How to Create a Family Year Book

In 2008 I created our first family yearbook. The cover was plain black with a frame where a picture should have been. I had left the space blank unintentionally and the book printed and was sent to me. It wasn't all a fail because through the years I have learned a few things. 

We love having a family yearbook. Quite often I will find a kid or two curled up on the couch flipping through the pages. They love to look at how much they have grown and changed over the years laying the books side by side. Sometimes we go back to reference when one of our family vacations was or when an event happened. It's like our own family time capsule.

I'm excited to be able to share with you how you can create your own family year book. If you are already making a family photo book, perhaps you can still learn a tip or two. I've made a few mistakes and learned a few things through the years!

Through the years I have used several different companies. My favorite books though, all have these black linen covers with a small cutout in them. Most recently I used York Photo and I loved the quality and the ease of ordering and creating. They were actually much more inexpensive than some of the other companies that I have used in the past and side by side, their books are nearly identical. I would most definitely use them again.

1. Be Flexible

While this is called a family yearbook, sometimes it's easier to not get caught up in the process of documenting a years worth of photos. It's been about five years since we had professional family pictures taken, so the most current family photo book is a collection of all of those images.  

I have found that sometimes when I create a photo book, I have a huge amount of pictures that I want to use from family vacations. It's OK to create a photo book with just those images from your family vacation in them. In fact, it's probably going to be much easier for you to have them all in one place rather than to have to narrow them down to fit on just a few pages.

2. Be prepared

Find a system that works for you to compile all of your photos that you want to use for your family yearbook.  We have an album in our shared pictures called current pictures. This is where we put pictures from the current year. Then, when I go to make a book, I just upload the whole year of pre-selected pictures. You can also sort out your images. If you find it easier to upload your images every month to your preferred photo site, do that.  

You and I both know that there are always photo book deals to be had. Being prepared enables you to jump on those great photo book deals when you see them. If you aren't in a rush to compile an album, make sure your images are upload to the site and perhaps even made into your album and then save it. Once that sale happens, hit buy and reap the savings.

3. Customize your layout

This is much more time consuming, but I find that in order to get all the images into my family yearbook that I want, sometimes I need to customize the layout to allow more images to be used. 

Don't get sucked into adding TOO many images to a page though. I have done this with some family pictures, particularly those from family vacations or events and in the end, I wish I had just given them their own book. It would have made looking at those images more enjoyable.

4. Autofill and adjust

Once you have all of your images, select auto fill. Some photo sites will automatically do this. I have never hit buy after an initial auto fill. I always go back and tweak my book to my needs and wants. Start at the beginning and work your way back.

5. Think beyond family photos

Just because you are creating a photo book, doesn't mean that it has to be just photos. Include letters, special newspaper clippings, pictures of the kids drawings or artwork. Include whatever is special to you and your family that year.

6. Keep it simple

While there are lots of layouts out there, my preferred layout is always black and white backgrounds without text. I have added text before and just find that detail cumbersome and it cuts into the space that is available for my images.

7. Don't get hung up on the details

There have been years where I obsessed over the exact dates of events. Your family yearbook is about your year as a family. The detail of Aunt Ruth's party happening before or after the beach trip won't matter. If you think of your book in terms of seasons that usually helps. I can almost always remember what season an event happened in rather than a date.

8. Give some events more space

It's OK to buy extra pages for your family yearbook. I don't pay extra for a lot of things in life, but I will almost always buy extra pages for our family books. I make sure that each child's birthday and their party or event has it's own page and Christmas or other seasonal events like our annual family Turkey Trot gets a few pages of their own as well.

9. Buy extras

I haven't done this yet, but as I prepare to launch a kid off to college I have started thinking more and more about who will get our family yearbooks when the kids move off and leave home. I don't want them to have to wait to inherit them. I want them to each have their own. So from now on, I'm going to start ordering four copies of each family year book. That way, each of my kids will have their own family photo book from that year and I will have a copy for our home.

Hopefully you got a tip or two and are inspired to start thinking about making your own family yearbooks. It's not too late to get started saving those memories!If you are local, we recently had family photographs done by the amazingly talented Rebecca Anne Photography. All photos seen in this post were taken by her. Thanks Rebecca!dislaimer: this post may have affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing through them, I may receive a small commission. These small purchases help me to continue to keep writing content and creating at Holy Craft. This post is sponsored by York Photos. Thank you!

