Disclosure: Please note that I am both an affiliate for, and a user of Blurb. These books were made prior to becoming an affiliate for Blurb, but come HIGHLY recommended to you because I love, Love, LOVE my books and I think you will too! Should you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you! As usual, all opinions are entirely my honest and loving opinion!
Gone are the days of stocking up on cute stickers, embellishments and matching paper to scrapbook your travels and every day life and have a weekend scrapbooking-shesh with your best girlies chit-chatting about things girls chit-chat about!
Say ‘adios’ to spending loads of money on scrapbook tools, bags and suitcases to transport your gear to you bestie’s house for an all out scrap’athon.
No more of husbands and brothers calling scrapbooks ‘crapbooks’ just to get a rise outta the women folk as they profess their hobby as a craft and not a waste of time.
Gone are the endless, painstaking hours of crafingt a single page meant to share a lifetime of memories and having big, bulky scrapbooks take up a whole bookshelf!
Hellllllo, quick and easy, simple and elegant memory books by Blurb!
Want to make your very own travel book? PIN IT FOR LATER!!
- Have you recently returned from an amazing summer holiday? Christmas vacay? Road trip with the besties? A long, relaxing honeymoon?
- Did you take too many pictures on your travels that you simply don’t know what to do with them?
- Don’t want to print out hundreds of pictures, just to stuff them in a box once you’ve showed your friends and family?
- Or are your photos from your amazing holiday still living on your camera or sitting neglected on your hard drive waiting to be sorted?
- Wanting to turn your beautiful photos into something more elegant?
- Did you just answer ‘yes’ to more than one of these questions?
Then making a travel photo album with Blurb is the answer to all your questions!
I am a firm believer in displaying as many pictures of our fabulous travels as possible without going overboard! But, there’s only one problem, you only have so much wall space in such a tiny apartment! So, what do you do?
You create travel books for future generations!
Create a hardcover travel photobook to share with your friends and family! They make the perfect living room table decoration and are great conversation starters! Lay them out on any table in the house when guests are coming over and peruse right on down memory lane!
Receive 40% off with Blurb when you click on the code below:
(VALID NOVEMBER 5TH TO DECEMBER 11TH, 2019)
After moving to Europe back in 2012 and leaving behind all of my scrapbook gear, my hobby came to a screeching halt. Much to my dismay, I tried as hard as I could to find quality stickers, embellishments and paper in craft stores in Germany, yet I could never find the right tools. Scrapbooking in Germany just isn’t a thing! And ordering online and shipping internationally costs more than it’s worth!
Then suddenly, I discovered Blurb! A DIY online website which is absolutely 100% user-friendly for non-techy chicas! With Blurb I was able to chose from a variety of sized books, simply upload my photos, chose from a variety of pre-made layouts (later came the more advanced version), chose a font and write a text about the photos.
Within a few days, I was done and ready to click ‘Order’ at not even a fraction of the cost and time it would have taken me to diligently craft my own scrapbook travel album! Wham-bam-thank-you’ma’am!
Designing your own travel photo book is so affordable, I can now whip out a book every year and have Travel Yearbooks without taking up too much space in my tiny apartment!
After purchasing my first Blurb travel photo book back in 2015 and being absolutely amazed by the quality of the book – the Hard cover with photos on the front and back, pictures and all, I knew that I would be a lifetime-Blurber! I couldn’t believe I had made a photo album that looked and felt so incredibly professional! What I loved most of all were the image cover jackets printed directly on to the cover of the book making my photo albums all the more personal!
In fact, I loved it so much, that not only did I turn our Travel Themed Engagement Photos into a book, but also, instead of shelling out $500+ on a Wedding Album, I made my own to my heart’s content for less than $100! That’s another vacation and another book, or two, or three! With the Wedding Album, I opted to up my game and went for the new Layflat Photo Book with Blurb with a high-end look with seamless spreads!
Best of all, Blurb often offers special discounts on a regular basis which helped to reduce the cost of purchasing my books! With those discounts, my husband is likely never to say no to “Honey, it’s time to order next year’s travel memory book!”
