Turning your old scrapbook into a BOOK

 

 Honestly, I love scrapbooks, but I think their time is coming to an end.  At least the kind of scrapbooks where each page is carefully arranged by hand and placed into a plastic page protector and then held in a huge and bulky binder! I probably have about 10 of these because I did one for my husband and started them for my kids, etc.  They take up so much space that they are kept in a cupboard in the basement, so no one really even looks at them!

On top of that, most of my scrapbooks are filled with non-digital photographs.  So I  knew I needed to get them scanned and in my computer in case anything ever happened to them.  But all the photos are glued in...so the best thing to do is just to scan the entire page.  And then from there, you can always crop to the exact photo you need, etc.  

 

I thought it would make sense to place each page into an online book.  Look at the difference between the bulky and the new & crisp hardbound book!

 It's pretty much keeping your exact layout..the pages look the same 

 

HERE'S HOW TO DO IT: 

1.  SCAN every page of your scrap book.  This can take some time, but it's not bad.  There are also places that will do this for you.  But this way you can preserve the page the way you made it and not just the photos alone.  Yes, I would probably do the pages different if I were starting over today, but keeping the page as is, is kind of fun.  Plus, it took a lot of work at the time! haha

 

2.  CHOOSE who you want to go through to make your book.  My pages for this specific scrapbook were 8 1/2 X 11, and so I went through blurb because they were the only one I could find that had an 8 1/2X11 that was a 'portrait' landscape.  My book was 46 pages and with shipping and everything my total cost came to about $44.00.

Costco has comparable prices, if not a little bit lower, but as you can see, these were my only sizing options and that didn't work for me, but they may work for you:

 Shutterfly is another book company I have always liked to use...but it gets pricey to add more than 20 pages.  But again, they didn't have the size I needed anyway.

 

3. UPLOAD the scanned scrapbook pages into the site that you've chosen.  If you've ever made an online book before, it's just like uploading pictures (jpgs).  

 

4. LAYOUT your book so that the photo (your scanned page) will fill the entire page. I preferred to have a small edge around each photo because I was not sure how the final book would turn out, as far as if any of the edges would get cropped.  I think it turned out perfect.

 

 

5. DRAG & DROP each page of the scrapbook into your new book in the order they were in your scrapbook.  You should not have to do much else, as far as adding text or anything because you already did that in your scrapbook!  It probably took me 15 minutes to get all my pages in. SO EASY

 

6.  FINAL TOUCHES like the cover and the binding can be fun to customize.  I decided to add a picture and did my titling in fun fonts.  You can also add the title to the binding. 

 

7.  ORDER!! I highly recommend what they call an IMAGE WRAP hardback book. Your picture and title are printed onto the cover....it's great quality and then you don't have to worry about one of those "dust jackets" that just always fall off and get ruined.

 

I was so excited to get mine in the mail!! Now I just have to do the rest of my scrapbooks!  It is a little pricey, so I might have to spread it out maybe doing one a month or every other.  I struggled with whether or not to throw out the bulky scrapbooks now, just to clear space.  But I can't bring myself to throw them out because they contain the "actual" letter, or the "actual" concert tickets.  haha.  I guess I'm a little too sentimental. ;) 

 

What to do with your non-digital photos

We've talked about how to organize your digital photos on your computer.  But what about all your non-digital photos that are in albums or boxes? 

 We all have them.  Printed photographs from before everything went digital.  Whether they are being kept in old, sticky photo albums, boxes or envelopes, or even nice & well kept albums, there are measures you need to take to guarantee they survive long enough to show your grandchildren.

ESPECIALLY the photos kept in those old, sticky photo albums.  You know what I'm talking about? The pictures stick into place and then there is a plastic covering to help protect the photos.  GET THEM OUT!  Look how yellow this album has become.  That stickiness is toxic enough to start eating through your precious photographs.  If they've been in there a long time, you can have a horrible time getting them out.  I've heard dental floss helps....possibly even heating the page a little with a hair blow dryer and using the dental floss.

