I would have chosen “memories” as the theme if I hadn’t already chosen “memory” previously. Hopefully this one won’t be too hard!
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So how many of you have actually printed any pictures in the last 6 months? Anyone?? Anyone???
I take so many pictures of my kids that I had to move all my files off of my laptop onto an external harddrive. I think the last time I printed pictures of my kids was in March sometime. Then the task becomes what do I do with all those stacks of pictures? I normally only print my favorites; however, my favorites have tended to expand to a 4 inch high stack of prints. It just really sucks to have such photogenic offspring. 😉
Today I am going to an all day scrapbooking retreat to get some of those wonderful moments into books. My girlfriends and I are going to sequester ourselves at a church and attempt to document our children’s lives before we forget everything. I left off at November 2007, so the pictures I do have should keep me busy today. The one thing I think I have a step up with having a blog is that all my journaling is pretty much done. I print out my blog entries (I usually reformat and change the font on them) and then I can easily put together pages of the kids or gatherings. I also have about a half ton of scrapbooking supplies so the possibilities are endless!
I don’t scrapbook everything, though. I have had a few hard-bound books created through Shutterfly.com. I had a 12×12 leather hard-bound book made up from our vacation to California in the spring. It looks great and was so quick and easy to do. Their online program made the pictures look pixelated, but they printed just fine. I have done a few other smaller books for presents, but I think from now on I will be doing those nice big books for the events with lots of pictures.
Then, of course, there are the wall portraits. I have put up a few of my favories in frames that have pre-cut mats. Costco has some nice walnut matted frames that are pretty cheap which I love ($20 for 2 – 11×14 frames!). I also love the pre-matted frames at Michaels. They make your pictures look professionally framed for a fraction of the price. I also make sure that the photo wall collages match each other and the decorating of the room so they don’t clash. I do have a wall of pictures up in our upstairs hallway that is so mismatched it isn’t even funny. I loved the mismatchedness of the frames and pictures at the time, but the love affair has waned. I want something more cohesive now. I forsee a bottle of spraypaint in my future. 😉
Some of the photos on our walls. Sorry it’s fairly unimpressive. I really like the second collage of four pictures on the wall. It is in the hallway to the back of the house so pretty much anyone that comes in the front door goes by it. All the colors match and the kids are ultra cute, which is always a bonus. 😉 The pictures going down the stairs are pretty scattered and need to be redone. The only thing they have in common is that they are all black and white. I really need to work on my pictures on the wall. I’ll have lots of time this winter…hopefully.
What do you do to preserve your memories?
Ooh, gosh. Feeling the pressure now. I have been wanting to print out pics for a very loooooooong time. I even did go to Michael’s and bought frames with mats. My girls love to look at pictures of themselves, too. I’ll get on that. And my craft room. Ugh, I’m getting overwhelmed. 😉
1) I have not printed anything for myself for awhile. Like since January.
2) I, too, have made Shutterfly books, but I truly enjoy making my own scrapbooks more.
3) I have been married for over 2 years. While I do have a Shutterfly book of our wedding, the actual labor-intensive scrap pages are nowhere near finished. Hopefully they will be before we have kids. 🙂 I also have our first year of marriage somewhere in the “to-do” pile…I’d better get on that one, too.
i am a scrapper but now a slacker. i have 70 albums lining my bookshelves of more than 20 years of memories with my kids but i am dragging and slacking currently with april 2007 waiting for me to get a move on. i am signed up for an all day even in a couple of weeks so perhaps i will get something done!
when did i last print pics? just yesterday. it was for a gift for a friend’s party to celebrate her daughter’s adoption. i was at the courthouse and took some awesome pics of her 4 y/o dancing with the judge. they begged to be framed.
like you i use my blog for the journaling portion of my scrapbooks. it is so easy.
i also take some of my favorite shots and frame them for wall portraits.
i guess great minds think alike!
i love your work!
You have done much better as “preserving the memories” than I have! I haven’t scrapbooked a single page of Nadia’s life – but I do have pleeeenty of pictures, and lots of stories on the blog. I used to print 50 pictures a month pretty regularly, for the albums, but I haven’t printed since the beginning of the year. I need to, as N loves looking at them. And my collages and framed pictures throughout the house are sorely in need of updating. Sigh.
I’m sooo bad at this!! I’ve hardly printed any of my pictures!! One thing I’m planning on working on this fall!!
I love getting ideas for how to organize & keep pictures. I can’t afford scrapbooking, so I choose not to do it, and everyone I know who does it says the same thing: “I’m so far behind.” That doesn’t sound fun, it sounds like homework. But sequestering oneself with friends to do a scrapbooking blitz, now that sounds like fun! Iced tea & good music would be nice in that setting too.
I took Christina’s 50-pics a month rule starting last December and it has been great for me. I wait till Winkflash has sales, 6 cents/print, and then I put in an order of about 3 months’ worth of pics. Then they just go straight into albums, which line up on my bookshelf in the living room like pretty maids all in a row. They’re not too terribly chronological but I think that’s okay. It forces me to pick out my 50 favorite shots each month; the rest I can enjoy on my blog or wherever.
This month’s Real Simple did a little bit on photo collages for walls that are mismatched. Interesting timing! 🙂 Of course it always looks so much better in magazines than it does on my wall!
Your frames and arrangements look nice!
I am bad in this department. I scrapbooked for a time. That gets to take too much time and brain power. I hate designing page after page after page after. .. I need to make one more baby book apparantly but other than that I might be done with the paper scrapbooking. For now my organization and preservation is within files on my external hard drive that just crashed. SAD. We still have hope of retreiving it for a large sum, but well worth it.
I have lots of photos on the wall in our Living room. All of which need to be updated.
NOPE I havn’t printed pictures in the past six months. But I have lots of folders ready to be printed 🙂 Someday!
OH what a great idea – FIFTY PRINTS A MONTH. That totally sounds do-able!
Thanks Dawn.
I have had on my to-do list forever to make a digital album and then print a book of Zane. Have I done it? ummm…no. Thanks for the inspiration though!
I create online digital scrapbooks with either snapfish or shutterfly right now as I don’t have time for anything else. Usually around the holiday time I buy frames and pull out the desk drawer full of prints I happened to print throughout the entire year and do the framing. I actually have printed photos in the last 6 months. I just haven’t done anything with them yet. 😉
Hey, I followed you back here from Shutter Sisters because you mentioned you print your photos on canvas. I was wondering, where do you get this done? Thanks.