Giveaway open to Canada and US.

When I was first offered the opportunity to make a Photo Book at Lulu.com, I actually hesitated for a few weeks. The thing is, I have weird organizational issues. For example, I just happen to prefer all my photos printed off and arranged in chronological order in photo albums. (I know, not only obsessive, but also very 20th century.)  For that reason, I’m not much of a scrapbooker – although since I was given one when Frannie was born, I felt obligated to use it, and did a very nice job of capturing her first year, if I do say so myself. (No, Maggie, my second child, doesn’t have one. But she does have a regular old baby book).

I couldn’t think of a theme or occasion to inspire a Lulu Photo Book until it dawned on me…it didn’t HAVE to be about the kids! I realize all you enthusastic moms out there, clearly more devoted than I am, would use this prize to show off your little angel(s), but I decided to make it about my husband and me, and instead used photos from our New York City experience for my creative project.

It was extremely easy to get started by choosing one of their many themes (I went with “Graphite”), then uploading photos, and dragging them in to the book as desired.

(I apologize for the dark photos in this post – my flash washed out the details so I had to make do! Anyone looking for me to review a new camera??)

I love how you can change order of the pages simply by dragging, and change the page templates, deciding whether each page is best with one large horizontal, four smalls (a great way to summarize our Julia Roberts experience), two verticals, etc. There are spots for adding text as well, if you wish.

A couple of times the program shut down on me mid-project, and my contact suggested the problem could either have been that my photos were too large (I don’t think so) or that I wasn’t running an updated version of FlashPlayer (which is likely the culprit). My work was always saved, so it was just a matter of opening the browser window and logging in again.

My book arrived very quickly, and I was quite impressed with product. Except for the fact that I neglected to remove my red eyes in our shot with Regis and Kelly, the quality is fantastic. Mine is hardcover, which I find very classic and coffee-table-book-looking, but softcover is also available.

I would confidently recommend Lulu Photo Books.

Thanks to Lulu, I am offering one lucky This Mom Loves reader a 20 page, 8.5 x 8.5″ hardcover Photo Book of your choice, which you can design and create to your own personal specifications!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment letting me know what the subject of your Lulu Photo Book would be! Your baby’s first year? Your pets? Christmases past? (It can also be a neat way for momtrepreneurs to showcase their products or services – not least of which photographers.)

For additional entries, leave a separate comment letting me know that:

  • you follow This Mom Loves publicly through Google Friend Connect
  • you subscribe to This Mom Loves through email (be sure subscription is activated)
  • you follow @thismomloves on Twitter

Contest will run until 11:59 p.m. Eastern on February 24th, after which time a winner will be chosen by random number generation. Good luck!

Disclaimer: I was provided with a Lulu Photo Book in order to facilitate this review. Opinions are, as always, my own.

by | 76 Comments

76 comments on “Lulu Photobooks: Review and Giveaway”

  1. There are so many different photo books out there it is good to hear about one that is recommended!
    My husband and I are going to London in April, I would make a photobook of memories from our trip!

    Reply

  25. Mine would have vacation photos from a couple of different trips I went on with my family.

    fr.lutece at gmail dot com

    Reply

  30. We've been doing major home renovations so I'd love to do one showing the progress from before to after!
    Holly (hfrohloff@hotmail.com)

    Reply

  31. About 4 years ago, my best friend and I decided to throw all cares away and travel the world for 365 days; essentially go wherever our heart would take us. Before you think, we're irresponsible hippies, we had planned this trip for about five years and worked/saved for that amount of time. So we went all over Southeast Asia, far East Asia, Australia, did a road trip across the USA, then north into Canada and across to Calgary. We flew to Europe and drove all over Europe and into Russia… It was a long, eventful journey that changed our lives. So this whole trip is what I would put into a Lulu photo book. Please accept this as my mandatory entry. Thank you!

    Aliya D.
    aliyadaya(at)shaw(dot)ca

    Reply

  36. I like that you choose your NYC trip as the book. Good to know the books were easy to make and you liked the quality. The same cannot be said about Black's.

    I would do pictures of my son for my mom and dad.

    LisaDay

    Reply

  41. I would probably create a photobook of my 3-year-old daughter's journey with cancer. She was diagnosed early this summer with a Wilms' tumour and subsequently underwent a surgery to remove one of her kidneys, as well as 15 rounds of chemotherapy. She has just completed her treatment with a fantastic prognosis and has been a supertrooper throughtout the whole ordeal. She probably won't remember the last 8 months of hospital visits and medical appoointments, but a photo book would help capture everything and tell her story so that one day, she'll know just how proud we are of her for being the brave little girl we knew her to be!

    Reply

  46. I think its so nice that you made the book about you and hubby! So important to remember that relationship in the midst of mothering!
    I was thinking that I would do ods and ends of the past few months with the family, but I really like the suggestion of making the book about the births of all of my children.

    Reply

  48. There are many ways I might organize my photobook, perhaps my son's baseball or my dog Junior's amazing attributes or our upcoming wedding vow renewal.??

    pamfreecycle at gmail dot com

    Reply

  51. I would love to win this contest! I've been wanting to make a wedding scrapbook for about 4 years now (we're having our 4th anniversary this spring) and now that we have our first baby I don't know if I'll ever get around to it. This would be a great alternative!

    -Kathryn

    Reply

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