Have you ever made someone a beautiful personalized photo book and seen their face light up? It’s a good feeling. After my mom took me to Italy to celebrate my 30th birthday, I totally “won Christmas” (my new invented expression for the best gift of the year — let’s all make it a thing, ok?) by giving her a commemorative photo book. Years later, it is still sitting in a highly visible spot.
I don’t know if I’ve had as good an idea for a photo book since then. I need one now, though, and I hope you can help me out. Snapfish has challenged me to unleash my creative lens on life in the form of a unique photo book and it’s a contest.
If your ideas spur to me win the best photo book out of a pool of ten, then we all win. Literally. If I win due based on the ideas of Rookie Moms readers, you commenters win a photobook, too!
Here’s some fodder to inspire you (to inspire me).
- I have a beautiful baby boy who is likely to be overshadowed in many ways by his big brothers. I could whip up a little book documenting his first three months, birth, or gestation.
- Then again, I have a delightful boy who has just become a middle son; I could create something uniquely his so he doesn’t feel that he has to be the biggest or the smallest just to get our attention.
- And Holden… well, isn’t everything in this house already labeled with his name? I probably wouldn’t do a dedicated “Holden is awesome” book but I could do something clever featuring our house rules or jobs that makes being the biggest a little bit more fun.
But let me consider your ideas (so we can really turn this contest up to eleven). What would you do? What should I do? How can we make this photo book really special?
Want to win your own awesome photo book?
Leave a comment on this post suggesting a creative idea for my book (and your email address please). I will choose my favorite suggestions from you guys and create a book using the Snapfish design experts. If my book is good enough (and kicks the butts of the 9 other photo books competing), you guys will win photo books too. I’ll share the final product and my process in my next post. Got it? So, bring it on!
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This post series is sponsored by Snapfish as part of the “Your Creative Lens on Life” campaign. Photo book credits will be awarded if my book wins the contest to the first 100 commenters below.
Why not create one that focuses on all 3 boys. You can go from in utero (ultrasound pics) to however old your youngest is and put pics of all 3 on each page at different stages. It wold be a great comparison book. You could call it the 3 amigos or something cheesy.
You could incorporate all the boys by doing a ” I’m feeling….” And put pictures of them feeling different emotions to help them verbalize what they were feeling at different times of how they are feeling now. Or you could do an alphabet book for your husband and win christmas, using pictures of him and them or just them doing different things (I us for ice cream etc.) So fun!
You could let the kiddos write a story, incorporating all the members of the family. Either use existing photos that fit or take new ones to fit the storyline (good way to re-use halloween costumes?)
I was thinking along the same lines as Kate. Let your older two take photos on their own of the world through their eyes. Maybe encourage them to get down on the floor to incorporate how things might look to their baby brother.
You could do a fun alphabet book, and get the kids involved in doing some sort of activity for each letter of the alphabet, using pictures you have already and taking new ones too. B is for Brothers, that kind of thing. You could incorporate all their interests, as well as having a learning tool when you’re done.
I ditto the Alphabet book about the brothers – would be cute!
I have made an alphabet book featuring my two kids and they love reading it.
But I think with three you could write a story about what is special about each place in your family.
“It’s great to be the big brother because…”
“It’s fun to be the baby because…”
“It’s neat to be the middle kid because…”
You could even include a page or two about why it’s awesome to be the mommy and daddy.
How about an Advent book? Twenty-four pages with a photo(s) of your family doing something different every day? Like Dec. 1: making cookies; Dec. 2: decorating the tree; Dec. 24: refusing to go to sleep, etc. Even if it doesn’t chronicle exactly what you do. It would be a nice way to remember your family traditions at the boys’ ages right now.
What about a story book? Have the kiddos act out scenes and take pictures and then they can have a story all about them! Or look at pictures you already have and write a story describing them. Maybe the story of how baby was welcomed into your lives as told from the boys?
Yes, you have three beautiful sons…but what about you and your husband? What about a book dedicated to the two of you. Get out old photos and scan them in and memoralize them in a photo book.
Or does someone in your family have a momentous birthday coming up? My dad for my grandpa’s 90th birthday found old photos and scanned them in and made a book that is more durable than the original photos. Plus we now have captions, “Grandpa in front of his airplane during WWII while in northern Africa”. Priceless.
Did you do something fun as a whole family this year? Even just a one day thing at home, like raking leaves? I took a gazillion pictures of us playing in the leaves this fall, and if I had the gumption that would totally make a fun photo book – all of us playing and having fun on one simple day in our front yard. I took some photo close-ups of leaves and fall colors, so I’d use those as background (dunno if Snapfish allows you to do so, but it’s really cool if they do) and put photos on top. Maybe a little prose to describe the fun you all had, and you’re done! A fun way to remember a great day had by the family.
