Young House Love

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How To Make An Annual Family Photo Book

This week has already been pretty word-heavy with two big construction tutorials and a laundry saga, so we thought some lighter fare was in order – especially since a bunch of you have been asking if we made a family photo book again this year, and if so, when we’d share the details. Well, in the ever esteemed words of Madame Britney, “oops, we did it again.” In fact, the newest edition of the Petersik Family Yearbook landed on our doorstep this weekend.

Yearbook Books On Shelf

I have to say that we’re still so stunned at how thin-yet-picture-packed these books are. That picture above shows how five years of photos (over 2,400 of them!) can be stored in the same amount of space as one traditional photo album (which might hold 200 photos by comparison).

Here’s the cover that we chose for this year’s album: a somewhat goofy snapshot from our summer vacation to Florida. Yup, Sherry convinced me to go topless for this year’s cover (actually I think Clara’s happy grin sold us all on this photo).

YBook Cover

For those keeping track, this is now our fourth year of condensing 365-days’ worth of family photographs into one nicely bound volume that we buy from MyPublisher (here are the posts on our books from 2012, 2011 and 2009/10). This year’s picture is so light that the white title on the cover isn’t as visible from afar, but it’s easier to see in person when you’re holding it.

Yearbook Previous Years

We followed our usual format and wrapped the spine and back in a color borrowed from the cover photo – so this year’s was a soft seafoam-ish green.

Yearbook Previous Backs

We always time our order to take advantage of MyPublisher’s “Free Extra Pages” discount, which cycles around every few weeks. It means that we can print a 99-page book without paying the surcharge they usually tack on for anything longer than 35 pages. You can see this year it saved us nearly $80. And while the final $48 price tag isn’t nothing, we’ve always felt that it’s comparable (if not better) than what we’d pay to order all of those prints along with buying a traditional photo album (or three) to stuff them into.

YBook MyPublisher

We also like the “insurance” of these photo books, since we have files for each book saved on our computer (so we could quickly get one reprinted if something happened to the original). Even if our entire house was destroyed, MyPublisher keeps files remotely on their end as well, so everything we’ve ever purchased (even dating back to that first 2009/2010 book) could easily be reordered.

But I promised this post would be less wordy, right? Can you tell we have trouble with that? Let’s just take a peek inside at some of the pages, starting with our summary page at the very beginning of the book. For anyone wondering, you can add type while creating your layout, so we just make two type columns, and fill them in with notable things that we did (in a general order of when they occurred).

Yearbook Highlights Page

And here are some of our interior pages. We packed a lot of pictures into some of them, like this spread full of book tour adventures.

YBook Book Tour

We also used some pages for comparisons, like this series of shots of Clara with Sherry’s mom and my parents, who all just happened to all be with us on her birthday for the last four years since her birth.

YBook Grandparents

Some pages got bigger/fewer photos (like the right one below, which just has two of our favorite Clara-party pics).

YBook Clara BDay

And we had fun looking back at other big events, like our move (we’re so glad we took those empty house photos before we locked that door for the last time).

YBook Moving

One change this year is that we tried to include more pictures of us doing projects (since that’s clearly a big part of our lives). In the past, our technique of backing up “blog photos” and “family photos” separately has meant a lot of the photos of us building/painting/de-wallpapering don’t end up in the family folder that we draw from to make our yearbook. So throughout this year we both tried to be better at plucking out certain blog pictures and making sure they also went into our family file.

YBook Projects

For those who wonder how we generally organize photos, we just use iPhoto. We have one album called Family 2013, and throughout the entire year we dump family photos in there, where it keeps them all nice and chronological. Then we go through and pick the ones we love most, import them into the MyPublisher software (it’s free to download) and layout the yearbook.

And of course, we couldn’t resist making a page that celebrates how much we’re looking forward to 2014 for an extra special reason…

YBook 2014 2

We also saved a dozen or so pages at the end of the book to make fun little grids of Instagram pictures. It’s not all of the IG pics we shared in 2013, just some of our favorites. There’s something about seeing them en masse at the end of the book that’s more exciting than sprinkling them throughout the album (they have a more casual and random feeling, so it’s cool to flip through them at the end, like some sort of relaxed wrap-up).

