Stories | Once Upon

Once Upon Stories

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The story of me, is the story of you

Guest piece: The story of you, filled with all your feelings and emotions, is the most thoughtful gift you can give someone. The story of you is the story of someone else, who might be searching for answers to questions that never had the chance of being asked.

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”Picture perfect photos give a distorted view of reality”

With her unfiltered depictions of everyday life, photographer Karolina Horner wants to give both parents and children real portrayal of what family life is actually like. Dirty clothes, sibling squabbles, toy chaos and tired parents are recurring features in her photos as well as lots of laughter, tears, bonding and all kinds of interaction.

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Make room for all the feels

Life is more than sunshine and daisies. Make sure you capture the quiet, crazy and sad moments too. The ones that capture life’s challenges, your loved ones whole personalities and show life just as it is.

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New font style unlocked = endless photo book possibilities

Have you ever looked at your Once Upon book and thought ”I love it, but gosh darn it that title would look awesome in a thinner font”. Okay, so maybe that exact thought hasn’t crossed your mind but, now it can!

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List of oh-my-gosh gifts for the whole fam

You want your gift to be THE gift. Right? Not the one that will be used one time and never again, forgotten in a drawer somewhere or straight up thrown away in a couple of months. It might seem like a full-time job figuring out oh-my-gosh gifts to everyone in your family and to all your friends, but we’re here to tell you: it’s easier than you think!

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Tips and tricks

A year of flowers

If you’ve ever planted a seed, looked after it, and watched it grow, you know it’s about as close to magic as you’ll ever get. You’ll also know that gardening tends to get a tad obsessive and that your seedlings become your babies. There are plenty of ways to capture the gardening season, but the best way is of course saving all of it in a Once Upon book. Here are a few tips on making your very own flower book.

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Tips and tricks

Sweet summer memories

So, summer went by too quick, yet again. Are you the type of person who can’t wait for autumn, with all its woolly sweaters and hot cups of tea? Or are you lying in a heap on the floor refusing to move until the thermometer reads 25° Celsius (77° Fahrenheit) again? Either way, we’re sure your phone is filled to bursting with a ton of sweet summer memories. So, here come a few tips on how to build your sweet summer photo book.

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Tips and tricks

How-to make your kid’s art book

Who actually keeps all 7623982 drawings that your kids make? Anyone? They might hang on the fridge for a while, but then what? You feel bad about tossing them (and forbid your kid finds their artwork in the trash), but where will you keep them so they won’t just end up taking up a lot of space in the attic? Well, it’s way easier than you think! Here’s how you make your kid’s artwork into a coffee table book.

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Meet A Once Uponer

A football book for the ages

Say hello to ten year old football lovers Tuva and Alice. Their photo book passion project completely knocked our socks off. With the upcoming European Championship they were looking for football cards or a football book about they’re idols; The players of the Swedish women's national football team. But they couldn’t find anything. So in the end they decided to take matters into their own hands and made a book of their own.

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Tips and tricks

Make your travel book even more personal

When we found @lou__lundberg on Instagram we instantly loved her techy tips, tutorials and lifehacks. Louise is a digital designer who runs her own business and when we realized she’d made a Once Upon book, we asked her right away if she would share some of her tips with our Once Uponers. And as the techy wizard she is, she had a few tips on hand that will make your travel book feel even more personal.

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Tips and tricks

How-to: Drag and drop

Saving your memories should be quick and easy, so you actually get it done – and as you know, we’re all about that! That’s why we love our drag and drop features. And, of course, we want to make sure you know all the in’s and out’s of them too.

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Behind the scenes

The journey behind our new brand identity

Some things never change…But sometimes a little change is just what’s needed. Don’t panic. It’s still us. The same Once Upon you know and love. We know that change can be hard. But we promise, this is a good kind of change. The kind that gets you where you need to go and helps you grow. So, what does that mean? Well, we had a chat with our CEO, Lina Andersson, and our Product Designer, Evelina Örn, to better understand the in’s and out’s to why and how we’re introducing a new, more once uponier, us.