I just made a great alphabet book for my daughter, all with photos of her – A is for apples, B is for beach, etc. If you made one of those, they could all share it!
How about a book of photos of people who are important to your family? We have a flip book of all our relatives and my kids love it.
Highlights of 2011… a couple of pages for each month highlighting whatever you did that month. This would include the whole family.
How about a family cookbook featuring each family member’s favorite meals along with pictures of them enjoying family stuff..dinners and more.
I love the “day in the life” photo books. It could include all your boys- take a pic of what each is doing at 8am, 10am, noon, etc, through the day- maybe ending with a picture of each of them asleep? Each page could be a different time. Imagine the kick they will get out of reading it in future years.
I made a book right after my son was born, documenting everything that happened when we were in the hospital. I’m so glad I have those moments preserved forever!
Hey Heather! Something I’ve been thinking of as I shuffle around our son’s piles of artwork in our small house is scanning his best drawings and photographing his bigger works — you could put together a retrospective of your kids’ artwork. This way you can treasure it, share it with grandparents, and best yet, box up or recycle the originals and keep the book on the shelf.
I would make a cookbook of your family’s favorite recipes, including your sons. You could put pictures of your boys eating their fav pancakes next to your family’s go-to pancake recipe. Good luck!
I did a ‘grandkids year in review’ photo book for my mom one Christmas, and she loved it! I chose my favorite shots from the entire year, and my sister did the same. I put them all in chronological order, chose designs/backgrounds that went well with each season, and made sure each grandchild was equally represented. Turned out to be such a great gift!
I really like the alphabet book idea incorporating the whole family. Or, we did a “Welcome to my Neighborhood” book for our son that includes photos of him around the house, backyard, and fun places in our neighborhood like the library, grocery store, preschool, etc. I even snapped pictures of our garbage truck driver and mail man since we say hi to them and know them by name. It was a fun way to capture our life right now with all the people, places, and activities that make up our every days.
I like the cookbook idea, but you could incorporate that into a “Holiday Traditions” book. It can go back to your own childhood if you have pictures of yourself and your hubby during holidays as kids, each kid’s early holidays, going up through your current traditions. I currently do one every year documenting my kid’s year, since her birthday is in November. I end it with her birthday party each year and have time to give them as gifts. We have a 2nd due in January and we’ll have to do something different, but I don’t know what yet!
2011 Family YearBook
Every member gets a page about them (Dad: 28, got new promotion this year, Baby: turned one, loves elmo and these things, and hit these milestones, etc.) then from January to December, display each month’s memories of the whole family
And I can’t believe I forgot to mention this one – I did a book for my Grandmother’s 80th birthday that was all about HER. I started with old old pictures we found of her in high school (there weren’t earlier ones) and did pages with her parents, siblings, her and my grandfather, then a page for each kid and each set of grandkids. I included a lot of personal information (things she did in high school, how she and my papaw met, dates of birth/death for each family member, a little something about each of her kid’s families, kind of like a family tree with stories). I wish I had incorporated more personal things like recipes and pictures of quilts she made and such, but I was doing it as a scrapbook by hand and just ran out of time. It was a huge hit at her surprise party and when she died earlier this year it was displayed at the funeral. People were really impressed at how comprehensive it was.
I’m really into geneology, so I thought about creating a photobook version of a family tree. It would be neat to use pictures of each person as a young child, if you can find them.
I also really liked the idea of scanning in kids’ artwork. You could also scan in hand or footprints.
Another idea would be to do a photobook of you and your kids’, but broken down by body parts (i.e. eyes, smiles, toes, etc.)… so that each page would focus on just one part at a time… and you could throw in a pet’s eyes/ears/etc. here or there if you wanted a good laugh.
Somewhat along the lines of the first commenters, you could make a book called Becoming Brothers (or something) that highlights each of your boys individually and also their relationships to one another. Or (as has also been suggested) you could write an “original” story–I am currently working on a photobook for my 8-month old based on Eric Carle’s Brown Bear Brown Bear but I am using photos I’ve taken of animals local to our area.
