So I finally got motivated to catch up on my photo albums, and the 2011 Yearbook is done! I might do a couple of last minute tweaks before printing (I’m not a huge fan of the cover photo for instance), but for the most part, it’s ready to print, which is a HUGE relief for me. I have adored MyPublisher for years because they have hands down the best photo book printing quality I’ve found, but I still haven’t gotten motivated to get more than my wedding and honeymoon albums done – and that was 5 years ago! I love getting DIY ideas from Young House Love, and they talked a couple of years ago about their family yearbook idea, which I totally love. Click here to read more about my inspiration for this project. The photo books hold up to 100 pages, and if you just get the project ready to print, you can wait around for one of their sales they run from time to time and usually save about 60% off their published rates. Not too shabby! I’ve also used MyPublisher for a family history album I made for my Mom’s side of the family, for my Stella weekly pictures albums (a simple flip book for the grandparents and a more comprehensive 1st year album for us).
The 2011 Family Yearbook I made has 400 pictures in it (down from the roughly 5,000 I take each year). That’s about a picture a day, which I think is reasonable. In reality, it was about 160 pictures from the first 11 months and 240 pictures from the last 3 weeks after Stella was born, but who’s counting? 🙂 It was only about 80 pages, whereas I’m guessing the rest of the years moving forward I’ll use the full 100 page allotment and a few more pictures. It’s such a great way to showcase all of the pictures from the year though!
(Note – I am not being compensated for any of this – I just love their product and think they make the best photo books! I’m super picky when it comes to photo printing, so take it for what it’s worth. *grin*)
At any rate, working on these photo books means spending a LOT of time sitting on my butt on my laptop, editing, deleting, and sorting pictures during Stella’s nap times and after bedtime, so in order to not feel bad about that, I’ve been trying to spend a lot of her awake time going on runs (C210k runs) and walks with her. She and I are both loving all of the outdoor time, as it’s been absolutely beautiful out lately!
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You have my convinced to try this now! I was just at my SIL’s and she had a book from myPublisher and was telling me all about it from her trip to Europe. Loved it!
Great job! I love it! I did something similar for our honeymoon, and I would love to start this up again. Thanks for the inspiration. I loved revisiting all of your anticipation for Stella and Stella’s birth photos (and newborn-ness). I also like how the book started as you and Charlie before Stella.
Yeah, I’m going to do one book from 2006-2010 or so (the years I have digital pics of our life together)…then 1 book a year from 2011 and on. I have the special wedding & honeymoon books, but it’ll be nice to have a snapshot book or our lives together pre-baby too. I always have loved seeing those pictures from my own parent’s lives!
Way to go with the photo book!! I was going to do these (have one for our wedding and made one for Anthony for first father’s day) but then my mum bought me some cute old style photo albums so I had a TON of photos from Alidia’s first year printed and organized them in those. Having some sort of hard copy is really great, in whichever form! 🙂 I remember loving looking through photos as a little girl and hope Alidia will too.
What a beautiful view you get to enjoy everyday!! Stella looks sooo grown up on that big kid swing! 🙂
We do the same thing, but through Shutterfly! I can’t get it below 100 pages and Shurrterfly lets me get 170 pages! I do love the Highlights idea! I make use that for the 2013 book!!!!!
Have you tried shutterfly layflat thick page books? I’m wondering how they compare!
Never mind. Shutterfly bought myPublisher. They say that on the MP site. Hmmm…
Nope, haven’t used Shutterfly in the past year and a half b/c I liked MyPublisher so much better (they also have layflat thick pages). Not sure how they’d compare now!
— Just saw your 2nd part – I guess they’re the same now! The lay flat thick pages was part of what I liked better about MP – but I’m guessing you can get similar/same quality through Shutterfly now?
Yeah – that’s all I get at Shutterfly and I love them. What I bet was going on was SF was probably having MP print their books. They have wood prints as well now, but I found their supplier for way cheaper. Same product, without SF stamp on it. I bet MP has been printing their layflat page books all this time!
such a great idea – i fear I will never be that organized though!
Love the pics, it looks so beautiful out there. Ahh, mountains!
I love the feeling of accomplishment when I finish something like this! And wow, it is so beautiful where you live (JEALOUS!)
I showed these pics to my husband and he thought Stella was nearly 3…I told him she was younger than Raegan and he was like OMG our kid is freaky little. Stella looks so grown up in these pictures….I hope to do something with my pictures. I’ve used shutterfly and apple to make photo books and back before shutterfly bought kodak a couple of kodak books. I’ll have to look into my publisher, though I’m afraid they’re out of my price range. Might be nice for a wedding book or my honeymoon book….
Well, remember that Stella is on the opposite end of the “averages” spectrum when it comes to size. Plenty of kids are in between them!
I usually spend about $50-70/book max when it’s all said and done – less than I used to spend printing pictures, buying albums, and scrapbooking!
I just told him that’s what happens when you have tall parents 😉
What a fun idea! I’ll have to look into it more. I keep saying I’m going to get my blog printed but I have yet to do it. I like your idea of breaking them up into years. I have used Snapfish and Picaboo for smaller wedding and family books and I quickly get consumed by those projects!
What size book do you normally order?
I did the deluxe hardcover (large format) for my wedding album, but I’ve done the regular size classic hardcover for the rest of the books.
I so so so need to do this. Soon. These are going to be such wonderful momentos someday.
How fun to see all of these pictures! And thanks for recommending My Publisher. I’ve only felt so-so about the ones I’ve done on Shutterfly.
I love this! Definitely going to make these every year, plus one of our first years together.