YBook Instagram

Since this is my fourth time assembling one of these, I’ve definitely honed my skills at pacing out my pages. In past years I’ve hit MyPublisher’s 100-page max before I even got to Halloween photos. But this time I even had a spare spread to put the last 12 photos from Clara’s monthly photo project.

YBook C Photo Project

Ahhh, the memories…

How are you guys memorializing 2013? Please tell me that we’re not the only ones running a little late with any end-of-the-year traditions. Are you newly on the bound-photobook bandwagon? Or are you committed to tried-and-true photo albums? Is there some new software or service we should check out?

Comments

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’re planning to do something similar but not identical, so we might change a few elements (ex: not use different fabric every week, etc) but we’re not quite sure what we’ll do. I think once he’s here we’ll play around on that first weekly photo and see where we end up – and of course we’ll share it with you guys!

      xo
      s

  2. Laura @ Rather Square says

    I love these yearly photo albums you make – great keepsakes. We did one for our toddler’s first year and for our wedding/honeymoon, but we need to catch up with the last few years (especially since we too moved into a new house in 2013!). We’ve used Snapfish and have been pretty happy with the results.

    Reply

  5. Stephanie @ Sandpaper and Glue says

    so cute! love the pictures with grandparents & the last 12 months of Clara photos. We did a photobook for our wedding album, and ordered the album as our xmas presents to parents and grandparents this year. Timing was everything! I got 6 books for about $110 thanks to coupons, promotions, free shipping, etc.

    Reply

  6. Heidi says

    This is such a great idea! We used to send yearly photobooks to my husband’s grandparents, yet we never thought to make books for ourselves. I really need to go back and do this, but I’m certainly intimated by the sheer daunting numbers of photos to go through. I really do like the electronic back up feature, that’s awesome!

    Reply

  7. Jen says

    I use my publisher every year as well, i love it. I order three copies of each book because we have two kids, and I want them to be able to have a set of the family photo albums when they leave the house . Nice book guys

    Reply

  8. Robin says

    We do family yearbooks like this too. I love MyPublisher! I wish we could have done each book in the same size but they’re of multi-heights and depths unlike yours. Some years we’ve had more of a budget for them and this year we got a great deal so upgraded to large size! I usually do ours in January.

    Reply

  9. andee says

    Do you ever look at the pictures of your last house and get a little bit sad? We moved last summer and our new house is WAY better than our old house but I still get a tiny twinge of sadness when I look at the pictures. It was part of our life and now its not. Just wondering if I’m alone!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, I think it’s always bittersweet! I even get that feeling for our first house. I just remind myself it was so meaningful to us (such a huge chunk of our lives was spent in those two homes and so much happened there!) that it would be crazy if we didn’t feel anything when we looked back on those photos and fond memories :)

      xo
      s

    • Ashley says

      how funny you mention that–I was just talking about this with my friends the other day. I bought my first home in 2013, and upgraded from a TINY studio apartment to a “spacious” 1000-sq ft 3 bedroom with a huge backyard….and yet sometimes, I find myself missing my cramped, lovely, completely “done” apartment with no counter space and a five foot balcony. I became so much of an adult in that space, and really discovered what kind of woman I wanted to be. i love my house, but I still miss my little space.

  11. Jessie L. says

    I just ordered my wedding photo-book from Shutterfly for Valentine’s Day, and I’ve been married for two years now. So don’t worry, y’all aren’t that bad behind :) I really want to try and do that yearly photo-book tradition though, just because it is such a great way to look back at the good times. Problem is, I’m not so great and the whole actually getting out the camera and taking pictures thing. Any tips?
    Thanks!
    Jessie

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We take so many photos with our iPhones these days, so that might be a tip (when the big camera isn’t on hand, just grab your phone to capture something sweet). We also try to make ourselves bring the good camera to special events (family parties, trips, etc) so just lugging it along can egg us on to take more photos. Also: start a blog. You’ll take a million pictures! Ha!

      xo
      s

    • Lindsey d. says

      I’ve done two yearly photobooks now, and, honestly, they are mostly iPhone pics. Shutterfly has an app so I can directly upload from my phone to the web without having to shuttle photos from phone to computer to Shutterfly. The iPhone pics are high enough quality that they turn out well in the books…

  12. em says

    I love our family yearbooks. We use Shutterfly- I wonder how the quality of the pictures compares to My Publisher? We also look for the deals and make a hard-cover book for our own family, as well as soft-covers for each set of grandparents and great-grandparents. It is absolutely the best present I could give them. Our extended family is not so tech-savvy, so they love having these books to look through over and over again.
    For our own family, it’s great to see the pictures again and read the text with all the memories of the year.