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Meet A Once Uponer

Emmeli's unique art pieces in Once Upon books

Emmeli is a fantastic artist working with ceramics. Her artwork, everything from candleholders looking like knots to vases formed as giraffes, is absolutely gorgeous! By collecting pictures of her artwork in photo books she can look back, get inspired & develop her ideas further every year.

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Tips and tricks

10 photo tips to make the best photo album ever

Today we are all photographers in one way or another – whether it be with a fancy camera or your phone. But how do you get the perfect pictures for you photo book?

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Meet A Once Uponer

Que saves her food art forever...

...in a Once Upon book, of course! Que Phuong Tran is a food art expert from Vietnam who has made a Once Upon book showing her favourite art pieces.

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Meet A Once Uponer

Farrah's book filled with love

All photo albums are filled with love, but the photo book that Farrah Almira made literally had everyone at the office crying happy tears when she shared the story with us. The photo book, that the whole family helped put together, is a book filled with 50 years of true love. They made it as a gift for her parents-in-law’s 50th wedding anniversary – and as you can imagine – it was a success.

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Tips and tricks

5 useful tips for the perfect Father's Day gift

...and this is gonna go straight to the dad-heart. Because that’s the type of gift a photo book is.

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Tips and tricks

It's time to bring old memories to life

Most of us have tons of developed old photos forgotten in boxes in the attic, from when you were young, but maybe even from when your parents were young. Why not give them new life in a photo book? The possibilities are endless.

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Tips and tricks

Your furry friend deserves their own book

How often have you wished you could read your pup’s mind, or that your kitty could talk? Well, why not give your favourite little pal a voice of its own in their personal photo book.

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Five tips: How to get in the photo

There are so many reasons why it’s important for you to be in the picture, to be a part of the story that will be told for generations to come.

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6 tips: How to capture genuine moments on camera

Spontaneous photos show reality as it is. We have gathered a few tips on how to capture the moment without losing the magic.

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Behind the scenes

A campaign in the making

An octopus and a ton cakes, bunches of flowers and loads of cupcakes. Who knew it could be so much fun to create a campaign about a new app feature? Tag along for a sneak peak behind the scenes for our new Almost too easy campaign.

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Tips and tricks

Make, copy, paste, repeat

We’ve said it before – and you’ll hear us say it again – there’s no gift like a photo book. So why not give it to the whole fam or the entire friend group? It can honestly be as easy as make-copy-paste-repeat. Here’s how!

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Tips and tricks

3 ways to make a recipe book

There are plenty of ways to make a recipe book. And we mean plenty. You probably have recipes saved on print screens on your phone, jotted down on a notepad somewhere, recipes saved on your computer or ripped out from a magazine? Here’s three easy ways to make your own cookbook from all those scattered recipes.

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Tips and tricks

Make your Once Upon book in our webapp

We all use our phone camera for those everyday photos and a lot of our pics are stored right in the phone’s camera roll. But maybe you do bring out your real-deal-camera to capture certain moments a bit more vivid, a bit deeper and in a bit more special way? And, maybe you have some old photos stored on your computer or hard drives that would be way happier in a photo book? If that’s the case, it would probably save you a lot of time to make your photo book straight from your computer instead of on your phone.

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Meet A Once Uponer

Sanne's collection of memories

The talented photographer Sanne Jennes fell in love with photography when she was only 15. Since then she’s been on an amazing journey, first not really knowing what she was doing but still loving it, to now working full-time with capturing her clients’ special moments. Not only does she do it for a living, she spends most of her free time traveling to see and capture the beauty of new places. And of course, she has a full collection of Once Upon books filled with her absolutely favorite shots.

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Tips and tricks

Three ways to “my baby’s first year” book

Obviously there are a lot of ways to make your baby’s first year-book. It all depends on the amount of time you have…

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The only wedding photo list you need

Your big day is coming up and, of course, you want to capture that day in every way possible. From the small details on the wedding dress to the “I do’s” and the crazy dancing at night. And that’s no easy job. But it can definitely be done. So, here’s our go-to list to capture all those moments!

