"Fancied" My FlipBook

I've been a regular Snapfish.com customer for a couple of years now. Usually I stick to ordering photo prints, but when I received a discount in my e-mail box for a FlipBook a few weeks ago, I decided to give it a try. It was really perfect timing. My daughter had just turned one and I had a collection of photographs from the past year that I had wanted to turn into a mini-album.

Using already-uploaded photos in my Snapfish account, I quickly chose two photos from each month of her first year. Once the pictures are chosen, the FlipBook software easily leads you through the process of choosing a style, arranging, and captioning each photo. For my album, I decided to caption one photo of each month with her age and the other with her weight.

There are several "styles" available that include backgrounds, color choices and fonts that you can choose from to personalize your FlipBook. I chose a simple, elegant style to keep all the focus on the photographs.

That was it--very simple. I ordered it right then, and in a few days, my FlipBook arrived in my mailbox. The finished product is a clear spiral-bound 4" x 6" book (5" x 7" is also available) with a clear plastic cover. Each photo is on its own page printed on photo paper.

Initially I was disappointed that the pictures didn't face each other like a regular book, which meant that the back of each photograph looked just like the back of a photograph, with the computer-printed image name and paper stamp on the back. But, being the paper-crafter that I am, I decided to fix that right up! I already had intended to decorate the cover of the album, so I decided to just jazz up the inside as well while I was at it.

Pulling from my folders of scrap-papers, I trimmed fun patterned papers of all brands and colors to 4" x 5 ¾". Then I glued one sheet to the back of each photograph, so that every picture was highlighted with patterned paper.

Next, I decided that tabbed dividers would be a great way to be able to differentiate between each month that was represented in the album. So, I went to my stash of SEI tab divider stickers (from several SEI coordinating patterned paper lines) and chose twelve tabs to attach to the top of the photographs. Then I used an American Crafts Slick Writer to hand-write the numbers for each month on the tabs.

With the inside pages finished (in less than 15 minutes), I moved on to the cover. I had found a piece of patterned vellum in my scrap stash that I loved with hot pink flowers doodled on it. Since the cover of the album was clear, I decided to keep that transparent feeling going, and attached a piece of the vellum to the inside of both the front and back cover using Glue Dots Vellum Adhesive Sheets.

I picked out the letters for my daughter's name, "AYLA," from the Heidi Swapp Ghost Alphabet letters and attached them to the front of the album using silver mini-brads. Since the clear-on-clear effect was a little difficult to see, I outlined the letters with a black Slick Writer pen. I also outlined the front cover while I was at it to give the cover a defined outline.

Finally, I added a piece of black and pink ribbon and a pink glittery flower.

In a matter of minutes I "fancied" my FlipBook and now I have a personalized spiral-bound mini-album of my daughter's first year.