Hi Guys! Photo week continues with a how to store your photo memories. With pictures gone digital it is SO hard to get them off your camera/phone and create something you can hold on to. On Monday I gave my tips for printing Instagram photos. But what about documenting the rest of your adventures? I am a huge memory keeper. I was always the Historian in clubs in high school and loved taking pictures and putting them in scrap books. I have a craft closet and one shelf is dedicated to my old, bulky, beautiful scrapbooks. But they are SO expensive to create! Seriously! Just printing out 100 pictures is about $15 plus shipping and then add fancy paper, stickers, glue it gets pricey and time consuming. So what I do is create a yearly book through blurb.com.
How to Store your Photo Memories
This is NOT a sponsored post and zero affiliate were used, I just really, really love my Blurb books! I have made a yearly book with them for 8 years (yes! EIGHT) and I cherish these books. Like I would grab them in a fire (after my baby and dogs) cherish them. Here’s why-
- They are beautiful! The hard cover image-wrapped cover looks so professional and then the nice paper inside is heavy. They are gorgeous and feel expensive
- They are 100% customizable. All you have to do is download blurb’s free software to design your book and then you can customize it however you like.
- They are affordable. You know I like a good deal. These are $75-$100 for a book, but you can usually find a coupon. Even without one, I think $100 is a good price for a whole year’s worth of photos. If you were to print the 2000 photos that were in my book, that would be around $300, plus the price of a few albums.
- They are compact. Way smaller than printing out 2000 photos and putting them in an album or scrapbook!
Here’s how to make a photo book of you year:
- Journal your activities and narrow down your pictures throughout the year. I personally have a private, free blog on blogger.com and blog every two weeks the previous weeks activities. (If you don’t have a blog, I would suggest journaling in a word document and keeping a file of your favorite photos that accompany that activity). The beauty of Blurb is their software uploads your blog and all of the pictures. It makes it SO easy!
- As you journal, add to the book. So if you wrote about your child’s birthday party, next put it in the book. That way, at the end of the year you don’t have hours and hours of editing on your hands
- Determine how long your book will be for. My book is a year long and goes from my anniversary in September to the next September which is confusing sometimes! I would suggest starting with January and going through December to keep it simple. Some people create books for trips or big events (wedding, new baby).
- Use the same style and be consistent. There are so many ways to customize these books, but I think consistently using the same style through your books will keep them looking uniform and are easier for you to edit
I can’t tell you how many times I have grabbed one of my books to see what we were doing in years past. My husband and I love to look through old ones and see our travels and the fun things we did with our friends. And I am sure that Don will love looking through them too!
My suggestion for printing photos (besides display ones) is to not do it! I just really think that making a yearly book is cheaper and more beautiful. Let me know if you create a book and how you like it! My latest one just came in the mail and it was like Christmas to get it! I loved flipping through it and see my stomach get huge and read my baby’s birth story. I am SO happy that I have taken the time to document our lives.
Wow these are so cool! I do photo books as well, but mine aren’t as nice and thick as these! I’m going to check it out. I do Shutterfly and always use a coupon. They offer a lot of free ones throughout the year, but I like the thickness of yours. It does look like a nice book.
Thanks Renee! I love them! You should check them out. They are definitely one of those things I would save in a fire 🙂