Have you ever wished you could align images in your Mixbook perfectly, without having to zoom all the way into the editor? Are you sick of holding your hand steady trying to nudge the photo a little to the left, and the sticker a little to the right, desperately hoping that when the book goes to print, it will all line up perfectly?

Believe us, we know how tedious this process can be, and it usually ends up in complete frustration! Worry no more! We have a layout design tip that will prevent all the eye strain! Our alignment tool allows you to align images in six different ways: top, middle, or bottom, in addition to left, center, and right!

First, let’s try vertical alignment. Vertical alignment allows you to align images vertically, so that they align to the top, center, or bottom of the page.  Let’s take a look at the following page:

On this page, we have two photos and a text box. Vertical alignment will align all the selected elements with the top or bottom photo, or have them meet in the center. First, click on each element while holding down the shift key. A yellow line will now border your selected elements and the alignment tool bar should appear:

Here is a closer look at the alignment toolbar, with the first three buttons cirlced:

We will use the first three buttons for vertical alignment. The first button will align images to the top, the second to the middle, and the third to the bottom. Keep in mind, your elements will simply shift up or down depending on which button you choose. It will also align with whichever element is furthest to the top or bottom. For middle alignment, the elements will center themselves based on the center of the box the shift-clicking has created.

Here is how the elements will look when clicking the respective button.

Top Alignment (Vertical)

Middle Alignment (Vertical)

Bottom Alignment (Vertical)

Now let’s try this with horizontal alignment. This will align images to the left, center or right. We will use a different page this time. Space out your elements from bottom to top. In the following screen shot, you will see that we are using a photo, some text, and an envelope sticker. Once you have achieved your desired spacing, shift-click on all the elements. This will bring up the alignment toolbar and border your elements with the yellow line once more. This time, we will be using the last three buttons.

Here is a closer look at the toolbar once more.

The fourth button will align images to the left, the fifth aligns them to the center, and the last button aligns them to the right hand side. Again, your elements will slide to the left or right depending on which button you choose – aligning with whichever element is furthest to the right or left. For center alignment, the elements will center themselves based on the center of the box shift-clicking has created.

The next few photos will show the different types of horizontal alignment.

Left Alignment (Horizontal)

Center Alignment (Horizontal)

Right Alignment (Horizontal)

We hope this layout design tip helps! Start lining up the elements in your project now!

Wondering what to do with all the time you’ve saved, now that you no longer have to align images manually? Why not watch a fun tutorial video showing how to upload photos from Facebook to your Mixbook?

Picture this. Your BFF’s b-day is coming up in a few weeks (thanks for the heads-up, Facebook!) and you want to create a photo book on Mixbook full of heartwarming photos of the two of you together to give to her as a birthday gift. Great idea (we think she’ll adore and treasure it forever)! But wait. The memory card inside your digital camera doesn’t house any images from the wedding in which you were both bridesmaids last year.

Don’t despair! This is where Facebook comes in. No doubt there are entire albums full of photos featuring the affair, uploaded to Facebook by wedding guests, groomsmen, the shutter-happy Mother of the Bride, etc. Jackpot! All the pictures you need to create a beautiful Mixbook are available at the tips of your fingers (try our AutoMix magic wand tool to instantly populate your entire Mixbook with photos). How? View our fun tutorial video or read the below instructions to discover how to populate your Mixbook with your (and friends’) Facebook photos!

Video Transcription:

Happy Friday, Mixbookers! We’re launching a new blog post series today. At the end of each week, we’re bringing you a heaping dose of do-it-yourself weekend craft inspiration. Here at Mixbook, we’re all about complete customization and that’s why we adore DIY bloggers. We’ll take any chance we can get to cozy up to a lazy day of crafting. If you love discovering ways to create really cool (and useful!) crafts for you and your kids at home and on a budget, you’re going to love the tutorials we’ll be rounding up as part of this blog series. To kick it off, we’re taking a look at four homemade ways to stay warm (and stylish!) this winter.

Clockwise from top left: “Whimsy Thanks” card, texting gloves, sweater bangle, roomy winter mittens, button hat

First up, we’re loving Ecouterre’s texting gloves (from the looks of the smile on that index finger, we’d bet the feeling is mutual). We can completely sympathize with the predicament that arises when you want to compose a text message but you’re standing outdoors and the thought of ditching your mittens to access your touchscreen is simply unimaginable! Ecouterre’s secret weapon against frozen phalanges is conductive thread. Intrigued? Learn how to make texting gloves.