    Reply

    • Lacey says

      I’ve gotten books from both Shutterfly and My Publisher. I don’t mind Shutterfly for smaller books (like, I did an ABC book for my daughter using Shutterfly) but feel like My Publisher’s books are such better quality for our yearly family photo album. Thicker pages, great color, great binding, etc. Especially since my yearbooks tend to be 100 pages also.

    • Lacey says

      And I forgot my favorite part about My Publisher. Since the program is downloaded on your computer, you can make the book as you go throughout the year and just do a little bit of editing down when the year wraps up. The web based photo book applications are so difficult, and I’ve lost a book and had to start over in the middle of a web-based application too. Those things take long enough without having to start over!

    • Susan says

      I totally agree with Lacey. I’ve made albums through both companies and have come to the conclusion that Shutterfly does a decent job on smaller, more informal books, but MyPublisher puts out a higher quality product overall.

    • Brianna says

      I’ve used both! I intentionally have chosen MyPublisher for our family yearbooks and wedding albums since 2010 because the quality + ease couldn’t be best and the coupon codes were usually fabulous too. I have not been thrilled with Shutterfly’s quality when I’ve compared them to MyPublisher. It’s cheaper so I sometimes use them, but for heirloom books, I prefer MyPublisher. Shutterfly quality seems on par with iPhoto photo books in terms of photo quality, layout options, etc (though the backgrounds for Shutterfly pages have a lot more to choose from). I was actually concerned when Shutterfly bought MyPublisher last year, but so far MyPublisher quality is still excellent. Maybe in the future they’ll become more or less the same product, but for now they are definitely different.

    • Melanie says

      I haven’t made a photobook before but keep meaning to! I just clicked over to the My Publisher website and it looks like Shutterfly acquired them recently? So maybe I will try Shutterfly first. Hard to decide!

    • Rebecca says

      It is good to read the comparison. I take a million pictures, so I ended up doing two books for my daughter’s first year–100 pages for the first and second 6 months of her life. I used My Publisher for those books and loved the product!!! However, the program was SOOOOOOO….(wait for it)……SLOW! I kept up with the making of the books as I took the pictures each week and I almost had a conniption each time because every process took so long. So, for our 2014 yearbook I decided to try Shutterfly. So far I’ve liked it better because it is quicker/less frustrating and there are so many more layout/background/embellishment options. I’m disappointed to hear that so many were not as please with the quality of the product. I haven’t printed a book yet, but I have made a wall calendar through Shutterfly and was pleased with the results. Now I’m starting to rethink my decision to switch companies. Anyone else have any insight on the differences?

    • Judy says

      I printed my 2011 family yearbook through ArtsCow at the 12×12 size. I wasn’t totally impressed with the quality at that size (I use them for all of my kids’ 8×8 school art yearbooks and they are great). For my 2012 yearbook I switched the Shutterfly at the 12×12 size and couldn’t tell as much of a difference as I would have thought vs. ArtsCow. So that means I’m either expecting too much at that size or I need to jump to My Publisher for my 2013 book (I’m always a few months behind). I will say that I got my ArtsCow book for around $50 (100+ pages) but paid almost $80 through Shutterfly for the same amount of pages. I was amazed at the MyPublisher price!!

    • Natalie says

      My Publisher was recently aquired by Shutterfly. You can read about it at the bottom of their homepage. It does seem that the two will remain separate, though.

    • Shanna says

      I’ve done both and even though My Publisher was bought out by Shutterfly the books from My Publisher, in my opinion, are still a lot better quality. If you ever splurge on the super gloss printing and lay flat pages you’ll see a huge jump in quality too. I wish I never had because now I’ll never go back :).

    • Julie Kohler says

      I’ve never bought a book from them, but mpix has the best photo prints I’ve seen in a long time–definitely heirloom quality (not surprising–it was recommended by a professional photographer). They do books, so I suspect they would be really good. I find Shutterfly disappointing once I actually get the books, although the layout options are awesome.

