We’re working on hanging our new pendant lights so we’ll be back to share those pics in the morning. In the meantime, let’s talk about something people ask about all the time: photo storage. Ever since seeing Katie Bower’s family photo book two summers ago, we’ve been drinking the photo book Kool-Aid – starting with our very first Family “Yearbook” that we made last summer (you can read about that here). And now that another year has wrapped up, well, let’s just say this arrived last week:
It’s one big glossy photo book stuffed to the gills with all of our family photos from 2011. Except the perk is that while it has around 600 photos, it’s only about a half-inch thick. Which is awesome for storage purposes (way less cumbersome than thick overstuffed photo albums that only hold 100-200 pics each). We ordered it through MyPublisher and thanks to a promotion they were running for free extra pages, we got to max out their page limit (100) and pay nothing extra. The discount (which has ended since we received our book – but they tend to pop up pretty frequently) actually saved us $79! And we’d easily pay $44.99 to print all those pics (not to mention having to buy a bunch of albums to put them in) so a photo book can actually end up being quite the deal. And no, they didn’t pay/perk us to write this, we just like our photo books. Haha.
We did our last “yearbook” way after the fact (like mid-2011), so it took a bit of backtracking to organize all of the photos. But for 2011 we planned ahead and kept all of our photos in one iPhoto album (which automatically kept them in chronological order for us), which is why it only took a couple of weeks into the new year to actually get this one done. So let’s take a quick look through all one hundred pages… just kidding. We’ll just take a peek at some of the highlights – like our opening page that we edited to include some text to summarize some of the, well, highlights from the past year. We think we’ll love looking back on it (and having a summary of the whole year on one page).
We also tried to group big events, holidays, and milestones – like the several spreads of Clara’s 1st birthday party. Check out how dark our kitchen was in the bottom left corner!
We also used the preset page designs to give some really special photos the layouts they deserved, like the ones Katie B. snapped when we visited the Bowers in June.
And since it’s not hard for these albums to turn into a Clara-fest, we paid special attention to making sure Burger got plenty of love as well. He even scored a few dedicated pages throughout (every album needs a good Burger-montage or three).
We also thought it was fun to put all of the photos we took for our Blogiversary “Day In The Life” post into the yearbook in order. That way in 15 years we can look back and sort of remember what a normal day was like way back when…
We nearly ran out of pages by the time we got to Christmas (darn 100 page limit!) but managed to make room. Heck, we even squeezed in a collage of a bunch of our holiday card outtakes. Yeah, we’re kind of into our kiddos.
So since we’re on a family yearbook high – especially now that our collection is two albums strong! – we’re already excited to make the 2012 version.
But because that’s not possible yet (unless we want it to be 3 pages long) we’re thinking that we may try to organize our old digital photos and make one or two books that’ll hold all of the photos from 2005 (when we met) to 2008 (right before our 2009 album picks up). Maybe we’ll work on those books once a certain manuscript is in the can.
Oh yeah, and here’s our favorite photo bomber again, just trying to get in on the action.
Anyone else making photo books or albums to document the past year? Or any other event or period of time? We’d love to hear other systems people have for organizing and displaying their family photos.
Lauren says
How do you guys incorporate the photos you take on your iPhone? I’ve got some great ones but the resolution is so much worse than the photos taken w/my D5000 that I’d hate to put them in there and make it look tacky/cheesy when they’re up next to each other… but on the other hand, some of my iPhone photos are the best because my phone is often more readily available than my camera and I’ve gotten some great shots.
(Omg – love that you have the comment subscription chance now! Just noticed that!!:))
YoungHouseLove says
We just put them in and my publisher will flag them if they’re not high enough res- we have been lucky enough to not have too many of those and we just choose to include them or not (depending how much we love the pic, haha).
xo,
s
Meredith says
One problem we’ve had with MyPublisher is zooming in on a picture when you’re in the program. I’ve cropped a photo in Photoshop, uploaded it to the book, and it turned out great. However, no matter the quality of the pictures (including professional wedding photos), cropping them with their software noticably reduced the quality of the pictures. Just something to keep in mind.
