There are very few material things that I would grab if my house was on fire, but I would make a bee-line to save these books! My entire family adores them and we all gather around to reminisce and laugh about past adventures. The memories are priceless.
So here are the details about our yearbooks: I have them printed through Blurb. They are the 12″x12″ size with a photo printed right on the cover. (I figure a dust jacket is only going to get ripped with all of these little hands!) All of my Instagram photos from the year are inside and since that’s my favorite place to be on social media, I feel like they are a great representation of our everyday.
A few tips that have worked for me:
+ I downloaded the book software from Blurb onto my computer, so I could work on it throughout the year. About once a month, I take the photos from my phone onto my computer and then quickly pop them into place.
+ I figured out an easy pattern with the templates provided, making it even easier to pop in the photos (this will make more sense with the pictures below):
Pages 1&2: One big picture on the left, nine small pictures on the right
Pages 3&4: Nine small pictures on the left, one big picture on the right
Pages 5&6: 18 small pictures…and repeat
+ The photos are mostly in chronological order, but I moved things around if I thought it looked better (like no two black and white photos touching, etc).
+ The books only contain photos, no writing. If I’m feeling brave, I may hand-write captions with a fine point Sharpie. (But probably not, because what if I mess up? #perfectionistproblems)
+ There is a way to upload your Instagram pictures directly into a Blurb book, but since I wanted a bigger book, I haven’t tried it.
Below are a few of my favorite pages, although it’s hard to choose! From 2013:
And from our 2014 book:
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