My First Photobook

(Note: the photobooks featured in this post were provided free of charge by MPix for me to review. Thoughts and opinions are my own.)

I have been digital scrapbooking for many years now, more than I can easily count without using a lot of brain power. This is kind of surprising because I feel like it's a "new" hobby for me, despite the fact that clearly I've been doing it long enough to have had time to start and grow this website. One reason that has kept me from keeping track of all the time I've spent digital scrapbooking is that I've never really printed my layouts. I've made hundreds and hundreds of layouts, but they've all lived on my computer. I've done a few projects here and there for other people, but nothing for myself. And I decided it was time to change that!

In the beginning I didn't get anything printed because I wasn't in a location that had photobook printing, and I was also living fairly nomadically, so I didn't have anywhere to keep a photobook if I could have gotten one. Lately I realized that I could probably have a few photobooks. Even if I have to put them in a box for a bit, they are (in my mind) 1000 times better than paper scrapbooks since they are much less bulky and easier to store.

But once I had decided a photobook could be a good idea, I was still at a loss of where to actually get the book printed. I hadn't been over the moon about the books I'd had printed as gifts in the past, and there are so many photobook companies out there, I wasn't really sure what to do.

A while back Jordan looked into getting some photos printed for our gallery wall. There are few things that bother me more than poorly printed photos, which seems the current standard for neighborhood printing at any box store. But Jordan is very good at using the Google and found Mpix.com, and the photos we ordered from them were spectacular and we were very happy to hang them on our wall.

A few months later we were interested in a metal print, and we figured since we'd had such good luck with Mpix the first time, we'd give them another try. Again, not disappointed.

So I figured third time, third charm. I asked MPix if they'd like to share some photobooks with me so I could evaluate. And once again I was very pleased with the results.

▲ Don't you love that slim cover jacket? It looks so elegant!

I got two books, one 10x10 hardcover (premium panoramic) and one 8x8 softcover (premium softcover). I had been on the fence when I was considering printing photobooks about what size to get. I've always regretted the enormous 12x12 paper scrapbooks I had, so I wasn't sure that I wanted to go down that path again. Photobooks in general are much slimmer and easier to deal with at 12x12 than paper scrapbooks, but it's still challenging to fit them on a shelf. The 10x10 seemed like a great compromise to me. Still large enough to be striking, but not so large that I can't keep it on the shelf.

Also, I've noticed in the past with my 12x12 albums that some elements and text just end up larger than I wanted. It's a hard thing to judge from a computer screen where you're usually looking at things on a smaller scale. The 10x10 format more closely resembled what I had seen on my screen, so I was happier with how things looked printed in the book.

And the lie flat pages are so wonderful for scrapbooking layouts. You lose so much less of the edges of the page.

I definitely prefer the 10x10 size to the 8x8 size, but I did really like the look and feel of the softcover book. I'm really keen to try the even smaller 5x5 version for some special mini project.

Now my only problem is what photobook to print next! If you're interested in getting a photobook (or a few!) printed, use the coupon code SCRAPPER15 at Mpix.com for $15 off a $100 order (one-time use code, good through 12/31/2015).