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7 Tips for How to Take Your Own Family Christmas Pictures for a Photo Christmas Card

It's closing in on my favorite time of the year...Christmas card season! I love love love Christmas, but my favorite part by far is the steady influx of Christmas cards in my mailbox. It usually starts on the first day of December {some loyal college friends are known for being card number one every.single.year} and it lasts until the start of the new year.

As a family, we get excited to get those cards.  We pray over every one of them at the dinner table, we use their Christmas letters {and Facebook} to fill in the details of that family’s life over the past year, and we proudly display those cards on our walls and on our mantels. The kids anxiously fight over who gets the mail and they tear into the envelopes with reckless abandon. We then pray over the cards we receive that day at the dinner table and we usually share a story or a detail or two about that family before we proudly display those cards on our walls or on our mantel.

Because I so very much cherish every single one of the cards from friends and family near and far, I take great care in making sure I send out a Christmas card that is one to cherish. 

I don't know when the switch happened but it did. When we were first married a zillion years ago, I would go to the store and pick up a few boxes of those stock Christmas cards. I would write a personal message inside each one and we would include our family Christmas letter.  About ten years ago though things started to change. At first we just got a few photo cards at Christmas, and then it was more like half and half and then last year, BAM! Getting a card with no photo was a rarity.

Ten years ago, I sent out our first family photo card. Our youngest son was a newborn and we dressed up our two other kids to look like Mary and Joseph. How adorably cute are they?! That first picture started a new tradition.  My husband would be in charge of writing the Christmas letter {ours doesn't suck} and I would take on the task of getting a photo for the Christmas card.

Some years it was a no brainer. There were a few years that we had professional photos taken, so I included those images, but professional photos are expensive, and well, I just didn't have it in the budget to hire a photographer every year.  But I loved the look of a professional photo.

About three years ago, I got smart. Perhaps I'm the only one that hadn't had the ah ha moment yet, but I thought, we have a camera and that camera has a self timer, lets just go to the park and take a family picture. 

There was no scheduled day or time. No hoping that the weather would cooperate on the day that we had scheduled, no long drawn out posing session with a stranger.  We set our own day and made up our own time. We showed up. And you know what? It's worked out great for us.  So I have a few tips for you in case you want to try taking your own family pictures for your Christmas card.

1. Invest in a tripod

The first year, we took my camera and placed it on a ladder that was acting like our tripod. The second year, we borrowed a tripod.  This year, I finally bought a tripod. They aren't very expensive and it will come in handy more often than you think that it will.

2. Get familiar with your camera's timer

There is nothing more frustrating that being frustrated with technology. Especially when other people are waiting on you to get said technology working. Read your manual before you go. Set whatever settings you need ahead of time. We have ours on a 10 second timer to give my husband time to press the button and get in the shot.

Some of you may be fancier than we are and have wireless remotes. We aren't there yet, but just so you know, that technology exists if you want to go that route.

3. Pick a location

It still doesn't feel totally comfortable for us to stand in the middle of a crowded place and smile awkwardly off into the distance. We like to pick locations for photos where we are sure to not see anyone. This may not matter to you, so your options are more open. 

4. Save room

My husband is usually the one pushing the button on the camera so we have to make sure we save him room in the picture for him to run quickly into his spot. Save a spot for everyone!

5. Take a test shot

Make sure before you take a whole bunch of pictures that the location is o.k. You don't want to be standing in a stream of light that is blinding to everyone or in a shadow that washes you all out. Get the settings on your camera set {nothing wrong with auto mode sometimes!} and focus on your family so that you aren't all blurry but the leaf behind you is super crisp!

6. Take lots of pictures

Take more pictures than you ever think you will need. I would rather have more to work with than not enough.

7. Leave your pets at home

Our golden retriever Sophie is a part of our family.  We love her dearly, BUT if we are trying to take our own photos, scurry to jump into a picture and have everyone looking decent, adding the wild card that a pet brings, makes getting a good shot so much harder! With someone running back and forth, the dog is sure to be looking the wrong way!

I always get home super excited to see the pictures that we took. Another perk to taking your own...there is no delay in getting those shots into your hands!  

Next step is narrowing them down and ordering your Christmas cards.  I love using Tiny Prints. There are so many great high quality options to choose from. The website is super easy to navigate and I can easily narrow down my Christmas card search with a glance when I use the "show my photo" option.  This is the best feature in my opinion.  It's so much easier to select a card for your family when you are seeing your family and your picture instead of stock image.

