Shutterfly Photo Books

Yesterday, I received a lovely little "gift" in my email inbox. What was it? $20 from Shutterfly! To be used on any Shutterfly project. Eeeeeeeeeee!! Can you tell I like Shutterfly? :)

Back before Christmas, I attempted to make my first "photo book" and I did it for my Mom. With the sneaky help of my sisters, I collected various pictures of us growing up, threw in some of my favorite quotes on motherhood, and created a book of memories for my Mom for Christmas and....she.....LOVED.... it. Actually, when it finally arrived in the mail, I was tempted to just keep it for myself. hehe. While I was busy putting it together, I began making a few for myself and Grant, but I hadn't ordered any....until yesterday. Thank you, again, Shutterfly!

Below are my projects thus far. To be honest, if your friend or loved one simply LOVES pictures, this is THE gift to give. :)

The cover of my Mom's photo book

the first page

one of my favorite "sister" pages...

I also made individual pages for each of us.
This is Noel's page

Jamie's page

Brooklyn's page

Mercy's page

Melody's page

Melody's graduation and my first page

My page

The rest of the book were various Christmases, snow fun, birthdays, and random craziness throughout the years. I loved it and my Mom REALLY LOVED it.

For myself, I decided to go back and collect pictures and various journal entries and blog posts and make a photo book documenting my pregnancy with Nathan. This is what I ordered yesterday. (Excuse the "warning" icons. They were being annoying and difficult. :p)

The cover of my pregnancy photo book

The first page

"bump" pictures :)

I CANNOT WAIT until this book is in my hands. I am SO excited!! I will definitely be making one of these for every child I have if the Lord chooses to bless us with more one day. I am already beginning to put one together documenting Nathan's first year, month by month. SO FUN! :) I would love to have a collection of each year for him, documenting his firsts, his adventures, his likes and dislikes, and how he grows. What a treasure that will be!

I currently have two left to finish and order. One is from our wedding. On that one, I added pictures from the photographer, along with various photos that friends and family took on our wedding day. To make it different than just a photo album (which I already have) I also included our wedding invitation, our wedding program, the lyrics to the songs sang during the ceremony, our vows, and various other things that meant a lot to us on that day. I'm excited about ordering it soon. ;) Here is a tiny preview:

*sigh* Happy day.... :)

The last project is a photo book that isn't quite ready to be ordered. I still have some work to do on it, but it WILL eventually be Grant's and my story. I'm going to tell the story - in his words and mine, which we wrote down before we married - and compliment it with pictures leading up to our wedding day. If I can ever get it completed, it will be wonderful. :) When it is finally ready, I will post about it. Until then, go find some pictures, create a Shutterfly account, and have fun!!