A "My Younger Self Would Laugh Her Arse Off" post

stever

I'm not a scrapbooker. Truth be told, I cringe when I hear people claim to partake in scrapbooking. But... but...

I have kids now and I want to collect photos of them that exist on something more solid than my hard drive. To that end I have a partially completed baby book of DS1, a photo album of his first year and have bought a baby book for DS2.

I know! 22 year old me is crying because she's laughing so hard.

Anyhoo, as I was collecting some pics of DS2's first month to burn to a CD it occurred to me that it has been way over a year since we've developed any pictures at all. So now not only do I have to catch up on a month of photographic evidence of DS2 and close to 2 years for DS1, I have to shell out close to $50 for pics.

Crap.

mwd

Stever, I am not a scrapbooker at all.  I put all my pics on shutterfly, and then make a calendar every year for grandparents and ourselves. Even my sister, the scrapbook queen, does it!  It would be super easy to make a scrapbook there, it could even be electronic until the end of the year when you get it developed.  And way cheaper than developing all those pics.  Besides, where do you store them? And if you don't use shutterfly, there are many more websites for photo storage. 

This way, you don't have laugh at yourself, you get to revel in how intelligent you are. 

NewMrs07

Shutterfly has special deals all the time, that's what I use. The other day they had an offer for 101 free prints. I also get free photo books all the time.

Sunidaze

I kinda understand.  More than kinda.  I haven't reached the point of an actual scrapbook yet, and the baby book hasn't been touched since Stella's first month (and I really feel bad about that)...but for Christmas last year, I created a photobook of Stella's first six months for my mom for Christmas (and had one for myself).  It turned out rather crappy though, so I am having the photog we have used from maternity through one year pics put together a book with pictures from each of those sessions (maternity, newborn, 6 months and one year).

gimmietimmies

Stever, I actually like scrapbooking, and I won't do it. There will be an echo, Shutterfly. I've used them quite a bit, they are great and not expensive, not $50. Sign up for the emails, they practically throw free books at you.

stever

Thanks so much for the advice, ladies.

jlw2505

Have you considered just doing a online photobook like one from Shutterfly or one of the trillion other online places.  It takes way less time and energy and they look great and while the cost may seem high, when you add up what you spend to print pics and get the album and anything else you use to make it fun and pretty plus all the time - it might be less money.  I know I spent way less time/money doing my books online.  I do a Shutterfly book for each calendar year and then any special books for special trips or things that are way smaller - examples of those are I did a school year book for my older DD's for PreK as they teachers take a ton of pics during the year and I can get digital copies of them so it was fun and I was able to get a coupon for a free book and it took me about 30 mins to do the whole thing.  I will be making a book of our upcoming Disney trip and then when I do our annual book - I will only put a select handful of the trip pics in the main book.  I used to scrapbook and this is so much easier and I love how they look.

jcath

I'm not a scrapbooker but I actually enjoy doing the online photo books like shutterfly and others.  If you use Pampers products - I log in the reward codes and they have tons of shutterfly offers you get for redeeming your points.  

Strunella

I did a photobook too (Snapfish) and it was such a time-saver.   Guess what our families got for Christmas last year...photobooks and calendars!  Plus, they have tons of deals around the holidays.

groovygrl

Hate scrapbooking, love photobooks!

I will say though, I'm a mypublisher devotee... I got one from shutterfly or ofoto or somewhere once & the quality did not compare. Just another option for you to look into. they also send a ton of coupon codes out pretty regularly. 

klmbbb

groovygrl:

Hate scrapbooking, love photobooks!

I will say though, I'm a mypublisher devotee... I got one from shutterfly or ofoto or somewhere once & the quality did not compare. Just another option for you to look into. they also send a ton of coupon codes out pretty regularly. 

I'm also a fan of My Publisher.  I did an album of wedding photos and it looks great.  They are probably more expensive then Shutterfly though.  

Speaking of Shutterfly, I have a $20 card/coupon I got from Motherhood that is supposed to be good until Oct 31.  I won't be using it.  Anyone want the code?  PM me and I'll send it.