My '52 Weeks of Watercolor Birds' in Hardback #52WeeksOfWatercolorBirds #Watercolor #Blurb

I wanted to share this in case any of you are interested in doing something similar for holiday gifts.  I finished up my '52 Weeks of Watercolor Birds' early (though I'll be sharing the rest of the photos throughout the rest of the year), and had the paintings printed up in a hardback book using Blurb.

I chose their Standard Landscape (10×8 IN, 25×20 CM) hardback imagewrap photobook with standard paper.  At the time I ordered, they had a 40% off special, and even though I added extra pages the whole thing came to a little over $26.  They are advertising that their best special yet starts soon, so now would be a good time to have your artwork printed.

The book itself has a plain black cover. 

They offer three or four ways to upload your photos.  I chose to create my own PDF and upload it that way.  I sort of wish I hadn't, because I got the photos on the left a little too close to the inside margin.  It doesn't really keep you from seeing anything, but isn't quite as aesthetically pleasing as it good be.  You can learn from my mistake, if you happen to choose this option.

The other mistake I made is that somehow I chopped off the portion of the cover photo that had my name, so there is nothing on the book that shows who the artist is.  But the giftee will know anyway. 

Ten of my paintings were portrait orientation instead of landscape, and rather than making the viewer tilt the book, I decided to print them landscape even though it makes the photo smaller.  Since I was doing this I also decided to reduce costs by putting two to a page.

I like the printed book well enough that I may keep this for myself and give up the original journal.