See if you can...."flip that clip!"

These books are great for a coffee table memory of your baby's first steps, a bride's first dance or a high dive attempt. Just upload your clip to flipclips.com Use up to 150 pages (roughly 30 seconds)! Choose from a range of sizes and custom-cover options. The smallest flip books, 3 1/2 by 2 inches, are perfect party favors and can be slipped into muslin drawstring bags. Prices range from $9 to $20.

Custom Board Books all about....Your loved One

I've noticed that within the past year the online market has been saturated with photobook companies, some better than others. Sifting through these sites I was disappointed to find that none of them had custom boardbook options. (Great for reading AND chewing) After a little researching, I came across two companies that will do this service for a reasonable price- My Custom Story and Lifetimez.com I've looked over these two companies and weighed their positives and negatives. In the end, it's a toss-up. Neither one has their own software for you to personalize your book- a benefit as you'd find with the larger hardback photobook companies. At this time, they both seem pretty small scale but I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that in a couple years, the options for custom boardbook companies will expand and in turn broaden options, pricing and sizes. I'm hoping that happens because I love the idea of custom boardbooks and be interested in taking advantage of a decent one.

I'll start with Lifetimez. Prices start at $34.95. This company has more size options (up to 8x8), better pre-designed layouts, and higher page limits (up to 40 front and back, 20 pages). However, its biggest downfall (in my creative opinon) is that you must use one of their pre-designed layouts. ALSO, it requires that you "subscribe" to their service. Although they say that starts at 8 cents a day, I could not find any details of the "actual" costs, so that's another negative. But they do have a 10-day free trial option that does not info. See examples below require your credit card:

































The other option, My Custom Story, offers books with prices starting at $27.95. I'm not thrilled about their pre-designed storylines. The photos on their site are not professional and the layouts they use look like they've been made with Microsoft Word. In addition, their page limits top at 6 (12 pages front and back). And they only print one size 4x5. Their one redeeming quality- they allow you to customize your own pages. So if say, you had some upscale editing software like Photoshop or Illustrator you could create your own interesting layouts albeit with the above restrictions.

One more thing, there is an excellent site out there: Good Stock Press & Bindery. The top image is from their site. They will take your photos and turn them into a professionally designed, digitally printed, charming story, bound into a book the old fashioned way - by a skilled pair of hands. Of course, the caveat is their price. For a 7x7 pre-designed board book with complimentary matching spine, their prices start at $375! Wow, what a difference, huh. Not something I can take advantage of but worth mentioning none-the-less. See image to the left.

Bigger, better

As a more professional alternative to scrapbooking, I have been quite keen on the photobooking. My first exposure was with an online company called mypublisher. I had ordered several books as Christmas gifts as well as a few yearly photobooks. However I have since discovered a new, better company: Blurb
It's cheaper, has better book options (including recipe, blog, etc.), more layouts, larger books and....my favorite ....higher page limits (tops at 44o, opposed to mypublishers 100). Not to mention you can *sell* your book on their site. Pretty cool huh!
Here are a few examples:














































The above layout is mine.