My plea for 5x7 brag books

[Joan]

Okay, first off, let me say that I'm not trying to sound like a whiner or complainer. I just wanted to state a pretty distinct preference of mine, and see if there's others who feel the same way.

I love all the brag books that come out with the awesome kits here. They're always fabulous and I'd love to use every last one of them I've gotten as a freebie with new releases. I'm working in 5x7 though. When I see a 5x7 brag book to go with a kit, I do cartwheels, and I can tell you that it is pretty much a guarantee I am throwing that kit in my shopping cart immediately!

I have a bunch of 5x7 codes at Shutterfly to use up this month, and I think it's a pretty common size for places like Shutterfly. I know they had 4x6 bragbooks you could make up (not sure if they still do), but they're nowhere near as nice or as good a deal and I prefer the slightly larger size anyway. Plus, I find you can always find awesome deals on free 5x7 codes on Ebay.

This was brought up on DST the other day and a bunch of people kept recommending upsizing the 4x6 pages. Well, first off, they are different ratios and so will not scale up perfectly. And, second, I refuse to upsize because I'm incredibly anal about stuff like that.

Maybe I'll use the 4x6s someday for a hybrid project, but it just seems to me that 5x7 is a much more practical size for brag books because you have the option of making them into a bound book at many of the printing companies now.

I would heart all you lovely designers forever if you considered using 5x7 over 4x6 when you make the brag books. If your kit is even remotely close to something I can use I'm probably buying it if there's 5x7 QPs to go with it. I'm curious what others think about this.

Oh, and thank you to all of you who did do 5x7s! I've scooped up all of it, I think!

[ColleenSwerb]

What about placing the 4x6 pages on a neutral or coordinating background?

[Joan]

Originally Posted by BrodoNY0123

What about placing the 4x6 pages on a neutral or coordinating background?

I'm pretty anal about stuff like that too. Okay, there's my dirty little secret... I'm pretty anal about a lot of nitpicky little things, lol.

I'd maybe do that in a pinch for a page or two, but I'd really rather not. I'm a big fan of scrapping to the size of a page and never feel like something looks quite finished when it's placed on a different size page.

I'll find uses for the 4x6s someday, I'm sure, and I'm not too worried about getting my current 5x7s together (although anyone putting out 5x7 bragbooks between now and the end of March will definitely be my hero! ). I just really wanted to gauge interest and preferences on this. If I'm in the minority on this, I can live with that, but if I'm not I'm hoping it's useful info to the designers and we get to see more 5x7 bragbooks!

[my4boys]

I have enlarged my pages to 5 x 7 and they come out just fine !!!! Just saying

[Joan]

How did you deal with the different ratios?

[Aggie Aviso]

I resized them to fit the width to 7, and the corresponding height was 4.566?
It was OK for me.

[my4boys]

Originally Posted by Joan

How did you deal with the different ratios?

They may have been a bit bigger that 5 x 7 but they printed out just fine on my printer.. I did not even think about the ratio thing!!!!

[Joan]

Thanks!

I should probably add that I'm not really looking for advice on using 4x6 for a 5x7 book. Not that it's unwelcome, as I'm sure the tips will be helpful to everyone. It's more about preferences for products in the future.

I.e. if you had a choice, which would you prefer. The 5x7 or 4x6? I think we can all agree that sizing down = better than sizing up.

[ColleenSwerb]

I assumed that the reason designers made 4x6 was that 1)it's much cheaper to print out a whole bunch of 4x6's at a store, and 2) you can slide them into the tons of photobooks that are made for 4x6.

I feel like if I were a designer, I would make them all 4x6 and then just resize it to 5x7 after I was done. But that's just me.

ETA: I prefer the 4x6

[my4boys]

I would have to agree with the 4 x 6 size too, you could print so many pages for virtually nothing

[Joan]

Well, scooping 5x7 codes on Ebay, I paid about $2.85 per 20 page 5x7 bound book at Shutterfly. So a little over 14 cents per page...

[ColleenSwerb]

I'm just saying that I think that's why most designers do that. And there aren't a ton of people that buy the codes on ebay or know that you can.

