This year for Christmas I gave Mr B a Momento book of our last trip to Tokyo, Japan in 2007. I used the Momento product software which I found super easy and very nice to use. It was easy to upload and order the book as well. I made a 48-page book, which was A4 landscape and linen hardcover with a printed dust jacket. It is a beautiful product. The only fault I have is that with the laser/digital printing, the colours of the photos are a teeny bit washed out. But that can be compensated for by boosting up the photo saturation I think. I am more than a bit picky (some would call it freakishly anal) with things like that as I look at stuff like that in my job, but really, the result is beautiful and printed on nice heavy paper stock too.
The content was from our holiday blog Hanami Happiness - I think it was one of the first blogs I'd done. I think its such a lovely record of our holiday, which we think is the best holiday we've ever had. Miss M was only eight months old and started to crawl when we were on holidays. I can't imagine her now sitting in a stroller all day, although back then she was quite content and as now, happy to perform for whoever was watching her!
There are other photobook products such as this, this, this, this and this. (Note that these are all Australian sites.) Some of these can get quite pricey (my book was just under A$200), but I think you pay for what you get and for a one-off personalised book that can be passed down to Miss M, I was very happy with the value for money from Momento.
There is also the lovely site Blurb where you can make a book and if you want to, sell it! They just print on order. I've seen quite a few crafty bloggers who have made their own books this way.
They are a commitment to do - the one I made for Mr B took me about two weeks and then another week of fiddling...all up about 60+ hours work I'd reckon. And a warning to all your perfectionists like me...you need to set a deadline to 'finish' it, or you can fiddle forever and never upload it!


I've just found this great looking Japanese felting book (