  13. Melissa @ReThreads Charlottesville says

    I LOVE that you guys take the time to make these photo albums each year! I’ve been meaning to do something similar, but alas, it ends up on a New Year’s Resolutions or To-Do list, and never gets done. I assume it probably takes a lot of time to put together the layouts, but it’s so well worth it!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’re getting much faster each year! I think this year’s only took a few hours (the first one took a few hours of a bunch of days in a row, so we dipped into it on the evenings). It really is a learning curve though, so as you go, you seem to get faster at it!

      xo
      s

    • Lindsey d. says

      I put together ours as we go through the year. So every month I take just an hour or two to compile the pages for that month. It’s a lot less daunting than waiting until the end and the information is fresh in my mind, making it easier to remember details. At the end, I do one big edit session, cutting out a page here or there and making sure it all looks consistent.

  14. Crystal says

    I’ve tried a couple of times to make one of these (I even started out at the beginning of the year in hopes of pacing myself) but I just couldn’t stick with it! How do you manage the time that you spend on it? Do you block out one hour every Thursday to work on it? Or do you just throw it together at the end? Do you both work on it so the work is split between two?

    P.s. Speaking of Florida…I’m going today!!! I’m desperate to get away from CT and all this snow! So excited!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Wahoo! Have so much fun in Florida! I’m so jealous. As for the time it takes for us to make them, we have gotten so much faster over the years! I think this past one only took us a few hours total (all done in one day, except for the ordering process, which we did the next morning). Meanwhile a few years ago it took us a few hours of a few days (so we just tried to work on it in the evenings across a week, with both of us weighing in and trying to cull things down, etc). There’s definitely a learning curve, but over time you can get so much faster! We expected this years’ to take a lot longer than it did!

      xo
      s

    • Crystal says

      Alright…I might be inspired to give it another go. :) Third times the charm right??

      I just need to keep it simple and not overcomplicate things!

    • Rebecca says

      I keep up with my books as I go. It is exciting for me to see it come together, so after I take some good pictures, I can’t wait to plug them into the book. The benefit of doing it that way is that it is easier to keep up with instead of sorting through a whole year’s worth of pictures at the end of the year–which would be totally overwhelming to me. The downside of doing it that way is that every little picture seems to be important enough to include which can make your books too long (especially if your publishing company has a page limit). I’ve noticed when I get a couple of weeks behind on mine, I feel less compelled to include certain pictures that I surely would have included if I were up to date on the book.

    • em says

      Crystal, our photos are all arranged chronologically anyway on iphoto. I usually end up doing my book the night before the really good deal expires, but it only takes a couple hours to choose my favorite pictures and add captions. That’s on Shutterfly- I don’t know about MyPublisher. It’s so worth it!

  15. Natalie Royall says

    Couldn’t wait for you guys to share this! I “stole” your idea starting in 2012… when our little one arrived. I use Snapfish, and also wait for a 50% off coupon, so I usually end up around the $50 mark as well for the year :) I like how you sort your photos though. This past year at the beginning of each month, I would do the previous months photos. So I broke the book down into 12 “chapters” That way, I was just about done come the beginning of January, so I jumped on the first coupon that came out :) Loooove this idea, and will keep it up for many years to come too!! Also… unrelated… love how the new nursery is coming out so far! Can’t wait to see the rest!!

    Reply

  16. Audrey says

    I was finally able to take my girls to Disney World (they were 16 and 14 at the time) and have been working on a scrapbook… slowly. Since we started planning the trip, I’ve kept saying… we need to get a vacation book like younghouselove does their yearbook!!!

    Here’s to hoping i get it done… someday….

    Reply

  17. Vanessa says

    I love this idea and wish I would have started this with my family a long time ago. I absolutely love the cover photo. You guys look like a magazine cover. Beautiful pictures and memories.

    Reply

  18. Lisa@Double Door Ranch says

    So sweet! I’m working on a family/house yearbook for us this year too, using Shutterfly because I have a code for a free book. Might as well use it! I don’t have any adorable kiddos like Clara to make mine so darn cute tho!

