thanks to shutterfly, i'm now a scrapbooker extraordinaire...

 i have long had hopes of waking up one morning to discover that i have become a phenomenal scrapbooking mama.  zoe is almost nine and that still hasn't happened...until now.

shutterfly has come up with a new custom path for their photobooks that has given me the ability to scrapbook with the greatest of ease. 

if you want to commemorate baby's arrival, baby's first year, the school years, a special family trip, mother's day, father's day, summer vacation, a wedding...okay, the possibilities are endless.  any special occasion is an opportunity to collect your photos and turn them into a photo book worthy of coffee table status. 

to get started, simply go to shutterfly, select the custom path and simply follow the steps to create any size photo book you like.  shutterfly will help you collect pictures from your desktop, or directly from your iphoto, iphone, google picasa account, or facebook.

once you have your photos collected, you can choose either to fill your pages automatically or fill them yourself.  I recommend letting them fill your pages for you.  they get grouped by date and/or subject so it is easier to go ahead and rearrange the ones you like after they have done most of the work of sorting for you.

depending on the theme you pick, stickers and other embellishments will be added for you.  again, you can go in yourself and pick any others you wish to add, from any of the other themes that shutterfly has available.  honestly, think of all the money you will save now that you don't have to haunt the craft stores trying to find just the right stickers for your scrapbooks, not to mention the time you once spent shopping around. 

shutterfly's custom path gives you the ability to change layouts, move pictures, text and embellishments, just like you would with an actual scrapbook page.  once you have everything adjusted just the way you like, just click "save" and you are ready to purchase. 

at this point, you have a variety of sizes (5x7 to 12x12) and covers (soft photo cover to faux leather with photo cutout) to choose from.  prices start at $10.39 and go up to $69.99.  of course, to get to this point, i have to be capable to making final decisions.  the selection is so vast and varied, i'm wondering if i will ever get to the point that i am completely satisfied!  i'm trying to tell myself that i can just make another book since the custom path process makes it so easy...

for one of you faithful readers, i have a code for you to print your own 8x8 beautiful creation along with free shipping.  just leave a comment below telling me what occasion you would like to celebrate with a book and who could be the recipient of that book.  i will choose a winner using random.org on may 25.  you can have an extra entry if you subscribe to this blog.

happy scrapbooking...


i was invited to be part of a shutterfly "tea" to learn about the new custom path and to offer feedback on the new process.  i received my own free photobook code as a thank you.  regardless, the thoughts and opinions expressed here are purely my own.