We’re in the process of returning a book because of this problem, but otherwise, the books have been great!
YoungHouseLove says
Really? Good to know! I don’t think we zoom much, just shift things from side to side or crop a little!
xo,
s
Meredith says
Oh, and the lay flat option… totally worth it!! Makes it look like a whole new book. (we tested the options with albums for our grandparents ;) ) The super gloss printing, however, tends to put a reddish tint on skin.
The Bad Housewife Abby says
What a great idea! I have all of my photos in facebook :/. I did just get a new camera though and once I figure out how to use it this might be my next project.
Audrey says
I love my publisher! I’ve been using them for years. When I first discovered them the layouts were alot more simple and they only did books only but now they do cards, calendars and pretty much anything really! Their quality is great and I’ve never had any printing issues or anything with them. I love the family yearbook idea, I always do a book for every vacation we take and I just finally got done with our wedding and honeymoon one (I’m
way behind we got married 2 1/2 years ago haha) and I got to use the free pages as well! :-) I love that promo and they do it several times a year I’ve noticed. We are about to have our first baby in a couple weeks so I def think it would be fun to start up a family yearbook every year now! Thanks for idea and for having such an awesome blog. I’ve enjoyed reading it for several years now :-)
laxsupermom says
What a great idea! I was just thinking about how we take all these pics, but never look through them because they’re all in digital files. Love this! Thanks for sharing.
Melissa says
I love photo books, and yours came out beautiful! I am admittedly very behind on printing photos and I do agree that photo books are such a great idea and so much more organized and convenient than regular old photo albums. In the past I’ve had photo books developed through Walgreens but I’ll have to check out this website you’re talking about because that’s a great deal!
I’m new to your blog and came across it last week, but I am seriously so in love and inspired by it. Your home is beautiful and I admire that you guys have done most of the work yourselves. It gives me inspiration and motivation to break out of my element and try to DIY something, and I actually have thanks to your furniture painting how-to’s (I’m working on “making over” our four year old kitchen table by painting it white – hopefully it turns out okay, haha).
I’m also going to be using one of your mood boards as inspiration to make over our home, starting with our living room and kitchen.
Thank you so much for giving so many people inspiration. And if you have time, I wanted to ask you a quick question? So I’ve found spray paint so much easier to paint furniture with than paint (I fail with using a paint brush – I keep leaving brush marks… what’s your secret for making your furniture look so perfect?!). Is spray paint… safe for kitchen tables and everything once the paint is dry? I have honestly never used spray paint before but I tried the paint and couldn’t make it work for me. Also, is a satin finish usually okay for something like a kitchen table or other pieces of furniture, or is a more glossy finish recommended?
Thank you so much if you respond to this, and thanks again for all your helpful tutorials and the sense of empowerment you give to people like me.
Sincerely, Melissa
YoungHouseLove says
Spray paint can be harder to control but if you have better results with it (along with spray primer, which helps with durability) it might just be the way to go! As for my trick, I use a small foam roller and it goes on really thin without brush strokes! Hope it helps.
xo,
s
Sarah PH says
I turned my blog into a baby book on Blurb. I added pages for current events, family tree, cost of living and other typical baby book pages. I took photos of some of the items (foot prints, newspaper from birth day, birth announcement, etc) in case they become detached thru the years. I could add photos from throughout the year too!!
I love the idea of calling it a “yearbook” and adding a highlights page. Thanks for the ideas!
Karyn says
Such a great idea, I think Eric and I need to start taking more photos:)
Bobbie Brown says
I hung onto every word of this post, since it is right up my ally ;) I make a couple of books every year (for Christmas gifts) I have used lots of different companies, but for the last few years have used Blurb.com for their prices and (this is the big one for me) the amount of pages you can use…they allow a LOT! I feel like ‘big’ pictures make a big statement, and then mixing in lots of smaller shots on pages between the big shots looks good. So, the fact I can use so many more pages with them def. makes it easier for me. I think to make my book-making life even easier I should try to put the pix I plan to use in the book in a seperate folder every month…I always say I need to do this, so we’ll see if I succeed this year! It is time-consuming for me to go through all my pix at the end of the year trying to decide what makes the book…. Okay, I think this comment is loooong enough! Love your books!