    Reply

  19. Theresa M. says

    I love these photobooks. I’ve been remiss in keeping up with all of our pictures (and I love taking pictures so there are loads!) I’d have to do 23 years worth…. Maybe I should just do the ones from the digital years.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It would be amazing to go back and do all the digital years! We also found that earlier on we took fewer pics (before Clara was born, haha!) so we were able to combine 2009 and 2010 into one book, so you might get away with making fewer books, and going faster through those earlier years!

      xo
      s

  23. Laura says

    We used blurb for our yearbook last year. I think we paid $100 for a 440 page book (with a coupon code). This year it seems like they jacked the price up quite a bit (about 30%), but we loved the book so much that we’ll probably end up using them again. Just. Need. To. Find. The. Motivation …

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Sweet Jarvis is in a cabinet along with 70% of our decorative accessories (we have a lot fewer “display spots” in this house due to rooms being so unfinished and not having all of those built-ins around the dining room/office doorway) but I’m hoping to break them out as we work on those more unfinished rooms (like the dining room and office, which should both end up with a lot more “surface area” as we go).

      xo
      s

  25. Joules (from Pocketful of Joules) says

    I love this project and I’m going to be sure to check out MyPublisher (I usually use Shutterfly).

    I also do an annual album, but I do it from February – February for a year on our son’s life. The first album was my pregnancy, the second album was his birth through his 1 year birthday and at the end of this month I’ll do his 1 year birthday through his 2 year birthday. I love having them around and he loves looking at them too. And I totally agree that there is piece-of-mind in having everything backed up online just in case!

    Reply

  26. Michelle | Birds of Berwick says

    I was JUST saying yesterday that I need to sit down and starting doing this! I’ve been on a kick of making them for my family members for their trips as gifts, but I’ve got a list of at least 5 that I need to make of our own trips! I’ve been using Shutterfly which is also really easy to use, but I’ve also been curious about Artifact Uprising if anyone has any feedback on those albums.
    Great looking book!

    Reply

  27. Emily says

    I was an old-school scrapbooker for years and am trying to transition over to making books like this. It’s interesting that you’re so wordy with blog posts but choose books that have almost no words. Why? Tell us more about that. Is it not offered? Do you like the ‘just photos’ aspect? Think you’ll always remember the funny stories that go along with certain photos?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Good question! I think since we create that summary page on the front (full of lines about each noteworthy event of the year) that helps to jog our memories. When we’re describing making/building/planning things on a blog, we tend to both like covering a ton of info (especially since 6 years of blogging have taught us that if we skip info we answer it a lot in the comments) but when we’re just looking at photos of events for ourselves, it’s not necessary for us to write captions like “the book tour” or “Clara’s party!” or “moving day” since there’s so much context in the photos. And instead of writing out funny stories, we just try to capture them on film (ex: that time Burger licked all the milk off the floor = a picture, not a caption).

      xo
      s

    • Rachel says

      I am very wordy with my books. I make them for my son and try to record (in words) everything for him. For example, when he was 7 weeks he had a little scare and was in children’s hospital for 2 days. The took an entire page spread and only 5 pictures. The rest of the double page spread was filled with words. It’s all preference. I figure the books will be around for a long time and when his children/grandchildren look at the book they would like to know a little history behind the picture/event.

  28. Stacy says

    Hi! Long-time reader (but first time commenter) here :)

    I love this idea! My husband and I just had our first baby in October so I will have to look into it. I’m curious how long it took you to create this?

    Thanks for sharing! YHL is my favorite blog!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      This years only took us a few hours (done mostly in one evening!) but in the beginning it took a few hours for a series of days (on and off like a week). There’s a learning curve so it gets a lot faster as you go. We couldn’t believe how fast this years’ went!

      xo
      s

  29. Sarah Rooftops says

    I do the same thing! My boyfriend and I have a photo book for each of the five years we’ve been together; flicking through a brand new photo book is one of my favourite things to do.

    I checked out a load of different printing services but ended up opting for Blurb because they had the largest page limit – it’s about 500 pages, I think, and 2013’s book was not far off that!

