Week 3 Day 5!!!! Final Day!

Today was a very high intensity production day! WE PRINTED OUR BOOK!!!! It was AWESOME to finally see all that hard work paid off, and in print! Patty and I met Deb around 11:00 this morning and went over the final layout for the book. We then transferred our book pages from the photoshop program to another program called "Quarks." This program enables us to actually layout our book in page to page format. (Real book format if you will.) We opened and saved each page of the book in Quarks, and edited the pages to fit into the 11.5 X 8 in. size. We wanted to make our book a small square, so it is easier for a child to hold onto! I know that when I was younger, I loved books to be able to fit right into my owns hands because I felt like I was "in charge." We wanted our book to have this same effect on the children reading it. SO, after we fit all our pages into the Quarks program, we then had to adjust each page to be opposite the page it needs to be printed with. We could not just print each page and fold them, because the pages would not line up, thus not having a matching picture across two pages. This was a difficult task, as Deb told us this was the most tedious part of the whole process, and it really was. I was getting so impatient at this point because all I wanted to do was print out book, and see it in REAL LIFE.  We finally completed the printing layout, which allowed us to finally press the PRINT BUTTON! This is what Patty and I had been thinking about doing throughout this entire process. I just can't actually believe that three weeks have flown by like this, and our book is FIN! It's a crazy experience. The fact that we only had three weeks to make this book is a really difficult concept to grasp, as most authors/illustrators take years to complete a book. I know our book isn't bookshelf ready, but with a little work I know that it could be. Everyone Patty and I met with over this process wished us good luck in our process of creating and printing a children's book in three weeks. The fact that Patty, and I completed this task, AND have an awesome book that I know I am extremely proud of makes me extremely excited. Patty and I worked so well together throughout this entire process, and with out Deb this would have never been so successful! It's finished, and we are so proud of everything we accomplished!!! WE DID IT! WAHOO!