Family Photo Album For Your Grandkids

Today, I’m sharing parenting tips on how to create a family photo album. You also need to gather and sort your recent digital photos on your phone. If you are not very good with technology, this guide on how to upload photos to icloud will help you get them off your phone and onto your computer. It may take some time to get rid of blurry and duplicate photos.

When you are choosing your photos, make sure that you find sharp and clear pictures.  Furthermore, include all your family members. Birthday parties, sporting events, and large family gatherings are great opportunities to find pictures of family members.  

 

 

family photo album

 

Creating a Family Photo Album

 

Include Historical Family Photos

It’s a good idea to include some historical photos in your album. Pictures of famous people and important places will give them a sense of history.  Write down details for these pictures too, and include where the picture was taken and who is in the photo. Place these photos in your album so the grandchildren can get a real sense of what life was like for their ancestors. 

 

Research Your Family Tree

If family photos are not enough to inform the grandchildren about their ancestry, you may want to do some historical research. You can find out information about where your family members lived and what they did for a living. It’s another way of giving them insight into their history and it also helps them connect with their past on a more personal level. There are some great sites like Ancestry where you can find all of the information you need. 

 

 

 

family photo album

 

 

Write A Personal Message

Once you have all of the photos and other information together, it’s time to start organizing it. Writing a personal message to your grandkids about how you feel and giving them a bit of family history is a good idea. Write about why you made the album in the first place and what you hope they’ll get out of it. Having this personal message at the beginning will make the album a lot more special to your family.

 

Put The Family Photo Album Together

Now it’s finally time to put the album together.  There are many ways you can do this, depending on what type of book you want. You could get the photos laminated or mount them onto cardboard so they don’t get damaged. If you have old letters that would fit in with the story, then include these too. 

You could also go digital with your family album by making an ebook instead. It’s a great idea to put some music in there too, which will really help set the scene when your grandkids read it. There are sites where you can put everything in and get the book printed for you, or you could buy an empty album and put it all together yourself.

Whatever you decide to do, you need to start by putting the photos in order. Don’t just put everything in chronological order, think about the story you are trying to tell. Grouping things together and fitting them around specific events is a good way to create more of a story. 

 

When you put everything together, make sure that you leave some blank pages at the end. This is a good place for your grandkids to start adding their own photos and building on the family story that you have given to them.

How to Create a Scrapbook

In a world of digital memories it’s nice to create physical memories too.  Today, I’m sharing parenting tips on how to create a scrapbook. One of the most enjoyable things to create for the family is a physical scrapbook.  And what makes it extra fun – is that you get to plan your scrapbook.  It can be a family vacation, wedding, birth, birthday party, Christmas, gift for a grandparent, you name it.  Years from now, the scrapbook will be something you and your children can flip through and talk about for years to come.

 

 

scrapbook ideas

Here are some ideas to get you started on your scrapbooking journey:

Pose!

There is a lot to be said for those moments that are captured without poses. The natural moments that are quiet and gorgeous. But, posed photos are something that can be recreated year after year. You could book the same photographer with a few years between each sitting and add them into the scrapbook to see how much you have changed.  Many people get newborn photoshoots of their children.  There is something a little bit magical about them when you get a photographer like Michael Kormos to do to them. Within a few years, your once small baby will be a toddler, and you can book another shoot and compare their features as they have grown.

Vacations

The great thing about scrapbooks is that it isn’t just photos that you can put in there. Of course, you should add in as many photos as you like. But you can add in mementos like ticket stubs or postcards from the places that you have visited.    Additionally, add in what they found most enjoyable. It is also a great idea to save menus, chopsticks, peppermints, matches or napkins.   Check out vacation scrapbook printouts  for inspiration and to help you add some cool touches.

Holidays

If you are the type of family that is partial to a Christmas jumper and some elf suits or really love easter – then you can create special pages to share what you did on those days.  For Christmas, you can add wrapping paper, stamps, glitter, and even add wrapping paper tags. Capturing the spirit of your family holidays and celebration isn’t too difficult once you get into it. Buttons and bells are also a great addition to the pages.

 

scrapbook ideas

 

 

About Page

A fun idea is when you first buy the photo album that you will be using, have each person create and decorate an about page for themselves. They can paste in their favorite poems, photos of themselves and write the date.  For these pages, give a two-page spread.  This will allow enough room for people to add photos or trinkets in later years too.  It is super important for the parents or care giver to have a page too. It will mean that the children will always have something to look back on.  Add a photo of yourself as a child and an adult, so you can see how much you’ve changed too.

Monthly

If you want to keep the tradition going each year, dividing the scrapbook up into months is going to be a great idea. Get each family member to design the month at the top or across the middle.  Get creative.  And, use the space to add in exciting things that happened over the course of that month. Some months might have more going on that other so if you have a lot of birthdays in August or you take your family vacation in June, then give some extra room for all the good stuff.

Bad Things

While it might be tempting to only include the great things, view the scrapbook a bit like a book of your lives together. There are going to be sad moments. Losing people, pets, and other things do have an impact. And you can dedicate pages to celebrating people you loved or writing about things that haven’t been great. Life has both sweet and sour moments – document them all for a true overview of life.

 

One of the most wonderful things about scrapbooking is that you learn more and can be more creative as you go. You will know where to get the best printables, which stores have the small touches at a great price, and how thick you really need it to be. Once your scrapbook is made, you will no longer wonder about how to create a scrapbook.  You will just move on to your next one.

You may also like my digital Beach Vacation Scrapbook Pages.