 Even if you have a high quality album to hold your photos, you will want to at least get them scanned so that if something happens to the album, they won't be lost forever.  Plus, it's fun to be able to share them digitally, like putting one of my wedding and baby photos in this blog post!  haha

  

 

 

Here are 5 steps to help preserve your non-digital photos and get them ORGANIZED:

1.  SORT the photos and decide if any can be thrown away.  I would suggest either sorting them by person or by year.  However you think you would like them organized.

2. SCAN THEM.  Why? First, it will give you extra copies of your photos, just in case something were to happen to them.  Second, it allows you to share them digitally, whether through social media or by making a slideshow or online photo album.  I have had friends email me old photos from college and it's so fun!! A great way to share! I understand many of you will have your photos in SCRAPBOOKS.  Yes, these still need to be scanned, but instead of tearing your scrapbook apart, you can just scan the entire page. I will do another post on this later.

If you have a scanner at home, scanning your own photos can be easy....it just takes some time.  If you don't, you can invest in one or pay someone to scan them for you. 

3.  DECIDE if you want to keep the originals or throw them away. After all, if you have them on your computer you can always print them again if you ever want to. 

4.  LABEL them.  Do a quick label on the back...at least the name and year.  I don't know how many photos I've found in my grandma's house that I have no idea who is in them!  Very frustrating! If you are throwing away the originals, then you still need to keep them organized on your computer.

 

5.  DON'T LEAVE THEM IN A BOX.  It doesn't matter what you do with them, and it doesn't have to be fancy, but make sure they don't stay forgotten in boxes.  For ideas, check out my last post, "DO something with your photos".

 

DO something with your photos

 Ok, you've taken your photos.  Where are they?  Maybe on your computer, on your phone, or even in boxes.  What was the point in taking them if they are being hidden away?  Here are some ideas to help get your photos out of a box!

 

 

 SCRAPBOOKING

  Whether you still love crafting your own scrapbook or if you've learned to do it digitally, scrapbooking can be one of the most enjoyable ways to look at your photographs....IF you have the time for it.  I LOVE my scrapbooks, but the truth is, I've been years behind on them ever since I started!  If you love scrapbooking and don't want to let it go, I would at least recommend learning to digital scrapbook.  It gives you almost the same result, minus the paper collecting, cutting and pasting.  If don't have the energy to learn this new skill, try out the next best option below.

 

ONLINE PHOTO BOOKS 

Create your own photo book online!  There are so many sites out there that make it easy to create a fun book that has all the cuteness of a scrapbook, but is a lot less time consuming. I've tried several and think they are all pretty good.  If you see groupons or other deals for these photo albums, grab them! I have used Shutterfly, Snapfish and Picaboo.  But I wouldn't recommend them if you are doing many pages more than 20.  It gets pricey.  If you are doing more than 20, I would highly recommend going through Costco!  A BIG advantage to doing an online photo book is that it is WAY less bulkier than a scrapbook!

ALBUMS 

 

If you just want to get your photos in an album without all the hassle and fluff, then these are for you!!  And there really are some cute ones out there!  They can be found anywhere from Target, Walmart, Kohls, or even online through places like Amazon.  All you need to do is place your photos in the sleeves.  Some even have a space to write a quick description if you want.  So simple, but still so fun to flip through and see all your photos!

 

FRAME SOME OF THEM 

There are so many collage frames and if you have some extra wall space, whether in an office, guest room or basement, it can be fun to display them in a collage frame on the wall. I think I got this one for $5 from Michael's.  So easy.  I am excited to fill up some of my basement wall space with these. 

 

My grandma actually inspired this option.  She has so many photos, she started sorting through them and deciding which ones to put on the walls of her office.  It's always so fun to go over and look at them! Great job, Grandma!!

