great! I haven't tried blurb yet, but I've used MyPublisher before with decent results.

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  3. I'm thinking of using blurb for a wedding photos. It's comforting to know that you like the product!

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  4. How fantastic is this, great gift for someone and the quality looks amazing!

    Having my 1st giveaway, a $50.00 gift certificate from CSN, I'd love for you to stop over!

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  5. Looks great.

    Our photographer did a similar kind of coffee table album for our wedding (but with hard pages) and I love it because you can incorporate so many more images than with a traditional album.

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  6. Oh~ I love it! I really need to look into getting a "few"! I have thousands of pictures stored on my comp! Such a wast of space! You've motivated me for sure;o)

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  7. Anonymous9:48 AM

    Wow! That is beautiful. What a nice thing to have. We have actually just started taking photographs' since we got our first real nice camera. We're still learning how to use it. This is a great idea!

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  8. Jenna9:48 AM

    Looks awesome! I use www.photobookworldwide.com
    I have made 4 books with them and they all look great. They actually offer the stamped linen cover that you are looking for. Like you said, its nice to have something physical to look at and show people.

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  9. Gorgeous! I love it.

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  10. I'm thrilled that you're happy with their books. I was considering doing one once our renovations are over to have as a reminder of what we went through with our house.

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  11. Looks lovely! I wish I had the patience to do such gorgeous layout. I usually just upload mine and use a template to make it work.

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  12. It looks fantastic! I bought one for my mother for Christmas a couple of years ago. It was of her grandson and she loved it.

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  13. What a great item to have, it looks amazing! Your photos are just striking and deserve to be in this format!

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  14. gorgeous, but you could probably put your photos on a brown paper bag and they would look fantastic!
    Michelle

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  15. Thanks for the review! I think I'm going to go for it now. I'm totally with you on the linen cover though. I did a book for my parents with MyPublisher -- they have the linen cover but not the option for premium paper, so I would've liked the paper to be a little thicker. Guess you can't have it all though!

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  16. It looks great and what a keepsake it will be for you and your family and friends to look at in the future.

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  17. I've used Blurb before, I gave a photo book to my father about 3 years ago for fathers day, of me and my brother when we were little. He loves his book and brings it out every chance he gets.

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  18. I've never heard of the Blurb site - am heading there to check it out. Your book looks fantastic!

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  19. I'm really pleased with my Blurb books I've ordered as well.

    Also, LOVE your cat peering in through the window in the last picture. So cute!

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  20. OMG! That was such an excellent idea and it looks like the book turned out beautifully. Love that, I think I'm going to have to check this out. Thanks for sharing.

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  21. It looks really nice! I made our honeymoon photo album at Shutterfly, and was pretty pleased with the quality. I made another one at Snapfish and was less pleased with the quality of the colors. I still need to make our wedding album and one for all of last year's vacations, so I may give Blurb a try.

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  22. I love photo books. I did one for my wedding and all the parents and grandparents wanted copies. It was so nice to order some for all.

    Several years later, it is nice to be able to thumb through.

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  23. It looks awesome! The clarity of those pictures of the pages shown look perfect. Congratulations!
    Lila Ferraro
    Queen Bedroom Sets

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  24. Gotta love Blurb!

    I created our wedding album using their software. I chose the largest size (at least at the time), which I think was 10x13 landscape, and I also chose the the premium paper. And we LOVE IT!

    Every time I pull out that album for friends and family, the first thing they ask is where I got it made. They never believe me when I say we designed the layout on their easy system. Can't get better than that!

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  25. Thanks for the review! I've heard good and bad things about Blurb, and would love to try one sometime. :)

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  26. I did one of these for our engagement photos and I really liked it.

    Yours looks beautiful.

    Kelly

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  27. It looks beautiful! Your pictures are gorgeous!
    I've never used Blurb, but have used Creative Memories Storybook many times and I know they offer a linen/bookcloth cover if you're interested!And they'll do imprinting on their traditional albums so they might on Storybooks too!

