The Non-Scrapbooker's Scrapbook (Photobooks)

I'll admit it; there's no shame. :) Scrapbooking is something I never have gotten into.  Well, that's not entirely true.  There was that sad attempt with crayola markers, stickers, and a Mary Englebreit scrapbook to document my college years... but that was both the beginning and the end of my scrapbooking attempts.

But over the last few years, I've discovered these easy photobook publishing websites (and no, I'm not going to mention them or do a plug for some certain company; I've used a couple or three companies and found them all to be just fine for our purposes).  In this digital age, where we take skads more pictures than our parents or grandparents ever did, it is ironic that we are often less likely to have actual physical prints of our photos.

(Do you find this to be true for you?  It was for us, until I started photobooking.)

To solve this problem, I've opted to start regularly documenting our family's life by printing photobooks.

Yesterday morning, I woke up to a 60% off coupon in my e-mail inbox from a photobook company I've used before...  but the catch was, the coupon had to be used by midnight (last night).  Since I haven't yet done a photobook for most of 2011, I went ahead and did the whole year's worth of our favorite pictures in one book.

Previously, I've done entire portions of our lives in one book (like our 4 years in Istanbul: 2007-2011, or our family trip to Cairo), but I like this method of doing one year in one book.  It gives me the opportunity to share more, without having to be so exclusive and choosy.  So my plan is to wait for the photobooks to go on sale each year (like they did yesterday), work like mad all day on a book (which I did throughout the entire day, yesterday), and make family yearbooks.

I find that we revisit our photobooks fairly often; I keep them on a handy reachable shelf so they are easily accessible, even to the children.  The kids will often pull one out and giggle about or remember experiences or funny moments we've shared as a family.  Course, we've had to teach them to be very careful with them, as (even on sale) they're not cheap to print.  But I really love this way of keeping up with family photos.


How do you deal with family photos in this digital age?  Are you a scrapbooker?  Do you have a routine of printing out favorite pictures?  Please share!

9 comments:

Miranda Hupp said...

I always wanted to scrapbook but never had the time, money or patience. Last year, someone told me about Project Life. I love it!! Have you ever heard of it? I won't go into a long comment about it because it would just be a repeat if you already know. :)

Jess Connell said...

Miranda, I don't know a thing about Project Life. Want to share a link or elaborate?

Miranda Hupp said...

Here is the link. http://www.beckyhiggins.com/products/

You can make it as elaborate or as simple as you want. You can do a picture a day or document certain events. It is so easy but yet so perfect. For me anyway!

Make sure when you click on that link you check out out the sample albums on the left. It will give you a real glimpse on what its all about. :)

Kati said...

I need to start doing photo books or SOMETHING. Like you said, I have tons of pictures but few of them printed. The thought is overwhelming but I just need to start!

Kondwani said...

I do almost exactly what you do. Yes, the children need to be careful, but they are not 'precious' in the same way that single copies of old photos were. Its a great way for the children to know their history (our firstborn died before the others were born, our third child was adopted in a distant country, there have been many overseas trips whilst they are still very young....) Doing a year at a time can help you focus on the high points, and really makes you give thanks!

Noelle said...

Hi:

I came upon your blog post about the first week of using Babywise with your newborn. I'm five months pregnant, and have been reading Babywise. When you say a full feeding of ten to fifteen minutes per side, do you mean sitting down for about thirty minutes nursing the baby in total? I've been confused about this since I've read some mothers only nurse from one breast, and then switch to the other breast for the next feeding. Any clarification on this would be welcome.

This is the link I found:

http://makinghome.blogspot.com/2010/07/chronicling-babywise-week-1.html

Best,

Noelle

Jess Connell said...

Yes, Noelle, that's exactly what I mean. I nurse on both sides at each feeding. Hope this helps! :)

Anonymous said...

I do the same thing - a book a year. Course, I've only done it for 2 years since I've been married. And I'm doing my son's "baby" book that way.

I design the pages as the year goes along, then I upload them to the site that I use - keeping them a work in progress. When they have a sale, I just pull the trigger and order the book! (I use Winkflash since a couple of times a year, you can order a 100-page book for the price of 20-pages).

My sister uses Becky Higgins like a gal up above suggested. Both are great systems!

Tonni said...

I heartily agree with the above comment about Project Life. I ADORE this method, I'm a failed scrapbooker as well, and found project life 2 years ago- it's one of my favourite products ever! So cute and easy, and easy to involve the kids too!