Next, we’re smitten with A Bit of Sunshine’s sweater bangles. This project is the perfect solution for sweaters that don’t fit anymore or have been damaged by moths. Maybe you have one laying around from last year’s Ugly Christmas Sweater party that you’ll never wear again. All you need is a tiny strip of an old sweater to get started. Learn how to make sweater bracelets.

A Beautiful Mess’ oversize winter mittens have us seriously craving a big mug of piping hot cocoa (with extra marshmallows, please!). If you’ve got material left over from your handmade sweater bracelet project, you’re good to go for this craft. Start by making mittens to fit your hands, and then use the remaining material to fashion warmers for your little ones. Learn how to make winter mittens.

Last but not least, how adorable is Funkytime’s button hat?! It’s like the winter version of a synchronized swimmer’s cap. Break out your abandoned button box, choose a color scheme, and start your sewing engine. Imagine how precious your tiny tot would appear in a pink or purple button hat. They’ll love helping you mix and match buttons as you sew. Learn how to make a button hat.

Which cozy winter accessory project is your favorite?

Want to try out our new Mini Photo Books (starting at $6.99) but don’t have the time? The quickest way to make a Mini Book is by copying a photo book that you already have into the Mini Format. Check out how to do it in these 5 easy steps:

1. Click the Copy Link Next to your Book

Find the book you want to copy in your “Home” or “My Books” section, and click the copy link.

2. Select the Size You Want to Copy To

You choose the size you want. For this tutorial, we’re going to assume you want to choose Mini.

Select a Size

Select the 6x4 Mini Book

3. Check your book, Make Changes and Order!

Now that your book is copied, you want to check it over for common issues. Since we’re copying from a Landscape book (11×8.5, to be exact), we don’t have to worry too much. Just check to make sure all the pages of the book look good in their new format. Then, you’re ready to go!

As always, email us with any questions or ideas at support at mixbook dot com.

Keep up the Mixbookin!

Andrew

Hey Mixbookers!

A question was asked on our customer service site about how to move two pages together in your photo book.  We just created a short video to show you how:

Hope that helps!

Andrew
Chief Mixbooker

Today’s Trick My Mix post is inspired by children’s books where you can flip portions of the book to make a funny face. You can change the eyes, nose, mouth, hair, and even ears. It’s so easy to customize your own “funny face” with the Mixbook Creator … check it out!

This trick requires high-resolution photos (at least 4MP) so you can zoom in on the details of the face.

- For this layout, click on the layout drop down menu and select the 4 photo layouts. Choose the one that looks like the above photo.

- Use pictures that are similar in size or proportion and also in the same pose. For this layout I used photos that were all portraits of faces, where everyone was facing forward. Then I zoomed in on key features of the face – the top of the head, eyes, nose, and mouth and connected them where they best fit.

- There you have it! Silly funny faces, and it was so easy to do.

Try to play around with it, and you’ll get some neat effects. Try using other layouts, like the ones below:

This one is like a puzzle, so try switching it around to make it more fun!

This is another funny face photo that you can try. Play with your friends faces, or even use animals.

The possibilities are endless! It’s a lot of fun, and can be done with almost any layout.

You have a funny face,
Alison

Slide frames were oh-so-cool back in the day. I remember making my own slide prints in elementary school and having a lot of fun with it. So we’re bringing back the old school by doing some frame effects in the Mixbook Creator tool.

Some things to remember:

- Frames can be made thick or thin, and give a different feel to each photo.
- The color of the frame can drastically affect what the photo looks like, just like a matte (in a real framed photo) does the same.
- Pairing a frame with a matching or contrasting background can highlight the colors in the photographs.

1) Photo Slides

This simple frame trick makes photos look like they are individual slides and focuses the eye on the main subject, which is the photo.

- Simply click on the “Create Custom Frame” button in the Frames section of the tool.

- Increase the thickness to the highest setting by dragging the tiny arrow all the way to the right, until it is 8.00 in thickness.

- Change the color of the frame if you wish, or leave it at white — which is clean, bright, and usually works with any photo.

- Drag the photo frame to your layout for the book page, and re-center your photos where they need to be.

- Finish by clicking “Save” to save the frame to your drawer for later use!

