While on our #bluesummertour road trip, I realized more and more how important photos are to me. If you’ve been around me for any length of time, you know it’s not unusual to see me snap, snap, snapping away… but what didn’t come easy for me was getting all of our digital memories off of my devices and into a tangible way for us to enjoy them over and over and over.
This new series, Unboxing, is about some of the subscription services we use and love. Today we’re talking about Chatbooks. Earlier in the year I started an account just to see how I liked it and now I’m totally hooked, waiting for our mailman to bring by a new books of memorable moments whenever I get the notification on my phone that we’ve filled another book. With this simple automatic printing service, we get an adorably hand-held size photo book every time we fill 60 pages from our Instagram feed for just $6 a book and free shipping (although the price is going up to $8 come labor day unless you lock in the lower price with an account before then).
When I first created my account, I started with Insta photos all the way back to when Skylar was born, and from there, it automatically updates for me with a new volume as I post images. Although don’t worry, there are still plenty of ways to customize! For example, you can print from a specific hashtag on your account (which is great for a trip, first year, gift, birthday book, etc) and you can always remove images from your volumes before your book goes to print. In fact, I recommend logging in every time you get the notification that a book is about to print. With that notification, you have a few days to remove any images or pages that you don’t want included and make sure that all 60 pages are filled with delightful images that your family will love. You can choose to include dates with each image as well as the captions that originally accompanied your Instagram photo (Note of warning: if your captions tend to be really long like mine sometimes are, it will print on a blank page following your photo since it won’t fit underneath your photo. Sometimes this is okay with me as I want to remember my feelings from that day along with the image, and sometimes I delete it… another good reason to log in and approve each book before it goes to print.) I will say that the quality of each book is great, although the image printing quality isn’t bad, yet not absolutely stellar either… although for just $6 for 60 pages and an automatic service that takes care of most everything for me, I’m totally game! Otherwise, most of my Insta images would remain on my device or the internet and I doubt I’d get them into my hands.
In all seriousness, my kids love to flip through our books again and again. And frankly, so do I.
Want to try chatbooks for yourself (and lock in the $6/book rate before it goes up?), use code FRESHMOM when you set up your account for your first book FREE!
Are you like me and have a ton of images stored digitally that you need to get out of the cyber world or are you a total rockstar and print yours regularly? What are some of your favorite Instagram or printing services?
XO
Sarah Coggins says
I keep meaning to try something like this. I am SO horribly slow at getting photos printed. Thanks for the heads up on the price increase. I think I might sign up in preparation for an upcoming trip – this would make the perfect souvenir afterward.
Tabitha Blue says
Totally agree… I’m so slow with it as well!! This definitely helps me get them printed, and takes it off my mind 😉