When I decided to give digital scrapbooking a try, there was an important decision that had to be made.  How would I share my layouts?  The options are not as limited as with traditional scrapbooking, but it can be extremely cheap (free, even) or very expensive.

First, and easiest, is to post them online at a free photo-storage site like Flickr, Photobucket or Slide.  All you have to do is send an e-mail to everyone in your family & friends mailing list and you’re done… except for Aunt Edith who doesn’t have a computer, let alone internet access, and Grandma & Grandpa who took to the open road after retirement last year and friends who change email addresses every time they change ISPs.  In other words, it’s not a simple one-size-fits-all solution.  Plus, it’s nice to sometimes turn off the computer and sit comfortably in a big, cozy chair while showing your layouts to others. 

If you’re still resisting the idea of printing, this is where burning to CD or DVD is effective.  You can easily make a slideshow with music and transition effects and even menus.  The programs that come included with your operating system or as pre-installed OEM software are so easy and feature-packed that this is one option I did consider briefly.  (And one I’ll come back to as I run out of ideas for Christmas gifts for the family. )

Printing can seem like such a limiting solution considering the medium I’ve selected for creating my layouts but it all comes down to my love of books.  I LOVE BOOKS!  I keep my favorites to remind me of the worlds I once escaped to and having books of my own life surrounding me seems an obvious extension of that passion.

So, with that in mind, I set out to print my first digital album.  It was a gift album and I had a self-imposed deadline for completion.  I own a Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart printer that prints fabulous photos and costs relatively little to keep stocked with the appropriate inks - unless I’m printing 8×8 layouts.  My ink levels dropped visibly with each page I printed and my deadline loomed as I calculated the time required to have the ink cartridges shipped from the U.S. (for some reason, the local cartridges aren’t being read by my machine.)  The cost-per-print was excessively high, as well.  If I hadn’t purchased the paper and ink on clearance with an employee discount, each page would have cost $2.50 without including the cost of the printer itself (or the cost of international shipping, VAT and customs duties!)

I checked with the local photo store and found that they’d do it for 1,50 Euro per page and trim it for me.  No waiting a week for the ink to bond to the photo paper and properly dry?  Done deal.

I picked up the photos, printed on Fuji Crystal Archive paper, and was in awe of how wonderful they looked.  I couldn’t wait to get them home and into the album I’d bought especially for this gift.  The first page was a little tight, so I trimmed a sliver off the bottom and one side and slipped it right in.  The next few were, likewise, a little tight.  Thus far, I was filling the refill pages I’d bought at the same time I’d bought the album - both by the same company and both identified as 8×8.  As I tried to slide a scrapbook page into one of the page protectors that came with the album, I discovered that there are apparently different ways to measure 8×8.  I ended up having to trim all the remaining pages drastically and lost some important (I thought) design elements, journaling and photos in the process.  Will I use this method again? Probably, but I’ll take measures to make sure I have them printed to fit whatever album or refills I purchase.

I finally settled on the photobook solution.  A photobook is a printed and bound book of your layouts that looks essentially like a coffee table book.  This can range from affordable (Shutterfly Photobooks) to seriously expensive (Club Scrap’s Expresso Photo Books) so I straddled the fence on this decision for a while.  While I adored the style and richness of the Expresso books, I couldn’t realistically afford them so I followed the advice of many online advocates and chose to print my next gift album through Shutterfly .  It was such a good decision!  From completing pages using their free downloadable templates to uploading and ordering, the process was relatively simple and the results are fabulous.  Shutterfly sent the album directly, so I didn’t have to deal with shipping, the print quality was perfect and the album is one my in-laws treasure.

Now, I create my digital layouts with a Shutterfly Photobook in mind and imagine the day when my bookshelves will be filled with books of my own creation.