Scrapbooking tips: Printing photos via Shutterfly, Snapfish

Of course, besides the materials in the last post, one of the things you have to have to make a scrapbook is actual photos to put in it.

With the advent of digital cameras, the way we get printed copies of photos has vastly changed. And while I miss being able to bring a disposable camera to CVS and the surprise of what I'd find when I got the prints back, the new way offers a lot more choices.

I tried the print-them-yourself way on various printers we've had at home over the years, but for some reason they just never seemed to come out right. Plus, when you get down to it, buying the ink and photo paper and maintaining the printer is more cost and hassle then ordering them online.

Many people also may go to places like CVS or Walmart to get theirs printed, at both places you can do it in store, which would be time consuming for me because I order dozens at a time. But for Walmart you can also download them onto the site and go pick them up from the store.

However, I choose to rely on websites where you can upload them, order them online and have them shipped straight to your door.

It can be costly to do this depending how many prints you get and how fast you want them, but I've always been pleased with what I got.

There are two sites I've tried out, Snapfish and Shutterfly.

Scrapbooking tips

Since I have blogged about scrapbooking so much and enjoy it so much, I decided I would maybe focus this blog even more on it. It's good to have some semblance of a theme I suppose.

I think the biggest pro about scrapbooking is being able to show off pictures in a better way then having someone just rifle through them prints or a Facebook album. A scrapbook organizes them and people spend more time looking at the photos and sharing in the memories. Plus, it's personally more fun to take a trip down memory lane with a scrapbook. Also, my grandmother used a photo album that uses a sticky substance to secure the photos, and years later they are now permanently attached to it. I used photo corners in my scrapbooks, so if I ever wanted to take a photo out, they aren't permanently attached.

On that note, here's some musts for you if you're considering starting a scrapbook:

Family Tree

Earlier this week I found out my grandmother had fallen and broken her hip. She had to go through surgery and will have a long recovery at her age. I was very sad to hear the news and it finally got me going on the scrapbook I promised to make for her of all her old photos.

I'm really enjoying this scrapbook, though it's much harder than the ones I have made for myself. When I scrapbook I very much like to keep it neat, ordered and simple. But the photos she has span a century and there's really no set way to organize them. I also don't know all of the people in the photos, though luckily she wrote names and sometimes dates on the backs (which is something I should remember to do with my photos.) It's so awesome going through them though. Photos from the mid-1900s of my grandma in beautiful old fashioned dresses and my grandfather (who I never met) in his uniform.

I'm sure there's a lot of stories behind every photo -- though I actually don't know many of them.

In the end, I decided to not be so worried about categories and themes for pages with this scrapbook. I think the photos tell enough that it won't matter.

I'll start sharing some of the pages on this blog soon!

Also, "Laverne and Shirely" just came on TV. Sweet. I haven't seen this show since I was in middle school.

Scrapbooker Extraordinaire

So I don't know a ton of scrapbookers, so maybe this statement is a little off base, but I am the BEST scrapbooker EVER.

Yeah, I said it. Want proof? Check it out: (note, the pages aren't in order here, in the book it's chronological and I'm not done yet still have a ways to go (final press run, Gettysburg/senior week, graduation)

http://s906.photobucket.com/albums/ac268/kmd87/Senior%20Year%20Scrapbook/