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Meet A Once Uponer

Anna's very own cookbook

Anna’s passion for cooking started even before she was born with her mother’s love for food. She grew up with her mom as her big inspiration and together with her interests for healthy living, communication and sustainability – she started sharing her recipes on Instagram and, of course, made her very own Once Upon cookbook.

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Tips and tricks

Meet our new drag and drop feature

Now you can finally drag and drop photos between spreads. So what does this mean? Well, sometimes when you’re making your book and adding your photos, things can move pretty fast. Before you know it, you have over 100 pages and your photos aren’t at all in the order you’d like them to be. Oh well, bummer, there’s nothing you can do about it…. Or is there? Now all you have to do is press the photo that somehow ended up on the “wrong” spread, then drag and drop it where it belongs. The best part, if you have added image captions to a photo, they’ll tag along to the new spread too!

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Tips and tricks

Make your photo book bit by bit

Even though it is very easy, and honestly, pretty fun to make photo books in our app (if we may say so ourselves), it still takes time. Simply because there’s typically not just ten photos to look through. More like ten thousand. But you know what? You can get around this way easier than you think – by making your photo books bit by bit.

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Tips and tricks

All kinds of love stories

Whether you’re a person who adores Valentine’s Day, dreads this day every year or doesn't care at all – we could all just use a bit of extra lovin’ right now. So let your friends and family, especially the ones you don’t always have time to show it to, know just how much you care about them by telling them with a photo book.

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Tips and tricks

How to wrap your gifts furoshiki style in 5 simple steps

Instead if buying wrapping paper this year, why not give furoshiki wrapping a go? Not only is it super convenient and sustainable, since you can use all sorts of fabrics you have at home, but it’s really easy too. Here’s how you do it!

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Meet A Once Uponer

Rudy's mouth-watering book

Meet Rudy Dekker, the baker from Zwolle. His yummy Instagram account took us by storm and we’ve been following his mouth-watering feed ever since. Rudy decided to share a few of his dreamy recipes in a Once Upon book and the results are as delicious as we’d hoped!

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How to make a beautiful wedding album in no time

Your wedding photo album isn’t like any photo book you’ve made before. But starting your wedding album can seem like moving a mountain, so we’re here to tell you it’s way easier than you think. Especially with a quick guide from us.

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Meet A Once Uponer

Audrey's home on the wild roads

Meet Walden, a 1995 GMC Vandura, and his owner Audrey Bienek who transformed him from an ordinary van into an awesome travel van and the ultimate way to live in freedom.

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Meet A Once Uponer

Maria collects her art in photo books

An amazing artist who captures the majestic Scandinavian nature with her watercolors. Maria recently began showing and selling her art and has now found the perfect way to document all her paintings even after they’ve sold. How? By saving them in a Once Upon book of course.

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Meet A Once Uponer

Karin’s green garden

It was during the summer of ’19 that Karin tagged us on Instagram with her photo book ”Green Garden”. An album that stunned us as well of all of her followers. Karin’s photo book became so popular that she’s ordered around 200 copies for her family, friends and followers.

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“We don't have to do something special to have fun together”

How does a single mother of five get through the day? Therese Hellström has found a way. The key? Everyday routines that actually work.

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Create balance in your photography

Big moments have a special place in your camera roll. But don't forget to capture the uniqueness of your everyday life. Photograph the recurring moments in life.

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Tips and tricks

New feature – a game changer for photo books

Autofill. Doesn’t that just have a good ring to it? Autofill is what we’re calling our brand-new feature that allows you to upload your images to your photo book in one go. Not sure what we mean? Alright, let us explain.

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Ylva's Story

It was February, freezing cold and dark outside the first time Ylva felt that little lump in her right breast. She was only 43 years old and could never have imagined that the tiny lump a few months later would turn her life upside down. Read Ylva’s story about her cancer and how it helped her to share it with others.

