Photo Book Baby’s “Facebook”

After seeing the title of this post you may be wondering whether PhotoBookBaby has his own smartphone, checks his email, updates his status, is the reigning Mayor of Babies R Us and Facetimes his baby friends (you know the E*Trade baby,  and those cute talking twins…).  No, that’s not what I mean.  He’s only 8 months old and I actually shudder to think when he’ll ask me for his own cell phone.  I hope that’s a ways a way for now, but I know it’s coming!

Actually PhotoBookBaby’s “Facebook” is just a catchy name for the offline photo book I made him – full of the faces he sees everyday or from time to time.  I didn’t want him to forget our relatives that we may see less often or his uncle who lives out of state, so I decided to make a face book of photos of us and our relatives.  Lots of big kind smiling faces and titles and names in big type are perfect for baby to get to know his family.  For now he’ll just look at the faces and photos, later he’ll learn to read their names.

Here’s the stats:

Company/Book size:	Artscow 6 x 6 (width x height) square
Cover:	Custom Cover – Deluxe Photo Book
Pages:	32 (double-sided); Fuji Crystal Archive Photo Paper (750 gsm) mounted on thick non-bendable cardstock
Binding:	Lay-flat with no gutter
Price:	Original Cost: $19.99 (for base 20 pages) + $12.00 (for 12 extra pages at $1.00 each) Total book cost = $31.99 each + ($11.99 shipping) = $43.98 Sale Price: $22.99 with FREE shipping

Want to make your own “Facebook”?  Here’s some tips:

1) Remember me telling you about how much fun I was having using Google’s free photo management tool Picasa?  Well I used the Picasa collage function to do the layouts for this book.  It’s not meant for doing complex layouts, and there are limitations, but for the purposes of this type of book, it did the trick.  Of course you can use any photo book company’s software to create your book, and you can also use Photoshop, Photoshop Elements or any of the external photo book software programs. Why not try this type of project out using a FREE photo book? MyPublisher is offering a free 9×7 hardcover for new users that would also make for a nice size for this book if you’d prefer a landscape book.

2) For most of the spreads I used one large photo of the person and labeled it with their name.  The other side of the spread typically featured a few photos of baby with the person (6 max per page in my layout design for a 6 x 6 book).  You don’t want to have too many photos on a page because at that size, the individual photos may come out too small – keep it simple and clean;

3) Make sure you think about your audience.  Use large, clear contrasting type that stands out from the background.  Just like text in a children’s book – you want it readable.

4) Size and durability – Photo Book Baby has tiny hands (though very chubby and cute), so I picked a 6 x 6 hardcover deluxe book from Artscow.  The maximum page count for these books is 32 pages.  The pages are very thick and lays flat similar to a board book, but unlike the typical children’s board book, the corners are not rounded.  So, as a caveat, I don’t think I’d feel comfortable letting him play with the book without supervision (since the pages are hard and the edges are pointed).  I thought about rounding out the edges using a pair of scissors or a rounded corner punch tool, but I’m not sure if that would damage the book so I haven’t tried that yet.  I’ll be less concerned when he has better hand control and isn’t putting everything in his mouth!

Photo Credit: Above left and above right photos of mama and baby taken by Moonhouse Productions.

This book was reasonably priced with the promo Artscow was running (it’s still running through 4/23/12 5/7/12 – coupon code: BESTBOOKS. Note the company has extended the promo several times), otherwise, it’s a bit pricey given its size and page count, but the quality is very good – bright, crisp photos and well constructed.  I didn’t use Artscow’s software to make the book as I find it a little clunky to use, hence I used Picasa.  If you want a more in-depth review of Artscow’s deluxe photo books, be sure to check out my prior post.

It’s such a fun book to read to PhotoBookBaby and I love that it’s custom (I’m all about custom!)

Check out my other Baby photo book projects!