a photo and layout book

i wanted to put together a special gift for haley's parents, when it was time for her to leave us for preschool. i have created a ton of layouts of her over the years, and taken a ton of photos. someone once asked me if i give the layouts of the daycare kids to their parents. and the answer is "no". i give them all the photos i take, but i keep the layouts. i have 6 albums full of memories from the last 8 years of daycare kids that we have had here. but i have thought over the years, that i should come up with a way that the parents can still enjoy the layouts. that's how this project started.

i put this book together through blurb, which i have used before for making my blog books. i started out designing a 7x7 book, which is a very economical size to have printed. halfway though, i decided that the 12x12 book would make a better gift and have more impact. you can't just change the size of the book though, so i had to start over and design the 12x12 book from scratch. so be sure about the size book you want when you get started. i ordered the 12x12 book for her parents, and got the 7x7 book for myself (since it was already put together).

my title page. i choose "our time together in photos and memories" for the title of my book, and also added this to my title page. it's the only writing in the book.

the intro page. these first few pages are set up automatically. so i just choose a few pictures of me and haley. on that left page, is the copyright info.

i started by taking out all the layouts that i've created of  haley over the last three and a half years. i think i had about 25 of them. i have photos of all my layouts on my computer already, but they were all resized for the blog and online stuff. when doing these books, you really want to have the full-sized photos for better quality printing. so i re-took photos of all the layouts, and then cropped them all into a square. they were all in cronological order in my albums, so i took the photos in order. then i re-named each photo as "haley_1", "haley_2", "haley_3", etc. once i started the book, i simply added the layouts to every other page in the correct order.

for the photos, i got out my external hard drives and went through all the photos of her that i've taken. i have all my photos organized by month and year. so i started with the first month she was here with us. i made new folders on my laptop that were set up for "0-6 months", "7-12 months", 13-18 months", etc. i went through 6 months worth of pictures at a time, and just copied all of haley's pictures into these new folders. it helped to break up the amount of pictures and keep them in some sort of order.

 

i had a good idea of when the layouts were all from. so next to the layout, i would add photos that went with that layout. maybe it was the same photos that were on that layout. or extra photos from that same time, but that didn't make it on the layout. or maybe just photo taken around the same time that matched up. there are tons of page designs to choose from in blurb, when you're arranging your photos. i stuck with a few basic designs. the 9 grid design was a favorite, as well as the 4 grid design. i also liked the one large vertical photo, with the 2 smaller square photos overlapping it.

then there were the extra photos. the ones that i never did scrapbook or use on layouts. i wanted to include those too.  so i just added in additional pages, in between the spreads with layouts and photos. still keeping everything in order time-wise. it was really simple to just upload a folder of 6 months worth of pictures into blurb, and work with just those at one time. i would fit the photos in with the layouts, add the extra pages of just photos in, and make it all fit together like a puzzle. any extra photos that didn't work into that time frame got deleted from the book project. and then i would pull up the next 6 months worth of pics.

 

i made a very concious decision about a year and a half ago, to stop scrapbooking the daycare kids so much. i know that might sound strange. but at that point, i was actually scrapping the daycare kids and my friends kids more than my own family. and that bothered me. i needed to shift gears a bit, and bring the focus back to my own family and our memories. which i have done really well. i still do scrapbook the daycare kids quite often. but as i was working on this project, i realized that i hadn't really done any new layouts of haley in quite some time. and i was finding pics that i wanted to scrapbook. so that is why, a few weekends ago, i made a point to create 5 new layouts of just haley. one of them didn't get finished in time to make the book. but the others did. my favorite is at the end of this book, but i can't share it with you yet. soon though ;)

once i had the books all designed, filled with photos, and cover done, it came to 70 pages. what you see here is just a sample of the book. i love that it was 70 pages long, and filled with tons of memories. i uploaded my books onto blurb, and then placed my order. i choose the hardback covers, but the paperback ones would be a great option if you wanted to save a little money.

and here is the last page. i just had to use this shot for "the end" ;)

Comments

[Sasha Farina]

what a wonderful gift.. i feel like crying now. :) you're a great daycare mom, Laura. and i love love love 'the end' :)

[Sara Rossi]

What a beautiful & thoughtful gift!! I bet her parents LOVE it! She'll treasure this as she gets older too. You are such a good person to do this for them!

[Carla]

Oh my gosh Laura, this is most amazing book!!!!! Thanks so much for sharing all the steps!!!! I'd like to make one for the grandparents, who appreciate scrapbooking!!!!
Haley is so lucky to have u take care of her!!!!

[dawn]

oh my goodness laura this is so cute. i love seeing all the pictures of her growing up and that you did some of photos and layouts mixed together. She is adorable. This is so nice of you to do for her and they will love it.

I also realized that I take too many pictures of my cousin that I babysit and my kids noticed so I try not to take as many but it's hard since she's still little and always cute. I make her an album every year of her pictures here & give it too her & parents for her birthday present. They love them and treasure them.

Thanks for sharing with us it truly was a wonderful album.

[Deneen]

The pictures on the blog don't even do it justice it is so very awsome and beautiful in person. I am so happy they loved it but I knew they would :)

[Suzanne]

This is such an amazing gift!!! They will treasure it always!!!!

[Heather Crawford]

What an awesome gift for her to look back on and for her family. You are so thoughtful Laura to take so much time making this for them..I'm sure they loved it!

[Natalie]

oh wow, what a labor of love! I am sure that Haley's parents are so touched, and Haley will treasure this book forever!!

[Nancy Mackey]

love this!! thanx for sharing! (I really love "the end"!!

[Tracy]

What a beautiful gift!

[SandraL in TX]

Wow, what a thoughtful and kind gesture! It is so beautiful! A treasured keepsake for sure. I love your style Laura!

[cathi]

It is so sweet. And the book looks great.

[Debbie]

OMG Laura this is such a precious, precious gift...May I ask what hayley and her parents thought?

[Lynn]

Laura, what an absolutely amazing gift. I'm sure Haley and her parents will absolutely treasure it!

[marissa]

What an awesome keepsake! I am sure they were blown away when they saw it!

[limarys morales]

I've follow your blog for quite a time know and enjoy it every time, but this time i need to comment. This is an amazing gift of love, is gorgeous and full of memories and awesome pictures, her parents will love it. I know because is not my kid and my eyes were full of tears just looking at the images. You're not only talent, but a lady with heart. This was awesome!

[Meghann]

Wow! What a special gift!

[ShellyJ]

WOW! what a fabulously special gift :)

[Lynne]

What a specila gift! I am sure her parents were absolutely in love with that book!!

[Sierra]

Wow! What an incredible, priceless book! Laura it is STUNNING! I bet they loved it so much!

[Cindy Johnston]

Oh my goodness Laura!! That is one of the cutest books i've ever seen! Wow...I just LOVE it and they will so very much! You are so talented!

[Cheryl]

OMG! Laura, what an adorable book! So many priceless memories. I wouldn't know where to begin if I had to make one. Makes me teary eyed.

[Erin Bassett]

What a wonderful gift...totally something they will treasure forever!!! So thoughtful of you!

[katemeri]

Laura - this book is AMAZING!!! Her parents are going to cherish this forever and I'm sure she will too. So wonderful. I LOVE the last shot! Perfect! What a wonderful gift! xoxo

[Laura T.]

What an absolutely BEAUTIFUL gift! You did such a great job capturing such beautiful pictures of her through the years.