if you make photo albums/books for your kids...

[esperanza]

Never thought I'd be posting in this forum. I'm SO not crafty! I wanted to get some input from other moms who make photo albums/books for their kids. I decided before ds was born that I'd go the Shutterfly photo book route. I'm not a paper scrapbooker at all, and I felt like something online was easy enough for me to keep up with. I made four books of ds' first year, and I'm super glad that I have them. They were a lot of nap times, but so worth it to have those photos.

Now that we're in year two, I have to figure out what I can keep up with. I figure the first year's books would be more intense, since there are so many firsts/big moments that first year. At first I thought maybe I could get by with just one book for each year after, but I'm thinking it will end up being two. (Just because otherwise the book gets too thick.)

We'd love to have another child at some point, so I also have to think about this in terms of keeping up with two kids. I'm the oldest in my family, so I got the better photo albums. But I'm hoping to not short change the second one too much! I am trying to figure out how to work in keeping up with the photo albums into our daily life. I was thinking maybe taking a few hours at the end of each month. The other option being trying to do something once/week, but whatever I pick I don't want that constant nagging feeling that I'm behind on my books and should be working on them.

So if you do photo books, how do you keep up with them? It's been so nice keeping up on them and not getting too behind (and doing months at a time). I need a plan so that I know I don't have to think about it except at x time, otherwise I'll keep thinking that I should be working on them. How do you make it sustainable? Thanks!

[sunflowermom]

What a great idea! I'm no good at keeping up with projects like this, but I'd love to hear tips from those of you that are!

[CelticJourney]

Putting together a digital photo book doesn't take much time IF you have the photos organized and IF you aren't overly worried about everything being 'super cute'. The sorting and organizing is the work, so it's a great idea to take a hour or so at the end of each month to sort

I have the kids pictures on the computer by year and then each one has a folder (copies if the pic has more than one child etc). I'd love to say I've kept them all in great order, but sadly, no. It does help if you burn CD's at the end of each year to have backups!

[ctab]

Project life all the way. It is simple and fun. I like Stampin Up's the best, but you can get the regular kits, albums, etc in Michael's, Hobby Lobby, etc.

Here is the basic explanation
https://beckyhiggins.com/about-project-life/

[ECingMama]

The people I know who keep up with it do it monthly. I like MyPublisher and Blurb. I use Shutterfly too.

[Katigre]

I use Shutterfly and do one 'baby book' per child. It usually goes until they're 3-4 and I reach the max pages Shutterfly allows. I like having one book even if it has 85ish pages, and the kids look through them all the time.

[esperanza]

I do have the photos organized by date, but I will have to think at some point about how to organize them better if we have more than one kid! I'm not at all worried about it being perfect or scrapbook-y. I'm going with putting the pictures in their templates and writing the captions. I don't even really do photo editing, because honestly I know if I start getting all perfectionistic, it will never get done. I think ds would prefer to have many imperfect books than one perfect book.

I looked at Project Life while pregnant. Think I started a thread on it. My mom suggested it, but really, it wasn't for me. I couldn't keep up with it. And I couldn't handle the cutting and the sleeves and all that jazz. Too scrapbook-y for me (I like it, but I just can't handle doing those kinds of crafts.)

I ended up with four books of ds' first year (volumes 1-4) because the books were going to hit the limits. I did the lay flat pages, and at some point the books would have been so thick that it would have been too much. So I made smaller books, though still around 70 pages each. They are expensive, even with sales and discounts!

I think I'll go with the once a month plan. Then I'm sure it will all go out the window if we have another child.

[tessiemae]

I use snapfish -- but it's pretty similar.
I make each child a birthday album and a homeschool album each year. I make trip/vacation albums and Christmas albums. The rest of our photos are in massive books with minimal notations. I'm a twice a year photo-book person despite good intentions. I find that organizing on the computer is the most important part because I'll decide to do a special theme and then go a-hunting for photos over the years. For example, I'm making a First Day of the School Year album for my now 12th grader. It's very sweet. I made a Piano Recital album for him of all 40 recitals with the music over a 13 year period. It was very, very simple -- the hunting for the photos was the big part.

Whatever you do, I think it's great that you are! We only have about 5 photos of my husbands whole childhood. I would love to receive a few disorganized shoeboxes of photos!

peace,
tessiemae

[Aerynne]

I do it exactly like Katigre!

I also have an album of professional pictures for each child. Most of those I don't have the rights to so if I get a print of a professional picture it goes in their album. So that's usually one or two pictures a year.

I really hate scrapbooking and I'm cheap but I want my kids to have books so this is my version of that.

I am also thinking I will make them one book of age 3-18 and give it to them when they move out or something like that.

I'm not only thinking in terms of keeping up, but also in terms of how many books does a person want to haul around every time they move. I wouldn't personally want a book for each year of my life or even each year of my youth- just one book is good enough for me to remember my own childhood by (but I'm a minimalist )

[ECingMama]

I think it's a great idea to send kids into the world with one book. I also think this mama would want a copy for herself too.

[Aerynne]

Originally Posted by ECingMama

I think it's a great idea to send kids into the world with one book. I also think this mama would want a copy for herself too.

I plan to make one chronological book of our whole family including everyone's pictures, but I'm not going to do it for a long time.

[2TMama]

[Redeemed]

I use Heritage Makers and Panstoria Artisan.

[Beth1231]

A has a photo album with 100 pics in it and it stops around age four when C was born.
I'm halfway done with C's album and haven't started N's yet.
I like the old fashioned style. Slip pictures into sleeves old timey stuff

[esperanza]

Yeah, that is what I am afraid will happen if I keep up this pace and we have other kids. I'm trying to be more ruthless about what I include.

What are Heritage Makers and Panstoria Artisan?