    Reply

  30. allyson says

    Love the photo albums! I just spent the month of december printing all the photos that had been stored on my camera for the past 5 years during a penny prints sale and getting them into albums. I feel very accomplished after that! Random question but I noticed that your dad is not in the birthday photos Sherry. Does he come to the parties or prefer to visit separately? Feel free to tell me to mind my own business. I’m a child of divorce as well and its rare for my parents to do anything together so I was just curious :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      My dad’s job doesn’t allow him to travel as much as my mom’s, so she’s just down here more. He does occasionally make the trip though, and we also see him whenever we’re up his way (for holidays like Thanksgiving). I feel you about the “rare for parents to do anything together” thing though, they’re usually only in the same room for things like graduations and weddings for the most part.

      xo
      s

  31. Sandra T says

    Kudos to you guys for keeping up with these (believe me, you will appreciate it when the kids are older!!!). I have made one since you guys started, and I do love it. Need to make more!! And for anyone wondering, they are amazing!

    Reply

  32. Nan says

    Love photobooks. We use Shutterfly. We keep a journal when we go on vacation every year to record our adventures, and then turn the text from our journal and all of the photographs into a photobook of our vacation. I love looking back at them and seeing all the great pictures with the story behind them, and like you guys, love that it is stored by Shutterfly in case something ever happened to the book or our house.

    Reply

  33. Sam @ The Junk House says

    Just last night I was writing out a list of pages I wanted to include in our 2013 photobook, so it’s funny you posted this today! I’ve done photobooks the past two years plus one of our London/Paris vacation. Last year I didn’t finish our 2012 photobook until May, so I’m pretty proud of myself for starting in February this year. haha!

    Reply

  34. Richelle says

    Ha! I have yet to put my wedding album together… it’s still loose photos and the most gorgeous handmade album, together in one box. We’ll celebrate our 11th anniversary in May. So you’re good.

    We’re terrible about taking pictures, although we’ve been better in the last couple of years. Maybe we can do a decade album. :)

    Reply

  35. Kristen @ LoveK Blog says

    Love your book! I started making family yearbooks in 2011 and ALWAYS take advantage of the free extra pages promo. It’s made for some nervous uploads (like this year when the power flickered at 11:50pm!) but the books are worth it! Thanks for the idea, and thanks for giving us a peek of your book!

    Reply

  36. Jeniffer says

    Love it! I have made photo “year” books since my kids were born! I make one for us and one for each set of grandparents since I am pretty terrible at printing actual photos and sending them to them during the year. Every year they say it is their favorite gift! I have used both myPublisher and shutterFly and have been equally pleased with the results. Both are easy to use, archive your photos for future reorders, and are pretty similar in price. This year I chose Shutterfly (mainly because I had a coupon) and because I also really liked some of the new themes they added! Really can’t go wrong with either though!! :)

    Reply

  37. Emily says

    So neat! I’ve always wanted to do some of these and after returning from an awesome vacation over Christmas and having some wonderful Shutterfly coupons, decided to try my hand at one to document our trip. After spending six hours over the course of two days, I needed to take a break and somehow didn’t save it correctly and ended up losing all the work I’d done. I was so disappointed and disillusioned that I haven’t had the heart to attempt it again. Wonder if My Publisher is more user-friendly? Will be curious to hear back from any readers who’ve used Shutterfly and My Publisher. BTW, the built-ins are awesome!!! Keep up the good work!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      OH NO Emily! I’m so sorry! We have been really happy with MyPublisher (and do lots of saves along the way while building the book, just for the peace of mind).

      xo
      s

  38. Kristen says

    I am currently in the process of making a surprise photobook as a first year anniversary gift for my boyfriend coming up in a few weeks. I am very excited to see his reaction :) I’m using my publisher on your recommendation!

    Reply

  39. Sandy says

    I love digital photobooks! The picture on your cover is so happy, I love it! I use Shutterfly for ours and have been super happy with the quality of them. I’ve been using them for so long now that they are always sending me discount codes, so I just time it so I never have to pay full price any more. I’m a year behind right now. I usually work on them month by month to stay on top of things but we moved last year and that kinda got me off track. You’ve definitely inspired me to get back to it and finish 2013!

    Reply

  40. jennifer says

    Just curious what you do for backing up all of your photos? I use iphoto and a mac and have over 23,000 photos on my computer (and it is sending me regular warnings that my library is FULL)!!! I have some back ups on external hard drives, but am concerned that I will then have to back those up. Sometimes I feel like I spend too much time preserving all of these photos and, who (other than me) will really care to ever look at all of them. Suggestions?