Planning an upcoming holiday? Want to document your road trip? Want to make a memory book as a gift? Or do you simply want to turn your every day photos into albums? No matter the reason, Blurb books designed by YOU make every book personal and professional and will provide a lifetime of memories!
Even if you’re not a fan of scrapbooking, but love to post photos on Instagram, you can now turn your beautiful Instagram-worthy photos into an Instagram Photo Book and use it to showcase your best travel photos!
Questions on how I made my books?
Q: Is Blurb user-friendly?
A: ABSOLUTELY! Simply download their advance program, Book Wright, pick your pick, upload pictures, pick a lay out and drag the photos in. When you’re done, preview your work, spell check yourself and hit purchase!
Q: What paper do you choose?
A: Standard matte. I prefer the non-glossy look that won’t leave smudged fingerprints all over my albums!
Q: What size are your books?
A: Standard portrait (8×10)
Q: How many pages are in your books?
A: All books include the standard 20 pages, but most of my albums are between 100-120 pages for a nice thick book!
Q: What size text do you use?
A: I prefer to have text that is legible, so I stuck with a size 12-14 font, while my titles I usually made bigger around 28.
Q: What cover do you order? Hard or Soft? Imagewrap or no wrap?
A: I really enjoy the Hardcover, Imagewrap because then I know my albums won’t be destroyed easily!
Q: How do you make sure your photos aren’t chopped off on the edges?
A: In the Booksmart software, you can turn on the Trim Guidelines to highlight the area on your pages to make sure you stay within the lines.
Q: How is the quality of the photos?
A: In the Booksmart software there is an Image Resolution Warning to give you a heads up that the quality of the photo needs to be resized, though I highly suggest paying extra attention to cell phone photos as the quality of those diminishes the larger the photo is stretched.
Q: How much did you 100-120 page book cost?
A: For an 8×10 book, the book includes 20 pages for $40.99. After that, each additional page is $0.35. So, my 100 page book cost around $61.99 before a promoted discount which includes the hardcover imagewrap, standard paper and standard end sheets.
But, do you ONLY have to make a travel book? NO! In fact, Blurb books can be used to make any kind of book! Engagement Books! Wedding Books! Family Albums! Cookbooks! Every day Photo Albums! The options are limitless!
How do Blurb books compare to other photo book companies?
I have never made a book with another company other than Blurb, but I have friends and family who have tried other variations, for example ordering online from a convenience store like DM (in Germany) or with Costco. While I thought the Costco books were quite nice, others were not the quality you would have expected. Photos weren’t clear and the paper ripped easily.
I can say with 100% confidence that I absolutely couldn’t recommend a better company for sharing your memories for future generations to come! I like a good solid book that I know will last the test of time, because lord knows, I am rough with EVERYTHING! It needs to be durable!
Are you a travel photographer and want to sell a book with impressive photos from around the world? Then consider designing a book and hosting it on Blurb and readers to your site can simply purchase a book at any time, have it printed and delivered without you ever having to spend a penny on investment!
Join the Blurb affiliate program today if you yourself have fallen in love with Blurb Books!
Liked this post? PIN IT FOR LATER!!
I really need to start making photo books of our travels. I was never into scrapbooking because I’m not crafty at all and every time I tried the pages turned out blah. I’ve made a few photo books of my kids for my parents but I really need to make some for us, too. Thanks for the idea! #wanderfulwednesday
Yay! I remember our previous convo about both being big scrapbookers prior to blogging. These are really cute… I’ve actually been looking for a company that could do something like this (looking to create a travel book as a gift for dan!). Will look into Blurb!! Not sure if I can get myself sorted in time for the 10th but hopefully this will motivate me!
I have another code coming good for Sept 13 – 18 I’ll share on Monday
Photo books are definitely the way to go – we’ve got a few from our wedding, honeymoon and from some of our travels – so many happy memories! I love that you make your books extra thick, added value and more memories!
I had to giggle at your intro. I was the biggest scrapbooker in high school. I would literally spend Friday nights at the scrapbooking store working on pages ?. I love photo books now but I’ve only really used Shutterfly. I need to check out Blurb!
Me too! I have tubs of big ass elaborate scrapbooks!
