Quality– yes. Beautiful options – yes. Several sizes and cover types – yes. Pricing – yes. Deals … Oh, yes!

Here’s the insider’s tip on where you can find our current promotions, when we generally change them and how we announce special promos.

Current Promos – We send out promo emails twice a month usually on the first and around the 15^th. Our current promo is also available in the header (until you X it out) once you’re logged in and always in the footer of your bookshelf. Finally, we always post them on Facebook and Twitter – feel free to share with your friends.

Special Promos – We have sporadic weekend specials which we promote via Facebook and Twitter only. If you haven’t t Liked us or started Following us, you should.  

Psst: our first weekend promo of 2012 will be the last weekend of January.

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Are you thinking about making a photo book but haven’t made up your mind which company to use? The best quality photo book? The cheapest photo book? Looking for the best photo book maker?  Then you’ll be glad you took the time to read and watch (yes, there are videos as well) these photo book reviews.

If you like to do extensive research before you do business with a company online then you’re going to love the article published in 2010 and updated in April 2011 by Jason Dunn at Digital Home Thoughts before you make your first photo book. This epic review The Great Photo Book Round-Up Review: Who Makes the Best Photo Books compares online experience, print, covers, paper, overall quality and value of several top photo book publishers including Inkubook. Check it out!

Interested in more reviews? Check out The Gadgeteer or the December 2011 updated review from PhotoBookGirl.com.

Want to watch a review? Check out this one from TheMommyPR or this very recent written and video combo review from Confessions of a Scrapaholic.

After you read these reviews and decide Inkubook is the way to go, use our special review promo code BESTPHOTOBOOK2012 to get 30% off your order*.

*Maximum $100 discount, one use per member, expires 3/31/2012.

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Thanksgiving is the perfect holiday to kick off the season. It is the calm before the shopping storm that allows us to drop everything we are doing for one day to relax with family and enjoy a feast of homemade food. If your family is anything like mine you know the yearly schedule all too well; eat, watch football, eat, nap and then eat some more.

This year, sometime between seconds and thirds, or at halftime of the football game, add a new tradition into the routine. Have everyone write down what they are thankful for and begin compiling a Thanksgiving Inkubook. Include pictures from Thanksgiving dinner or find pictures of what each person is thankful for. Your book will become a cornucopia of thanks and help give some perspective heading into the craziness of the holidays.

Once you have your pictures and “thankful” pages uploaded, simply pick the dimensions of your book and the number of pages and, if you get started soon enough, come Christmas everyone will be thanking you for putting together such a creative and thoughtful photo book.

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Before too long, countdowns to Christmas will be everywhere you look. This year, keep track of the December days with something more true to the Christmas tradition by making an advent calendar photo book.

While it might not have daily candy treats (let’s face it, who needs more candy around the holidays anyways?), it will have something even better, a favorite memory on every page.

Fill each spread with photos from the year that’s nearly gone or from Christmases past. Or you can keep it classic by using each day to tell a piece of the Nativity story, or your family’s favorite Christmas tale or song.

No matter how you choose to adorn your pages, the important thing is choosing a theme that’s special to you and your family. So give it a shot. You might just make a new Christmas tradition.

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Who doesn’t love the thought of a new baby? The teeny-tiny clothes? The soft blankets? The memories that come from seeing new copies of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Goodnight Moon? During the standard two hours of a baby shower lots of “oohs” and “ahhhs” and “sooo cutes” are uttered with each gift opened. But equal to the oohs and ahhs is the amount of advice given to the mom-to-be from veteran moms in attendance.

Wisdom Photobook

Advice is sage. Advice is needed – parenthood is daunting. Unfortunately, spoken advice is often forgotten, especially when soft onesies, plush bunnies and humorous bibs are on hand. Therefore, I recommend making a Wisdom Photobook for the guest of honor.

How to make a Wisdom Photobook:

1. Be sure to take one picture of each guest with the mom-to-be.
2. Get a picture of the cake before it is sliced and the presents before they are opened.
3. Take plenty of pictures of gift opening, cake eating, games and socializing.
4. Give every guest am 8x8” sheet of light-colored scrapbook or wrapping paper and a dark marker or pen and have them write their words of wisdom, advice, top five tips or simply well wishes.
5. At the end of the shower, collect the sheets, scan and save as jpg images.
6. Upload pictures and scans and create a photo book where a picture of the guest and mom-to-be is on the left page and the advice is on the right page.
7. Mix in spreads of other images, apply borders and backgrounds
8. Proof your gorgeous book and then order it and present it to mom in the hospital when you go and visit the new baby or when you drop off a casserole at home (another great gift for new moms).

This book allows “mom” to remember one of her last social outings before becoming a mom and to glean advice from those who have already traveled the road of motherhood.

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Quirky, spooky, silly, scary: Halloween is the year’s best photo op.

