I really love the idea of scrapbooking. Printing the photos, getting creative with the accessories and layout, and making this beautiful keepsake for my daughters to enjoy through the years.
But I really stink at scrapbooking. And journaling. And anything that requires blocks of time and attention these days.
That doesn’t mean, though, that I don’t want to preserve the precious memories and pictures I have of my little ones. I’m just using technology to make that a little easier these days.
Blogging has been my default way of keeping up with their stats, birthdays, and other things I want to remember. As they’re getting older, though, I’ve found myself wanting to be a bit more cautious of what I post about them online.
I’m still not going to start scrapbooking, but there are a few tech tools I use to make sure I’m saving a few memories.
When they were born, my husband and I set up our daughters with Gmail accounts. Nerd alert? Perhaps, but now I email them once a month with a funny story, thought, or advice. Unless the Great Google crashes, they’ll have those memories already stored for them (as well as a respectable email address, if that is still a thing in 20 years).
Home Movies
While it’s a bit more time-consuming than emailing, I also make a video of them for their birthday every year. I choose a special song (with artists’ permissions, of course, since we post publicly) and edit away. Phone apps like iMovie make it so very easy to edit these days and create a nice little video keepsake.
My girls already love it and frequently ask to watch “their song.”
Photos
For photos, I use Shutterfly as backup storage, and sites like that also make it easy to print photo books, pictures I want to frame, gifts for the grandparents, or, if I ever decide to venture that way again, scrapbooks.
Technology has a lot to offer those of us who are challenged by scrapbooks. How do you preserve your family’s memories and milestones?
I started digital scrapbooking years ago and love it. I use a program called Photoshop Elements and looked up tutorials on YouTube because I am at a loss when it comes to things like that and not very techno intuitive. I love the fact that I can just grab my laptop whenever I have a bit of free time and get a page or two done quickly.
I also keep up with printing pictures from my phone by using Groovebook.
I love the idea of the email system, wish I had thought of that! Genius!!
These are great tips! I need to get more in the mindset of doing a little bit at a time instead of feeling like it has to be one huge project.
[…] I was over at the Fort Worth Moms Blog last week talking about digital scrapbooking ideas. […]