Over the Christmas break I had a few people ask me what system I use for our family memory keeping. It was fun talking about it so I thought I would share it with all of you! I have tried a few things and ended up making digital albums and printing them. I also print my favorite pictures large and frame them in our home. When I started scrapbooking in high school I loved Becky Higgins‘ work. When I was in grade 12 my mom and I were teacher aids down at a CKU in Utah and I got to help Becky with her class. It was so fun to work with her. So when she launched Project Life I was so excited to give it a try. In 2009 I started the project.
Her idea was to take a photo everyday and journal about it on a small 2X3 card. I LOVED it! It was fun but you really had to be creative. Of course I fell a bit behind on my journalling and would sit and sift through my photos and journal journal journal to get caught up. When I was caught up it was an absolute dream. The package included the binder, journalling cards, clear decorative cards, month dividers, day stickers, a date stamp and more and best of all it all matched. I ended up buying another album for the next year.
One of the things I love about this is the freedom to embellish the pages if I had the time and the fact that they looked cute enough if I didn’t. I also love that it included my own handwriting. I think it will be cool in 20 years for my kids to see what we did in our everyday lives. {Who am I kidding, my boys already love to look at the books!}
As I started working on our 2010 album I was doing alright then I had a baby, my husband started his masters of education, we moved to a new house, my photography business got very busy and I ran out of scrapbook time. I was so far behind I felt a lot of pressure to get my pics printed and it was a bit overwhelming.
So I searched out blog books, digital scrapbooks, mac books, and the works. I came upon
Shutterfly and took that route! Here is our last year family album.
They have so many albums to choose from and this year they have even added a project 365 option! My two favorite things have joined so we can have the best of both worlds.
You just upload your photos and type the journalling that you want added. The best part about this is that you can arrange the pages to have as many or as little photo places that you want. You can have an entire page for a photo or text or 15 photos on one page. If you don’t want the freedom to decide you just upload your photos and press install and it will place your photos for you.
I also figured out a little time saver and copied and pasted my journalling from my blog straight into the book. So in a weekend I had our entire year in an album. They also have a scrapbook option, so if you like to digitally scrapbook your photos there is a blank 12X12 page where you just insert your scrapbooked page.
The other great thing about Shutterfly is there is ALWAYS a coupon or deal code that you can enter to save. I saved 65% off my book. This year I am working on designing my own book- so that will be fun! I also decided that I am going to print a smaller version for both of my boys so when they leave home they will have their history to take with them too. {Thus eliminating the scrapbooking things 3 times problem!} Wouldn’t you love to have 18 books of you or your spouse growing up? It is awesome too because they are so compact you could fit them all in a rubbermaid!
As for real scrapbooking, I still love to dabble in it. There isn’t anything quite like designing the page and adding fun embellishments. Since I made Porter a baby album of his first year I decided that I will scrapbook {old school style} a baby album for all of my children. I have been catching up on Gray’s lately and it has been a blast. I can’t believe he used to be so little! Here is a page from Porter’s book. When Porter was born I couldn’t find a baby book that I loved so I decided to make my own. I just did a collage of photos each month and wrote down the highlights from that month. I am doing the same thing with Grayden’s book.
Here are a few pieces of Gray’s pages.
In case you are wondering, I do not work for Shutterfly or Becky Higgins I simply love their products. There are SO many cool ways to save your family memories out there. You have to find what fits with your style and the time you have available. If you have a cool memory keeping solution please leave it in the comment section. It is always fun to see how people organize their photos.
Pam Heggie - It all looks so gorgeous! Mine feels like such a mishmash sometimes! Lol. Glad to see you’re still keeping it a little old school!
momma c - I love this post Ash! I know I’ve seen all of these projects as you’ve worked on them but seeing them all together inspires me so much! This will always be a work that is so worthwhile and fulfilling, for both you and your family. I remember CKU, that was so fun and Becky told me after that she thought you were so cute and such a knowledgeable scrapper already!
Carrie - I love this whole post because it is all so near and dear to my own heart. I love your shutterfly book and I may just have to convert my ways…. Thanks for sharing, Ash!
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