Last year I made a book titled “A Peek at Our Week.” In it, I chronicled a week in the lives of my children (and us)–some days, I did an hour by hour write-up, and some days I just captioned photos. Lots of variety, and lots of pictures of course! One big plus: Christmas gifts were basically done for extended family–I ordered one set for each set of grandparents and great-grandparents, and I swear they talked about them all year! (They have requested a repeat gift for this year, but I told them I’m taking a year off and making one next year.) And we ordered a book to keep for ourselves, which my kids love paging through (and will love to look at even more as they get older, I’m sure). The best part is that it’s a nice “slice of life” sort of gift for those relatives that are far away but it’s also good for local family since they rarely see all the day-to-day little stuff that goes on over the course of a normal week. Great all around!
Why not have Holden help you with the book? He can help to pick pictures and colors.
I took pictures of all the artwork and doodles that came home throughout the year and created a photobook for each kid. They get a real kick out of it and I get to pitch the pile of paper and glitter (I hold onto some special ones for the keepsake box).
You could do an alphabet book (a– apple picking, b– best buddies, c– cooking, etc) with pictures of your kids as they participate in those activites. I’ve been planning to do that for my little guys!
I did a “Brothers” book for my boys that was just pictures of them together, starting from when Augie was first born. Maybe you could do the same for your boys and add Sawyer in too?
Er…that came out weird. Of course you would include Sawyer.
I love the day-in-the-life idea! especially with three kids because they are all at such different stages and when they get older and look at the book, you can say “can you see now why I always looked a little bleary eyed back then” because they’ll see how crazy YOUR day was with three active little ones.
Do a “When I Grow up” book. Let the boys pick things they’d like to be when they grow up and take pictures of them dressed up. Then have them say why and write that in. What a fun way to make memories and make them think. They can pick things for the littlest one too.
My favorite photo book I ever made was of my sons birth story. I gave it to him as a way to get him ready for the birth of his sister. Since both were home births I wanted him to be prepared for anything he might see (though he ended up spending the day with grandparents). I also included pieces about how when he was little he cried a lot and needed to be held all the time. I think we read that book 3 times a day for months. We haven’t read it in a while but I like that he has a copy of it now (albeit written in language for a 2 year old) to keep going back to. Only I might not let him have it when he grows up! I might need it to remember my first baby.
This doesn’t help you, but is still my favorite idea.
You could make an “ABC’s for our 1, 2, 3″…I’m assuming you have 3 kids:) Just a fun 26 page book with pages like B is for Baby Boy, C is for Christmas 2011, H is for Holden…etc.
Just noticed Katherine’s comment…great minds;)
Create a Photo book of Family History with all of the boys. For example: Holden in Christmas photo, then Holden and middle child together in photo, and to finish the page all 3 kids in Christmas photo. That theme could also be continued with other holidays, vacations, trips, or the birth of a new brother. It’s fun to have the side-by-side views of the years gone by.
Why not focus on the everyday of what this year has been like for you. The little things about what your kids are doing now you don’t want to forget – like how they always stomp through the house with muddy shoes, or explode in laughter after mom does something embarrassing. I like remembering these little every day moments rather than simply documenting events.
Oh, the plight of the middle child.
Make a book about him. I know my middle sometimes seems to get lost in the mix…and there is so much fun stuff about him. I love the ABC idea others have shared! Good luck!!
My daughter and I made a summer-themed photo book. We picked out pictures of her and her brother from three summers and put them together with very basic captions (when & where). Simple to do and we all love to look at it.
Not appropriate for family, but definitely a good use of Snapfish for The Kid(s). Our family on both sides live states away, so we took pictures of everyone individually when they visited our son and are turning it into a book to help him recognize Auntie Val, Grammy, Cousin Blake, Grandpa Bill, etc.
I just discovered your blog because I googled creative photo books to make for kids, and you came up! Snapfish has a promo now for buy 1 photo book get 2 free, and so I’m determined to make 3 photo books by Thursday (there’s pretty much no chance that’s going to happen!)
Anyway, I love Celeste’s idea of “Peek at a Week” because you could include all 3 kids and capture things small things that normally don’t get captured in photos. And alphabet books are always nice for different ages (maybe the older ones could help make it for the younger one?). What about writing a story for them about their favorite toys? You know, the toys could go on an adventure around your house, and it could read like a picture book rather than a photo album. Or, what about a book about you and your husband that your kids might like to read when they are older? With stories about when you were growing up and favorite recipes and photos, of course. I’ve seen books like that geared for grandparents, but never for parents. Depending on the ages of your kids, you could have them interview you, or you could do one page about them (favorite color, food, christmas present, etc) and then the next page the same questions about you.
Okay, that’s enough ideas now. I have to narrow mine down if I have any chance of making them by Thursday. Good luck!