 

These are only the most basic options for what to do with your photos.  There are so many clever and crafty things out there that the list could go on.  Maybe for another post. :)  I hope I have inspired some of you to get your photos out of a box, or off your computer, and DO something with them!! I would love to hear what you've done! Comment or email! 

4 ways to take more meaningful photographs

Yes, I just did a post on taking less photos!  haha  So this post isn't to encourage you to take MORE photos, but just to make the ones you DO take more meaningful. What "meaningful" means, will be different for each person, but I wanted to share what I found for myself:

  

I started to find that I took pictures of the SAME things every year...holidays, birthdays, pumpkin patch, the school Halloween parade, the dance festival, the sports the kids play every quarter, the summer parades, etc.  I didn't really think about it until I went to put together my books with my photos in it and I realized that each year is starting to look the same!  I found that I rarely take pictures unless there is something big going on.  And those "big things" going on are usually the same year after year.  So I decided I wanted my photos to feel more SPECIAL than that and so here are my thoughts:

1.  STOP GETTING OUT THE CAMERA JUST BECAUSE IT'S A HOLIDAY

I find that some of my most favorite photographs of my kids are ones I took at a more random time.  Like this one of my youngest and his messy face after he just had a sandwich (AND I had to take a picture of the sandwich to go with it because he wouldn't eat the crust and he put the pieces back in their spot after he was done!).  And like this other one of our family gathered around an ipad watching a funny youtube video together.  Remember to be random!

2.  YOUR PHOTO SUBJECTS DON'T ALWAYS HAVE TO BE LOOKING AT YOU AND SMILING

In fact, I LOVE these photos my sister in law took of my kids.  Landon was trying to tell us something and there was a time where he struggled with this. This photo was taken 4 years ago and I love these almost more than any I have of him smiling and looking at the camera because it reminds me of how cute it was to hear him talk! And then I love the angle of the 2nd picture.  My daughter was laying on the trampoline and I love seeing how her hair falls, her long eyelashes and sweet face. Think angles!  Take a picture from above, from below, from the side...it sure beats trying to ALWAYS get them to look at you and smile!  

3.  SAVE THE PHOTO TAKING FOR NEW EXPERIENCES!

  I tried something new this year and have an album called "Howell Adventures". 

Whenever we tried something for the first time or went somewhere new, I tried to get just a couple pictures.  Not 30...just a few...just so we can remember what we did.  And then we documented it in the album with the date, location, and a short description. Not only did this give my photos more meaning, but it gave us motivation to see what other new things we could try and to find new places we could explore!!

4. LESS POSING and MORE ACTION!

I love posed and smiling shots, but I also love the ACTION!  Seeing the looks on their faces when they are in the middle of experiencing something is priceless.  

The 2 best ways to keep your digital photos under control

Hopefully you've all gotten started with Tasks 1 and Task 2 for this month!! Task #2 was "Organize photos & videos on your computer", and I wanted to give you a few more tips to help you with this seemingly daunting task. 

With digital photography comes the ability to take as many pictures as we want! This is SO helpful when we are trying to get the perfect picture.  But SO not helpful when we end up with thousands of photos for the year!  This is what I've learned:

1.  TAKE LESS PHOTOS

Think about it...how many photos do we have of our grandparents? Some more than others...but for me, I've seen maybe a few for each stage of their lives.  I don't know about you, but that's plenty for me! I don't mean that in a rude way...it's so fun to see them when they were young, but I think I would get SO bored if I were trying to look through 300 pictures for each stage of their life. 

So, as I thought about this, and as I spent SO much time going through all the photos I took, I made the decision to simply take less photos.  For me, this means I don't need 25 pictures of us picking out pumpkins, or 25 pictures of us baking sugar cookies, etc.  Don't get me wrong, it certainly FELT like I needed them at the time.  But remember this:  TAKING LESS PHOTOS OF YOUR KIDS DOES NOT MEAN YOU LOVE YOUR FAMILY LESS!!  You are actually doing a most wonderful thing!  Not only are you spending less time with a camera in your hand, but you are spending less time organizing your photos and stressing about what to do with them too!  This will give you MORE  time to spend with your family!

