profile book question

miss071311

hi!  i intro'd a while back saying that i was interested in adoption, but then i just managed to lurk the rest of the time.  my husband and i have settled on an agency (adoptions from the heart) and are hoping to have our home study finalized in the next month!!  we are so excited!

i've been slowly working on our profile book (really, procrastinating... writing about ourselves is harder than i thought it would be!), and i was wondering if anyone could recommend any kind of program or software?  i was initially just using powerpoint, but it looks soooo boring... anyone would fall asleep just looking at our cover page!  i found a digital scrapbooking package online called memory mixer, but i thought i'd check with you guys to see if you had any better suggestions? 

Dr.Loretta

Welcome!

I used scrapblog, which is now mixbook. If that hadn't worked out, I would have done PowerPoint.

HTH

miss071311

thanks!  i looked at mixbook, but they don't print single pages, and AFTH said the book can't be bound.  i'll just keep looking/use powerpoint.

LIQueen

miss071311:

hi!  i intro'd a while back saying that i was interested in adoption, but then i just managed to lurk the rest of the time.  my husband and i have settled on an agency (adoptions from the heart) and are hoping to have our home study finalized in the next month!!  we are so excited!

i've been slowly working on our profile book (really, procrastinating... writing about ourselves is harder than i thought it would be!), and i was wondering if anyone could recommend any kind of program or software?  i was initially just using powerpoint, but it looks soooo boring... anyone would fall asleep just looking at our cover page!  i found a digital scrapbooking package online called memory mixer, but i thought i'd check with you guys to see if you had any better suggestions? 

I dont really have any advice for you because our agency makes ours for us. Adoptions from the heart don't make your paper and online profile for you as a part of the fees?  

miss071311

i'm actually not sure about the online one, but we have to make our own paper one at least.  and provide them with a few copies to give to their various offices.

maryoosa

Um I use blurb... but it you need single pages, I'm not sure if it works for you. Weird that they can't be bound.

maryoosa

I dont really have any advice for you because our agency makes ours for us. Adoptions from the heart don't make your paper and online profile for you as a part of the fees?  

 

Wow that sounds lucky to me, LIQueen. Our agency doesn't make our books or online profiles. 

edaire

We used shutterfly.com for our book. That's the site our agency suggested. And you are right, it is much harder to do than I thought it would be. It took me forever to complete it! Just remember, less is more! Good luck

Dr.Loretta

miss071311:

thanks!  i looked at mixbook, but they don't print single pages, and AFTH said the book can't be bound.  i'll just keep looking/use powerpoint.

I would contact them and see what they can do. When they were scrapblog, you could order each page as a high-res file to be sent to you. Then you could take it anywhere to get printed (we went to FedEx/Kinkos).

We worked with AFTH, so I'm familiar with their profile requirements. Has your SW gone over sample profiles with you? They don't have to be super fancy.

Mush-Tastic

We used mixbook.com and it was a piece of cake! They turned out super nice too. Very user-friendly online set up and we had them shipped to us in less than a week. They have a lot of specials where you can get so much off a full order too. And they ended up being a bit cheaper than a lot of other places.

You can see an online version of our's here.

 

Mush-Tastic

miss071311:

thanks!  i looked at mixbook, but they don't print single pages, and AFTH said the book can't be bound.  i'll just keep looking/use powerpoint.

Nevermind. I just saw this. That's a bummer because it was so freaking easy.

davidandheather

We used shutterfly also and found a coupon online to get it half off. 

silliestbunny

Hi  

I used cropmom but then we had it professionally done by Our Chosen Child.  Best money we spent.  I know it's an added expense but depending on where you are using it and if it is compared to professional profiles, it might be worth it.  I wish we would have done it earlier rather than waiting.
That said, if you are w/an agency that no one uses professional profiles, then no worries  You can peak at the site (our chosen child dot com) to get some good ideas and use of language. 

sarahtoledo

For one of our agencies, we need unbound, and I was just planning to make photo prints at Costco, after doing layout in Photoshop...  I suppose Kinko's would work as well, but I'm partial to photos because I'm a photographer.  

GL! 

miss071311

yeah, our SW showed us some examples... some of them were really nice and others were pretty simple. 

sewolff

We also wanted single pages rather than a bound book.  We used Memory Mixer.  It wasn't as user friendly as I'd like but my husband did most of the work and figured it out eventually.  We just printed out the pages and put them in a binder so we can changed individual pages if we want.  We used alot of color and went through numerous ink cartridges.  If we had to do it again, I'd use Kinko's for the printing.

miss071311

sewolff:

We also wanted single pages rather than a bound book.  We used Memory Mixer.  It wasn't as user friendly as I'd like but my husband did most of the work and figured it out eventually.  We just printed out the pages and put them in a binder so we can changed individual pages if we want.  We used alot of color and went through numerous ink cartridges.  If we had to do it again, I'd use Kinko's for the printing.

oh good... i was thinking of memory mixer, but wasn't sure about it.  and thank you for the idea of going to kinko's or something... our printer sucks as it is, i don't think it'd be able to handle anything with more than a dot of color, lol.