Smilebox Blog

Attention all scrappers!  Smilebox has just introduced what you’ve been asking for –- square scrapbooks that can be easily printed and added to your 12×12 or 8×8 format scrapbooks!  And best of all … it only takes minutes.  We saved our Smilebox pages to a jpeg and uploaded it to Costco.com and received an 8×8 print for just $1.49 and a 12×12 print for only $2.99.  (Now maybe I’ll finally make some progress on my winter scrapbooks!)  As with any Smilebox scrapbook, you control the background style and embellishments for dozens of different options.  Here are some pages of our favorite square designs (featuring some of our kids!).  We’ll be adding more each week.  Take a peek at our new square scrapbooks -– just type “scrapbooks” in the Smilebox catalog and look for the designs with the purple “square” banner.  If there’s a theme you’re looking for tell us in the comments section below!

Children.  Vacations.  Girlfriends.  All great reasons to send or post a Smilebox.  Here are three of our favorites this week from Sylvia, Holly and Dari.

It’s been said that music makes the Smilebox.  It certainly can help tell a story, evoke a feeling or just make you smile.  With more than 1,700 songs in our music library (and more added each day!) and the ability to upload any song from your personal music library, Smilebox recognizes the power of a great song.  In the spirit of Valentine’s Day we’ve taken an unscientific poll throughout the halls of Smilebox to find the best love songs ever.  Here are our favorites.  Tell us yours in the comments section below and next Thursday, Feb. 21st we’ll randomly draw one to win a year’s subscription to Club Smilebox (a $39.99 value)! 

“Hero” - Enrique Iglesias 

“Songbird” - Fleetwood Mac

“She’s Got A Way” - Billy Joel

“The Very Thought Of You” - Nat King Cole

“I Only Have Eyes For You” - The Flamingos 

“Before Today” – Everything But The Girl

“Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” - John Coltrane

“Just The Way You Are” - Billy Joel

“Book of Love” - Peter Gabriel

“Wonderful Tonight” - Eric Clapton

“Everything I Do, I Do It for You” - Bryan Adams

“Nothing Compares 2 U” - Sinead O’Connor

“Every Breath You Take” - The Police

“Have I Told You Lately” - Van Morrison

“True Companion” - Marc Cohn

“Wonderful Tonight” - Eric Clapton 

“The Way I Am” - Ingrid Michaelson

“Your Song” - Elton John

By Susan Wright, founding team member of Smilebox 

So you’re no Steven Spielberg … or even very handy with your family’s camcorder.  How many of us busy moms are?   But chances are you have a movie-mode on your digital camera.  It’s a quick and easy way to capture casual memories and share them with your friends and family.  Don’t be afraid of video.  It’s really as easy to take and download from your camera as a photo.   With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, here’s a list of ten tips to use the digital camera tucked in your bag or drawer and create a heartfelt video message for the sweetie in your life.  And then check out the dozens of great Valentine photo egreetings from Smilebox – the perfect way for cupid to deliver your video masterpiece! 

1. Let the sun shine in.  Digital cameras offer little lighting control, so throw open the blinds or film outdoors to provide maximum light and create a better video clip.
2. Frame your subject.  Before filming, think about what’s behind the subject that you won’t want your viewers to see.  It could be a pile of paperwork or yet-to-be-folded laundry or a random looker-on.  Avoid distracting items and find a neutral and pleasant background.
3. Plan your message.  Before hitting record, think about what you want to say.  You don’t want to sound rehearsed, but a little forethought will save you from countless retakes.  I actually write out 4 to 5 words that remind me of the points I want to make, review the list and then throw it away.  This way, the order of the words keeps me on track without memorizing the entire message.
4. Shorter is better.  This is one of the few times it’s good to be short.  Keep your clip to just 10 to 15 seconds to avoid boring your viewers.  No matter how funny or precious, no one has the time or the patience to watch much more than that.
5. Interview the kids.  Even a well-rehearsed kid can freeze up once the red light is on, so consider asking your kids some thoughtful questions.  Or have someone else film while you stand just off camera and ask the questions like the professionals do.  Answers to questions such as “What are your favorite things to do with Daddy,” “What is your favorite memory from when you were little,” and “What about Mommy makes you smile,” will tug at your heart and will become keepsake clips for years to come.
6. Keep your camera handy.  Some of the most memorable video comes from those spur-of-the-moment opportunities.  The great compact size of the new digital cameras lets you tuck it in your bag, pocket or kitchen drawer.  Make it a habit to routinely recharge the batteries and/or keep a spare.  You’ll be ready to capture first steps, first words and first dates.
7. Easy on pans and zooms.  You don’t want to make your viewers dizzy so use the pan and zoom controls sparingly.  And, when you do use them, use a speed that seems even overly slow and it will turn out just right.
8. Avoid the nostrils.  Keep the camera at a level slightly above your subject and your viewers won’t be looking up their nose.  And, it’s just a more flattering angle for most people.
9. Narrate when necessary.  You don’t have to provide a play-by-play color commentary of your baby crawling across the floor, but sometimes a contextual narrative helps your viewers understand what they’re seeing.  And remember to remind viewers – and yourself years later – about details such as age, grade, school, position or team name.
10. Editing makes perfect.  While you need not strive for perfection, there are many easy, free video editing programs that will get you close.  Movie Maker is a good example and it comes with most new PCs as well as iMovie which ships on iMacs.