I want to quote from an article I found called "Too Many Photos, Too Few Memories" : "In 2014 it is estimated that 1.5 billion smartphone cameras will take nearly one trillion photos – that’s hundreds of thousands of photos every minute (three thousand in the time it took to read this sentence)...Every two minutes mankind collectively takes as many photos as the whole of humanity took in the 1800’s."

 Say Whaaaaat?!  Seriously people, is this necessary? The article questions if we are taking photos at the expense of creating genuine memories.  Go read the article...it's pretty interesting!

2.  DELETE

On the occasion that your finger gets "trigger happy" (so to speak) on your camera and you take WAY too many photos, that's ok!  Have no fear! There is an awesome feature called DELETE where you can select anything you want and delete it from your camera or your computer. :)  I think we get afraid to delete anything because it will be gone for good! And the pictures are SO cute...we just feel that we can't bear to delete them!  I understand your pain, I seriously do.  But you've got to get over it.  It's going to be ok. 

 

Really though, why is it so hard for some of us to delete our photos? There needs to be something called "Digital Hoarders Anonymous"!  I found an article on this and love their motto : "KEEP THE BEST, DELETE THE REST" (From Digital Photos : How to decide what to keep...great article...go read it!)

I sometimes like to delete photos straight from my camera.  Just take the 2 seconds it takes to delete the ones you know are blurry or duplicates, etc.  And then when you upload them to your computer and put them in a file under the correct month and year, just take a quick minute to go through them and delete any more that seem like duplicates.  I swear, I usually narrow my files down by HALF when I do this.  HALF of those photos I didn't need and now I don't have to deal with them cluttering up my computer and life and I STILL got some great shots to help me remember whatever it is I was taking pictures of!

With whatever pictures you end up with, be sure that you keep them organized on your computer!

Keeping Videos & Photos Organized

Whether you are taking videos with your camcorder, your phone, or even your point and shoot camera...you most likely would like to put these on a dvd someday.  When it comes time for you to burn your dvd, it will make your life SO much easier if you have them organized on your computer! Same thing with photos.  I'm sure you don't mean for them to just sit on your computer.  You are going to want to DO something with them eventually.  Usually when you upload your video or photo files to your computer, it will look something like this:

These files can quickly add up and be all over your computer.  Don't let them pile up.  Keep them organized so you can find what you need easiest.  Here's what you need to do: ( I apologize for those using a Mac...I use a PC, so I'm not sure if the same filing system can work on a Mac)

Step #1 : Start by making sure the videos that you are putting on your computer, go into a file labeled for that YEAR.  Here you see that on my hard drive, I have labeled them Family Movies 2013, etc  I would suggest keeping photos and videos SEPARATE.  So you can make a separate file for Photos 2013, etc.

Step #2 : Create New Folders to hold your files in sections.  The number of folders you create will depend on how much video and photos you take, but I like to start labeling my folders by EVENT.  Like "Landon's Birthday", "4th of July", etc.  To create a new folder, you simply right click in an open space, and choose NEW and then FOLDER and then you can give that folder a name.

 Then you can highlight the group of videos/photos that belong in that folder and drag them in.

Step #3 : Now create more folders by MONTH.  They stay in order better if you label them 01, 02, 03, etc...instead of by month name.  And then drag which folders belong in their certain month.  For example, I dragged "Landon's Birthday" into 05-2013 because that is when it occurred. 

 Now they are organized and ready for you to burn to a dvd, or print a book, make a slideshow, etc. which I will talk about more in another post. 

 

FOR THOSE OF YOU FEELING OVERWHELMED:

 

I suggest starting with the most RECENT and work your way backwards.

