A few weeks ago we were invited to the Ideal Home show by CEWE Photobook. They wanted us to come and enjoy the show with them while they also let us have a play around with their photobook service on line at their stand.

On the day they were there to help us and show us first hand some of the things we could do with the books and looking at some of the hard copies of other people’s that they brought to show us I knew I wanted mine to be just as spectacular!

We had a fab day with them and I loved seeing what can be done with the books. When I got married a friend made me a photobook and I loved it so much that I wanted to make one for my cousin. I went to her wedding in the summer and took lots of pictures knowing I wanted to make a book but I had no idea back then which service I was going to use.

Prior to CEWE inviting us out for the day I had tried, shortly after the wedding, to make a photobook with another company. I can’t even remember which one it was now but I got so frustrated with it that I gave up. It was so hard to navigate around and not at all user friendly in any other way either! I knew with expert help on hand at CEWE, I would be trying again!

Now, it has to be said that I have a very good camera but it also has to be said that my photography skills are not always amazing. Sometimes I take a lucky shot and lots of them look good (because of the camera) but I still do manage to take some duff ones! Regardless of this fact, I took all the snaps I’d taken and with Bradley, a CEWE expert, we uploaded them together.

Bradley showed me how I could organise the photos in the order they were taken, how to choose a cover photo and helped me add the text I wanted on the front. He then showed me some of the overlays, frames, back ground colours and clip arts which could be added. Then, saving it to my memory stick and knowing I had the software downloaded already on my lap top, he sent me on my way to finish creating! It was all incredibly east and self explanatory, I felt totally comfortable having had just a brief tour of the site that I could do it!

So… create I did and I loved it! I did get in a muddle once and emailed Bradley who was all ready to help me when I realised I wasn’t in a muddle at all… I thought I’d lost everything but apparently the only thing I’d lost was the plot because there all my work was, saved and ready to be added to! I didn’t do things all in one go, with small children it wasn’t possible to get things perfectly how I wanted them unless I did it in stages. Despite my initial worry, CEWE Photobook just saves everything for you so that the next time you go in it’s all still there! Brilliant!

My computer also crashed a few times but the auto save kicked in and nothing was lost! I found the whole process very creative and really enjoyed choosing borders, edges, overlays and even changing the pictures to make them look better! If you have the odd picture which isn’t perfect then you can add effects which make them look better. I had a few which were out of focus or which had people to the far left but then nothing the other side and many with the old red eye! I liked changing them to add a prism effect which made them look very funky or making them like an oil painting! And I very much enjoyed turning some of the lovely ones into sepia, black and white or even a charcoal drawing.

Take a look!

This is the cover, a really happy picture I just had to choose of when my cousin and her husband were walking out of the church! I think it looks every bit as professional as an album made by a wedding photographer!

I love the background on most of the pages although on some I chose to have a block of colour or like on the far left picture just one picture over the entire two pages. The way the paper is folded means you don’t even see a crease down the middle, it’s very clever! See the middle picture of Florence picking up confetti? I used a picture of the confetti on the floor for another back ground on another page! As you can see, I did try and take some interesting pictures like the ones of me taking a picture of my Dad taking a picture!

These are some of the effects I liked using! I love the borders and sepia effect as do I the confetti on the floor as the background but for other pictures, like the prism effect, oil painting and heart overlay, it made a blurry or fairly uninteresting picture become a highlight! I might not have thought to do this had the options not been available and so easy to see for me on the CEWE website!

Lastly, look what good quality the book is! The hardback cover and pages are beautiful! They even feel lovely to the touch and I have no doubt in my mind that my cousin will feel like she has another professional wedding album, to go with her actual professional album, even though the pictures were only taken by little old me!

Another reason I used my cousin’s wedding for the project was because I used my big super duper DSLR to take the pictures but I looked at the albums they had to peruse at the Ideal Home Show and lots of them were just taken with snappers. I took lots of pictures of my best friend’s wedding but before I had my DSLR and I thought the pictures might not come out as well but I’m convinced now, having seen other people’s CEWE books, that they will!

I have lots of books I’d like to make and actually would love to do one of the children too! They’re such beautiful things to have don’t you think? Did you know you can even put video clips in them? They store the data on a cloud and all you have to do is scan the image in the books to watch on whatever device you like! They restore old photos and videos as well and we have some we’d like to have restored of my Grandparents!

I’ve been so impressed by CEWE and I will always use them for this sort of thing in future! I’ve also ordered my Mum a calendar for Christmas so will let you know what it’s like when it arrives! She had a calendar I made with a photo company a couple of years ago and said last year how disappointed she was that I hadn’t done it again. I think this one will be much better than that one though, knowing CEWE!

I was offered a voucher to use with CEWE in return for an honest review. I have to say that I have loved using the service and can’t fault it from ease of use right up to the amazing finished product!