Monday, October 15, 2012

Blurb Books

Several people asked if I was going to show the Blurb books I made from my blog which I talked about in this post so I snapped a few photos on my way out the door last week (which is my excuse for the wrinkled table cloth underneath them.)

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I've been blogging for just over 4 years and have now created these books for each year. The books aren't fancy on the outside, they are the soft-cover bare bones version. I invested my time on the inside - working to create custom layouts that maximized the photos in the book.

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For those of you who are curious about how Blurb works - you give it your blogs url and password, it then scrapes your content into their application. You can then choose the posts you want in your book and it automatically creates a layout for you. The basic layout has text as the main body and photos in 1 inch square boxes on the edges of each page. Because I wanted my photos larger and closer to the original size I created custom layouts for each of the posts. I'll admit it - this took a while. But you can save each of the layouts you create and make it a template and reuse them, which means I got faster the more I worked on the books.

Creating these books helped me remember why I blog in the first place - to document my life and to build my own personal history. Moving it from the computer to book form makes it seem more real and permanent.

Drew Andrews - I Could Write a Book

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17 comments:

michelle@decorandthedog said...

These books look awesome. What a great idea!

~Kristina said...

They look wonderful.

Chelsea said...

They look great! I need to make a few of my own.

Angie Willis said...

How wonderful. You're so clever! I don't think mine would make such a good book as I don't write much usually on my blogs, but it's a great fun idea to make a book of photographs. I may go and have a look! Have a great day Jamie.

Stephanie said...

They are BEAUTIFUL! They look amazing!

Karen said...

Thanks for sharing! They are gorgeous, and reinforce my commitment to getting on this project.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for showing off your Blurb books! They look really good.

Ashley said...

AHHHHH!!!! How great!! I may have to do this :)

Lisa Gordon said...

Jamie, these are wonderful, and what a perfect way to document each passing year!

Sara McCarty said...

LOVE!! I use Blurb to make all my photo albums, but I haven't made a blog book yet. What a great idea! I knew you could do it, but I guess I forgot. I really should make one b/c I'd hate to lose all my posts if anything ever happened to Blogger. Love yours!

Kelly said...

What a great idea! I blog as a reminder to slow down and enjoy the little things. This is a perfect example!

Test said...

This is such a great project... You have definitely given me a great idea... Love them!

Laura lok said...

Great way to document your journey. Good job I know that must have taken a lot of time

Cindy said...

these look wonderful jamie and are so practical. i very rarely sit and read past posts on our blog, but will pull a blurb book off of the book shelf and reminisce. love your layout, too!

R Montalban said...

That's fantastic, well done you :)

knitalatte said...

Isn't it the best, having your blog in book form?

I love mine. Great reference for how far we've come since we started blogging, yes? I still think of you every time I hear a new song, and wonder, has Jamie heard this one, she probably has...Thanks for helping me expand my musical horizons.
Hugs,
Karen

blue elephant photography said...

these are really cool! i want some but i might not have many personal ones since i have lots of client posts lol. this is really awesome!

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