TJ’s “Sleepy Book”

Posted on September 11, 2012 By Alex T. real life, real memories

How many of us mamas can’t help but snap a photo of our babies when they’re asleep?

Even more so, we have to take a picture if they’re sound asleep in a hilarious position or snuggled next to daddy or a beloved aunt, uncle or grandparent. My husband and I have taken hundreds of photos of our son asleep, the majority of them just with our mobile phones.

But what do we do with these photos? Many of them are too poor quality to bother printing and putting in a frame. So they end up relegated to our computers, mobile phones and Facebook pages for eternity.

Last Christmas, I had an idea and figured out a fun way to share these photos and have a keepsake that TJ can flip through and enjoy. I made what we call a “sleepy book.”

I gathered together all the photos we have of TJ asleep; sometimes snuggled with mama or daddy, but mostly on his own. I ran them through some basic color correcting in Photoshop and cropped where needed.

Then I went about creating a photo book and had it printed with Blurb. Blurb is my favorite website for photo books. I love all of the cover options they have and their prices are really great. Plus they allow users to create photo books one of three ways, depending on how much creative control you want. You can use their online program called Bookify where you work with pre-designed templates, you can download their BookSmart software and have more creative control when it comes to backgrounds, layouts, sizing and paper options, or you can have total control and create pages from scratch using Adobe InDesign.

I opted for an 8″ x 8″ hardcover book which allowed me to use all of the grainy, low-resolution cell phone photos and not worry about them printing drastically different than the nicer photos. I also went with the dust jacket cover because I like adding photos to the leaves of the jacket.

I made sure to include photos with Auntie Jackie and Uncle Michael:

I also included photos of TJ passed out with Grandma and Grandpa:

I ordered half a dozen books, making sure to order an extra one for us to keep. Grandparents, aunts and uncles were all thrilled to get an album of photos they likely would only ever see on Facebook, if at all. It was quite a hit and I’m not sure what I’m going to do this coming Christmas to top it.

TJ loves to flip through our copy and mimic the silly positions he sees himself sleeping in.

Added by Alex T. on September 11, 2012.
Saved under real life, real memories
Tags: baby photos, DIY book, photo book

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