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Photo books are a great way to get pictures off your hard drive and into your home, and they’re always a great conversation starter. But sometimes it can be a little daunting to actually know where to start. If you’re struggling with ideas of how to get all of your pictures into beautiful photo books, here are 10 ideas to get you going.
Annual Book
This is my go-to style when it comes to making photo books. I take all of my pictures from a given year and get them printed into a nice book by Blurb, my favorite photo book printer. I love to see them all lined up on my shelf, and they take up a lot less room than a traditional photo album. They’re also a lot easier to customize, and you never have to worry about photos fitting in the acetate pockets—or worse, tearing through the bottom so that you end up with a mess. I like to divide my books into “chapters” that group similar pictures together (i.e. by event or location), but if that’s too fancy for you, you can always use Blurb’s autofill feature to add all of your imported photos into beautiful layouts with a single click.
Check out the post 10 Tips for Making Gorgeous Photobooks for helpful tips and inspiration!
Baby Book
Birthday Book
But there’s nothing that says you have to stop once your kids aren’t babies anymore. I love the idea of “birthday books.” These are a lot like annual books, but you can make them individual for each member of your family. Add in extra goodies like letters from Mom and Dad and other loved ones, scanned artwork, report cards, awards, etc. Then print it up and give it as a gift on their birthday. Not only does this take off a little of the pressure of deciding what to give them for their birthday, but it also means that they’ll have a beautiful record of their lives to take with them when they grow up and fledge the nest. You don’t have to limit this to kids, either. Imagine how fun it would be to give Grandpa a book full of photos from his own life when he turns 90!
Recipe Book
I’m not much of a chef, but I love a good family recipe. There’s something so fun about cooking the same things that your grandmother cooked. DIY cookbooks are a great way to share these family recipes with cousins or to pass them on to future generations. Have fun taking pictures of your family making these recipes together or brush up on your foodstagramming skills to show off your best culinary creations. If you love how that recipe card looks with Grandma’s handwriting, scan it and import it as a photo rather than typing it up. And if you’re a budding food celebrity, you can even self-publish your cookbook with Blurb to jump start your career!
Family History Book
Speaking of family recipes, photo books are also a perfect way to compile and share family history records. At a recent family funeral, my aunt brought out boxes of family photos most of us had never seen before. We had so much fun looking through them all and picking out our favorites. Problem was, we all wanted to keep them and there were only one or two copies of each photo. You can easily solve this dilemma by making a family history book so that everyone can have a copy. You can even include stories, transcribed journal entries, and scans of any other paper records you can find. Blurb does offer a discount on bulk orders, too, so everyone can order their books together to save on printing and shipping costs.
Blog Book
If you’re a fellow blogger, first of all, hi! Thanks for stopping by! 🙂 Second, you put a lot of work into your blog, and it’s a big part of your life. Some of my best writing has been on my blog, and it would be a shame to lose it all if an EMP were to destroy the internet or something crazy like that. While Blurb no longer has a “blog slurping” feature, you can export posts from a WordPress blog using the Adpose.Words Exporter plugin and pasting the document into a photobook layout. There are a variety of other book printers that do still offer this service, but as I haven’t worked with any of them, I can’t vouch for their quality. Whatever route you decide to take, make sure that you have a backup copy of your blog in a format that will stand the test of time.
Travel Book
If you’ve just gotten home from a fantastic adventure, now is a great time to get all of your trip photos printed in a beautiful book. You can add all sorts of fun features to your travel book to really capture the feel of your trip. I love to include maps and itinerary details, and you can even leave empty space to attach flat ephemera like brochures, tickets, etc. I recently saw the idea to use QR codes that link to videos from your trip, and I can’t wait to add that to my next travel book.
Milestone Book
Along those same lines, you can make a book to commemorate other big milestones in life. Graduating from high school or college? Make a photo book filled with school memories. Just got back from a mission? Make a book with all of your mission photos. Getting married? Make a book of pictures from your courtship to use as a guest book at your wedding. Pregnant or adopting? Document the time leading up to the day you get to welcome that little bundle into your family. Celebrating an anniversary? Make a photo book commemorating all of the years you’ve shared together, complete with love letters or things you’ve learned. I’m of the opinion that if it’s worth celebrating, it’s worth memorializing in a beautiful book your family will cherish for generations.
Get a jump start on your next photo book project with professionally designed templates for InDesign. Check out my Etsy shop and start telling your family’s story today!
Gift Book
Good relationships are worth treasuring, and photo books are an incredible way to tell someone how much they mean to you. Whether it’s your best friend, your spouse, or a parent, fill a book with pictures of the two of you making memories together. Write out funny stories that you remember. Write out all the reasons you love them and are grateful for them. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but a gift like this will leave them speechless.
Funny Book
When I was at BYU, my roommates and I would hang up a fresh piece of poster board on the wall at the beginning of every school year. Throughout they year, whenever someone said anything funny, we’d write it on the “Quote Wall.” I always took a picture of the quotes at the end of the year, and they’re some of my favorite things to look back on. Even if you don’t hang up a quote wall, you can keep a record of the funny things your family and friends say by making a quote book instead. I also saw an idea for an “ugly faces” book on Pinterest—keep all the unflattering photos of your family in a single book so you can laugh and laugh and laugh at yourselves throughout the years. I’m 100% going to be making books like these.
Photobooks are a great way to remember your family’s favorite moments. If you’re ready to make the leap into the wonderful world of making photo books with Blurb, get 25% off photo books with the code WINTERBOOK now until 3/18/22. (If you miss that window, don’t fret! I keep this post updated with their current offers.)
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