If you follow me on Instagram, you must be familiar with my love for turning memories into photobooks and you might have also seen me share about my annual photobook projects. If you missed hearing about that somehow, I make these combining the best photos from a full year.
I started this project with a close friend of mine in 2012 when I realized I really needed a way to display all these photos we were collecting every year. I’d already tried traditional photo albums but they were taking too much space & ultimately decided to try this option out and I’m so glad I did.
I’ve done a lot of photos related projects over the years and still do them but this is my favorite most one ever. It sounds crazy but the whole process is so therapeutic, from going through all of the photos from the year and making selections and then placing them in the book and ordering them. To be honest, it does take me a while from start to end ( I’m actually a few years behind on it right now ), BUT that feeling when that book arrives at my door, so good! And then watching Anya randomly going through them, definitely my favorite. sigh. In short, it is all worth the time + money investment for me:)
ABOUT MY PROCESS
-I include camera + cellphone photos even when the quality of photos isn’t perfect because these photos have a way of showing our daily life much more sometimes.
-It is a little time consuming but towards the end of a year, I start going through our photos and adding my favorites to a selections folder.
-I love Blurb to order these books & use the Lightroom Plugin which makes the process so much simpler since you can use it to design it from your computer.
-I avoid doing captions in the book because I just want to speed up the process and that would definitely slow me down. Instead, I’m using a fine tip Sharpie permanent marker to write directly on the pages later on – dates and memories or anything I wanted to remember for the future (Thanks to Elise for the idea).
-I want the style of the books to be consistent and do the 8 by 10 portrait size. It is a decent size but still easy for smaller hands to pick up and go through whenever they feel like it. Also because I want the collection of yearbooks to have a shelf in our bookshelves and the size is easy to fit amongst books.
– Over the years I’ve also started adding Anya’s artwork to these books and also planning to use my friend’s awesome idea to include selected photos of our families from Eids, anniversaries & other important occasions that we end up missing because even though they aren’t a part of much of our year, they’re always close to our hearts.
– Since this is a huge project, mine comes to around 200-250 pages book, I wait for a good coupon code to use to order my book. From what I have seen, Blurb gives you the best value for money for all of those additional number of pages and using their coupon codes helps so much.
Some helpful ideas if you want to make your own
It helps to have photos organized in folders by year // Every time you download photos, copy your favorites into a sub-folder naming it something like ‘BESTOF’ // I recommend Blurb / Parabo Press / Mpix / Artifact Uprising / Shutterfly for ordering but you can use whatever you have a good coupon for because the job done is more important than it being perfect. // If you only take photos on your cell phone Chat Books is another great option and you can order from your phone which is so cool //
I get so many questions about these books and hope you enjoyed the little walk through. Scroll down for a special offer if you’d like help in making one for your family.
Much love, Nataliya
If the Family Yearbook idea sounds interesting to you but the time investment sounds scary or overwhelming to you, I would love to help you out with this! I am offering bookmaking services too now if you’re based in the US. If you’re interested please message me here and I will get back to you with details!
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