Carol Stream business specializes in professionally bound storybooks

Kris Malandruccolo's business is all about preserving memories.

For as long as she can remember, the Carol Stream resident has always been the one with a camera in her hands. Now she captures memories through video and professionally bound books.

Malandruccolo serves as a consultant for Heritage Makers storybooks, a company based in Utah. The books, a form of digital scrapbooking, are created through her Web site, ElegantStorybooksbyKris.com. Instead of buying all the materials and papers to scrapbook the traditional way, this allows the user to choose from a gallery of templates and compose the book on the computer. "It's easy and there's no mess," Malandruccolo said.

Heritage Makers storybooks were featured in the December issue of Oprah's magazine as one of her favorite gifts.

"The books bring people to tears," Malandruccolo said. Text is added to the book to tell everything from a life story to a love story. Vacations, a child's sports or school activities, a grandparent's life story and weddings are often covered in the books.

Malandruccolo, who operates Elegant Storybooks By Kris, assists with ideas in making the books and offers deals when items are bundled together. The company also offers an array of other products including greeting cards, playing cards and calendars. The customized books start at $35.

An aspect that drew Malandruccolo to Heritage Makers is that the books are professionally stitched, not glued, and made in the United States. They are comparable quality to a photo studio-produced book, she said.

"These are books to pass down from generation to generation," she said.

In addition to Heritage Makers, Malandruccolo is also a videographer; she preserves people's stories through video. For the past 20 years she has been video taping weddings, anniversaries and recording people's life history.

Right now the videographer is video taping the life story of a 92-year-old man. She video tapes him telling stories about his past and then adds pictures and music and puts it on a DVD.

"Everybody has a story they want to preserve. There is always a story behind the photo," Malandruccolo said.

Malandruccolo and her husband Bob are raising three sons, ages 15 to 21, in Carol Stream.

"It's all about preserving family history," she said.

For more information, call (630) 876-9604.