Sunday, November 25, 2007

I used to scrapbook...

Every month I download nearly 300 pictures and save them under the month/year. Twice a year I sit down and organize 6 months worth of pictures into a photobook. I used to scrapbook: I bought pretty albums, delicate papers, fancy adhesive tape, ordered matte prints, and spent days that turned into weeks creating the kid's books. Now, I spend one night per child and order photobooks through http://www.shutterfly.com/ where I can pick different layouts and provide captions. They are beautiful and so painless to create (Hello there shutterfly... you should be paying me for this). I save the 6 months of photos onto a CD and tape it to the back cover.

Know what? Even Heidi Klum, on Oprah, released that she too creates shutterfly books. She probably got some free photobooks from her shout out. (Hello, shutterfly!)

I guess great minds really do think alike. Heehee. I heart Heidi Klum.
"Mama, are these a gift for someone? Can we keep these or are these a gift?" Jay takes a break from looking at his album. "Can, I? Can I keep this?" My poor kids rarely ever get gifts outside of their birthdays and Christmas.

The kiddos spent the afternoon looking at their individual photobooks. They love to look back at their memories. Flipping through each one of the one hundred pages, they point and smile and talk about their memories. They don't have to thank me when they are grown. They have thanked me today.

More so, I have another item crossed off of my "To Do" list. One less thing to do tomorrow. 6 months worth of pictures are organized. JOY!

10classy comments:

AutoSysGene said...

Wow, your so organized I think I hate you ;). Thanks for the tips, I might just have to give shutterfly a try.

(they need to pay you for that...think of all the money they'll be bringing in ;))

Anonymous said...

This is something I've been meaning to do since my daughter was born and she's almost 2. I never got around to making her scrapbook and now with a newborn, I don't think I'll have any time. So, photo books sounds worth a try. Except, I still need to organize my photos on my computer. It sounds so easy however, it'll take more than just a day, considering I have so many pictures. I won't know where to begin. It's on top of my to do list but for some reason, always stays at the bottom!

LunaNik said...

I'm pretty good with keeping the pics on my computer organized...but printing them out and putting them into albums, well, that's another situation entirely. I actually belong to shutterfly and I have 200 free prints coming to me, how could I have missed the photobooks??

Karen said...

What a great idea! Maybe I should try that as I'm over 2 years behind on my scrapbooking.

Kellan said...

This is great. I wish I knew how to do all that and be that organized with my pictures. Take care. Kellan

TheOneTrueSue said...

What a great idea. Are the shutterfly books tremendously expensive? Now I have to go login and see... Thanks for the tip!

Anonymous said...

I recently started working at Shutterfly. I can't say if you'll be rewarded, but your comments are appreciated.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

How do you organize your photos on the computer? Do you categorize them by month/year or by event such as "1 st birthday" etc? Also when you order the photo books, do you organize them in the same manner? For instance, one photobook dedicated to your daughter's 1st birthday or 1st xmas? Thanks!

OHmommy said...

On my computer I organize my pictures according to the month/year taken. I save them on a CD and label them.

I then download pics onto my personal shutterfly website (you can get one for free), where I have everything organized by months. My family can then order and any pictures they want of my kids - by visiting my website.

Once I have enough pictures to make a book - usually every 6 months. I create the books. Each child gets 2 books a year. Jay has 2 books from 2007, Lola has 2 books for 2007, Fifi has 2 books for 2007. However, I just convinced my neighbor to create shutterfly books and she has choosen to make ONE FAMILY album for the year. Her FIL, has done this and it makes it easier to organize. Just one family book per year. I have WAY to many pictures to do that.

In addition, we take one HUGE family vacation each winter. I create a seperate book for the occasion.

Does this help? :)

Crystal D said...

This is such a wonderful idea. Why oh why did I not think to do this? I have have them print 300 pictures (that are all still sitting in boxes) but I honestly never thought of just doing an album per girl. Such a smart momma!

 

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