Baby Books & Life Books

Archived Q&A and reviews ▼

Archived Q&A and Reviews

Questions  

 

Custom baby book formatted online?

Oct 2007

I would like to create my own baby book online and then have it printed out in book form. I would like to create custom pages that say ''first tooth'' ''first word'' and allow me to type in little stories and arrange the photos as I want them to appear on the page. I have zero experience with this kind of thing so I need something that is user/idiot friendly. I have not had time to create my 2 year old's baby book yet because every time I take all the photos out and spread them on the floor my son comes over and wants to play with them. Way too messy in paper form, so I'm looking for something I can arrange digitally, rearrange, then change it back to the way it was ad nauseum until I finally decide I'm ready to have it printed out in book form. Can you recommend any service or website that would allow me to do this? Can you offer any user tips from your experience? Thanks wannabe scrapbooker

Check out www.blurb.com. You may not be able to totally customize the layout, but you can add any text you want and have it printed in hardcover or paperback. I've seen a couple of books published this way and they are great!

I am currently making my second book with blurb.com.. I think they are just great. I made one for my MIL last year, and she has showed it to every one she knows. You download a program from their website to use on your computer. It integrates with my Mac seamlessly. The quality is great. They have quite a few different layouts to choose from. From my experience, the pages with bigger pictures look better. And, the price is really good for what you are doing. blurberati

I made a very nice baby book with kodak's ofoto.com It was easy and only cost around $30. It came hardbound and all the pages were very nice photo paper. I was really happy with how it turned out. I also made a few calendars for christmas gifts on that site. They also turned out very well and were easy to do. anon

Life book for adopted 4yo daughter

May 2007

I'm an adoptive mom who would like to make a life book for my 4 year old daughter. I have all the photos, documents and other materials together, but am finding it hard to get started. Are there any adoptive parents out there who've been part of a group or class that they'd recommend? I want to do something simple and practical. I'm not a scrapbooking type nor am I interested in a Creative Memories group. I'm also kind of a luddite (i.e. I'm not digital). Any ideas or recommendations? Thanks!

I am a prospective adoptive mother and have found a very useful how-to book: ''Lifebooks: Creating a Treasure for the Adopted Child'' by Beth O'Malley, M.Ed. Pact, An Adoption Alliance on Piedmont Ave has this book available, (along with an excellent library of other books).

Digital Baby Book?

Nov 2006

Does anyone have a recommendation for a digital baby book? I was talking to a new mom over the weekend who asked me all sorts of ''first'' questions about my son (now 14 mos): When did he eat his first solid food (I couldn't remember exactly); what was his first real solid food after rice cereal? (uuuuh,...hmmm....banana? I guess?...); when did he start walking (um, like 11 months? I think? not sure exactly); when did he say his first word (uuhhh...guessing here...8 months?); when did he first smile (eeg, um 4 months? guessing again). Anyway, the discussion left me thinking that 1) I have a horrible memory and 2) I should write this down! I'm pretty computer-based, so I thought a digital baby book might be a good idea. Any suggestions? forgetful mom

I can't remember anything either! And I have 3 who will be asking me questions when they grow up! So I started a blog. It allows me to keep the far away relatives informed. I keep it light. A digital baby book (which is a great idea, and if you can't find one you should make one and sell it!) would allow you to keep all those important ages and weights and accomplishments in a single page, instead of it being over many blog entries. But you can do that by just creating a single blog entry for that purpose that you fill in over time. Katie

Try www.blurb.com. My friend just made her wedding book with this online program and it came out really nice and professional looking. I'm in the process of doing the same (3 years after our wedding because we were too lazy to organize a photo album) and it's a very good program. It allows you to enter lots of text if you want and when they ship it, they package it really carefully.

How about a blog? I have a private blog on Google's Blogger. I find that I'm more likely to blog than to write in a physical book. Both my husband and I can contribute. We write about our kids, thoughts on parenting, etc. Occasionally we post a few photos. occasional blogger