My 2014 Blog Book

In a previous post I shared photos of the third blog book I created. I used Blog2Print to make that book. In that post, I told you I'd share my 2014 blog book in a future post.

Well, today is the day. Here is my 2014 Blog Book. 😊 I also used used Blog2Print to create this book.

I decided to try a different cover for my 2014 book too.

My 2014 blog book is larger than my 2013 book because I wrote more posts in 2014. In fact, that year has the most published posts so far since I began this blog.

During 2014 I completed the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by Amy Johnson Crow. It's not too late to join Amy in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. To learn more about it, and to join in on the fun, click HERE.

Here are a few photos from the inside of my 2014 blog book.

I've now completed three years of blog books - 2012, 2013, and 2014. My 2012 blogging year was divided into two blog books. I have a lot of catching up to do since it's already 2019. Thankfully, Blog2Print makes it pretty easy to create blog books.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2019 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

My 2013 Blog Book

In a previous post I shared photos of the second blog book I created. I used Blog2Print to make that book. In that post, I told you I'd created two more blog books using Blog2Print, one for 2013 and one for 2014.

Today I'm sharing a few photos of my 2013 Blog Book with you.

I decided to try a different cover for my 2013 book.

Here are a few photos from the inside of my new blog book.

The photo above shows the first page from the Table of Contents. Blog2Print creates this Table of Contents automatically, which I really appreciate. When I created my first blog book using Blurb, I had to create the Table of Contents manually.

One thing I learned while using Blog2Print, is that captions under photos don't seem to line up properly in the printed book. You can see an example of that in the photo above on the left page. The bold print and the words "Click to Enlarge" under the diploma are supposed to be centered under the photo.

I'll be sharing my 2014 Blog Book in a future post.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2019 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

My Second Blog Book

In a previous post, I shared the exciting news that the blog book that I created using Blurb had arrived. I also included a few photos of my book. The blog book covered April - June 2012 of my genealogy blog. I began my genealogy blog on April 5, 2012.

I do like how it turned out, but using Blurb for my blog book was a laborious process. In order to have my blog book look the way I wanted it to, I ended up having to take a lot of time and effort to add my blog contents to the book manually. I didn't use any "slurping" process for the book. I had to place the photos and text on the pages manually and I had to create the Table of Contents manually too.

I didn't create another blog book for a number of years after that first book. In July of 2018 I decided to create another blog book which covered July - December 2012 of my genealogy blog.

For this new book I used Blog2Print instead of Blurb. It was so much easier and quicker than using Blurb. Blog2Print doesn't have the full editing capabilities of Blurb, but the ease of use makes it worth it. Blog2Print "slurps" the pages of your blog and creates a Table of Contents automatically, which is great. You can also edit some things, like choosing which posts to include in your book, choice of page layout, whether or not to have page breaks, text style, and photo size. You can also add pages to your book, which I have done in the blog books I've created.

Here are a few photos of my first blog book using Blog2Print. I think it turned out well, even though it doesn't look exactly like my blog online. At least the content is in the book, which is the most important thing.

I even added this page with bonus family photos. The opposite page has a note from me to the readers of my book.

I'm glad I finished up year 2012 of my genealogy blog in book form. For my 2018 Christmas gift, I created two more blog books using Blog2Print, one for 2013 and one for 2014. I'll share those in future posts.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2019 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

My Blog Book is Here!

In a previous post I told you about my blog book project that I had been working on. Well, I finished my blog book, ordered it, and it has already arrived! It came even sooner than the estimated delivery date. And I am so pleased with the way it turned out. Blurb.com did a fantastic job.

Here are a few photos of my completed book.

Front Cover

Open Book

Back Cover

I'm thinking of writing a blog post about the process of creating this book. But, that may have to wait a while because of my busy schedule at the moment. I still need to finish my presentation for the class I'm teaching at our local Family Discovery Day in May. I'm happy to say that I was able to finish and turn in my syllabus by the deadline.

In addition to photos of my book, I also thought I'd share the preview of my book from Blurb.com.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2015 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Fab Finds on a Brief Hiatus

Hello all of my wonderful readers! I'm writing this post to let you know that there won't be a Fab Finds post this week or next week. I'm a bit overwhelmed with things to do at the moment.

One of the projects I'm working on is making my blog into a book. Or should I say several books. I've chosen Blurb.com for this project. The choice was between Blog2Print.com and Blurb. With Blog2Print I found that I couldn't edit the text of my blog once it was slurped into their website. And I didn't like that, so I went with Blurb.

I'm trying to get the first of my blog books finished before March 31st so I can take advantage of their 20% off sale. I have another reason for trying to hurry and finish this project. I would like to have my blog book printed and ready to show the class I'm teaching at our upcoming Family Discovery Day in May. I'll talk a little bit more about this event in a bit.

First, I want to show you what my blog book likes like so far. Here are some screenshots. Because my book is still in draft mode, these pages may change.

This is the book's front cover. I still haven't decided if this is the color I'm going to go with or not.

And here are a few pages from the book.

And this is the work space in Blurb.

I do like Blurb's edit functionality. I can create my blog book to look pretty much exactly as I want it to look. But that means there's lots of work involved and it can be quite time consuming. I've gotten "Image Resolution Warnings" for a few of my photos. These photos were fine online in my blog, but wouldn't look very nice in my book.

So, I've had to scan these photos again and upload them into Blurb. And I have to go through and edit my posts so they make sense in book form. For instance, I need to point the reader to the page number of a photo or document. Also, I'm planning on creating a Table of Contents, which I assume I will be doing by hand. That's one feature I liked about Blog2Print. It creates a Table of Contents automatically. I also need to proofread the book before I press the order button. So ya. Lots to do still.

I mentioned that I will be teaching a class at our local Family Discovery Day in May. That's another huge project I have on my plate right now. The syllabus for that is due on April 8th. I also need to continue working on my presentation which includes creating a PowerPoint slide presentation for my class. By the way, I was asked to give a presentation about Family History Blogging. How fun is that!?

If you attended RootsTech this year either in person or virtually, you may know that they had a Family Discovery Day on the last day of the conference. The wonderful people at RootsTech are providing selected RootsTech sessions for local Family Discovery Day events to be held around the world. Our local Family Discovery Day will have opening and closing general sessions and a variety of classes. To find a Family Discovery Day in your area, click HERE.

Besides trying to finish my blog book and my Family Discovery Day class presentation, I also have my usual family and church responsibilities to take care of. So, something had to give. And I'm afraid it's going to be my Fab Finds posts for the next two weeks. My Fab Finds post should resume on April 10th.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2015 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved