I started my Christmas shopping this past weekend, in that I stumbled upon something that would be perfect for my best friend’s son.  My first official gift of the season meant it was time to sit down and write out who is on this year’s list and what I’d like to get them – if I have an idea of what at this point, and what price range I’d like to stay within. Writing out the list forces me to draft a budget and stay on schedule.

Staying in budget is obviously important as you don’t want holiday joy to be replaced with January regret and February depression.  Writing out the list and adding in the gift ideas months in advance lets you be creative, thoughtful and frugal – by scoping out sales, coupons and promos.

This leads me to my mom. My mom is a conundrum. Shopping for her has always been a challenge.  This year will be different, because I’ve already put a lot of thought into her gift. She is the family memory maker and keeper, but she’s gotten a bit lazy with regard to the keeping part and so, I want to help her out with that and show her how much I cherish the memories she’s made.

I’m going to surprise her by sneaking in her house and stealing her Rubbermaid tote of photos starting with 1987, when she stopped putting photo albums together, to the mid-90s when my parents were relieved of their photographer duties because my sister and I started taking pictures.

How is stealing a good gift idea? Because, I’m going to have her tote full of photos  scanned and made into digital files. Searching the web, I found several companies that do this and appear to do it well – even preserving videos. I also read a few reviews. Below are a few of the companies I’ve looked into, there are many more out there. Aside from saving time, you can save money by searching out current promo codes.

Companies:

www.digmypics.com

www.Scancafe.com

www.scandigital.com

Reviews:

http://www.digitalphotos101.com/photo-scanning-services.htm

http://www.macworld.com/article/143504/2009/10/outsourcescanning.html

I think I’ve decided which route to go and how many to scan to start with (to keep within my budget). Now, I just need to plan my thievery – and soon – so I stay on schedule.

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From waking the unwilling troops and filling their bellies with a nutritious breakfast, getting them out the door with book-loaded backpacks and on the bus before it drives off to after school snacks, homework and extracurricular activities, the school week is often a cantankerous blur.

With so much going on, we sometimes fly right by the sweet, fun and amazing moments like morning bed head, science project building, first snow bus stop treks, and A+ spelling tests.

What if you were issued a challenge? A 180-day challenge to take at least one photo of your kids every day for an entire school year from the school’s-back-in-session blues to the school’s-out-for-the-summer beaming smiles. Between compact digital cameras and smart phone cameras, taking a pic should be easy.

When June arrives, you’ll have an impressive collection of the little moments that add up to big smiles, laughs and a few tears as you look back over the events and non-events that made up the past year. Just upload to Inkubook and use Autofill to make a school year scrapbook – easy, quick and lasting.

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You’ve asked for them. And we delivered. Inkubook released new photo card designs for major holidays, from Christmas to Halloween to Valentine’s Day and special occasions, from birth announcements to anniversary to birthday party invites.

Choose your theme

Cards take only a few minutes to make and order and only a few days to ship to you.

Halloween sample

Remember, a picture says a 1000 words and a photo card says even more.

Seasons Greetings sample

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With autumn just around the corner, your schedule will start getting jam-packed with weekends of football and fall festivals, as well as homework, Halloween parties and the list goes on. So, why not get a jump start on some holiday card and gift making and lower your stress level when it comes to crunch time.

Holiday cards - easy

Photo Cards are fast and easy to make, bring a smile to the recipient’s face and aren’t just for the December holidays. Make Halloween party invitations, Thanksgiving family greetings and New Year’s wishes too.

If you’re going to make holiday cards, think about when you’ll want them to arrive at your family and friends homes, how long it’ll take you to address them and then order them 10 days before that. Have in mind the pictures you want to use – or still need to take and decide the background you want to use. Once you have the picture and background selected, you can make a beautiful card in about 10 minutes.

Photos organized by holiday

Photo calendars make a great gift. They arrive right at the end of the year and will bring smiles to Grandma’s and Great Aunt Dawn’s face each month.  If you’re planning to make a calendar whose images matches celebrations that typically occur in certain months, like Halloween for October, make the process of laying out a calendar easier by putting photos in buckets such as holidays, birthdays and other events like family reunion, vacation and playing in the snow. This type of categorization will allow you to apply pictures to the appropriate month. Other calendar themes could be a year of family fun time, baby’s first year, wedding and so on.

Layout for October

Get creative and have fun.  Like cards, remember to order early to allow for you gift wrap and deliver to the recipient – beat the rush, don’t get caught in weather delays and keep your holiday stress down.

