My Plans for the Next 20 Years of Family Photos
We have such fun family photos from Elias’s first year shoot- more coming on Wednesday!
My old friend Katie sent me an email that said this:
Have you thought about how you are going to do kids photos or family photos if you guys have more kids? I know it’s weird that I even think about these things… but when we take SO many pictures, I’m trying to figure out how to do albums and yearly pictures and what not when we have a brood. I am NOT pregnant… just a planner! 🙂
Yes, Katie, I have.
Here’s my answer. I thought a few of you may be interested as well…
I am going to do what Danelle Johnson does. I think this is BRILLIANT. I had the pleasure of meeting Danelle at Scrap Etc. 2008. Though I am sure she wouldn’t remember me, she had a PROFOUND impact on me.
Please go to her what works for me post, then read on. You need to read her post to fully understand what I am saying.
I love the idea of making a photo book for each year, with 300-400 of the year’s best photos for each child – and including family members in the pictures! Yes, it will be an investment, but what good are photos that are never enjoyed? If the book costs $80 and it has 400 photos in it, that works out to 20 cents a piece. Not bad… I am going to start doing a book a year starting this year. Maybe if I get really motivated, I will do one for last year too. I should. That way Elias will have books for his whole life.
In rereading Danelle’s post, I got so inspired and fired up to do the same for my family photos. I do not use Photoworks, but I think I am going to start. I like that I can create a book of thumbnail images of all my photos from a year. What a great reference tool. If you use flickr, you can also import your photos from there (I don’t use flickr, but I know Katie does!). Danelle also mentions that they run sales. I love sales. (I bet none of you knew that).
I plan to continue doing Project 365 every year. I love taking a photo a day, though I do tend to miss a few days a month. It has been so rewarding! I am terrible at doing the journaling cards though. I need a different system. Maybe I should start writing the day’s card every day. Right now I haven’t written my journaling cards since MAY. Yikes.
I also will continue to paper scrap. I scraped this weekend for the first time in several weeks. It was so fun to put patterns of paper together, look at photos, jot down memories, etc. I don’t see that changing – though the number of layouts will likely decrease over time (Elias has around 60-70 layouts in his first year albums – I don’t think I will be able to do that for child #2).
A conversation about photos and scrapbooking must include mention of Stacy Julian’s book Photo Freedom. 
Lastly, I love this journal book Danelle does for her kids. Isn’t it an inspiring idea?
So, what do you do with all of your family photos?
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Right now you can get a book from shutterfly completely free! 8×8 book, use SUMMERBOOK in the code, need to act now it expires on the 26th!
I LOVE THIS IDEA…oh and yeah we are so alike, pictures taken, journalling not….hmmmmm
Thanks for sharing this. I don't scrapbook like I'd like to. I have supplies for a couple of books that I never even started. I stumbled across a free photobook one day and made a beach trip book for my family. We love that book!
I get free photo book coupon codes from various sites and use them as I get them. My daughter got married in May and we used her dating/engagement pictures for a guest book. It was so unique and everyone loved it.
Now my middle son will be 18 next month and I just went through 18 years worth of pictures (whew) to pick the ones I want to include in another free book. I have to scan in most of them, but it will be worth it. All this to say I LOVE photobooks. They make me feel like I've accomplished something and my panicky feeling goes away.
I love this idea!!!! I went to danielles blog and love her content. Could you pass along the address to get to her homepage..for some reason I got to the post but couldn't get to the homepage to bookmark it. I would love to read more of her stuff and stay up to date. Thanks!
Such a good question – and answers! I've discussed this so many times with my scrapbooking friends. Especially the ones who have more than one child, because like your friend, I'm a planner!
I'd decided to make a digital book each year for the grandparents, but I hadn't thought about doing it for my daughter, too. Hmmm…so many options, so little time… 🙂
Danelle's blog is: http://danelle-johnson.com/danelleblog/
I have a similar plan. I did a scrapbook for my son's pregnancy and first year and I'm doing the same for the little peanut due in a few weeks. I also have a 2009 family book "under construction" right now with a combo of kid photos (which take up about 95% of it!) and other family stuff. I don't have a strictly "photo book," but I plan on doing a scrapbook for each year in our family, so hopefully that will work out ok. I do back up all my digital photos onto CD and keep them archived by month and year.
ugh… my pics are sitting in photo boxes waiting to be paper scrapped. this is a great idea to do! there is another business that does something like this called "cherishbound". i will have to go look it up if you want the link. i think that's a great way to stay up on pics. like she said, sometimes i feel overwhelmed by trying to scrap so much that i fall behind. i would love to only scrap the really important awesome pics and put the "every day" photos in a digital book!
thanks for sharing!
oh, and i have done a couple small (not hardcover) books that i got free from shutterfly.
Kelli and others who use shutterfly – I made my book this weekend of Elias's first birthday! it is so sweet.
I LOVE this post. Chalk it up as one of your best!!! I love the idea of the photobooks for each year. I've used Shutterfly since my son was born (he's now 6) and all of our pictures are already there. What a wonderful gift for my kids years from now.
I started a journal for each child the day that I found out I was pregnant with them. I've written things I want them to know and general things about our family and how they play a part. I plan to give it to them when they find out that they are expecting their first child. Only my husband knows that they are there & knows that if anything ever happens to me – when he should give them out!
THANK YOU for posting this! I've been feeling so overwhelmed lately, and just can't get motivated to do anything! I LOVE the idea of the photo books. With two boys, I finally gave up on the thought of doing individual albums for each of them and it was killing me! Now, I can do this and be happy. Do you know if she ever posted about the other albums she does? If so, please share a link, I would love to read more.
Ohh the journaling is the hardest but for me terribly rewarding! I am bad at sitting down and writing but I am on my computer every night after my kids are in bed. So I started a file on my computer that I always leave open. Everyday I just sit down and recap the day and I make a note of what picture I took that day. That way sometime when life allows me to put it all together it will be easy and I can choose to include all or parts of my journaling in my album but at least I won't ahve forgotten. Especially as your kids start talking or you have multiple children then it's easy to record the funny things they say!
AWESOME post Jess! Thank-you for sharing some really great ideas! I have been wondering how I was going to scrap my daughters life – at the rate I am going she will have a book a year! lol! I like the photo book idea and especially love the Family Journal book!
Thank-you!!
Jana
I'm in love with photobooks. I do the same thing, though mine tend to be digital scrapbooked pages that I upload into a photobook. The big events such as family vacations usually get a book of their own, but are also incorporated into the book. Each child gets their own annual book (beginning each year on their birthday). Then our family gets a copy (which becomes a Christmas gift) for the calendar year. Since I'm usually behind in scrapping, it becomes incentive to finish the prior year so I can finish Christmas gifts.