MPIX Review + Class Update

So, I've been a bad blogger this month. What can I say? July ate my brain! I keep waiting for things to settle down and be normal, which doesn't seem to be happening. Mostly I have no excuse.

One of the reasons I haven't been posting much (or answering emails, or sleeping, or eating, or pretty much doing anything outside my scrap room) is I've been putting all my spare time into getting the Collection Commotion: Theme Albums class finished. We're right on track and ready for its debut on Thursday, August 1, 2013!

Look, the manual even has a cover now - we're getting close, y'all!

Look how pretty it is! I'm so happy with how this class is coming together.

You can pre-order the class now: Collection Commotion.

You can see one of the class layouts on the manual cover. Here's some sneak peeks at bits and pieces of the other layouts:

Speaking of photographs, I've been researching online photo processors lately, and I have a recommendation for you: MPIX.

I did a lot of research on online photo processors, paying particular attention to what professional and very serious amateur photographers had to say about them. It seemed to me that MPIX received the most positive reviews overall (aside from services only available to professional photographers with a business license) so I ordered a bunch of 4"x6" prints from them.

The Good:

The color and detail are excellent! I am just as satisfied with these as the prints I get from my Epson R1900 with genuine Epson inks.

Photos are printed on quality paper with a luster finish, my personal favorite for the best combination of color saturation and no messy finger prints.

Prints are available in a huge variety of sizes - perfect for Instagram photos, Project Life, mini albums, home décor and other scrapbooking projects: 3.5x5, 4x4, 4x5, 4x6, 5x5, 5x7, 6x9, 8x8, 5x15, 8x10, 8.5x11, 8x12, 10x10, 9x12, 10x13, 12x12, 10x15, 5x30, 11x14, 10x20, 12x18, 12x24, 16x20, 16x24, 20x20, 20x24, 20x30, 24x36.

Fast shipping. I placed my order on Wednesday, July 24 at 1:30 PM Eastern USA time and the prints arrived on Friday, July 26. MPIX is in Kansas and I am in the Washington, DC Metro Area. That is really fast, in my opinion. Shipping was $7.95 for 306 prints.

Amazing packaging. Photos were stacked and wrapped in plastic, then covered in foam and taped to a piece of cardboard. This cardboard was then shrink wrapped so the photos would not shift or be damaged during shipping. Everything was then placed in a cardboard box for shipping. I was amazed at how carefully the prints were handled.

The Bad:

4"x6" prints cannot be ordered at the same time as odd-sized photos - you must place two separate orders: one for 4"x6" and one for anything else. You must also upload your photos twice if you want sizes other than 4"x6" - once to the 4"x6" side of the site and once to the other.

I assume this is to streamline the ordering process so it's super quick and easy to load your cart with the most popular size. Not the worst issue in the world - just something to be aware of. The most annoying part about this for me was the double uploading. That could be time consuming if you have a lot of photos to upload.

Value:

Prints are $0.19/print for 4"x6" which makes them more expensive than other online and drugstore photo processors, but I thought they were an excellent value given how much better the quality was.

I'll show you the prints side-by-side with the same prints from my Epson on Thursday during the shows. We have USTREAM every Thursday afternoon from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM Eastern USA time and then again in the evening from 9:00 PM to 11:00 PM Eastern USA time.

All classes and their recordings will be over on my USTREAM channel: Kathryn Scraps!

To convert Eastern USA time to your time zone, click here: Time Zone Converter.I'll show I recently ordered prints from the wedding

See ya!

Kathryn :D