Shutterfly's free pages is back!
 

I got the email today! Free unlimited pages, woohoo! I know we were a little worried after they ran a BOGO page promo a while ago, so this is good news! I have to make covers, a title page, and finish up a few facing pages before I can order my next volume, which will be 2019 volume 2. Who else will be scrambling to finish up a book before the deadline?

I have been waiting for this!!

oooh! I don't usually do Shutterfly books for everyday scrapping but my kids took pics with me on one of our trips and I wanted to make a book for them with their pics and my book is well over the limit so this will be awesome....eek! Gotta to make a title page and check my journaling then print. YAY!

I've been waiting, too!! I have 13 years of books on the ready... not sure which volume.

I'll be printing 2011 volumes 1 & 2. :D

Prices for the 20 page starter books must have gone up so I added in my 2017 Countdown to Christmas album. Adding that album, which is only 25 pages, bumps me up enough to use the free shipping code & the shipping is the same as the album cost so I'm basically getting it for free aside from sales tax. :thumbup:

My son wasn't born until 2014 so he's been bummed that I'm working on printing chronologically and he has yet to appear in a book. He'll be excited to see himself in the Christmas album.

I still owe my Senior her High School album (hopefully before her open house, but it's doubtful!)

I have some more layouts, and a cover to finish! Hopefully I find some time to scrap! (between all the last minute house projects we need to get done!)

ummmmm I am still uploading all of my Lo's so not sure if I am going to order or not

Thanks for the info!! I'm so intimidated … I've started and deleted a book or 10 a dozen times now!
What sizes do you ladies make? Do you use the digital scrapbook book template? What color of pages do you use? Do you use a favorite layout for the cover? LOL … see why I'm intimidated - I'm sort of clueless!!

GAH! of course... since I JUST ordered my 2019 DYD album yesterday... figures! ;)

I was excited to see it's back, but I needed a few more weeks first! I'm going to push hard to try to finish my July to December 2018 album in time, but I don't think I can do it. 25 pages between now and Sunday (or Monday, since they usually extend it a day) is way more than I think I can finish. Quarantine and being on summer break (from work, too) is the only reason there's even a slim chance.

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I've been ordering from Photobook America because I like the flexibility to order up to 200 pages per book and their everyday prices are pretty reasonable. I just ordered an 80 page hard cover for $27 (including shipping). Are Shutterfly prices comparable? Do they have page limits? The site makes it difficult to figure out what the per page and shipping charges are without actually putting a book together and going through the check out process.

I print softcover 8x8s. I use the plainest-looking album I can find -- Modern Black? Modern White? Something like that. I make very simple covers for each year with the year on the front in big numbers and a little tag that says "made with love by xxx" on the back. One of their page choices is a full-size photo, and that's what I use on every single page so I can just drag & drop my pages. I usually select to view the pages by title, since I number my page titles by month, but it doesn't always perfectly order that way so I have to make sure I scroll through the whole photo bin to not miss a page and then I check the "Hide Pages Used" feature so that once I've dragged & dropped a layout onto the album page, it disappears from the photo bin.

HTH!

The softcover 8x8 books at Shutterfly are currently $17.99. This includes 20 pages. I believe the page limit is 111 pages per book. I am buying 3 albums (2 with over 100 pages each, 1 with 25 pages) in this sale, and the S&H is $17.99 so with both the unlimited pages code & the free S&H over $39 code, I'm getting one album and 160+ pages "for free."

Thank you for the info! If I'm doing my math right, if you order enough (at least 3 books) to get the free S&H, it's a great deal, but if you were to just order one or two books, it's pretty comparable to everyday prices at other stores once you bake in the S&H.

The price per book has gone up since COVID and the S&H changes depending on the number of books you order (I think one album S&H was $12.99 this time around -- although their S&H has always been a crock) so it might have been a better deal earlier this year & last year? I don't really keep track. :)

I wish I scrapped chronological so that I could get some everyday books printed. :( I have over 3,000 unprinted pages.

It also depends on the size and type of book. I generally order a 12x12 with layflat pages, and that costs enough to earn free shipping by itself. My albums are 100+ pages, so they're a great deal in the free pages sale.

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Good point! I always print in 8x8, but it definitely makes a difference when considering other sizes and options.

Yeah, I've noticed a lot of inconsistency in shipping costs for all kinds of products during this time. Things are definitely more costly and slower!

With Photobook America, you can't bundle Photobooks into the same order unless they are identical. Many times I'm shipping them directly to family, so I wouldn't be able to do it anyway.

I wish I had a couple books ready to go. :(

Thank you for this --- you are awesome!! :wub:

I have tons and tons as well - sometimes I think I'll make a book in random order, but I'm not sure my OCD could handle it! LOL!

Yay! Thanks for telling me. I missed the email, but just ordered a book

I am so excited. I used my free book coupon and got my free pages. Happy Dance!

Does anyone have problems when loading the pages into Shutterfly's albums some are "scrambled"? I contacted customer service the last time and they told me that they don't know why. It is like every other page is all messed up... I go back and resave my jpg and I then 50/50 that it will be okay or I will get the warning that resolution is going to be low. I save all my pages exactly the same, printing 8x8. Drives me nuts and takes hours to get one album done.

Reba, I have gotten that resolution error a lot when I know that the page was saved and uploaded at 300 DPI. I just ignore it. :p:D

I had issues with my cover and back cover this time, but I just said it was ok. **fingers crossed** Its the only time I've had that happen

I always have issues when trying to order a book through Shutterfly. I don't understand why it's so complicated to order. Between having to select the same template over and over, their error messages, and the pages not uploading in the correct order, it's enough to send me over the edge! It looks like they could make the process easier if you are uploading your own pages and don't need their templates.

