Baby Book Q's

[nannerl]

For the tech savvy and crafty people amid the ranks...

Since we will not be having a 1st birthday blowout for A (we will save the celebrating for the summer visit and it will be on a fairly small scale I'd imagine), I'm thinking about directing some creative energy toward finally getting the baby book/journal put together and published.

I'm leaning toward doing a custom Shutterfly book, but I don't really dig the pre-designed graphics and color choices (I really like brights, and most of the baby stuff just NMS). Is it possible to use a really plain Shutterfly layout (like the black and white one) and then download and use digital clips, papers, and frames like these from etsy?

www.etsy.com/shop/BaBaPuff?section_id=10076640

I'm imagining that I can just upload them to the book pages and resize/place them like photos. Shutterfly already has enough fonts and font colors for me, so it's really just adding the pops of color and things like the month badges and a few graphics to tie the book together.

Also, whales, elephants, owls, dinosaurs, monsters, or something else?

www.etsy.com/listing/73470702/digital-whale-clip-art-personal-and

www.etsy.com/listing/73470707/printable-baby-elephants-personal-and


www.etsy.com/search/handmade?q=owl%20digital%20clip%20art&view_type=gallery&ship_to=ZZ


www.etsy.com/search/handmade?q=dinosaur%20digital%20clip%20art&view_type=gallery&ship_to=ZZpersonal-and


www.etsy.com/search/handmade?q=monster%20digital%20clip%20art&view_type=gallery&ship_to=ZZ

[jaime183]

I'm not sure about downloading those but I've been making a digital baby book on mixbook. I split it into 2 volumes because I wanted to see it and loved the first one! They have a baby's first year layout then I've edited pages to make my own designs
I love working on it!

[vidalia]

If you choose a choose a plain layout like the black and white one it will come with certain backgrounds and what they call "embelishments" which are kind of like the graphics you linked from etsy.

The embelishments and backgrounds that come with a particular style are really just a starting point, and you actually can access any embelishment/background from any style once you start your book. On the menu on the left side of the screen you'll see the embelishments that come with your style. At the bottom is a button for get more stickers. Here you can access thousands of other embelishments and you can narrow down what you are looking for by animals, colors, etc. There are also frames you can select that are like the etsy ones you linked. You can do the same for page backgrounds if you wanted some pages to have a colored background instead of the black/white ones that come with the style.

If you want to use the downloads from etsy, you can upload them as images and use them on your pages in the book but they won't be transparent. So each of the images will have a white background.

I've spent way too many hours working on Shutterfly books and my husband works there so let me know if you have any other questions!

[nannerl]

Thanks for the replies ladies!

Vidalia, I might pick your brain at a later date if I run into problems, if you don't mind...

[vidalia]

Jan 6, 2013 16:52:42 GMT -5 nannerl said:

Thanks for the replies ladies!

Vidalia, I might pick your brain at a later date if I run into problems, if you don't mind...

Yep, just let me know. Have fun!