Every year I drool over the newsletter cards. My husband has written his signature Christmas letter for nearly two decades and I can't justify switching it up for a newsletter card, but man, I would love it if we got a few of these in the mail.

It's inevitable that every year we get what we call the "I'm alive" report.  You know what those are. It's the card that comes in the mail with a picture of kids you don't know and the standard printed message: "Love, The Smith Family." Those are great. We appreciate knowing you are alive, but what we would appreciate more is just a few lines letting us know what you were alive doing. I love those little details.  But honestly, I'm not going to get all hung up on that. I just love getting Christmas cards in the mail!

I decided what picture I wanted to use for the card and that helped narrow down which card selection we could make {I picked the Happy Expression card}.  Also, if you want to select one photo or even up to five or more, you can do that as well!  I love that you can personalize the backs of the cards, so I settled on making my selection with one large horizontal family photo on the front and a collage of pictures on the back.

You can also choose the trim that you want {I like the traditional rectangle}, your greeting {I always have a card that says Merry Christmas}, you can select a color, your paper {I like matte} and your format {horizontal, vertical or square}.  It's so easy to personalize your card so that it's one of a kind. And let me tell you, there are years when we get the same exact card several times!

If you really want to personalize it, you can add envelope liners to match your cards. Talk about swanky!

 

While I was placing my order, I also decided to make life easier this Christmas {because we all need that amIright?} and order pre-printed personalized gift labels.  I love these because they are self-adhesive and I can adhere them to anything, including these clearance priced holiday candles I bought last year for 90% off.  This little touch created the perfect neighbor gift don't you think?

Lest you think taking Christmas photos on your own is smooth sailing, I wanted to include these outtakes from our little family session.

It really is a ton of fun doing it yourself! If you want the look of professional photos but don't want to pay the price tag, give it a shot on your own. I know you can do it!

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Tiny Prints through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about Tiny Prints, all opinions are my own.

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Father's day photo gift with Snapfish

There are so many photo sites out there now that it's hard to find the best one. I must be honest with you, for years I jumped between sites based on what coupon codes I could find and usually settled on the site with the best deals.  This method didn't always work out in my favor!  Sometimes, you really do get what you pay for!
I'm a big fan of giving personalized gifts.  Snapfish is launching an amazing new version of their site redesigned from scratch. They listened to their customers and you can tell! I was able to design a personalized gift for my dad for Father's Day and it took me less than 5 minutes! The new site is even available on your phone or tablet so you can design where ever you are! 
If you are my dad, stop reading now! You will spoil your surprise! If you aren't keep going so you can see how easy it was to make a personalized canvas from one of my favorite vacation photos.

Last year, my parents met our family in Maui for an extended family vacation. We spent our fair share of time relaxing on the beach and my oldest son actually snapped this picture of my dad, me and my husband shooting the breeze and watching the kids in the surf.  It actually ended up being one of my dad's favorite pictures from the trip {mine too!} so I decided to make it into a photo canvas for him.

I went to the Snapfish site, clicked on the canvas and decor tab, selected the orientation and the size and uploaded my photo.  That was it! In less than a week, my canvas was delivered right to my door.

I love how the canvas is wrapped all the way around with the image. I even get the added bonus of spending Father's Day with my dad for the second year in a row in Hawaii! This year, we are meeting up on the Big Island for a family reunion.

While we are talking about vacations, if you are anything like me, you are probably snapping most of your pictures with your phone.  I know I am! I share some pretty good stuff on Instagram and I'm guilty of leaving my pictures stuck digitally and never printing them off.  I am super excited that Snapfish offers square prints, perfect for those Instagram photos. 
Back to dad now...There are lots of great personalized gifts you can make for father's day.  Like a puzzle from one of your favorite photos, playing cards, magnets or travel mugs.  You can even make personalized luggage tags and phone cases!
You can also Join Snapfish Superfans! to share your pictures and projects and have opportunities to win prizes and rewards! I promise you, the new Snapfish site isn't the same one you used 15 years ago! It's much better! Give it a shot.  I promise, you won't be disappointed!

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Skip the family photos on the train tracks, the lesson that we learned.

