Persnickety Prints Super Bowl Sale

[kristalund]

12x12 prints are $1.50
FREE shipping within the US

So this has me thinking...I have always used PP to print out my LOs. I also use Shutterfly to create books of vacations and other "themed" books.
But my PL and everyday LOs I print 12x12 thru PP and put them in 3 ring binders.
I now have A LOT of scrapbooks. I want my Kiddos to flip thru them but do I want to print? I am just trying to figure out what I want long term. I scrap A LOT so that means I will have to print A LOT. Right now I have 300+ LOs I need printed. That is a lot of $ and space.
any thoughts?

[Suzs]

I usually print in books from Shutterfly. I like how much more compact the printed books are than albums of printed pages in sleeves. I have been at this a long time so shelf space is at a premium. lol

I save up my prints until I have a complete book (which takes a while as I don't scrap in order at all). At one point I sorted through all my photos and wrote my pages down in order so I have lists of pages that will eventually be printed into each book. Now I just save my files by date (e.g. 2017 January Mia Cake) and put them in files by the year so that I can sort them out later.

[scrap2day]

I'm torn too. I really like the printed books because it is so much more compact and they aren't as heavy. I'm able to print a lot of my stuff in themes (vacation, visits in one year of the niece and nephew, etc.) so printing in books sort of works for me for the most part. I would find it difficult to print in books if I was strictly chronological. But a chronological album would probably be more than one volume printed anyway, so I might just go ahead and print a 2015 vol. 1 and then as I had more layouts done have a 2015 vol. 2 printed and so on. Since you are doing PL you probably have most of the pages done in order and are ready to go. In that case I would definitely print as a book just to save space.

That being said, I do have a couple of books that I'm doing sort of hybrid and adding pages because they are something we do a lot (NFL football and mini golf). Since we do those activities from year to year I thought it would be fun to keep adding to those albums and since it is only a couple of pages each year having the book printed doesn't really make sense.

[rach3975]

After 12 years of printing individual layouts (plus some photobooks of vacations), I finally switched to all photobooks in 2016. I stuck with individual prints for so long for 2 reasons. First, when my kids were younger and I wanted them to be able to look through the albums, I needed the durability of page protectors and the ability to re-print just one page if anything got damaged. Second, I don't scrap in chronological order but it would bug the heck out of me to have books out of order. In 2016 I decided I was going to make a real commitment to staying caught up so that I could print chronologically in books. I still don't necessarily scrap in order, but I pick a time period (say Jan-June 2016) and stick with it until the time period is 100% done and I can print the book.

My main reasons for switching were the bulk of albums and the polished appearance of the books. I'm saving money by printing as books, but it doesn't feel like it; spending a little at a time throughout the year on the albums and printing was easier budget-wise than 2 big payments each year for the photobooks. I printed through Shutterfly and did the upgraded layflat pages (whatever they call the option that has thicker paper as well as the layflat). Even though I could fit my year in 2 volumes, I'm going to spend the extra money next year to do 3 volumes instead. At 90-ish pages, the book is so thick that I'm a little worried about whether it will hold up over time. (Nothing against Shutterfly's quality--I'd have the same worry about a book this thick printed anyplace. So far so good, but we've only had it for a few months.)

ETA: Rereading your question, it seems like you're really trying to decide whether to keep your layouts only digital instead of printing. For me, it's worth the expense to print. No one would ever see the layouts if I didn't. My kids just aren't going to stand around a computer looking at digital layouts the way they will the printed books. I suppose I could try something like a digital frame, but digital just doesn't have the longevity and long term draw that print does, IMO. Then again, I'm lucky enough to be in a position that the cost for printing is an inconvenience but doesn't really take money from anything more important. If that wasn't the case, I would probably only print a selection of the most important layouts from each year (ie, my favorite photos, milestones, etc).

[nesser1981]

The first year I did 12x12 prints, it's just soooo bulky and expensive.

I do photobooks, and I have since 2006, much more cost effective and they take up a lot less space. I have May 2005-December 2015 all in one small cabinet and I love that.

You can also try printing smaller layouts, when I first started I did little proof books that were like 5x5 from WHCC to give to my mom and MIL. They had little coil bindings. https://www.whcc.com/products/proofing/prints#details I think if you have layouts that don't have journaling, those would work perfectly, then you'd at least have them printed.

If you want to switch to all photobooks, because you want to print those beautiful pages. I'd just have folders of the year ready to go, when you finish that year, print the book or two.

I've gotten to the point now I do 2 books a year, January through September and then October-December. I can jump around in my scrapping, but I don't print until I have those time periods finished.

I still print single pages for my All About Me book, that will probably never be finished.