Thursday, February 19, 2015

Printed Photos + Family Memories






Ever since my post last year where I discussed my saddness at our lack of printed photos, I have made documenting our family life a priority.  Happily, I can report that I have compiled around twelve or so double-page spreads that together, give an overview of our 2014. I've found this project (which is on-going and will be added to over the coming years) to be so rewarding and very manageable and wanted to write about my approach to encourage others who haven't printed out any photos for some time to perhaps give something similar a go...

For my album, I have used Project Life page protectors.  However, my approach to using them is SUPER SIMPLE.  Unlike others who use such resources to complete weekly spreads (which for me personally would be too time consuming and feel like too much of a chore), I document several weeks or even several months in the same space. Every now and then, I download all of the images from our phones and camera and save my favourites into a folder.  When I have enough to put together a layout, I do. Sometimes a layout will cover a month or a season.  Other times it will document a special occasion such as a birthday or family holiday where a larger number of snapshots have been taken. No pressure. No rules.  No fancy embellishments or patterned papers. Just a simple collection of photos with a simple bullet-point list of memories.

I stick to a fairly basic layout and use only one style of page protectors.  I keep my journalling cards the same.  Polaroid-style smaller photos (thanks to the free Collect App) break things up and provide some blank space (as well as useful date records).  Some photos are printed with a white border to provide definition, others are printed to the edge of the photo paper. I try to balance colours and will convert certain images to black and white if they are too visually distracting.






Our album doesn't necessarily contain my best photography but I select the photos that best tell our story. Milestones, snippets of daily life, new additions to our home as well as the occasional portrait all combine together to showcase memories I want us to recall in the future.

If you (like me last year) are in the position of not having printed out any photos for a LONG time, I encourage you to try something similar. My girls love being able to flick through our pages of family memories and I'm so grateful I've stopped procrastinating and have begun creating a tangible record for us all to enjoy and look back over...


A special shout-out to Ronnie whose pared back Project Life style is what encouraged me to try something similar in the first place.
Also, thank you to Claire for your advice and inspiration which I've appreciated too.



11 comments:

  1. I love this Amanda, simple but a perfect reminder of special times. Making albums is on my list but I have left it so long it has become a little overwhelming! x

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    1. Thanks Simone! I'm just so glad I finally made a start... now I have to go back and do some pages for the past years :)

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  2. Your memory keeping is so beautifully done Amanda. I used to be very good at keeping photo albums up to date, until I finally made the shift to digital after Quinn was born. He was three years old before I realised there was not a single album for him to flick through with photo of him in it. Four years worth of photo books followed, and I am trying to make it an annual compilation not, but I rally, really love what you have done here. x

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    1. Thank you so much Alison. I think the best part of finally making this album has been seeing my girls flicking through it. We still have files and files of photos online if we ever want to refer to a particular occasion and see more shots, but the album at least gives an overview. I plan on making a few photo books of big holidays we've been on. Which company do you use?

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  3. Amanda, I love this! It looks amazing. I've been trying to work out what sort of photo album suits me best for a while now and haven't found the right type for me. I was considering going down the photo book path but I like this much better. I think I will have to get into it!

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  4. This is beautiful. I want to get better at documenting daily life too, Amanda. But in a way that is manageable!! x

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  5. Beautiful photo layout Amanda. As usual...you have such an eye for symmetry and detail...and everything looks so elegant. xo

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  6. These are beautiuful...so well worth you time and effort...I have been doing very slowly something similar. xx

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  7. I so need to do this Amanda. You have inspired me to stop thinking about it and do it instead xx

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  8. These look beautiful Amanda. It is so important to have these photos to look through rather than look at on a computer screen. I really must do this too. xxx

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