It's nearly holiday card time, which means, it's also time for your family to be heading out and posing for family pictures.Several years ago our family had a close call while trying to get some photos on train tracks.I was reminded of how close we came to tragedy when I watched a 20/20 show on Sarah Jones.Sarah Jones was a 27 year old film crew member that died earlier this year while filming a movie on train tracks in South Carolina.I thought that it was worth sharing our story again, in the hopes that other families would heed the warning.This is the story from my blog post on October 27, 2011.

Lesson learned: Don't play on the train tracks.

For the past few months, I have been pinning family photos for a recent family photo shoot with local photographer Kris Allan.

We've done the beach pictures before and I wanted to try something different. I fell in love with these pictures taken on train tracks. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's the vintage feel of a railroad or the cool industrial aspects or the rugged patina of the equipment, regardless, I knew I wanted to take some pictures on some train tracks.

 And why not? Train tracks are everywhere around here since our area has one of the largest container ports in North America. I thought I did my homework by checking the train schedule of the local train station we were using on a Sunday afternoon. To the best of my knowledge, the train station was closed on the weekends. However, we later found out that just because the station is closed, it does not mean that the tracks are closed to all through traffic.

 My husband, Mr. Safety, even thought that if a train was coming through town, it by law had to slow down to 30-40 mph as it passed. Slow enough that we would have enough time to react and move if a train was coming. We quickly learned that we were both wrong. We had a fun photo session on the tracks by the station, blissfully ignorant of any harm that may come our way in the form of a speeding train. The kids ran up and down the tracks, as a family we precariously balanced on the rails and we even set up vintage suitcases as props to sit on.

 We finished taking pictures at that particular area and moved on to another location. While I love all things vintage, I also love anything brick and old. We found a brick building near the train tracks that was the perfect backdrop for individual pictures of the kids.

 While Aidan was busy getting his picture taken, Owen our eternal curious daredevil found his way past the guardrail and up on the train tracks again. Owen is only 6 and he loves to look at how things work and how things are made. He was peeking around at the bolts in the rails as I tried to watch him and his older brother getting pictures taken and watch for cars on the small alley way road that ran between the tracks and the building.

 I had just told Owen that I was thinking he should be getting down from the tracks and was starting to rethink the idea of him being on the tracks even if the trains weren't working on the weekends.

Just as he was slowly starting to make his way off the tracks a man with a large dog walked over and approached us. He asked if that was my son and told me that he needed to get off of the tracks. The man told us he worked for the train and was in charge of that stretch of track and told us that as we spoke a train was heading our way.

 We looked down the track and saw a headlight about a mile down the very same track that my son had just been balancing on. The railroad crossing arms were just then starting to ding and come down to close that portion of the road off. He told us that the train was coming at around 70 mph and that just two days earlier there had been a fatality on these very tracks.

 In our ignorance, we thought that there would surely be a sign that a train was coming. The tracks would start to shake, the horn would blare, we would hear that little chug chug chugging down the way, but the reality was there was none of that.

We heard nothing until the train was blasting past us mere feet away. We thanked the man and he walked away. It didn't sink in until later that evening (1:15 am to be exact as I tossed and turned and was unable to sleep or think about anything else) how dangerous the whole situation really was.

As a parent, my job is to make good choices for my family. To protect my children and to set a good example for them. I did none of these things all in an attempt to get a good family picture. I realized later that the man who came wandering down with his dog was nothing short of an angel sent from God as a protection for my family.

That the situation on the train tracks could have ended so much differently. That our family could have been changed forever because of my selfish nature. I'm using this situation as a learning experience. I've apologized to the kids for my poor choices and lack of judgement and I am making sure that through our experience that someone else may become more aware to the dangers of the rails. A picture isn't worth it. Your family is.

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Family photos with Kris Allen

I wanted to share with you a few of the photos that we had taken last weekend by awesome local photographer Kris Allen. Kris has done our pictures several times both times at the beach. This time, I was hoping for more rustic fall colored backdrops, brick walls and train tracks.
While the train tracks seem like a lovely back drop for some really cool photos, they are certainly not worth risking your life for. Something we quickly learned during our photo shoot. I learned that it's not IF but WHEN a train will come and that trains don't have a predictable schedule and offer little to no warning when they are coming.
YOUR FAMILY IS NOT SAFE ON TRAIN TRACKS! Please, let the lesson that we learned prevent you from making the same mistake that we did.

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