Shelly says
I’ve been doing photo books for a few years now and I’m a big fan! It just keeps everything so nice and organized. I did one for my college years, one for grad school, one for our Honeymoon, and another one for a recent trip to Italy. I use Shutterfly, where you can also get some great coupons (for example the Italy one would have been close to 200, but I was able to get it for 100!). I like the flexibility to be able to make it and then save it in Shutterfly for when I have a great coupon.
Debra says
Your post came at a perfect time – we were just talking about our Panama Canal trip photos that are still not in a book!! I am the procrastination queen. In the past I have used Apple for our photo books – but I will give My Publisher a try.
Your family is so stinking cute!!! Love your blog!
cindy says
I made 2 albums for a friend actually using picaboo…they had a great groupon and you can do 2 page spreads which is really cool…I made an engagement book…since my friend hired a photog to capture the engagement…so I used that and another engagement shoot they had and made a bridal shower guest book with them for her…came out great!!! I also made a bachlorette party book using picaboo again…I took all the pics from the weekend and made a book & gave it to her on her wedding. I love photo books!!!
Amy Knisely says
We recently made photo books for our parents with photos from our September wedding. It only took an afternoon to make it on Shutterfly. I have to say, it was MUCH easier (and cheaper) than trying to scrapbook them by hand. The bins-upon-bins on my Attic of Discord can attest to my previous scrapbooking attempts. Plus, it’s easier to store the SD cards than boxes of printed photos.
We’re working on a larger wedding album for ourselves and running into the same problem – not enough pages.
I love the idea of creating a family yearbook too!
Becky says
Your book looks great! Isn’t is so worth the time to do a book each year? I’ve done one every year or year and a half since we got married. I haven’t finished 2010 yet though…it is more of a challenge what with the millions of baby photos to include.
I’ve used My Publisher, Snapfish, Blurb, A&I Photo Books, Shutterfly, and probably one or two others. I would get a coupon or Groupon and just use the corresponding service. They have all done a great job! But I think Blurb and My Publisher were my favs.
Brandan WH says
Looks wonderful! I used to be so much better at doing photo books but, somehow, got away from it. This is just what I need to get back into it. And now is a good time as I am pregnant with #2 and it would be nice to get these done before I am in over my head with a 2 year old and a baby ;0 Thanks for the push!
MicheleLouise says
I do annual books too (though ours go from one wedding anniversary to the next) printed through blurb. I like to use the 8×10 portrait sized book and most other printers don’t seem to offer that option.
It takes a lot more time but I also like to design the bulk of my pages in photoshop, it gives me so much more freedom.
Eli says
Do you guys use Ebates? My Publisher gets 5% cashback when you use Ebates!
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh, I always forget. Good to know for next time!
xo,
s
Ashley says
My husband and I got married in October. So for Christmas presents, we put together photo books using My Publisher for our parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. They were really easy to use and the books came out beautifully. We loved that they were running a BOGO special and we were able to individualize the books to cater to each side of the family. Everyone was really excited to get them.
They are a wonderful idea. I am all about organizing and de-cluttering these days, so anything that takes up less space is an A+ idea in my book. We will definitely be making more photo books in the future. Gone are the days of getting prints and stuffing albums.
Ross says
What size album did you guys go with? 11.5×15?
YoungHouseLove says
We did the second one down (8 x 10 I think).
xo,
s
Ross says
Do you wish you would have went with the bigger one or are you pretty happy with the size you got?