[my4boys]

I had no idea you could do that either, of course I have no idea what you are talking about...Codes??????

[Heather Roselli]

The album Traci made for Susan and I to go with our new 2Scoops kit, Can Ya Dig It, was a 5x7. Did you grab it? I think the offer is good through Friday night.

As a designer, I would have to agree that most of us design 4x6 mini albums because of how inexpensive it is to have them printed, and some people have the mini printers at home that only do 4x6 and also because there are so many album options for 4x6 photos out there. That being said, I too love the size and ratio of the 5x7 print over the 4x6!

Now, tell me about these Shutterfly codes?? LOL

[Aggie Aviso]

I agree with the 4x6 being cheaper. I plan to print pictures per month and use those brag books from the shoppe. There are 4x6 and 5x7 albums available as well

[ColleenSwerb]

If you go one ebay, you can search "shutterfly" and a ton of codes should come up. You can buy codes from people, and then add them to your account.

[Joan]

Yes, what Col said! I had no idea about them either until I got enabled during Christmas shopping. I made a point of buying from reputable sellers and found excellent deals with the Buy It Now option so I didn't have to deal with the whole bidding and waiting process. There's probably better deals with bidding now, but pre-Christmas those prices started getting driven up by everyone scrambling to grab codes to make prezzies. Plus I love the instant gratification factor with the But It Now.

You can usually find a ton of codes for Shutterfly calendars, Classic books (8.5x11) and 5x7 books and often pick them up in the $2 - $3 each range. Just watch the expiry dates on the code to make sure it'll allow you enough time to make up the project.

I was extremely happy with the sellers I dealt with. I'll go and dig up their names and pass them on to you guys.

[newfiemountiewife]

I upsize stuff from 4x6 to 5x7 often, but I would prefer a 5x7. That said, I have been extremely lazy about printing anything LOL. But I like the 5x7 better, I hardly every print anything in 4x6.

[Joan]

Originally Posted by Heather Roselli

The album Traci made for Susan and I to go with our new 2Scoops kit, Can Ya Dig It, was a 5x7. Did you grab it?

Yep, grabbed it up right away!

I guess I'm in the minority on the 5x7. I like the ratio of 4x6s for straight photo prints (it matches the frame ratio of a 35mm negative), but I generally want a little more size when I'm doing anything scrapped. It just seems to me that 5x7 offers you more options, particularly if you don't mind re-sizing. I can see why some would prefer 4x6 and can accept that I'm in the minority though. Although, I will no doubt shamelessly attempt to convince everyone they want 5x7 at any given opportunity.

[Joan]

Here's the two Ebay sellers I dealt with for Shutterfly codes:

halfbluesky
shutterstopper

They both were excellent to deal with and were super prompt sending the codes after I paid.

[Amber1279]

I have used Shutterstopper as well - I would reccomend them also

[Shawna]

Originally Posted by Joan

Here's the two Ebay sellers I dealt with for Shutterfly codes:

halfbluesky
shutterstopper

They both were excellent to deal with and were super prompt sending the codes after I paid.

I bought my Shutterfly calendar codes back before Christmas from halfbluesky and also had a good experience with them. I want to pick up a few of the codes for the 5x7 books soon to make for some gifts.

[MandaBean]

Taken note of this.

[Joan]

[my4boys]

Thanks Joan, I have noted this and will add them to my e bay sellers list....I may have some books in my future

[Joan]

I noticed a bunch of 8x8 codes when I did a search the other day. Those are way less common so if anyone's looking to do 8x8s I'd suggest checking Ebay out for some deals!

[mummytothree]

I haven't read what everyone else likes, but I personally LOVE 4x6 instead of 5x7. I print all my stuff at Wal Mart and you can't beat .19 cents for a 4x6 compared to 1.00 for a 5x7. Also most of my "brag books" are for the grandma's and they like to just add the new "pages" to their existing 4x6 photo album.

[ColleenSwerb]

The 8x8 codes looked like they expire 4/15. At least most of the ones I saw.

[meems]

well I have yet to do QP album but I'm thinking I'd like 5x7 better too.