START by creating folders for "Family Movies 2014" and "Family Photos 2014".  As it is the first week of January, you will probably not have any videos to put in there yet, but if you get your folders created, then you won't have to do it later.  Then inside "Family Movies 2014" create 12 folders for each month.  THEN throughout this year, when you go to put your videos on your computer...put them in the month they belong in. 

NEXT, work backwards by starting with "Family Movies 2013" and try to get them organized as I've shown you above.  Once you've finished 2013, continue working backwards by year. 

Depending how much you have to organize, it can take some time.  Don't get overwhelmed.  Just take ONE STEP AT A TIME and don't stress if your whole computer isn't organized by the end of the week.  Good luck to you!

Hopefully this gets you ready for the next step of actually DOING something with your photos!

Convert Your VHS & Camcorder tapes

Do you have a bunch of these lying around???

  I have talked to so many people who keep meaning to get them converted to DVD, but just don't get around to it. This should actually be one of your first priorities!!  These tapes will NOT last forever. Image and sound quality degradation becomes noticeable in as little as 5 years and may only be usable up to 20 years! If you have tapes that are older than that, you are really pushing your luck. One day you may put it in and it won't play. So DON'T LOSE THOSE MEMORIES!!! Get them converted right away!

This is an example of our oldest VHS tape.  It's from 1987 and so the quality was never as good as our footage we take today, BUT it did not used to shake like that or have lines through it.  I wish that we would have gotten it converted just a few years earlier!

HOW TO GET STARTED:

*Costco will do 2 tapes, up to 2 hours on each for $17.99, so that is about $9 a tape.  This is probably the easiest and cheapest way to go.  I understand this can end up costing a lot if you have a lot of tapes, but it will be SO worth the money!  You can even spread it out by taking in just a few tapes per month or something. 

*Walmart is another alternative if you don't have a Costco membership.  They charge $19.96 for up to 2 tapes, 2 hours maximum.

*Google people who can do it for you.  You can always see who offers these services locally.  These can be a little pricier because most of them put more time into it, giving you chapters for each section of video and possibly a custom menu.  People can do it from home, like myself and MIGHT charge less.  If you are close to the Salt Lake Valley, you can check out a few of these that I've looked into that offer the service, including myself:

AubMarie Productions
Home Video Studio
The Multi Media Center (this one could probably help try to save any damaged tapes)
Anything to DVD
Sharper Transfer

 

*Do it yourself!  If you have a LOT of tapes, it may be cheapest to convert them yourself.  This may still cost you a couple hundred, if you are needed to purchase the correct equipment and programs, but it would beat paying $500 for someone else to do it also.

What you will need:

1. For VHS tapes you need a VCR and if you have camcorder tapes, you need the camcorder that the tapes work in. 

2.  A way to hook the VCR and Camcorder to your computer.  For that you need something like this:

A USB Video Conversion System.  You can look around, but Amazon has it for anywhere from $50-$68 depending on who you go through. 

Once you have this conversion system, and pull up the software, you simply put a tape in, rewind it to the beginning, push play and then immediately push record on the computer software.  The tape will just play through while recording a file to be stored on your computer.  Because it stores on your computer, I would recommend getting an external hard drive to hold the files.  They can be anywhere from 2-9GB each and will fill up your computer quickly, depending on how much free space you have.

3. Editing Software = A conversion device, like the one above usually comes with an editing software that will capture the video to your computer, but also allow you to edit the video any way you like and then burn to DVD.  But read closely to make sure.  If it does not come with something, you will need to also purchase a video editing software.  The one that I found to be the most simple to use is Corel Videostudio. 

HOPEFULLY THIS HELPS TO GET YOU STARTED!  This is something many people put off year after year and my goal is that you at least get it started this month!  I understand it gets expensive, so if you at least choose someone to go through and then you can do a few tapes every month to spread out the cost.  Let me know if you have any questions or recommendations on what worked for you! Stay tuned for more tasks under January's Theme of Preserving Your Memories.