ZoomAlbum Review and Giveaway

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giveaway closed.
Congratulations MissDenise!

I had some Halloween pictures all ready to make a photobook.  I received an offer from Ellen from ZoomAlbum to review the ZoomAlbum pocket sized photobook kit.  I decided to do this with all the Halloween pics I had ready to go. 

The kit came with three 3x3 photo album kits and three print your own covers.  I first opened the kit and played the CD that came with the kit.  It showed me how to create the photoalbums.  I then went to the ZoomAlbum website.  I reread instructions, especially the ones concerning which printer you use.  They make it clear that they recommend using Canon and Epson printers, that some HP printers have issues.  I of course have an HP printer.

Printing Issues and Solutions
•The photo paper jams or will not feed into my printer.
Solution: Use a light adhesive tape to attach the ZoomAlbum Sheet to a piece of 8.5" x 11" paper. This helps provide a bit of stability for the printer rollers. Then gently guide the paper into the paper feed tray of your printer.

•Some models of Hewlett-Packard All-In-One Printers experience paper feed issues when printing ZoomAlbums.
While most printers do an excellent job of printing ZoomAlbums, some models of HP All-In-One Printers may present challenges when feeding the unique ZoomAlbum photo paper for printing. Try the printing solution mentioned above for best results. Or contact us directly for further support through the printing process.

•The paper feed tray is at the bottom of my printer, and won’t take my photo cover sheet.
Solution: Use a light adhesive tape to attach the photo cover sheet to the bottom right corner of an 8.5" x 11'' sheet of printer paper. Then select “Print Cover” in the ZoomAlbum Creator software. Gently guide the paper into the paper feed tray of your printer.


•I'm ready to print, but I’m worried that I may ruin my album page or cover.
Solution: Print a test sheet on regular printer paper first.


Printer Compatibility
There are no known compatibility issues with these printers:
Epson
•Epson Stylus® Series
Canon
•Pixma Series printers

 I decided to try it out using my HP photoprinter, after reading their suggestions on ways to help deal with these issues.  One thing I had trouble with though was trying to download the ZoomAlbum software from the website.  When you click on the download section they ask you to fill out a form with your name, email, and Printer.  You then are taken to another download...which is the area I could not get to work.  I am not sure if this was just my computer or what.  They also sent me an email after filling out the form.  From the link provided in the email I was able to download the ZoomAlbum creator software.  So I did this and got started working on my album.  The creator was very easy to use.  You put one picture on each page and can move the picture around and resize it (and crop it using these functions).  You can add text with different fonts and colors.  It was fun playing around designing my ZoomAlbum.  It was easy to see what picture is on what page, and easy to change the order if you want. 

The next step of the process is printing your book.  I definitly suggest using a practice sheet first and have the user guide open for any help needed.  When I did my first test print, my pictures were off a little, so I had to go in and adjust the margins.  Once this was done, I was ready to print.  I did not have any issues using my printer to print on the ZoomAlbum paper(which is clearly marked which way to load the paper, which is nice).  I let that sit for a few minutes to make sure the ink was dry, before trying to fold it.

  This makes for a good time to print your cover.  You create the cover just by going back into your creator and choosing the cover option.  The picture I had chose for my cover was smaller than the area that you were allowed to use.  When printed this left half of the front and back white.  I am sure if you play around more with your pics you can come up with a better cover than I did.  I did have issues printing my cover.  I had to print a few test pages, because they print out in the correct position and would not load into the printer.  To correct the load issue I taped the sheet to a blank sheet of printer paper and then it would load into the printer fine.  To get the photo printed on the cover in the correct position I taped the cover paper to the top right corner of a regular sheet of printer paper and flipped it upside down in my paper tray.  (You may have to play around with these options, as I think the user guide told me to tape it in a different position) This why I definitly would recommend using test sheets before using the photo paper provided!  Once you get the correct settings, write it down for future use, as the kits come enough supplies to make 3 photobooks.

Once your printed pages are dry you can assemble the photobook.  This was pretty simple to do.  Your first follow the instructions to place the cover onto the frame.  You simply follow the instructions provided in the kit and in the user guide.  You then need to follow the instructions to make the inside, by folding the paper in a specific order.  This is clearly marked on the paper and is fairly simple.  Then by following the instructions you take the backing off so that you can make the pages stick together and then place into the frame of the book...and Yes..you then have a completed ZoomAlbum photobook!

You can then get creative if you like and decorate your book how ever you like...or keep it the way it is.  To find some ideas on getting creative go to the ZoomAlbum Blog.  There are some different ways to decorate or use your photobook.  These make great gifts for family and friends...either as kits or as created photobooks! 

Thanks to Ellen at ZoomAlbum one of my readers has the chance to win a kit like I reviewed! 

To enter:  Follow my blog and leave a comment telling me how you would use this kit.

Extra entries:
~follow @zoomalbum on twitter
~subscribe to the ZoomAlbum blog
~Join the ZoomAlbum facebook group
~follow me on twitter @colleen_mouse and tweet this giveaway
~subscribe to my blog

Please leave a seperate comment for each entry and leave your email if it is not in your profile.  The giveaway will end on Nov 1 and the winner will be chosen by random.org. 

Disclosure~ I received the ZoomAlbum kit free for reviewing.

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