Creating Keepsake Photo Books with Scrapblog

Alfie thinks the word "Awesome" is sadly overused these days, to the point where it has lost it's meaning,. When you do see something truly Awesome -- like the Grand Canyon, which we visited last October -- you're at a loss to describe it because the appropriate word, Awesome, is wasted on things like delicious chocolate milkshakes or a really good movie.

I have to agree with him -- the Grand Canyon was Awesome, and people do overuse the word, but last December I was introduced to an online scrapbooking site that I think deserves that description. I think in its own way, Scrapblog is pretty darn awesome! Last December I did a product review for the Scrapblog service (i.e. how it works) and hosted a giveaway for a Scrapblog photo calendar, but I never talked about the finished product. Let me remedy that now.....

Scrapblog is an online site that lets ordinary users create beautiful multimedia scrapbooks. The drag-and-drop functionality makes it so easy, as I found out when I reviewed Scrapblog and created my own. It really only takes 3 steps to create a scrapbook:

1) Select a kit -- you can choose from a variety of kits with premade layouts.
2) Select photos -- you can upload photos from your computer or use photos on your other online accounts (i.e. Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket and more).
3) The Scrapblog tool will populate your online scrapbook automatically.


You can also customize the layouts, add stickers, backgrounds, photos, etc.. You can spend as much or as little time as you want on it!

When you are done, you can turn the scrapbook you created into calendars, keepsake books, notecards, postcards, and other products. You can purchase and print out individual pages. You can even share your scrapbook online, and not just on the Scrapblog site. I love the fact that you can share the scrabooks on Facebook or on your blog, so family members don't have to actually be physically present in order to flip through the pages. Here's the awesome Grand Canyon scrapbook I made on Scrapblog:



The online scrapbook is so great, and so convenient (and so free -- yes, you can create and share a scrapblog for free!), it's difficult to say which one I prefer -- the online version, or the keepsake photo book that I ordered from that online scrapbook.

It's hardbound with a fabric cover and your cover photo in front. The pages are thick and glossy, and the printing is very high quality. The keepsake book is somewhat longer than other photo books I've ordered from other places, which makes it a bit inconvenient to store, but the wider layouts do showcase the photos much better.

There's just something about having a physical book in your hands, with nice, thick pages to leaf through. After all, you can't exactly drag all your guests in front of your computer to brag about your beautiful album; it's so much more subtle to leave it on the coffee table, where they can pick it up and compliment you on your artistic layouts and all the time and effort you took to make it (tip: just smile and say Thank You)!

The photo book is so nice, we are buying a second copy and giving it to my in-laws (who accompanied us on the trip) as a present! Thanks, Scrapblog, for showing us how easy it can be to come up with such beautiful keepsakes!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary photo book in order to review this product, but no monetary compensation. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.