YoungHouseLove says
Love it as-is!
xo,
s
Erin aka TheSavvySeeker says
We used My Publisher to make books for our family when we got married three years ago. Most of the photos were black and white, with just a few special ones in color. Everyone LOVED them and they make awesome gifts! You could make a book for each room you guys redo in your house…what great coffee table books that would make!
lesli devito says
A perpetual over achiever I am thinking I have GOT to do this…and then I remind myself that although we do not do a yearbook, I have done a book for each Thanksgiving for the last 5 years. Thanksgiving tends to be a Holiday where we usually are with at least one side of the family, We take a lot of photos, and each year…the book has been our Christmas gift to THAT side of the family. Win Win and we TOO have an update
Holly says
I’m addicted to photobooks! I drank the photobook kool-aid a few yrs ago and after doing one a year for two yrs, in 2011 I created five! Vacations, fall festivals, family photos…I just can’t get enough photobooks. LOVE the storage capacity vs. albums as you said AND I love that in case anything were to happen to one or (eek!) all of the books they are still stored online to be ordered again. This has also come in handy when a copy of a book is requested.
I haven’t used My Publisher yet but seeing your books now I will definately be giving it a try! Shutterfly has always been my go to choice for photobooks, never disappointed.
Kali says
I’m beginning to have serious doubts as to whether or not you two actually find time to sleep.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- we’ll sleep next month! Just kidding. Sometimes we sleep on weekend nights.
xo,
s
Yvonne says
Hey =)
Your yearbook is sooo beautiful.
I would love to see the two yearbooks completely like the babybook.
Can you post it maybe?
Greets from Germany =)
Yvonne
YoungHouseLove says
That would be fun! Will have to see if there’s a link or a way to do that!
xo,
s
Gayle says
I’m not doing these because the stress would give me a stroke, but I see LOTS of other bloggers that are. Have you seen them? It’s a great idea! You document a week of your life at a time.
http://aliedwards.com/projects/365-project-life/
http://www.beckyhiggins.com/products/
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- so cool!
xo,
s
Joy says
I just ordered my first photo book ever (from My Publisher) for my son as a “When You Were 2” book, so it has mostly pictures of him. I tried hard to prune all those pictures down to about 20 pages for price, but maybe next time I’ll look out for an unlimited pages deal! I can’t wait for it to arrive in the mail!
Trude says
I love doing photo books too! Blurb makes it super easy, I’m sure the printer you used is basically the same. :) I did a little Blurb book of my favorite Instagrams halfway through last year, and I’ll make another one for the second half soon. It’s so much fun and way more reasonable than individual prints. Although I do miss being able to add notes and stuff in my own handwriting, like my grandmother and parents always did.
MER says
I do this! Every year for the last three Christmases my boyfriend and I have been together. First year was the story of how we met, fell in love, and so on. Second year was a comic book style story about us moving in together. And last year, I did the story of our lives together from the perspective of my dog. He loves them!
Kristina Gulino says
These are great. I just did one for Christmas through Picaboo (and actually need to re-order it since I made a boo-boo and uploaded THUMBNAILS instead of the high-res files….silly me) so I’m pretty excited. 2011 being our first year of marriage, it’s pretty easy to keep track of everything!! Love this idea, thanks for the encouragement!
Kristina
Something 2 Write About
YoungHouseLove says
Aw man, hope it’s not too bad to redo it! Sounds so cute!
xo,
s
Autumn says
I’m all about this! I’ve been doing our “family yearbook” since 2008 and it’s. been. awesome. I tell everyone I can about it. I have old photos that aren’t digitalized in a few albums but I definitely went through and discarded a TON of blurry, not great shots and managed to really organize/order our photos–it felt so good! Every other month, I actually work on the yearbook–it helps me backup our photos and weed through the digital files to delete the ones that aren’t really frame/book worthy–keeping too much digital backup can be as bad as hoarding a ton of bad prints. By the time Christmas rolls around, the book is only waiting for the holiday photo edit and I can order the first moment I see the coupon in January!
