Shutterfly

Please note: this post has affiliate links listed throughout.

I met a remarkable woman several months ago and we became instant friends.  While I was visiting one day, she told me about Shutterfly which is a free website that can be used to safely store precious photos.

Not only does Shutterfly store photos but they can also create a blog-like photo album (again, for free) to display photos for others to view.  I use this feature to display pictures to my friends and family that do not have a FaceBook account.

In the same visit, my friend showed me this extraordinary book that she made using Shutterfly of a trip she took with her daughter a few years before.  It was a hardback book and a beautiful way to document her trip with her oldest daughter. 

Back at the end of October, my mother and I went to Orlando, FL with my niece to see my brother who is attending school there.  I am a picture fanatic: I love to take pictures and I love to look at pictures.  Since owning a digital camera, I can tell you how many photos I have printed out: 0.  I love love love to take pictures and I have some pretty great ones I’ve taken over the years, but I have no physical reminder of the beautiful places we have visited or the beautiful reminders of our loved ones past and present. 

My mom said she wanted a disc of all the pictures I took from the trip.  After all, there were over 600 of them and we were only in Florida for 4 days!  I noticed on Shutterfly that they had the photo books at 40% off if I ordered before a certain date. I decided to try to make the photo book for my mom.

I didn’t know how difficult it would be to arrange the book, but I dove right in.  I was surprised at how many options there were to choose from to customize the photo book to my taste.  All in all, I made a 20 page hard-cover book from cover to cover within 2-3 hours.  The book I made for my mother as a memoir of our trip had over 200 photos in it and cost less than $35!  To me, the photos in the book and the memories we made on the trip are priceless.

 

The best part of the whole process was giving my mom the book.  I had to try to keep my project a secret for over a week until I could give it to her, and believe me, it was difficult.  I couldn’t wait to give it to her.  When she saw the front cover of the book, she thought she had to put the pictures in the book on her own.  I asked her to look inside and she squeeled with excitement as soon as she noticed our family photos were lining the pages.  I love that she loved the book that much.

In my opinion, the book turned out marvelous.  Todd and I arent ones to display photos around our home because we never have any pictures printed out from our digital camera; however,  I have decided to start making these books for around our home when Shutterfly has their sales going on.  

This week, Shutterfly is offering these books at a 50% discount!  I am looking forward to making a book or two of our 5 year wedding anniversary trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon this week. 

If interested in this deal, please feel free to check them out.  These make awesome gifts, and not only does Shutterfly offer photo books, but they can also do photo magazines, mugs, mousepads, calendars…pretty much whatever your heart desires!

 

Use coupon code SAVE50 to get 50% off all hard cover photo books, calendars, stationary, and greeting cards from Shutterfly.com!

 

 

Disclosure: I was in no way influenced to write a positive review for Shutterfly.  I have used them to make a personalized item for a family member and look forward to using them to make my own personalized items for our home.  I am an affiliate of Shutterfly and receive a small commission on anything you may order.  In the future, I will be sharing when Shutterfly has great deals like this one so that you may benefit from them as well.