I use Persnickity Prints for my regular pages but I too have a ton of pages to print. I try to buy "pages" when they have sales but I still need to send in to print my pages and then I put them in albums.

I printed 2 soft cover 8x8 books with the shutterfly sale but with the crazy shipping I went ahead and did a 12x12 hard cover book as well of our trip so I have three books of the same trip. One for each of my boys and one family book. This was one trip that I let them use their own cameras and I scrapped their pics into the album too. The little one was only 7 at the time and the camera he used wasn't great but the pics were priceless and selfies too funny. They are excited to get the books. It makes me realize I need to print more often

You guys are making me think I might give Shutterfly a try one of these days. I'm a pretty staunch Persnickety Prints supporter, printing single 12x12 pages and putting them in page protectors in traditional scrapbooks - 20 pagers for smaller themed books and 3-ring large expandable books for our everyday pages. I guess that's just a hold-out from my paper scrapbooking days, I like how I can remove pages and move them around if I need to. But I have a couple books that could maybe look really nice in a book of their own like this. Maybe my All About Me album, or the book of all of my dad and late mom's travels in the last years before she died - and that way I could print a second copy for him as well. Hmmm...

How much do you guys typically spend per book? I'd prefer 12x12 size for most books rather than 8x8, I just like that size. And how do you think it compares to how much I'm currently spending per book? For example if I have a 20 page themed book printing pages costs me $40 not including shipping, plus buying a book to put them in ($30 give or take). But most of my books are not limited to 20 pages, I could easily spend upwards of $200 or more printing pages for one book. I'm only limited by how many I can fit in one book...which is a ton with flat digital layouts and the 3-ring style books I buy.

It would be really great if Persnickety Prints offers a similar service, so I think I'm going to have to check into it. Nothing against Shutterfly at all, but PP has always been great to me and I do love supporting them.

Right now with the sale it says a 12x12 book is $49.69. That would be for 20 pages. The 12x12 size does not come in softcover --- just hardcover, premium leather, & professional flush mount. During the unlimited pages sale, you'd get any pages over 20 "for free." Their free S&H kicks in around $40 so you could doublestack that code along with the unlimited pages code. I don't know what the page limit is for hardcover books.

I paid around $95 for a 110 page 12x12 book with lay-flat pages and free shipping. I'm pretty happy with that, considering I've spent $150+ on books with regular binding. The limit is 111 pages.

I'm such a nerd that before I decided to switch from single pages to photobooks I did a big cost analysis at multiple sites. The numbers I used are outdated now since this was about 4 years ago, but when I really included everything for 12x12 the photobooks were much cheaper. I always wait for these unlimited free pages sales. I just spent $112 for a 100-page 12x12 book with upgraded printing and the standard layflat pages. (In past sales I think it has been closer to $85, but the discounts for the book itself, the layflat pages, and the upgraded printing weren't as big as they used to be.) If I'd ordered the same as single pages it would have been $1.50 a page (if Persnickety print credits still cost the same) plus the album and page protectors.

That is such an awesome deal !!

That's kinda how it came out in my head when I ran general numbers in my original post, but I'm still on the fence about it. I think I may try it out for the book of my parents travels, and reserve judgment until I get that one done. I think I'm so on the fence about it because I can rarely afford to spend more than $50-60 on printing at a time, and with PP I can just print however many reaches that limit in my cart. I don't have to wait until I can fill a whole book. Also no guarantees that when a coupon comes out I'll be able to fit a purchase into my budget to take advantage of it, especially if the promotions only last a few days. But I still think it will be something I need to look into, because the idea of having my books in a hardcover bound book really interests me.

I used to buy the Persnickety print credits once a year, so I was already used to paying for printing in bigger chunks. I used to set aside money and buy myself a Visa gift card, then I was ready whenever the sale happened. Shutterfly sells gift cards, too, but you'd probably need to check how many can be used in one order so you'd know if you could buy several smaller ones as your budget allows. If it helps, they usually run the free pages sale in January and July. (I think there are a couple of other times, too, but I usually print in January and July.) I usually print vacation books in 8x8 or 10x10 without layflat pages to keep the costs down. I don't mind paying $100-ish for a 100 page book, but I can't justify it for a 30 page vacation album.

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I ordered a 10x10 book - I stayed up until midnight one evening getting it finished. I had over 50 pages "free" … I'm really anxious for it to arrive!! Once I got rolling on it, the task wasn't very difficult and now I wonder why I waited so long! LOL!

I usually do the PP 12x12 prints and put them in CM albums. That is what works best for me because I tend to like to rearrange my albums every few years after I've scrapped more layouts that fit a theme. My books are by theme, not chronological. In fact just used over 200 print credits last week and caught up on my printing. Love that the print credits never expire :)

But I did order a 10x10 Shutterfly book during this sale. I've been scrapping some old photos for a cousin's family and want to give her a book (I have the 12x12 album for me). But I had too many layouts! So I pulled some of them out that do fit a theme and will order a book of just those layouts at another time. I have to get copies of the traditional pages that I don't have digital photos for and will include them. Luckily we have a print shop in town that can digitize them for me. That will be a much smaller book.

Next project is the same type of project for another cousin's family. Love they share photos of their kids/grandkids on FB. I just download and scrap them. So I can see needing free pages again in the future.