My 2014 Layflat Shutterfly Album

I finished my Daily Life Album a couple of weeks ago and ordered a 106-page Layflat Album from Shutterfly. I've ordered other lay flat albums before, one from Adormapix and a few from Shutterfly, but never one quite this big.  I usually choose to use Blurb for my bigger family albums (2011 here, 2012 here, and Lydia's Album Here), but I REALLY love the layflat books so I decided I would bite the bullet on the extra price (and bulkiness) to see if I liked them better.

I love it! Yes, it is big and it is quite heavy, but it's a special album and I think the size of it gives the impression that this album really means something to our family. It shows the time and effort I put into documenting our memories and how precious they are. It is special.

If you didn't want to go with the 12x12 size I believe all the pictures and journaling would still look great in a 10x10 or even an 8x8 size. I actually took pictures comparing my 8x8 layflat album to this one, but you'll have to look for that blog post next week since there's already too many pictures in this blog post!

Here are the specs on my album:

• 12x12 Layflat Shutterfly Book
• Hard Photo Cover
• 106 Pages
• Double thick, premium professional-grade paper. Satin finish. (from the Shutterfly Website)
• Binding: The pages are glued back to back throughout the album and then to the front and back of the album. They are not attached to the spine. This is probably the only setback to me - I am a little worried over time that they may come apart. My other layflat albums have been fine so far, but this one is much bigger.

And pricing:

• 20 Page 12x12 Book  - $64.99
• Additional 86 pages ($1.50 each) - $129.00 
• Layflat Pages - $50.00 (it's a flat $50 no matter how many pages you have)
• Shipping $11.99
• Price before coupons: $255.98 
• Tax $8.24
• TOTAL Price with 50% off coupon and Free Shipping: $130.24 Wait for those coupons. It's worth it! The 50% off coupon I used was right on their website, and they give them out frequently.

I'd say that is a pretty good price for a 106 page layflat, 12x12 album. My 100+ page Blurb books cost me just over $100 and those weren't layflat. I would say the extra $20-$30 is worth it.

Now to the actual album.

I've decided that I really like the white background on my cover pages. I did use the Shutterfly cover template to make sure my front cover design would look right.

It's nice and glossy. It'll be easy to wipe little smudges off. The photo quality is spot on. Looks just like it did on my computer screen.

Here's the spine. For some reason I completely missed adding text to my spine. I didn't even think about it when I was uploading. Oh well, my fault!

It's thick but not anywhere near as thick as my traditional 12x12 albums.

Here's the back. Just a little barcode. You can customize the spine and the back but I chose not to. Although I do regret not putting our family name and date on the spine. It totally slipped my mind.

And this is how it lays. There's a little bow, but not too bad.

A little close up of the spine and binding.

There's the little bow again.

This is what it looks like opened up.

More. Just so you get a feel for the binding.

Now some close ups of my pages so you can see the quality of the prints. I'm very satisfied.

The pages are pretty heavy duty. I won't have to worry about my kids bending or tearing them, unless they get a little crazy. But they know how precious these are and we do have "rules" for looking at albums. You must only take one book down at a time, you must carefully turn the pages and you must always have clean hands!

The pages have a pretty smooth, satin finish.

All of the journaling is crisp and clear. I used a mix 12 and 14 pt. I actually could have probably gone down to 8 or 10, but keeping it at 12 or 14 will give you the option of printing an 8x8 or 10x10 album.

I'm always amazed at how 3D my pages look when printed. Just like traditional.

Here are some shots of the full layouts. I love the layflat with no gutter. Totally seamless. I actually would love to try these with a double page spread with photos and/or elements in the center. I think it would look pretty nice.

Even the pages with black background papers look amazing.

You can see here on the right side page that my leaves got a little close to the edge. I must not have been using my guides when I created this page. This was the only page with something cut off. You HAVE to account for bleed if you are going to print this way.

I also realized my QR codes could be a little smaller. I do love that everything else is so nice and big with my Daily Life Templates. I really think this album would have been just fine printed at a 10x10 or 8x8 size.

And here's the final page. There's one sheet of white paper in the front and back of the book.

And last but not least the whole reason I scrap and print my digital scrapbook pages. This:

I think my kids might have been more excited to look at the book than I was. They loved seeing pictures of certain events and pictures of themselves. I think my oldest girls especially liked reading my journaling. And Matthew was so excited that we finally have an album that has pictures of him in it (a reminder that I really need to get his book done!). The album has already been pulled off the shelf and looked at several times. 

Totally worth it.

-Liz

P.S. If you have any more questions that I didn't answer in my blog post about my Shutterfly Album please let me know, and I'll try to answer them.

*There are affiliate links in this blog post. All opinions are my own.