Printing Prices...

Discussion in 'Project Life/365/52' started by tkradtke, Jun 20, 2013.

  1. tkradtke

    tkradtke Professional Brainstormer

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    Okay... this is my first year doing project life and my plan was to print a finished 12x12 book through Shutterfly at the end of the year. Well... I just printed a 67 page 12x12 book through Shutterfly and it listed at $130. I did have a 50% off coupon and a free shipping code, so it ended up being around $72. It just got me thinking about how much my book is going to be once I'm done and around the max of 120 pages (or was it 110 pages, I can't remember right now). Has anyone else printed their finished project as a photo book? If so, approximately how much did it end up costing? Are there better Shutterfly coupons out there that I should be holding out for? If you didn't print a finished book but printed individual pages, how much do you figure that ran for printing, album and page protectors? My thought now is that if they aren't that far apart, that I might be better off going the individual page route so I could add my memorabilia to the book as well. I also think I may be itching for an excuse to print pages so I don't have to wait until the first of next year to see my finished pages :huh
     
  2. MissKim

    MissKim ichthyophobic

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    I print through Persnickety, individual layouts, full 12x12. A couple of times a year they run specials so 50 prints are $75 (instead of $100, which would be regular price for 50 prints). Shipping is always $5 per order. I have bought three sets of print credits this year. I personally prefer it to a photo book because every 6-8 weeks I can get layouts printed and put in our album. My family loves seeing the album come together and I find they're a lot more supportive of it if they can see that the time I spend putting the spread together results in something they can hold and see. It's probably not cheaper but I like that I have freedom to add inserts for holidays and special events, I can add memorabilia and I have an album throughout the year, not just at the end of the year.
     
  3. tkradtke

    tkradtke Professional Brainstormer

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    Thanks for the information. That helps. I'm still on the fence with what I'm going to do, but I am leaning a bit one direction now. Printing individual pages may be more, but in the end, it may be more what I want. I justified a photo book in the beginning, because I thought it would be significantly cheaper than printing individual pages (plus album and page protectors). But now, I've gotten a glimpse of the final cost of the photo book, I'm really itching to see my pages printed and I'm finding myself cutting out inserts I would like to include because I'm worried about going over the page limit. I think individual pages may be the way to go.
     
  4. Karen

    Karen Wiggle it, just a little bit!

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    I've been doing Shutterfly books (12x12) for about 7 years. I have over 20 of those suckers already. I always wait until there is a sale before I order though. Recently they've had tons of 50% off sales and then when they do the 40% off, sometimes they'll email out coupons for an additional 25% off or an additional $10 off. I try to wait until the end of their sales to see if they'll do another coupon like that. Plus, I've never paid for shipping, so that helps. Even when my pages go over 100 pages I rarely pay more than $100 for the full book.

    I do sometimes wish that I was doing the individual pages route for the same reasons Kimberly does... I'd love to see the actual pages more often, but when it comes down to it I can't justify the extra cost. I'm too cheap. :giggle Plus I like that the Shutterfly books are so much thinner and don't take up too much space on my shelves. :) AND now that I've started with Shutterfly books, I want them all to match so I can't switch now. That's a bit of my scrapping OCD showing.
     
  5. tkradtke

    tkradtke Professional Brainstormer

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    See... now I'm leaning toward the shutterfly route again! :dizzy

    I think the biggest seller for me in the size of the book. I do love how thin the photo books are. And to be honest, every other "album" I have is either a shutterfly or my publisher photo book.

    My husband is firmly in the shutterfly camp too. He likes how thin they are and that they don't involve bringing anything into our house besides the finished product (space is at a premium here).
     
  6. charmedeebob

    charmedeebob Heather's Team

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    I love the look of a Shutterfly book, but I don't scrap in chronological order, so it would bug the heck out of OCD me to have a page that is not where it "belongs" hehe. So I print individual prints at Persnickety and arrange them in date order after the fact. More space, yes, but it soothes the OCD beast in me ;)
     
  7. mlewis

    mlewis mlewis

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    I love the look of photo books as well, but they stress me out because I know I'd never get everything scrapped in one year and I"d always be waiting to print it. I print every other month so doesn't end up being a huge bill since it's spread out throughout the year. This is the second year I've done it that way, and I like it. Makes sure they all get into my book and are ready to look at.
     
  8. RebeccaH

    RebeccaH Life is exciting, yes it is!

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    see, i've been holding out to print a shutterfly book for the simple fact of book size on the shelf. but now i'm once again leaning in the direction of printing individual pages and putting the book together as i get it done. i think that way i can go back and add to it if i'd like. AND i can add the ephemera and memorabilia if i choose. *shrug* i wish i could make my mind up for sure. i hate feeling this indecisive!!
     
  9. heathergw

    heathergw Singing in the Neil mobile

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    I'm still sitting on 2012 trying to figure out what I want to do... I'm leaning towards shutterfly, I think
     
  10. Mrivas

    Mrivas I know how to spit like a man

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    I'm another one undecided. I know I want 8x8 though. I did make a shutterfly 8x8 book of my december daily so (maybe) i,'ll go that route. Since its pl its already chronological. I don't have a clue what to do with my regular scrap pages though!
     
  11. RebeccaH

    RebeccaH Life is exciting, yes it is!

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    okay, i've settled on what i'm going to do. i think :giggle
    i have uploaded all of my PL pages for 2013 into shutterfly and put an album together. i'm going to print an album for each quarter of the year, so i'll have 4 2013 albums when it's all said & done (well, maybe 5, i might do a summer vacation album separately).

    after i did all of my PL style pages, i looked back through my pics to decide which ones i wanted to do a regular scrap page for. there were a handful of them. so i am going to insert my regular layouts with my PL pages then print them all together.

    i've never been a chronological scrapper, so i thought this would bother me, but it really hasn't been too bad. AAAANND it's kind of nice to know that once i'm done with these few planned layouts, i'll be DONE with the pics from the beginning of 2013. that's a feeling i've never ever ever had as a scrapper before. i always feel like i'm never going to actually be done.
     
  12. RebeccaH

    RebeccaH Life is exciting, yes it is!

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  13. Mrivas

    Mrivas I know how to spit like a man

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    It's coming out great! I love your cover!
     
  14. AlliJ2008

    AlliJ2008 Downsizing!

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    It looks amazing!!!

    Just in case anyone is wanting order they are having 40% off albums + free shipping right now through 7/10...
     
  15. tkradtke

    tkradtke Professional Brainstormer

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    I love how you're doing your book Rebecca! I really like the idea of multiple books (quarterly in your case) so extra pages and regular layouts can be included.

    I just got my book from shutterfly that I did pocket scrapping style and I'm totally in love with it! It was a good test run for me to see if shutterfly is really the way I want to go for PL this year and now I'm pretty sure that it is. I used a variety of different templates and not a single one got cut off and all of the TLP products I used printed beautifully! I can't stop looking at it! :-)
     
  16. RebeccaH

    RebeccaH Life is exciting, yes it is!

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    yay! tracie i'm so glad to hear your book turned out the way you were hoping! that's the best thing, isn't it? to have the book in hand and be able to just enjoy it over and over!!
    i've printed a few photo albums from shutterfly before and really liked how they turned out.
     
  17. joelsgirl

    joelsgirl joelsgirl

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