Photo Printing Roundup

Lately, my computer has been making strange sounds.  The kind of loud humming that makes me stop and think, "hmmm... maybe I should make sure my backups are all in order".  So, I have been clicking around, organizing files and preparing for the inevitable terrible day I get the news its time to break the bank and get a new workhorse.  The other day, I got a little lost going through my photo files, and the kids were looking over my shoulder.  They loved seeing all these shots- and I realized there were way to many on my hard drive, and not enough on old fashioned paper.  In fact, it hit me that I have printed out a shameful few of my digi layouts.

Now, I know that layouts in book form look amazing- one of my uber talented, energetic and organized CT members  Melissa, just made a book of her favorite ForeverJoy layouts- and I must say, I was really blown away by how beautiful it came out.  I knew her layouts were awesome- but something about seeing the "in real life" form- was really impressive!  Take a look here:

What I really like about Melissa's book is that she didn't confine herself to a chronological time-frame  or a theme- she just collected some beautiful memories and bound them up for the simple joy of it.  I  need to let go a little more like that-

One of the reasons I hesitate to print out my photos is that I'm not as diligent as I should be in curating my "To Print" Folder.  I think this is the most important thing you can do to make sure you get those .jpgs off your hard drive. I  have been working at each time I upload photos, to be merciless in deleting and diligent not getting carried away in photo tweaking in Lightroom.  I star the photos I want to give special attention to and save those for another day- otherwise I can get lost in editing just two pictures "just right" and the rest go unattended.   So what's the best part about an up to date "To Print" folder? It helps ease my penny pinching anxiety.

I refuse to print out unless I find a deal.  I've done a lot of clicking around, and there does not seem to be one great place that has the most current photo printing deals- but here's my round up of the best ones. (I made a little folder in my browser that has these bookmarked so I can check them easily- and signed up for their newsletters so I don't miss a penny printing deal-)

RetailmeNot  and Coupon Cabin are (almost) comprehensive collection of photo deals- but they miss a few- so be sure to click around.  I also found this site to be rather helpful: http://www.photobookgirl.com/

Some sites I've purchased from and would recommend:

Snapfish 

Shutterfly

Persnickity Prints

York Photo

CVS Photo 

How about you?  Do you have any great photo printing tips or sites? If so, leave them here in a comment- It's a big Web out there- and the less time we spend clcikin' the more time we can spend creating, right? ;)