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  28. What a great idea!! I love this!

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  29. thanks for this. i always get chances to get one free..now i will do it.

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  30. Oh very nice.

    If you could of titled it, what would you have chosen? Just curious ..

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  31. tam: How do you get a free one?? I couldn't even find a coupon for mine.

    Amanda: I did title it - i just had it printed on the spine of the image wrap. Its titled 'Away We Go 2009'

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  32. Thanks for sharing! Now I just need to get around to actually taking the time to do this!

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  33. I have been making photo books w/ Shutterfly for years now--partly because when I first started, Blurb required software my then-computer couldn't handle. Now I feel sort of trapped by having all the matching books and not wanting to change up the format, but I've been very happy with my results. Shutterfly offers a leather cover option--no name embossing but I've been thinking I could probably figure out how to do that myself. The quality is good, as are the colors; I've used espresso brown and black for various copies of our wedding album, red for our travel albums, and lighter brown for the annual photo books I make so that we can actually see the best of our photos!

    It is a beast to do them, I have to admit. The software keeps getting better, but sorting through the sheer volume of photos....oy. I need to be better about filing photos into an album as I upload them from my camera!

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  34. I'm convinced. Just looking at this here it looks TONS better than most of the other photo books I've seen out there. Now if only someone would come sort through my photos and make one for me!

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  35. Oh, thank you for sharing! The book looks GREAT. I can't wait to try blurb now. Was wondering about the paper, so I really appreciate your input.

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  36. LOVE LOVE LOVE this!! I haven't used Blurb before - I'm looking into it now. I definitely think you made some great choices.

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  37. The book looks amazing! I'm so glad it was everything you hoped it would be.

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  38. Anonymous9:14 AM

    Your book turned out gorgeous - I particularly like the b&w cover photo - very artsy and just makes me want to take off into the world of your book! We just made our first 2 using MyPublisher: Tanzanian Safari & Western US National Parks. Wish I could post the links here, but it seems to require sign on. Very happy with the outcomes, but Blurb's website looks a little more sexy & chic. Our plan is to try them for our wedding album.

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  39. Gorgeous!!! You have totally inspired me to make some now with my own images.

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  40. Thats a wonderful book very artsy.

    I laughed at the last photo you posted with your cat sitting in the background waiting to come in.

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  41. Such a cute keepsake (then you don't have to worry about pictures falling out of those little plastic sleeves...)

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  42. It's just beautiful.

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  43. I love your book and I loved flipping through it on their site. I used My Publisher to do a similar book for our honeymoon...I think I'll give this place a try. Thanks for sharing - your photos are all so lovely, it's nice to show them off in a book!

    cozystyle.blogspot.com

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  44. OMG! What the hell is a Blurb book??! I don't really know, but I'm convinced I absolutely must have one!!! I'm almost frantic over it. What a GREAT thing to get everyone for Christmas. I could fill it with various pictures of me sleeping. It was truly be a heartwarming keepsake. Love it! Pretty, pretty blog. I came to visit you after you came to visit me! - karen, the art of doing stuff.

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  45. Getting the free stuff? i thing need to pay for this kind good works! to make them continiu to have new and good designs! its easy to have all free but litle respecting good works!.. thanks for your great work!

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  46. Anonymous12:37 PM

    I really need to look into this for our Ireland pictures. I ordered one from Shutterfly for our Italy trip and I didn't love it.

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  47. OMG! I was going to do this with my wedding photos because I took the cheap route with the photographer. My girlfriend went through her photographer and with everything paid $5000. I was thinking hell no! I did'nt do blurb because I thought it was going to be cheap compared to hers, but now its on!

    Thanks for the information!

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  48. Vivianamiami10:21 PM

    I used Blurd for my wedding book album and It came out so beautiful. The quality of the book was amazing.

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  49. Amiedaya11:40 PM

    This is so nice! What company did you use?

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