    Btw . . . love your blog . . . I have been following it since your first house . . . great job!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw thanks Jennifer! We use amazon.cloud for all of our blog photos, so it helps to have those stored remotely (we have 100,000+ of those guys! eeks!) and for family ones we use an external hard drive (just backing up each of these photobooks covers us for each year, and we also like that MyPublisher stores them on their server as well, if something happened to ours). Oh and we use youtube.com for our videos (some private for family things, and some public when we share them on the blog).

      xo
      s

  41. Kristy says

    This is great! What a beautiful way to remember all the special events that happened each year. I’ve used Snapfish before to make photo books of different trips but will now consider My Publisher too.

    Reply

  42. Meggan says

    Great photos! I use Shutterfly for most of my albums since they send out a lot of free book coupons(if you sign up for an account), so they end up being $8 for shipping only. But, a few years ago, for my Grandma’s 80th bday I covertly stole all of the family albums and scanned all of the pictures. I did a book for her on Blurb, same idea as My Publisher, where you download the software. I gave her a memory book beginning with pics of her parents, her birth, family, etc. up to present day. Definitely a keepsake worth the time and effort put into it!

    Reply

  43. Louise says

    I do one every year for my husband … usually try for either his birthday or Father’s Day. Something we all look forward to. Our Son has even taken it to school for show-and-tell which has been a big hit. We’ve used several different companies over the years. I love the quality of MyPublisher, but being Canadian I’ve gotten hit with a big shipping/tax/duty $, so last year we used Blurb. Not bad, but Blurb needs better quality photos – MyPublisher seems to handle slightly poorer res photos better. We’ve used Shutterfly too. I’d rate them: 1) MyPublisher, 2) Blurb, and 3) Shutterfly. Kodak used to do great work via Future Shop, but stopped doing it … too bad, because they were THE BEST!

    Reply

  44. Staci says

    I’m currently 9 weeks pregnant with our first baby and I love the year book photo album idea!! Its still early in the year so I guess I should get started keeping up with my pictures and keeping them organized. It seems like a great way to organize your memories and for me to actually get some of my pictures printed.
    Thanks!!

    Reply

    • Amanda says

      Yes! You should start now! I started in 2010 when my daughter was born. It’s hard to catch up, so start now and stay on top of it!

  45. Emily M says

    I have been SOOO bad about getting photos off my computer since my son was born (almost 2 years ago!!!). I finally got my butt in gear enough to pick out 100 photos and oder 4×6 prints to put in an album (they should arrive by tomorrow). That was all I could manage for now. I’d love to make the photos books but they are too time consuming for me to create right now.

    Reply

  48. Alecia says

    I love the idea of a photo book! I have been looking around to see what company works best for me.

    Do you use a lot of text in your books? Like titles and descriptions or do you let the pictures speak for themselves?

    Also, does my publisher allow you to create your own layout and change things as you would like them to be changed? Just trying to understand better! Thanks!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We generally don’t use any text except for that intro summary page, just because most events are obvious through the context of the photos (ex: book signing pics have us holding and signing the book, Clara-party photos and vacation pics are simple to suss out, etc). We also try to capture “stories” in the photos (ex: Burger licking up all the milk on the floor) so we don’t need a caption that says “and then Burger licked up all that milk!” – haha!

      xo
      s

  49. Kara says

    Sherry, Do you think you’ll ever do one of just Clara pictures? Like her first 5 years, or even more? I think the thing I’d worry about is that when the kids get old enough to take the albums with them, they’d have to trade off years or something?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yeah, I think now that we have another one on the way we realize how intertwined their pics will be (she’ll be in photos with him and vice versa) so the idea of separating them into different books isn’t as appealing as just continuing to chronicle the entire family as it grows, with everyone in the photos and having fun together! That being said I can totally see “curating” a collection of Clara pics (for her wedding, for example, sniffle) or of the Barnacle (for his graduation or something). And we have done a photobook of Clara’s photo project, so we’d like to do one for the Barnacle’s photo project too :)

      xo
      s

  50. Carol says

    I love My Publisher! I have been making books for the past 3 years with them! I have to say the “lay-flat pages” are amazing and make a huge difference in the presentation of the book. It’s worth the extra $20 per book to get! I have also adopted your “Highlights” section in the beginning of the books. It adds a nice touch before you start looking through the 100 pages of pictures!

    Reply

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