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From a birthday book I’ve been working on all week. I love this image.

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With the holidays approaching, we’re celebrating our first ever Gift Book Week. We’re showcasing a different book idea each day to inspire you. We hope you’ll find the perfect gift idea here and get in touch. There’s still time to make your custom book for the holidays!
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Here’s idea #4…A Family or Life Photo Album!

This gift can either be for one person or a whole family, and it is such an amazing gift.

To illustrate, we have some before and after shots for you. Everyone loves a good before and after shot!

Before: You have boxes of old family albums and photos in an attic, closet, or storage area somewhere. Yes, we all have them!

After: You turn them into a beautiful coffee table book that can be enjoyed daily by your whole family!

Here’s how: Don’t even think about using all the pictures in those boxes and old albums. The key here is selecting the best ones. First, decide if the book is about one person’s life or the whole family. Then decide how many images you want to use - 75 images is a good place to start - and put them together in chronological order. Then mail them to us. We’ll scan the pictures and design your book!

Email me if you’re interested!

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With the holidays approaching, we’re celebrating our first ever Gift Book Week. We’re showcasing a different book idea each day to inspire you. We hope you’ll find the perfect gift idea here and get in touch. There’s still time to make your custom book for the holidays!
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So here’s idea #2…Christmas Memory Books!

Growing up in our family, every Christmas we took a Santa picture and a Christmas Card picture. And let me tell you, there are some gems in there (think braces, tears, bad sweaters, etc). This year I’m compiling these into companion books as gifts for my own family. And I must admit, I’m selfishly doing it because I want to enjoy them in our own home during the holidays, too!

If you have similar traditions and a pile of Christmas or holiday memory photos lying around, here are 2 books to inspire you. The first uses Santa pictures in our accordion book style, and the second features Christmas Card photos in a custom book style, with captions next to each year which adds such a nice touch.

And of course, if you are still in the midst of these traditions be sure to save the photos so you can make a book later!

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Believe it or not, the holidays are approaching! And not surprisingly, we think custom books make great gifts.

So to inspire you, we’re showcasing a different book idea each day this week on our blog. We hope you’ll find a perfect gift idea here and get in touch. There’s still time to make your custom book for the holidays!

So here is our first idea for you…a family cookbook!

Last Christmas, this was Ali’s gift to her dear Italian grandmother. She gathered her grandmother’s recipes, along with photos, cooking tips from Gram, and inspiring cooking quotes and called it Gram’s Kitchen. Her Gram loved it so much she ordered copies for everyone!

I especially love the tribute page where Ali thanks her Gram and all the pioneering, strong women of her family.

You can see lots more photos here!

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I totally love this wedding book. I love that Megan chose bold colors - black, white, red - for her wedding and I also loved the silhouettes she used for the invitations, programs, etc. We incorporated both into her book, and I think it worked perfectly.

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I’m on a baby theme it seems. Here is an oh-so-sweet book we did for Boulder photographer Julie Afflerbaugh. The book incorporates 3 photo sessions - pregnancy, newborn, and toddler. What a sweet collection to keep for your child!

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OK, so now I know what it feels like. Now I really get why parents want to preserve the moments and memories of their child’s first year! So here is my plan for Ruthie’s year one.

We want to… 1) make something we can give her someday that captures her first year, and 2) keep it simple and doable, so we actually get it done! (I have slight fears she will be the bookmaker’s daughter with no books of her own.)

So the first thing we did is stamped her name and birth date on a Moleskine we’ve been keeping for her. Steven and I both write in it - not daily (not realistic!) but just enough.

Now we're working on a companion custom Moleskine that will contain photos from her first year. We'll probably put a small square photo of her on the front with stamping that says "year one."

I will definitely keep you posted on our progress. It’s so fun to make this for my own little girl!

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Wrapping up a busy but productive week. We shipped these 3 books yesterday and loved how they all turned out. A wedding accordion, a fortieth birthday book, and an 80th birthday book. Can’t show you the insides of the birthday ones - they’re surprises!

Happy weekend, everyone.

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Isn’t this note a keeper? It’s going in a book we’re working on right now. The child wrote it to her parents while they were out of town. I’m sure they were quite proud of her accomplishment!

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Am working on Vanessa’s book for her in-laws’ 50th anniversary right now. They raised 5 boys in Chicago and clearly have an awesome sense of humor.

The book is a 50 years, 50 memories theme and I just had to share this memory from their niece. It totally cracks me up.

Ask Auntie El about the time she got pulled over while going the wrong way down a one-way street—purposefully. She was just trying to save a little time on her way to or from one of a million baseball, basketball, or football practices, with a station-wagon full of boys. When the police officer approached the vehicle, Auntie El got out, put her hands behind her back, and asked him to please put her in hand-cuffs, and to take her to jail! That he’d be doing her an enormous favor! He looked her over, checked out her “precious cargo” and sent her on her way apologetically.

I love this Auntie El.
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