Whether you have your own little ghouls and goblins at home, or little monsters of the niece, nephew or furry variety (see adorable examples below), the cuteness that Halloween brings is enough to cause a toothache the likes of which most of us haven’t experienced since the great candy-corn overdoses of our youth.

But what makes Halloween one of my favorite holidays is that it lets all of us act like a kid again. It’s the one time of the year when publicly playing dress up and gorging on sweets is socially acceptable. And the photos that come with such a spectacle are priceless.

My Favorite Halloween Photo Ops:

• The look on peoples’ faces when they scoop the guts from the pumpkin
• Getting-ready candids – painting faces, applying fake wounds, adjusting vampire teeth
• Turning a night out into a snapshot scavenger hunt:

1. Preposterous pairings – Ninja Turtle talking to Albert Einstein – why not!?
2. Pets in costume
3. Someone dressed as a political figure
4. Children dressed as food
5. Most creative couple costume

Make your own Halloween scavenger hunt list and see what develops. Find more tips to make your Halloween photos great here.

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The fall months are known for many things, but none may be as important to us as the kickoff of football season. Whether it’s peewee, pick-up in the backyard or an NFL® game on Sunday afternoon, fall is for football.

Even with three days of the week devoted to the sport we love (four if you count Monday Night Football®) the season still goes by too fast. That’s why now is the time to start planning ahead for the dreaded offseason months. Begin gathering pictures, newspaper articles, old ticket stubs, and anything else you might want to include in a football season Inkubook.

Football Fun

Football is more than just a game. It’s the tailgates, pep-rallies, and painted fans that make the sport great. Include pictures and stories from every aspect of the season in your book so you can relive every game. Football season photo books are great for players and fans alike. Recap the entire season with stats and scores that take you right back to the stadium any time of year.

So, next time you’re on the way to the big game, make sure you have your giant foam finger and, of course, your camera so you can start capturing every tailgate, tackle and touchdown for your football season photo book.

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We just revamped our Photo Projects Idea Photo Project Ideas page to be a gallery of samples of books real users have created. We like the look, but need more content. We’re looking for all kinds of books like – pet, holiday, travel, scrapbook, and business and portfolio books.  Do you have a beautiful, creative book you’d like to share with our users? If so, contact us at admin@inkubook.com with the email address you use when making your Inkubooks as well as the name of your book. We’ll contact you back with a release form and get your book on our site with the next site update.

Inkubook Gallery

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September 25 starts my 90-day holiday giving “crunch time” countdown allowing me time to make or purchase everyone on my list a thoughtful, creative gift. This year, I have extra incentive to get some of my photo-based gifts made first – I purchased a couple of Groupons and they expire at the end of the month. Even without the looming Groupon expiration, placing my more time-consuming gift making earlier in the crunch period lessens my stress over things like shipping and delivery.

This past summer was a 90-day whirlwind between travel, festivals, summer camp and days at the pool, we were busy and we were also shutter-happy (my iPhone makes it so easy to snap, snap, snap). As a result, I have about 400 photos from just Memorial Day to Labor Day!

I’ve decided to upload all of my photos to Inkubook using the Autofill feature and have Inkubook do the heavy lifting by building a chronological album for me.

Selecting Autofill

Since I had a lot of photos to upload – two books worth – I will have about a 20 minute wait while Inkubook builds for me. Twenty minutes is a lot shorter than what it would take if I were placing the photos myself. I will need to go in and rotate and adjust a few photos, but again, much less time than if I’d done it manually. Note: Before uploading photos to Inkubook, sort through and delete or withhold any you don’t want to have included, or in the case of the iPhone, hold back on the duplicates (low-res vs hi-res) to prevent from double image uploading.

Photo upload process

I’m keeping it simple using the portfolio option with white pages. The only addition I need to make to each page is add black photo corners, because I dig photo corners. I also figure this look is easy enough to replicate and will provide consistency volume after volume.

Adding Corners

From start to finish this book took me about two hours to build a 200 page book from pressing “I want photos placed for me” to pressing the Buy button where I ordered four copies, one for us and one for each set of grandparents. Three heartwarming, handmade (ok, Autofilled) gifts in two hours.

Now, on to making holiday cards…

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Each new decade of life takes on a special meaning and significance. Whether it’s the excitement of no longer being a teenager or the milestone of turning 40, every decade begins a new chapter of life and causes us to reminisce about decades past. Help your friends and family members relive all the good times and bad haircuts with decade birthday photo books.

Include all of the most memorable moments from their embarrassing baby pictures to the too-cool lean against their very first car, from college life to becoming a newlywed and starting a family. Celebrate a new phase of life by creating a book that commemorates the old.

Scan in old pictures you haven’t shared for years that will make them say, “Did I really wear that?” and “I can’t believe how young we look.” Also include stories and messages from family and friends to accompany the pictures, giving the book an even more personal feel.

Don’t have time to create the book before their birthday?

Take pictures at the celebration and collect comments from those in attendance to include in a book. Give them a present that will allow them to look back through decades of old and look forward to the beginning of the newest stage of their life.

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