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Tips and tricks

Make your own coffee table book

Are you tired of the classic coffee table books? The ones that look pretty fabulous on the outside but no one ever wants to actually flick through? We think it’s about time to give your dinner guests some real inspiration, inside out, with your own personal coffee table book. Here are some ideas of what you can fill them with.

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Tips and tricks

Remember all your kid’s funny sayings

All little kids are just straight up comedians, aren’t they? Some of the things they say, ask or just contemplate about makes you bite your lip numb not to burst out laughing. Because you can’t really laugh at them, not then and there, but what if – in a couple of years – you could laugh together about their un-knowling hilarious sayings? Here’s how you remember those funny comments with close-to-zero effort.

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Behind the scenes

The journey behind our webapp

In the beginning of the summer, we shared the big news that you can start making your Once Upon books on our website as well. We had a lil’ chat with two of the developers, David Åberg and Peter Lundström, to let you in on the journey behind our brand new web app.

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Tips and tricks

How-to my first year book

Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. But making a “my first year book” for your baby can actually be quite fun. To help you out a little we’ve created this list of things to write about and photo tips to make it a little easier.

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Tips and tricks

Seamlessly make your Once Upon book on all your different screens

Now when you can make your Once Upon books on your computer too, it means you can seamlessly make your books on your phone, your tablet and your computer. You don’t have to choose one device to finish a book, you can simply jump back and forth between your device however you’d like. Here’s a few tips on how to make the most out of this seamless way to create your books!

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Meet A Once Uponer

Ten friends and a Once Upon book about even more lighthouses

We sat down with Per-Gunnar and Tom for a traditional Swedish “fika” (if you’ve never tried semlor, you just have to do it one day!) to get to know more about their amazing Once Upon book about lighthouses they, and their eight friends, stayed at during the past 15 years. If you want to be inspired and ready to explore the coast of Sweden – keep reading!

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Tips and tricks

Have you tried our collab feature?

Collabing with friends and family just got a whole lot easier with our drag and drop between spreads. Now you can add all your photos and move and organize them between spreads afterwards. So you get cohesive spreads and a story timeline that unfolds exactly the way you want it to.

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Behind the scenes

The Journey Behind our Image Upload Feature

Say hello to our brand new desktop image uploader! We know you’ve been dying for an easy way to get all your favorite photos into the app, no matter how they were taken. So here it is! Want to know more about how the Image uploader came to be? We’ve had a little chat with our Product Designer, Helena Melender, to take a little peek behind the scenes on how this feature has been developed.

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Yearbook, Tips and tricks

How-to-yearbook: A five-tip yearbook guide

There are of course as many ways to make a yearbook as there are people on the planet – but if you, like many others, are struggling to get started – here are a few ways to help you make that yearbook happen! And remember: done is better than perfect! Although with a Once Upon book it’s usually both (if we may say so ourselves...)!

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Meet A Once Uponer

Thomas built his A-frame cabin from scratch

And he’s let us in on how he did it by creating a photo book about it!

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Tips and tricks

Our top 3 caption tips

So, as you might know, we've launched this awesome new feature that you’ve been longing for, but now that it’s finally here – you might find yourself lost and have no idea what to write? Don’t worry, we feel the same way sometimes, so here comes our best tips if you find yourself experiencing writer's block.

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Behind the scenes

The Journey Behind our Image Caption Feature

Image captions have finally arrived! You can now choose to say a little something about each memory in your photo book. We have talked to our Product Designer, David Resoluth, to deepdive in the journey behind-the-scenes on this feature.

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Tips and tricks

7 fun things to do with your kids this autumn

Need something to do with your kids when they’re climbing the walls, but the weather is too cold, dark and rainy to go outside? Well, we have some ideas for you!

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Tips and tricks

3 photo books that are waiting for you in your camera roll

Autumn is upon us. Now’s the time to cosy up under a blanket and get started on those photo books that are waiting for you in your camera roll. Having trouble deciding where to start? Here are a few handy tips:

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Tips and tricks

5 crazy creative photo books you wouldn't make...

...until now, that is. Here are 5 different, cool and awesome Once Upon books to help you think outside the box when you’re putting together your own photo book.