How the World’s Least Crafty Person Made a Beautiful Photo Book in an Hour

Thanks to ShoptAtHome.com and My Publisher for partnering with me on today’s post. All thoughts, opinions, and total lack of creative skills are my own. 

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a blogging mama in possession of a good camera must be in want of a craft project.”

Isn’t that more or less the opening quote from Pride and Prejudice? I may have taken just a smidge of creative license with it. And that’s pretty much the ONLY creative license you’ll see me taking. You see, I am a blogger with a very significant Achilles Heel: I have not a crafty bone in my body. I tried scrap-booking once, and it very much looked like the work of a 6-year-old. Oh how I wish I was exaggerating. 

I’ve actually made peace with the fact that I will never own a glue gun, and that the beginner’s sewing machine I bought on a whim never made it out of the box, and was finally donated 3 years later. But I struggle a bit more with the issue of photography. You see, it’s part of my job now to take decent pictures, and I certainly have improved a bit. I even enjoy snapping shots of my kids. But when it comes to getting the photos printed and creating albums or really anything at all that you don’t have to be online to see, I AM THE WORST.

But oh my gosh, I wanted to be able to overcome this creative deficit for the sake of our vacation photos. Specifically, I really wanted a beautiful, bound photobook all about our trip to Disney World. And I used My Publisher and made it all come together in an hour. Yes, one hour!! 

Let me be clear: you could definitely spend a lot of more time on your photobook if you wanted to, adding custom backgrounds, tweaking your picture settings on each page, and adding space for writing. When I first logged into the system, I did get overwhelmed because I realized that the options for customization were quite extensive. Feeling myself start to get paralyzed by all the options, I made the decision to put a hunk of time into selecting and editing the photos I wanted in the book, and then once I had that piece done, I would allow just one hour for putting a very simple book together. No frills. No fuss. Just a basic, pretty, memento of our incredible vacation.

And I absolutely LOVE the result!

I love that with this book I was really able to let the photos shine. Many of our pages have just one large photo on them, and we also have some collage pages from when there was one spectacular event (such as the show in front of Cinderella’s castle).

I know that my girls are not going to remember very much about their Disney World trip simply because they were young (5 and 2). But I can tell you that this book is already helping them hold on to those memories a bit better. They ask to sit down and look through it quite frequently, and we love to remember what was happening when the photos were taken. It really makes for a great moment to share with my kids now that the trip really is just memories.

Even though I only spent an hour making the book, I was able to do a small customized feature (because it was as simple as a click!). I added a nice inside cover page on the front and back. It looks great!

My experience with My Publisher was positive as a true novice with creating photo books. I think keeping my expectations in line for what I personally could accomplish was the key, and setting a time limit helped. But if you are more seasoned at creating photo books and wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the full range of customization available, then I think you will also really like My Publisher. Basically, I think it’s a great fit for pretty much everyone!

How to Save Money on My Publisher Products

The quality of My Publisher products is absolutely spectacular. We didn’t even do many upgrades (beyond extra pages, so we got a pretty basic photobook, but it doesn’t feel basic. It feels VERY high quality!) So it’s understandable that the costs aren’t super low. BUT!!! Since I have signed up with My Publisher and gotten on their mailing list, I have been blown away by their excellent sales (especially this time of year!). So be sure to sign up for the mailing list and you’ll be very pleasantly surprised by how quickly you can get your bill cut down by a very sizeable amount.

Additionally, don’t forget to go through ShopatHome.com when you want to peruse My Publisher. Simply by going through the link, you are going to save even more (currently it’s 10% plus ShopGold coins!).