Thursday, January 10, 2013

Digital Project Life: The Printed Photo book + Tutorial

When I was first getting started with digital Project Life the main question that I had was, "what does the finished book look like?" So many people had posted all their finished pages but not one had posted a finished printed book. Well, that's where I come in today! Earlier in 2012 I finished a digital Project Life book with all my 2005 photos and the Amber Edition core kit.

Here are the steps I took to make a book through Shutterfly:
1. Save all pages to be put in book as 12x12in (or whatever size you prefer) jpeg files
2. Upload all jpeg files to a Shutterfly album
3. Choose what type of photobook you would like (I chose a hardcover 12x12 book)
4. Select a "style" (since you have already made all your pages the style doesn't really matter except for how you want the front of your book to look like)
5. From there Shutterfly will prompt you to choose which photos you want to put in the book, choose the album you just uploaded with all your pages in it, choose the correct pages, then click "add to photo book"

6. After you have added the photos then Shutterfly will take you to the area where you will actually put together your book. Before you out any of your pages in the book you need to change the "layout". Most likely Shutterfly will give you a lot of different choices for the layout (left side of the screen) but none of will be what you want. Since you have already made your pages you just want a layout that lets your project life page fill up the whole page of the book. In order to get that template you need to click on "get more layouts".
7. Once there you need to choose the layout template circled below, which will let your project life page go from edge to edge and fill the whole page in the photo book. Click "add to project".

8. Now you are ready to add this layout to your book. To do this click on the page in the photobook then click on the template you want:
 9. Finally you are able to add your pages. Just click and drag to which side you want them on.
10. For each page you will have to go through step 8 and change the layout. I know this is kind of annoying - I wish Shutterfly had the option for a custom book with all the layouts how we need them.
11. Once your book is exactly how you want it then go through the steps for ordering!

Whew! Now that you have made it through all that, here are some examples of the awesome finished product:










While I am on a roll I thought I could show you my printed Week in Life Album too. It was not made with the Project Life Templates but I still used the same concept (12x12 jpeg finished layouts) to make it: 










You know, when I finished these books earlier this year I was so over them. I thought, "will I ever even want to look at these again?!" But once they came in the mail as a finished product I fell in love all over again! It is so great to be able to hold the whole thing in your hand. It is nice how light they are and easy to look through, I also thought Shutterfly's printing was excellent. Oh, and another great thing about Shutterfly is that they are always having sales on photo books - never pay full price for one!

P.s. I will share my finished 2012 album as soon as I order it and get it in. Also, for 2013 I probably won't be using this method. I will be printing my 12x12 pages and putting them in a binder. This is because I got really jealous of all the people who used inserts last year :) As 2013 goes along I plan to share my binder as it comes together so you can see how that looks as well.

If you have any questions about all this I would be happy to answer them!

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24 comments:

  1. Very nice:). I am still undecided just how to document this year. What software do you use to create the layouts? Also, how many pages did you end up having in your book? Thanks for the help.

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    1. I use Photoshop to create my layouts. Photoshop Elements would work just as well though. Check out this class at JessicaSprague.com that teaches you more about digital project life: http://www.jessicasprague.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.pbv.tabs.tpl&product_id=3064&category_id=158&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=629

      As for how many pages, in my Week in the Life album I had 25 double sided pages (so 50 12x12 pages that I created in Photoshop) and in my 2005 album I had 20 double sided pages. Shutterfly's limit is 101 12x12 pages (so around 50 double sided pages).

      Hope that makes sense

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  2. The finished product looks fab! I'm starting my 1st year-long Project Life album and doing it by hand, but wish I knew how to do it digitally. I seriously need to learn how to use Photoshop!! :)

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  3. Your finished books are beautiful - thanks for sharing!

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  4. I LOVED seeing your books all printed !

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  5. Your books are amazing. I also uploaded my pages to shutterfly. I noticed that your pages have more white space around the actual "template" part. Did you modify the templates at all? Okay, not sure if that made sense. When I got my shutterfly book back I had some of the sides cropped, so my pictures were right to the edge, even though there should have been the tan 1/4 inch around the pictures. Your pages seem to have more space around the pictures. Suggestions? I just used Becky Higgins templates but didn't modify them at all. Maybe I should?

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    1. I'm really interested in this too! I've made photobooks before with templates with "borders", and some were cut off unevenly. Yours look great! Did you have to resize your files or templates at all?

      Thanks so much for sharing.

      Pedita

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    2. Yes, I resized the templates. I learned how to do this through a tutorial from Jessica Sprague. You can find the video here: http://www.jessicasprague.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=%205004
      Watch the one about adding a background to your digital Project Life pages. When she resizes the template she changes it to 89%. Since I didn't use her background page I found that 95% worked best for me. And, it printed beautifully!

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  6. Thanks for the tip on re-sizing the template. How are the inner margins in your printed book? Did resizing the entire template provide enough of a border where the book is bound? I considered nudging the margin edges over slightly as well, but I'm curious if you're happy with the resized template.

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    1. Resizing the entire template did provide enough of a border at the binding. I liked how it turned out , no pictures were cropped.

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  7. Thank you for showing the finished book it looks gorgeous, the colors are so crisp and bright. I'm doing Project life for the first time this year and I'm really looking forward to not having to sit people down on the sofa and pull out my 30 lbs. scrapbook for them to look through. Great blog post!

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  8. Just so you know, you can make all the pages have the same template in one easy step, no need to do it to each page individually - when you have selected the layout you want, go to pages (upper right), click on apply to other pages, then select layout then BAM! All pages the same!

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    1. Thanks so much for the tip. I was wondering if there was an easier way!

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  9. I was planning on using this method too, however, when I saw your comment about a 101 page limit, I am not sure. Because if you have 2 page layouts for every week X 52 weeks in a year, how did you get a whole year in one book? Plus a front page and a back page (singles)?

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    1. I can't speak to Shutterfly books and page limits, but if you upload your digital PL pages to blurb.com you can make a 12x12" book with full bleed pages just like this one Haley made . I just made a book that was 220 pages long! (it was not a PL book, it was a compilation of several scrapbooks I had made after living overseas for 4 years). Of course it was fairly pricey, but blurb also has good sales. Blurb doesn't have the PL templates though - you have to use the digital products to make the book in PSE or a similar program and then upload/import the completed pages.

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    2. I think its actually 110 pages - I made a book in December and mine was 108 pages in Shutterfly. I think this was a recent change to how many pages you could have.

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    3. Picaboo has a limit of 160 pages.

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    4. Since the books I made were from past years I didn't have a layout for every week. Sometimes I just had one layout for a whole month! Yes, the limit is 110 pages in Shutterfly so if you have more than that I would suggest blurb for sure.

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  10. Thank you so much for posting this awesome tutorial on how you do your digital scrapbooking!!! I've been looking for this exact information and have finally found someone that explains what they've done, thank you a hundred times over! I'll be very curious to see what you decide to do for 2013 and if you like using the inserts as much as having a completed book. I'm trying to figure out which is more cost effective for me as well! Thanks again!
    Becca

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  11. This is really nice! It's like having a magazine that features your family in a deep and personal manner. I like it! Printed photo books are easy to store and browse. Not only that, it saves the memories that we will always want to visit and relive. Shelley Dade

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  12. Both of these books turned out great! I really love the week in a life idea. What "kit" did you use for the week in a life book? Thanks!

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  13. Are you still using Shutterfly? Im finding that the PL App Photobooks are so expensive and Shutterfly always has a coupon you can use to lessen the cost. Do you like the print quality?

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