I wanted to research and try out different online business that create memory (picture) books, for busy moms such as myself. I have taken thousands of pictures over the years on my camera early on in my marriage and now that technology has progressed, thousands of pictures on my phone also, but haven’t taken the time to print them and put them into albums. In all honesty with working a full-time job, going to school, and having 3 children it is difficult to make or even take the time to do it. I would get overwhelmed even thinking about where to begin. I know that if I was feeling this that many other moms were also.
So, I sampled 3 different companies and their functionalities of mobile and desktop friendliness during this project. The 3 companies I used were Chatbooks, Shutterfly, and Snapfish. I found that Shutterfly and Chatbooks were my favorite of the 3. I never ended up having a book sent to me from Snapfish as it wasn’t user friendly enough for me. The first book I did with Shutterfly. I did it completely from my cell phone and found that the layout aspects were a bit difficult to use, but still manageable. The feel of the pages and quality are perfect for my needs. With it being my first book, I also got a discount from Shutterfly (always a huge win 😊).
My second and forth book I did on my desktop with Shutterfly and they had so many more features available than through the mobile, which was very nice and felt that I was able to add even more photos and layouts because of it. I had uploaded the photos from my external hard drive and then selected the photos I wanted for the book. The first book I had Shutterfly do the layout for me but with this one I did it manually so I could add more photos per page. Unfortunately, my fourth book hasn’t arrived yet but is on its way.
The next two books I did were through Chatbooks and am so excited to make more through them. What is amazing is that you can log into your Instagram or Facebook accounts and pick the photos you want to have in the books. I just have Instagram so I did that one and went year by year for the first two years that I had Instagram and created books with specific pictures. They added the caption I had done for each picture along with the date so it truly feels more like a memory book verses just a photo album.
Album Covers
Inside book example
I wanted to help other busy moms know the different processes, the pros and cons as well, so I started a blog about my journey and learnings along the way:
https://www.memories4busymoms.com/
I hope this will help many moms be able to have tangible memory books to share with others and for their families to enjoy going through.