Picture IT: Blurb Photo Book review and giveaway

Digital Photography has changed so much about the way I store my pictures.  With my old film camera I always developed the pictures and put them in a box or if I was really being good organized them in to albums. Now that I take triple the amount of pictures and can view them all on my computer I never make albums.  I always intend to but it just doesn’t happen! I was planning on making an album of our summer vacations when Blurb offered to let me review one of their photo books! Perfect!

Blurb is a company that publishes photo books that you create. By downloading Blurb’s BookSmart software (available for Mac or PC) you can easily customize your own photo book with or without text. You don’t have to be a graphic designer or computer genius to figure out the software! You can also view tutorials or check out the FAQ page if you need to. There are templates that you can choose from which can also be altered or if you are feeling creative download your own template. I love that you could save your templates for future use!

My Blurb Book

You can choose from hardcover (image wrap or dust jacket) or softcover in a variety of sizes: 7×7 inches, 8×10 inches, 10×8 inches, 13x11inches, 12x12inches.  Other options that you get to choose from are paper type and page count.  The prices start at $12.95 up to $59.95 for the 12×12 inch book.  Each book starts off with 40 pages which I think is a great amount! You can add on as many pages as you would like up to 440!!  You can also choose to sell your book through the Blurb website an added bonus for those of you who would like to share your photography!

There were so many choices that I really wanted to do something creative. I decided to make a hardcover 10×8 inch (image wrap) book of our summer vacations. I had so many great pictures of our family-fun-filled summer that I  wanted to document it all in one book! I had a great time choosing the pictures and captions. I thought for sure I would use all 40 pages but I only had 30. I downloaded my book to Blurb and the total price was $31.95 and $6.99 for shipping. I patiently waited for it to arrive. To my delight it arrived in only 5 days (they said 10).  The book looked great.  I loved seeing my photographs in this setting.  The cover photo looked great as did the interior pages.

Have a blog?  You can develop your blog into a book!  BookSmart Works with many blogging platforms– Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, and WordPress.com.  BookSmart will “slurp” your blog into a book by connecting to your blog and using your posts and pictures.  You have the ability to choose what posts and pictures you want!  You can also create a portfolio, cook book or your very own storybook.  The possibilities are endless and the BookSmart software makes it very easy! By visiting the blurberati blog you can see the book of the week and get some amazing font and photography tips to use when creating your own book.

Blurb is also a great way to raise money for your favorite cause or non profit organization!  Joining Blurb for Good allows you to set the price for your book and keep 100% of the profit for your cause. You can then promote your book through blurb by having them feature your book in their bookstore! Blurb will do all the work as far as fulfilling orders tracking sales and sending payments to your charity through paypal.

Consider Blurb for documenting your photo memories, or as a gifts for loved ones. We plan on ordering a couple books as gifts for our family.

Visit Blurb’s website here: www.blurb.com

GIVEAWAY: Our friends at Blurb have generously offered one (1) That’s it Mommy reader a $40 credit to make their own book!

REQUIRED MAIN ENTRY –  Visit Blurb and tell us what kind of book you would make. Come back here and leave a comment in the reply box below this post.

(Remember if this MAIN ENTRY is not followed then no other entries will count)

Bonus Entries – Leave each extra entry in a separate comment.

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• Follow us on Twitter (leave us your twitter ID) (leave 3 separate comments, #1, #2, #3)
• Blog about this giveaway (leave the link) (2 extra – 2 comments #1, #2)
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• Enter another one of our current giveaways. (3 extra – 3 separate comments #1, #2, #3)
• Comment on one of our non-giveaway posts. (3 extra – 3 separate comments #1, #2, #3)
• Tweet about this giveaway (Copy –  Create personalized photo books @ Blurb.com. Win a $40 credit! via @ThatsITMommy  @blurbbooks http://thatsitmommy.com/?p=6729 #photography) – come back daily and leave us the link to the tweet (1 extra)

This giveaway will run through midnight on November 1, 2010 (PST). Winner will be chosen using Random.org from all valid entries and notified via email. Winner will have 48 hours to contact us before another winner is chosen. Giveaway is open to Continental U.S. (18+) residents only.

* We did not receive monetary compensation for this review. That’s IT Mommy created/received a photo book to facilitate this review.
 This will in no way sway our opinion of the product or service.
 The review is in our own words and is our opinion. Your results and opinions may differ.