Creating memories and capturing them are a huge part of The Worley House! A camera is never to far away from my hand, and I'm always looking for the best ways to preserve those memories for my family. One of the ways that we document life here is through photo books each year.
I used to be an avid scrap booker and always printed off my pictures. But, in an effort to save time and money I've gone digital in the last 5 years and now make photo books for my family.
These are great to look back on every year, we keep them on a shelf under our coffee table. They are a great conversational piece for when guests come over. They are a great way for my to show off my sweet little family.
I made an album for Ava of her first year, and now I'm finishing up my second book for her. I hope to one day give them to her when she's 18 or married so she can take her memories with her.
I use Shutterfly to make and print my books. I've used other sites as well in the years but I've found {in my opinion} that I prefer Shutterfly to some of the others. They have great layouts, pre made designs, lots of embellishments that you can use, and anyone can make a book with their site tools. I also really love Shutterfly for their prices and discounts. I always let my book sit in my "cart" until a 40% or half off code arrives in my email. Then I purchase my books for a cheaper price.
Here's a preview of some of the layouts I've created in Shutterfly;
I also use Picnik & FotoFlexer sometimes to create collages and upload them into my books. They add a little something extra to my books.
I always keep and extra copy of the year's Christmas card, Another thing that I do is add the years Christmas card to the inside of our book, you can see this on the right. I just tape them to the inside of the book so that we can remember that year's card.
There are some really great options for documenting life, this is just one option that really works great for me and my family. I hope that it inspires you to dust off those pictures and put them in an album for your family to remember.
For a great article I found on creating layouts for your family albums, I recommend this one. Another great source for creating albums & documenting life is from Becky Higgins using her Project Life, Check it out here.
How do you document life? I'd love to hear them in the comments.
{I also want to mention I am in no way affiliated with the links & sites mentioned above, I truly love their products that's all.}
