Family Yearbook using Blurb

Hey you guys! Those that follow me on Instagram might remember my excitement on receiving our first family yearbook in the mail a couple months ago. I knew I wanted to display all the photos we take and have been figuring out the best option for us for a while now. After considering the traditional photo albums (I have a few of those already and because I grew up loving our family albums, it is very nostalgic for me), and Project Life (another interesting way to record your daily life), I was finally convinced on using Blurb and making a photo yearbook after seeing a few posts like this one. And I am so happy with the results!

I used the Lightroom Plugin for Blurb which was awesome and so easy to work in, even though the template designs available are a little limited. It is so simple to use and even shows you the estimated price as you’re making the book.

Here is a peek into our yearbook for the previous year.

I couldn’t figure out how to write captions in the Lightroom plug-in at that point, which I have figured out now, but I think I love the look of the freehand writing. I used a fine tip Sharpie permanent marker to write directly on the pages, dates and memories or anything I wanted to remember for the future (Thanks to Elise for the idea).

I went along with the 8 by 10 portrait size because I thought it would be a perfect size for smaller hands to pick up and go through whenever they feel like it. And also because I want the collection of yearbooks to have a shelf in our bookshelves and the size is easy to fit amongst books.

I had a hard time going through all our photos and selecting the ones I wanted to use. I like the idea of making a folder within your main folder to collect best images from your photos every time you download photos, so its easier to make your book at the end of the year. And I made sure to include cellphone photos even though sometimes the quality of photos was far from great. They have a way of showing our daily life much more sometimes and I’m glad I included those.

Just having the book in my hands inspired me to start working on one of the previous year and our trips to Pakistan. Cant wait to have a shelf full of these yearbooks.

Hope you’ll excuse my super creative way(!) to hide Anya’s face where there was need. Haha.

Thanks for reading and lots of love.