Lydia says
Love the photo yearbook idea! For Christmas I made my 2 year old niece a photo book detailing the exciting year she had. She loves to read, so I made a story to go along with all of the pictures and also included at least one photo of everyone in the family. She calls this one her “Ella Book”!
Here are some snaps from the book: http://www.lydiasnextstep.com/2011/12/her-very-own-book.html
YoungHouseLove says
So cute!!
xo,
s
Knitandmake says
Loving the photo books. I think I would look at our photos more often if they were in book form :)
Christina S. says
My husband and I travel a lot, so most of our “family” photos end of from trips. I do a Shutterfly photo book (cheaper, easier and I think a higher quality than MyPublisher, who I did our wedding album with) after every big or meaningful trip – so not every long weekend gets a book, but the long weekend where we celebrate our wedding anniversary does.
I back all my photos (both edited and unedited) on an external hard drive in folders by trip and also store them online on Flickr. I’ve also done a book of the holidays the last few years, just for kicks.
Photo books are really quite addictive!
Sarah T. says
I’ve been doing photo books for years, ever since getting married in 2006. We did one for our wedding pics (I use Shutterfly) since most were digital. The bonus is that if the book is damaged (as ours was when the dog knocked a glass of O.J. on it), you can order a new one and not worry about losing precious pics forever! Every year I make a family album and give one to my parents for xmas. They always look forward to it! We use them for vacations too! So easy – why not!
kate brittain says
My husband and I have been making a photobook for every vacation or significant weekend trip we take! We got a modern photobook as part of our wedding photography package, and loved it so much it inspired us to organize via “event”. ha We love looking at them and dreaming of our next vacation. :)
ROK says
I keep a picasa album to share with fam, and started ordering those from the picasa website (I love one click online shopping). Making the cut for the online album cuts it a good 40% from what is on my comp. AND WARNING: when your kid is in school, you might be surprised how many times they are supposed to bring in a picture of their family or a photo showing holiday traditions or…..I’ve had to scramble 3 times so far (Kindergarten!). I just box ’em (in order) for old school back-up, perusing in 50 years and school projects.
YoungHouseLove says
Hah- thanks for the warning!
xo,
s
Brittany says
I started 2011 by printing photos/album and lasted three months before I went to the photo book method. I made a book through My Publisher of my daughter’s birth day, and it turned out so cute. I was hoping this post had a coupon code or offer with it ;) I definitely need to work on our year books.
Aissa says
I am OBSESSED with MyPublisher! Here’s my entry on my love for it (http://lovetenfold.blogspot.com/2011/10/mypublisher.html). We used it to make thank you cards for our wedding presents, and so far, have two vacation albums made. It’s funny you guys call them yearbooks, because my husband calls them that too! I can’t wait to start making our own yearbooks once we have little kids running around!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, fun!
xo,
s
Barbara says
LOVE the Petersik family yearbook!
I used My Publisher to make a book of my mother and I’s trip to Italy. It turned out amazing! I got up to 70 pages and had a BOGO coupon, so I was able to snag two albums for about $75 including shipping. And, I had upgraded to the really heavy paper. Nice!
Jessica J says
I must be missing something because I’m working on my photo book in My Publisher right now and for the life of me I cannot figure out how to make the whole front cover a picture (as opposed to mostly a picture but cut off at the bottom for the title. Grrr. Do you remember how you managed that?
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, I can’t remember off the top of my head. I thought there was an option for a full bleed cover and just checked that. The type goes over it but didn’t cut it off.
xo,
s
Kim W Rily says
We have done books because we get them free with our Disney movie points. We’ve done them for grandparents (They love the books of Picture People photos that we’ve done a few times a year x 5 years.)
Before these were popular I made and printed out a book for DH’s wedding present– the emails we wrote to each other, dating profiles (met online). Things from our first date, road trip, etc. We had people sign it on our wedding day. It’s our guest book that’s more than just writing. (Great idea, if you ask me.)
I made one for each kid on their first birthday, even though with #2, I didn’t get to his till he was about 18 months old.
