So I have always printed in 8x8 because it's cheaper and I do books with LOTS of pages. I print a book for every 2-3 months and it usually has anywhere from 50-80 pages in each. Want to try BLURB but I feel like 12x12 is going to be huge and expensive. Help me decide whether to make the switch to a bigger size. PRO: My layouts will have more room for more pics (a constant struggle for me is fitting in more photos!) The photos on the layouts and the text will be bigger. I will feel the need to re-print/re-do all my old books which is something I have wanted to do because my old books look very "scrapbook newbie" and outdated. I will feel the need to re-print/re-do all my old books which is something I have wanted to do because I can use all the awesome products I have accumulated since then!!!! CON: I will feel the need to re-print/re-do all my old books which will take a lot of time and $$$ No more free 8x8 coupons for Shutterfly. HELP!
I have never printed in 12x12 but my mother has dozens upon dozens of 12x12 paper albums at her house. The size is just too big for me. The albums are cumbersome/hard to hold comfortably and look through and take up a lot of space. I'm not sure where she will put the ones she's working on now for the grandbabies. The albums I've printed have been softcover 8x8s & they work great for me. I've done way too many pages -- 1000+ --- in my 14 years of digital scrapping to ever want to go back and redo them. If that's your jam, rock on but I like the 'time capsule' quality of my old albums + have unscrapped photos to do.
Redoing makes me cry! lol, I do my bimontly books, and I will make a few throwback pages. (some are remakes) and some are photos I just forgot to do. My goal is to one day, take photos of the photographs that are not digi and make pages from them. and Shutterfly has coupons about every 3 months...they aren't over. lol
10 X 10!!!! I call it the "make Goldilocks happy" size - not too big and not too small. I never print any other size now. AND you still get the Shutterfly coupons because you can print 10 x 10 at Shutterfly
I'm with Lynn. I do the 10x10 and I think the size is perfect. Sometimes, I use the bordered page design and place my page as a "photo" on it. It prints with a border but at least I don't have to "muck" around redoing pages so that things don't get cut off. And with the 10x10 size the actual page is about 8x8 and quite easy to see and to read the text.
I print 12x12 at Shutterfly and the books look amazing. The text is easy to read and I scrap lots of photos on my pages so they are all a decent size. I have a book per year (whatever I scrapped in that year, not what year the photos are for). I do wait for a coupon before printing though because 12x12 seems to be very expensive. Just checking the Blurb website and they seem to be much cheaper than Shutterfly for 12x12.
I print 12x12 for my yearly album which is 105 pages. The rest are smaller - 8x8 or 10x10. I have a mix of sizes on my shelf so I guess it doesn't bother me. It would pain me to reprint too. Guess I'm not help!
I've always printed 12x12 except for a couple 8x8 sized vacation albums. I just love the 12x12 size because there's so much more room and the text is more readable to me... this is getting more and more important as my eyes seem to be aging. (humph) One side note, if you do stay with Shutterfly you can use those free 8x8 coupons towards any size album... they just take $29.99 off the total price. I know 10 x 10 is a great compromise for people who want a little bigger size, but still don't want to go 12x12 Also, I think Blurb does a 8.5 x 11 size book too... that might be an option?
I did 8x8 books for a while and then switched to 12x12. I really prefer the larger books - they are just so much more "wow" than the smaller books. And it is easier to read the text which is important to me. I do all pocket type scrapping these days so I pack a lot into a page and the 12x12 lets you see it all better. The downside is storage - they are big and won't fit in some bookshelves. And yes, more expensive although memory preserving is priceless right?
All my books are 8x8. They take up less space on my shelf and they're cheaper. I also love the free book coupons. I get them from Best Buy (when you buy something like a memory card, you get a free 8x8 photo book), MyCokeRewards (which will no longer be an option come June), and sometimes JoAnn Fabric will send me a coupon for a free book. I'd love to switch companies because sometimes I'm not too happy with the cut off for the pages on the 8x8 book. I shrink my pocket scrapping pages to 93% and the borders are still teeny-tiny. But I'm 8 books in, and the $30 value coupons keep me going back.
This makes me so sad. I've gotten so much good free stuff from this program. I saw the email last week and was all "NOoooooooooooooo!"
I've always printed 12x12 except for two 8x8s for December Dailys. I love the size and easy readability of the 12x12. That being said, I agree with Lynn, I just received my first 10x10 from Adorama (wedding album for dd) and I love the size. Still easy to read but much more portable and storable
I've printed a few theme (wedding, vacation) albums at 12x12 from Blurb and have always loved their quality. I don't find the 12x12 size to be cumbersome in a photo book, though my 12x12 paper scrapbook albums feel HUGE and heavy to me now! I still print my Project Life digital albums at 12x12 for one of the reasons you mentioned- it's a good format for lots of photos! I mostly scrap 8.5x11 now and print at 8x10 at Blurb, but I don't let that stop me from taking advantage of the free 8x8 coupons from Shutterfly when they do pop up. They are still great for theme or gift albums, especially for my niece and nephew who love to see themselves in print. Oh, and you can also apply the value of those coupons (I think it's usually $29.99?) toward any photo book of any size! I've done that and printed a free 10x10 softcover at Shutterfly instead of the 8x8 hardcover. Someone else mentioned the 10x10 size, and I really do think it's a sweet spot. Is there one particular set of pages that you could make at 12x12 as a test and have printed? Maybe a series of pages from a vacation or other event that would stand on their own? That way if you didn't like 12x12 you'd only have that one album committed to it and not your entire scrapping system.
Blurb often has 20-50% off sales! So subscribe to their newsletter to save there. Not the same as Shutterfly coupons, but I like their quality pretty well.
