Organizing and Displaying Photos

When I was younger and cooler, I vowed to never be one of those "crafty scrapbooking moms". Well, I'm older and wiser now, and I have no problem admitting that I'm crafty. There's this thing called digital scrapbooking that makes it so much easier (and cooler). And I'll admit, I love to make a card or two.
Having kids changes a person in soooo many ways.

'nuf said

Speaking of kids, they grow so fast I can hardly keep track of it, even with pictures! Oh but I try! And I have to take 5 to 10 shots of that cute face/outfit/mess to make sure I get a good one. So how do you keep track of it all? Well, I don't know how YOU do it, (please feel free to share in the comments) but here's what I do.

I collect pictures. LOTS of pictures. So many pictures I don't think we'll ever look at them all again. But I can't bring myself to delete them, so I organize them!

Here's the quick visual version of what I do:

On my desktop I make a folder of the current year (Example: 2013 Photos)

In that folder I have 12 folders, one for each month, each labeled with the two digit number and month name to keep them in chronological order. (Example: 01 January, 02 February, 11 November, 12 December)

Throughout the month (ok after a couple months when I realize it's time to save them before they get deleted by little fingers) I transfer all the pictures from my phone, my husbands phone, emails (actually, emails I transfer immediately so they don't get lost in my mess of an inbox), anyway, ANYWHERE you have pictures, transfer them into the appropriate month. Sometimes I have also put video in each month, but sometimes I take a LOT of video and would rather have it in a separate folder. Maybe I should do monthly video folders like I do for photos. hmm...

I usually save all of this to at least 3 DVD's per year (I know, I'm already outdated in this, I need a hard drive). The first is all the pictures from January to June (ish. If there isn't enough room on the DVD, I don't get all anal-retentive about how I split up the year.) The second is July to December photos and the third is all the video. Again, if I have more video than will possibly fit onto one DVD, I split it by month: January to June video and July to December video. That way, when I'm doing scrapbooks, calendars, whatever, I can look back month to month and have a nicely organized system to find the photos I want.

And without paper, it could not have happened...
Unless, you had a camera. 

THEN, so they don't just all sit there electronically, I wait until I get a "FREE 101 prints" from Shutterfly. They send these bonuses out several times a year, usually right after a holiday, and you have 3 or so days to use them. Well, if you have your photos in order, you can start ordering from the beginning of the year to the end until you have them all. (Hey, if you're not cheap like me, go ahead and just pay to get them all printed. It's not that expensive.)

All of these prints go into a regular old photo album (admit it people, that's a SCRAPBOOK). If I wanted to I could stop there, but I like to have a little book to display. I have to admit, the books get looked at ALL the time, and the albums sit and collect dust. Maybe the albums are daunting, and the nice little books don't seem like that much of a commitment.

Anyway, so far I have a baby book and a book per year for each kid. (Ok, Sophie's isn't started done yet, but it's in the planning stages. I still have a few months before she's a year old! But with this system I can easily stay on top of it!) I also do one book per year for the whole family. Actually, because I've only been doing this for a few years, I have a couple books that span a couple years when we were dating/first married/didn't take as many pictures. Once we had kids, we took a BILLION more photos.
(That might, MIGHT, be a little exaggeration. A little.)

You can organize the memories however you want. Maybe for a big vacation do a separate book. Maybe do a separate book of special people (cousins, grandparents, etc.) Anyway, books are the way to go to actually see your photos. You don't have to spend a lot of time to get it all cutesy either. I like a lot of photos on the page, and not many scrapbooky things (embellishments, stamps, etc.). There are some cute pages out there though, and templates are the quick way to go with that!

I have to be completely honest and say that this is MUCH EASIER to do than to explain. I have scrapbooks from the last 7 years, plus baby books, yearly kid books, and I've only been doing this for, I don't know, 2 years? 3 years? The point is, I'm up to date people, and that feels GOOD!

I'll post last years book tomorrow. Get excited.

MOJO 276

I've been wanting to combine these 2 DSP's with this lovely stamp for a couple days, and it fit in perfectly with this Monday's challenge!

I decided to try sending the stamped image through an embossing folder and I think it worked! And that pinwheel die is honestly the best five bucks I've ever spent. I love it.

Stamp Camp January 2013

Here are the three cards we're making this month for Stamp Camp!

I did it!

One reason I love Stampin' Up! is all the contests and incentives they give! Yes, I would love to go on one of their grand vacations, but that's a far way off in the future. Luckily, they have achievements even for the little people like me. Here I am on the website for being a Stampin' Start Achiever!

Oldie but Goodie

Do you have a stash of stampin' supplies? To prevent my creative space from being featured on Hoarders, I am making a goal to USE that hoarded stash! So here's a birthday card I created for my nephew using an old retired stamp set:

To give old stamps new life, pair them with new accessories like this woodgrain embossing folder that was in the holiday catalog but is still available! 

Baby Announcements

I had gift cards to TWO different websites for baby announcements, and I searched and searched for the perfect one. I still ended up designing my own!

Tip: If you print at home before sending it to print professionally you will avoid mistakes. NOT that I made any here...ok I did, but I'm not going to point it out. Let's just say print it in color so everything comes out exactly how you want it to. ;)

P.S. Aren't these photos fabulous? A big thanks to April Williams at Hopscotch Studios!

Nursery Completed!

Here is the video of the nursery I submitted to Joann's Simply for Baby Nursery contest. I'll post more pictures and details later. :)