2) Playing with Frames

This is just a little exercise in fun, to change the look of a page by mixing up the thicknesses and colors of the frames.

- We used the same method as the “Photo Slides” trick only we used the thinnest setting for frame as well and changed the color to match the blue water.

- This page is fun because of the bright background color contrasting with the dark skin of the seals, and the placement of the different frames.

Try mixing your own combination of frames and remember to save the styles to your drawer so you can play with them again!

Alison

Since we’ve been putting these posts off for way too long, we thought it would be a good idea to combine them into one super duper huge post! So here it is, the “Trick Mixin’” update … a compilation of a trick, some lick-the-spoon Mixing Bowl books, and a handy dandy mix-in treat.

Sound too good to be true? Keep reading!

Trick My Mix – Scrapbook Type

This trick is similar to the last one, as it focuses on how to decorate the pages of your book with type/words. The following are three examples of how to integrate words by making text boxes look like the cute letter cut-outs you’d see in scrapbooks.

- The biggest part of this technique is picking a layout that has square text boxes. My personal favorite is the 4 photo layout with two text boxes (as seen in the pink layout), but you can experiment with any layout.

- Next think of any word or words that you’d like to represent in the boxes. Here we have “C-U-T-E” and a series of words (silly, goofy, funny, us being us) for the boxes. For the word “cute” we set the font to Chaparral Pro Bold and the size to 59 or 60, and centered it in the box. You may have to play around with this to get it right.

- Create a Custom Frame by selecting the border color from a color on the page, and setting the border thickness to “8,” which is the thickest setting. Then to create a colored text box go to the “more” button in the Frames section, and click on any background color of your preference. Set the transparency to 1.00 so that the background of the text box will be completely solid. Click “Save” and your custom frame will be saved for future use. Drag the custom frame onto your text boxes, and voila! There you have it! Letter cut-outs to personalize your Mixbook – who would have thought?

- Play with your words - highlight only portions of text to enlarge,bold or italicize them. See below for our final example of this Scrapbook type method, then have at it!

The Mixing Bowl 5

This week’s Mixing Bowl is full of greens! Only one serving though, since we have jam packed this post full of other things.

Community Garden 2007 by Mark S., Lisa L. and Michelle B.

This book caught my eye because of the delicious fresh veggies that are on the front cover. This Mixbook is all about a group of folks that got together every week to spend an evening at a community garden. Months later, they enjoyed the literal fruits (and veggies) of their labor. This colorful and picturesque book makes gardening look like so much fun – I’m ready to pick up my gloves and go! I love how the Mixbookers used our textured backgrounds to add to the theme of the book – the first page has our grass background.

Mix-ins 4

This week’s Mix-ins come from our love of best friends and all the love they bring into our lives. Use a Mixbook to pay tribute to your best friend, the love of your life, or even 10 of your closest homies. Make a Mixbook about the memories and good times you have had together – just because. I’m willing to bet that your best bud will love it. Check out this sample from Mixbooker Libby S., and her best gal pal.

Well, that’s all she wrote for today. Enjoy!
Alison

Today’s trick comes from a night of staying up late and experimenting with fun new ways to present the typed content of a book. Try these examples below in your own Mixbook!

1) ABC Type – this is what we call ABC type, because instead of typing regular content, you use letters to create a type of design on the page. This is how we got the look below:

- Choose a background and set it to 30% transparency (find this feature by clicking “more” in the background section of the Creator)

- Set the font to Cooper Black and the size to 45. Type the letters of the alphabet, or even use words related to the photo (see word example below).

- Change the colors of the fonts by highlighting selected text and clicking on the color palette to select a color. Then use your own eye to change the colors as you prefer.

2) Word Type – instead of using letters, use words to create a design.

How cool is that? We especially love this technique when it is used in a themed book. Change the words and the style depending on what your theme is (the book above was about a trip to Seaworld) – maybe use some of the following:

A book about France – Eiffel, Je t’aime, Oui, Ooh la la, Macarons, Croissant, Romantic, Love.

A book about your kids – Funny, Messy, Loud, Fun, Family, Sweet, Spunky, Caring, Loving, Imaginative, Creative, Youthful.

A book about your dog – Silly, Goofy, Playful, Curious, Cute, Lazy, Nosy, Cuddly, Fluffy, Puppy.

This is just one new way to make your Mixbook unique and interesting!

Dedicated to making Mixbooks better,
Alison