And I try to make them real books, not just photo albums.
“Sammie’s eye. Sammie’s nose. Sammie’s fingers, Sammie’s toes.”
Kim W Rily says
Another idea — go back and save all your posts from FB (if you’re a constant poster like I am) and you can remember all the cute little things your kid(s) did/said.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s cute!
xo,
s
CB says
I started doing the same thing back in 2007. Mine are titled “2008 Adventure Guide” (etc) because they document the many outdoor adventures that we have. I also use MyPublisher. I’ve used other systems in the past and MyPublisher is my favorite – great quality and layouts, and when you apply the discounts the prices are not bad. I only wish the shipping weren’t so expensive ($14 for regular shipping, really?).
I use iPhoto to organize my photos and find it really easy to put the book togetether at the end of the year. Here is my system.
1) I have a folder for each year.
2) Inside each folder, I four albums labeled Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter. When I import photos to iPhoto I simply dump the batch into the appropriate album. Easy!
3) I create extra albums occasionally if I have a single event with tons of photos that I don’t want to dominate my season folder (a week long vacation, for example). The extra folder is contained within the appropriate year and between the appropriate season to keep everything chronological.
Then when I want to make that book, I’ve got everytyhing organized chronolocially, yet seperated into chunks so it’s not too overwhelming (I take a lot of photos).
YoungHouseLove says
Such cute ideas!
xo,
s
Danette from Oz says
Hope you haven’t covered it already and I missed it when I read thorugh all of the posts…you guys are PoPuLaaa! What size photo book did you go with? Thanks
YoungHouseLove says
We did the 8 x 10 one. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Jen @ BeantownBaker.com says
I’ve been making yearbooks for me and my Hubby since 2007. I use MyPublisher because I love the quality of their books. I also made our wedding albums using MP and gave them as gifts to our parents. I do my pages all custom instead of using the preset layouts they provide. It’s a lot of fun!
Jessica says
Love the photo yearbook idea! I’m definitely going to have to do this for some of my photos. In fact I love all of your photo ideas, from how you organize them to your tradition of taking pictures of Clara every month with the fabric background. Thanks so much for sharing!
Brookelyn says
I started keeping a totally occasional family blog when my first child was born three years ago, and discovered you can download your blog into a Blurb book… I just made my third family blog yearbook and it’s great – I consider this my 2nd child’s baby book since the blog was the only thing I kept up on this time around:). As a blogger with not so many posts, I love the Blurb option!
Lisa Gentry says
We did a lot of research on photo books before our wedding because we wanted to design our own. We had it between My Publisher and Blurb. We did a test run with MP by ordering our guestbook, which was basically a photobook of our engagement pics with white space to sign. We ended up going with Blurb for the wedding album. Blurb’s quality was better, and they have awesome layouts that allow photos to “bleed” over to the other side which looks very cool. Overall, we liked Blurb loooved Blurb!! They also have buy one get one free deals, and I think their prices are actually a little cheaper than MP.
Claire says
Hey! The books look great! Have you ever used iPhoto or Blurb? Do you think My Publisher is better? I have always used those two companies but am looking for a better looking option, less pixels, etc.
Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
Nope, just heard from many photographers that they prefer mypublisher (maybe their printing quality is best?). We were definitely happy with ours!
xo,
s
Laura B. says
For people who want to go more in a scrapbooking direction I highly recommend Project Life by Becky Higgins. There’s a scrapbooking kit for people who like to save lots of ephemera (kid school papers, concert tickets, etc.) and a photobook/digital scrapbooking version from Shutterflly. For people interested in preserving stories and not just pictures, give Project Life a look. It’s available through Amazon, but I’d check out Becky Higgin’s website to get a good overview and to see lots of examples. It’s at beckyhiggins.com
Alison K says
Thank you for introducing me to this. I’ve been wanting to put all my photos from Japan into a book, but couldn’t find a site that wasn’t super expensive and could hold all the pictures. This is perfect! Just ordered my book and can’t wait for it to arrive.