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Standing out in job interviews these days takes a lot more than fancy resume paper. Now it’s all about showcasing your achievements. With Inkubook’s Portfolio Photo Book, you can organize a career’s worth of highlights into an impressive collection of projects, samples and successes.

You don’t even have to worry about references. Share all the positive feedback from former employers and coworkers by inviting them to comment right in your portfolio photo book.

In an interview, presentation is everything, so organize your portfolio photo book in the way that best illustrates what you want to convey.

• If you’re trying to illustrate growth, layout your photo book chronologically.

• If you’re doing a straight showcase of your work, then present projects like a story with a beginning, middle and end.

• Know your portfolio like the back of your hand. Have a few go-to pieces of standout work that you can flip to if your interview gets cut short. That way you can quickly say, “This is the quality of work I can bring to your company.”

Don’t get stuck at your next interview trying to tell someone how good your work is. Let them see it for themselves with a portfolio photo book, and in no time at all you’ll be leaving a lasting impression.

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Everyone works differently. I have my phone on my right and keep my notepad on my left, because I am left handed. I have sticky notes taped to the top of my monitor, because I look up when I’m thinking. Your workspace is probably much different than mine. Here at Inkubook we know there is more than one way to do something, so we’ve provided our users the ability to arrange their workspace to better suit their work style and the type of project they are working on.

Default Inkubook workspace w/tray on top

On the above image, we’ve circled the button that allows you to move your tray from the default placement at the top of your screen to the left side.

Now with tray on the left

If you’re working on a portrait book or a calendar, you’ll gain some additional workspace by moving your tray to the left. If you’re project is landscape or the large square, you may want to keep your tray anchored at the top for space maximization. Or there’s always personal preference. We just wanted to let you know you have some flexibility in how you work with Inkubook.

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Having trouble finding a place to display your child’s greatest accomplishments with all the appointment reminders, grocery lists and business cards adorning your refrigerator? With summer coming to an end, conduct a pre-school, pre-holiday fridge (front) cleaning and organize. Remove the magnets, and place an inbox in your kitchen to collect those art masterpieces and soon-to-be-arriving A+ tests. When the box fills, go through it and determine what to keep and scan and what to let go.

To create the perfect keepsake for your little Van Gogh, Albert Einstein or Michael Jordan, start by scanning in their best art projects, school work or sports pictures.

Templated Art Book

Once scanned choose one of our many templates or, if you’re a Photoshop whiz, create a customized look. Either way, your child’s art and homework will look great, and with our archival paper it will stand the test of time.

Customized Art Book

The customized book above shows a scan of a cotton-ball lamb – the texture comes through? Wondering what to do with that sports jersey and science-fair medal? Add some flair to your scrapbook by scanning those in, too.

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The end of summer provides many opportunities to venture out to your state or county fair, parking lot carnival or farmer’s market. Many are free to attend and the hours spent there are fun for the whole family. Best of all, there are many photo ops to be found among the food, livestock, music and rides.

Milking an artificial cow at the Indiana State Fair.

Preserve the look on your little one’s face the first time he or she saw an eggplant or rode a roller coaster or milked an artificial cow. Consider a nice panoramic photo of the mile-long row of concession stands or the midway lights dazzling in the night sky.

1st roller coaster ride at a parking lot carnival

One trip to your state fair or town hospital’s health and safety day might not provide a book’s worth of images, but the photos you take will make a great addition to the year’s family photo book or a good reminder to the kids when they say “we didn’t do anything fun this summer”.

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We live in a visual culture. To truly make an impact on customers and potential clients, you need to show people what you can do.

But you don’t have to be a professional photographer or artist to create a quality portfolio of your work. Inkubook can provide all the tools for you to design the perfect business photo book to showcase whatever it is that your company does best.

Start with the photos you’ve taken of your best products or most impressive projects, select the style of book you want, place your photos, add text descriptions and testimonials from satisfied customers, decide how many copies you want, checkout and voila – you’ll have a professionally printed and bound, full-color promotional book in about a week.

Keep copies of the book in your waiting room, show it off during meetings with clients, or hand out copies when you network – it will certainly stand out more than the average business card!

Businesses That Can Benefit From a Photo Book

When creating a portfolio or business book, you’ll likely want to order several copies at once. Order in batches to save more. For example, save 15% on orders of 10 – 199 copies of the same book; save 20% on orders of 200 – 599 copies of the same book; or save 25% on orders of greater than 599 copies of the same book. Just enter code INKUBUNCH during checkout.

See how Moss, a company that provides tension-fabric displays for exhibits and events, used Inkubook to create a portfolio that shows the range of their products. (Continue reading…)

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