Susan Wright, photo hobbyist and mom to two busy ‘tweens, helped to co-found Smilebox with her husband Andrew when they found that sharing memories with friends and family in their hometown of Toronto was both too expensive and time consuming.  She loves taking and sharing photos of her kids without it taking over the rest of her life.  At Smilebox, she has seen many great – and not-so-great – ways to capture video and photo memories around special moments in one’s life.  Susan leads the market research efforts at Smilebox and is also the founding principal of Compass Partners, Inc.

Howdy.  It’s Paul again, director of technology at Smilebox.  It’s time for another installment of Inside the Box.  In my last post, I introduced our company values:  “Consumer Centric,” “Creative and Technical Excellence,” “Family Oriented,” “Accountable,” “Transparent,” “Collaborative” and “Fun.”  I promised to discuss each value in more detail, why we feel the value is important and how that value is reflected in both our work and in our service.

Today I’d like to tell you about our “Consumer Centric” value.  When we first started Smilebox, we knew we needed to build a service that was friendly and easy to use.  How would we measure success against that goal?  The answer was clear:  We’d ask our customers!  We rely on our customers to help us create new features and designs that will excite them.  We ask them questions on our regular survey and in frequent focus groups about what we could do to improve the service.  We regularly bring in our “review board” of customers in our office to show them our latest thinking and get their feedback.  When we create a mock-up of an important new feature we invite customers in to play with it and watch closely to make sure it’s really easy and intuitive to use.

Every company, to some degree, values their customers.  But we try to take it a little further. “Consumer Centric” is reflected everywhere in our work.  It’s in the color of our office walls, in the layout of our desks, in our strong customer support team and in the design and content of our newsletter.  When we moved in our office space a few years ago, we wanted to make sure we had a place that would welcome the many customers we would invite to visit us.  We made sure we painted our office in the bright and cheery colors that reflect our Smilebox character so our visitors felt welcome.

Our work environment is very open.  There are no cube walls and our disco ball reflects at least 20 heads (more about that in “Fun”).  When we laid out our office we made sure our customer support team was conveniently located right next to our program management and development teams.  The three groups who are best capable of identifying and then either addressing a customer issue or implementing a customer request sit right next to each other.  Our investment in a high-quality, local customer support team — instead of one based offshore — is very “Customer Centric.”

I love our newsletter.  Every week we feature one of our customer’s Smilebox creations.  It’s really amazing how people have used Smilebox to share their gifts with us and the Smilebox community.  They’re constantly giving us new ideas on how to push our creative and technical envelopes.  Hopefully they provide all of you with some ideas as well. 

Being so customer centric not only makes Smilebox a lot better, but it also energizes and drives our team.  It makes creating a product all the more interesting and fulfilling.  These are just a few examples of how we bring our values to life.  There are plenty of others (look for my upcoming post on our new slideshows!).  As you can see, we take our “Consumer Centric” value seriously.  Can you think of other ways we could keep our customers top of mind?  Leave me a comment below.Until next time, happy Smileboxing….