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Now that my kids are back in school, I plan on spending time on putting together a photo book of our summer memories. I used to be the queen of scrapbooking but since having a second child, not so much. I have created a couple of beautiful photo books in the last few years though and I just love looking through them and sharing them with friends and family, over and over again.

I am going to spend the next week or so looking through the more than one thousand photos I took this summer and will choose a few dozen photographs that represent our summer well. Then, I am going to import those photos into my Shutterfly account. What’s really cool is that I am not limited to importing photos from just my computer. I can also import photos from Facebook, Shutterfly, and even Instagram. I just might take more photos with Instagram now that I know that they can be easily added to a Shutterfly photo book. I’ve been wondering what exactly I would do with Instagram photos besides share fun, filter-effect photos, so being able to add them to a photo book is just fabulous!

I was browsing the selection of photo books on Shutterfly today experimented with their new Custom Path feature. With Custom Path, I can create a photo book based on one of many designs, add text, even use one photo for a two-page spread like in the image below.

I can also choose a hard cover, soft cover, padding cover, leather cover, or cloth cover for my photo book.

I have a few photo books and I never get tired of looking at them.

Shutterfly photo book — Two-Page Spread/One Photo

Find the perfect photo for a two-page spread might be a little tricky but I’m determined to pull it off. This will be the best photo book yet!

Do you use Shutterfly to create photo books or do you create scrapbooks the old-fashioned way, with paper, die-cut shapes, and actual printed photos?

Right now (8/24/12) , Shutterfly is offering 30% off on 12×12 photo books, 20% off on 8×8 and 8×11 photo books, and 15% off on 7×9 and 5×7 photo books! This is a limited time offer.

I am a Shutterfly affiliate. I may make a commission if you buy after clicking on a link in this post.

Are you looking to have some fun scrapbooking summer fun vacation memories? Why not try an online scrapbook service? Online scrapbooks take away sticky fingers and trying to remember where you placed the photo you’ve been looking for, for the past half hour.

With online digital scrapbooks you don’t have to worry about your photos getting soiled or the fading of its color. Your photos will look the same years from now as they looked the day they were taken. It helps you to add your own personal touches that you may have taken hours to do if you were doing it manually. With over 1000 designs to choose from and the ability to create your own videos using your photos it helps bring your memories to life. The outcome look so professional that you would never believe how quick and easy it was to explore your imagination and create a scrapbook that would last you a life time.

Most online digital scrapbooking websites allow users to upload photos to their service from your existing Flickr photos, Facebook photos, Picasa photos and more online photo sharing services.

Throughout the summer this could also be an activity that you share with your children and could lead to hours of fun. If you don’t have the time to create your own online scrapbook you can request your book to be made for you.

The best part about it is that online digital scrapbooking can be done absolutely free. You don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars printing your photos in order to share your most cherished memories with family and friends. Now you can share your scrapbooks via the internet which is cost effective and you can reach a lot more persons at one time.

So if you are looking for a way to preserve your fun, summer memories seriously consider using an online scrapbook which can enhance your most memorable and unique moments that will be long lasting.

Online Digital Scrapbooking Resources

A few online digital scrapbooking services that I found to be easy to use, mostly free, and full of great layouts and scrapbook ideas are MixBook.com, BeeClip.com, CropMom.com, Shutterfly, Inkubook, and ScrapBlog.com.

Online Photo Sharing Resources

There are dozens of great online photo sharing websites that allow you to store your photographs on their servers free of charge. Then when you log on to a digital scrapbooking website, you are able to pull those photographs from the photo sharing websites in directly from the photo sharing website of your choice. Here are a few of the most popular photo sharing websites: Snapfish.com, Facebook.com, Picasa, and Flickr.

Did we leave your favorite photo sharing or digital scrapbooking service out of our list? Let us know what your favorite online scrapbook and photo sharing services are in the comments below.