I’ve often wondered about making photo books so it’s really useful to read your helpful Q and A section here. They look really good. I might try something similar myself as these look really good quality. #farawayfiles
I would never go with a different photo book! I love these!
These travel books do seem like the best option with what to do with your photos so they don’t just sit on your phone or hard drive!
Hey! How fun is this? I was just looking into using BLURB to create a photo book, but haven’t found the time to make it happen yet. I’ve been using Mpix, which I absolutely love for the quality, but I do love the idea of making magazines and other types of book on BLURB! So cool that you posted this. #farawayfiles
Oh my gosh, I bet you could put together the coolest street art book or magazine!
This is so cool! I recently tried scrapbooking and I’m so awful at it. Honestly, it’s like a 7-year-old was let loose with the crayons in art class or something. I think this is a much better solution for me! #FarawayFiles
Then I think you’ll enjoy this!
I used blurb once before and it is easy to use. They make a great coffee table book.
They certainly spark up a conversation!
I usually use Smartphoto, but you convinced me I might try Blurb. #FarawayFiles
You won’t regret it!
I hadn’t heard of Blurb before but it definitely looks like a better alternative to scrapbooking. The book looks so professional and probably takes a lot less time to make. Glad to hear it is user friendly. #TheWeeklyPostcard
Oh I could spend months scrapbooking one album, and now I can hammer one out in a weekend!
This is such a brilliant idea! The books look really good quality. I think my only problem would be getting round to sorting through all my photos, yikes! #Theweeklypostcard
Oh see, I’m organized from the get go bc I OCD haha
These are awesome, Lolo! We’ve often wondered about these photo books, especially now that we’re trying really hard not to buy souvenirs everywhere we go! This seems like a much better alternative. These also look like better quality than many that we’ve seen. We may finally get a few! Thanks for the review – very helpful.
Oh for sure! I don’t buy souvenirs anymore, my pictures are souvenir enough!
Great idea! I picked up scrapbooking when my kids were little, and they all turned into travel scrapbooks (we took those kids everywhere since the day they were born), but I remember taking up so much of my time, I could never finish anything. I still have a few half-done and abandoned scrapbooks. This sounds like a great alternative! I’ve been looking into photo books, but haven’t heard of Blurb, I’ll have to check them out. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
This was really good to read. I have tried similar things with other companies. Blurb looks like really good quality. I am planning to put together a summer 2018 book so I will have a look at Blurb. #FarawayFukes
Hi Lolo, I have never heard of Blurb before but my parents did make us a similar book with photos from our wedding using Shutterfly I think. It was a nice gift and will serve as a nice memento. I do think there is something special about the handmade scrapbooks (I personally never made one but had friends who did so) so I hope that art continues, but this is definitely a simpler, faster, and less expensive way to do it! We may need to so one of these for our travels.
It looks like such a great idea and the quality looks really good too. Sometimes you just wanted to be reminded of a memorable trip you have previously been on and this is a lovely way of doing that. #farawayfiles
Yep, I love Blurb and use it a lot. I always make scrapbooks from my trips. I want to make sure that I am left with something in case all my photos disappear one day.
Cool! I have been so neglectful of my albums I can’t even tell you. I used to make them all the time. Not so happy with my recent one so will have to give Blurb a whirl! #farawayfiles
I hope you enjoy them if you do try!
I was laughing at your description of old-school scrapping…. that was me, too! haha. (Now they are all in storage while we live abroad, womp womp.) Love photo books, too, and I have always heard good things about Blurb. Thanks for the reminder to get this kind of project done, and for the discount code. I will def look into it! #FarawayFiles
These looks brilliant! We’ve made a couple with Snapfish and hte quality is very hit or miss. Think we’ll definitely be giving these a go for the next time round. I love having them there on the coffee table like you’ve said, much easier to pick up and go through than your standard scrapbook or album! Thanks for sharing #TheWeeklyPostcard
This really does seem like a great idea Lori and something I really plan on looking into. Of course, first I need somewhere of my own to keep them all, but that’s just a technicality right?
Well your parents can use them as coffee table decor until you have a place of your own!