Photo Book Ideas

I LOVE Shutterfly. Their products are amazing...such great quality!!! And they are always running specials or offering free items! If you do not have an account with them I would recommend you sign up (it's free)! And be sure to like them on Facebook. They also have an app for the iPhone and iPad that I of course recommend as well!

So...they give away free photo books all the time! Here are some ideas for some photo books. To find out more about each book click the title of each book idea.

1. ABC Book
Take a photo of your kid(s) with something from each letter of the alphabet!

2. Numbers & Colors Book
Take photos of your child's toys or other familiar things for the numbers. Take photos of your child wearing different colors.

3. On The Day I Was Born Book
Make a Children's book version of your pregnancy and the day they were born. I made this to go in my son's Big Brother bag.

4. A Day In The Life Of...
Take your camera everywhere for an entire day and take a photo of EVERYTHING!

5. Favorite Things
Use photos of your kids with their favorite things. I even added a few pages where they could draw pictures of some things and a question/answer page.

If you have any unique photo book ideas feel free to comment with them below! :)

Favorite Things - Photo Book

Here is yet another idea to use up some free or discounted photo books from Shutterfly!

For this book I went through and collected pictures of my son with all his favorite things (if there was anything missing or I didn't care for the photo I had I took a picture of him with it.) Here area couple of pages of the book (but of course yours would end up being very different).

 For this page I added some questions where we will write his favorite things like Color, Animal, etc.

 I left a couple pages blank so he could draw his favorite toy, favorite thing to do, favorite thing to do with mommy, and favorite thing to do with daddy.

For this book I did a 5x7 soft cover book with 20 pages.

"On The Day I Was Born" Book

I saw this book idea on Pinterest a while ago. When I got a code for a free photo book from Shutterfly I figured it was the perfect time to make one to give to my son as part of his big brother gift. It took some time to put together but I am VERY happy with how it came out! If you haven't used Shutterfly I strongly suggest you sign up. They are constantly giving out codes for free photo books, magnets and other items!

Disney Banks

We are using these banks to save up some spending money for Disney World. I plan on putting a dollar in each of the kids bank each week. Since we plan on going next October (2015) each kid will have $50+ by the time we go. I am also thinking about loading their money onto gift cards before we leave so it is easier to keep track of how much each of them has left.

Supplies:  
- Can (I used empty formula cans)
- Paint (Red, White, Black)
- Paint Brushes
- Scissors

Directions:

1. Rinse out can, Rip off all labels, and make a slit in the lid (big enough to get a dollar bill through).

2. After it is all dry you can begin painting. I painted each can red and the tops black (two coats may be needed).

3. Once the red paint is dry you can add the details. For Mickey add two oval shaped buttons. For Minnie add polka dots around the entire can.

DIY Numbers & Colors Book

1. The first thing I did was take photos of my son wearing all different.  (Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Orange, Black, White, Pink, Purple, Brown). Some colors like Purple and Pink I had to get creative since he doesn't own any clothing in those colors.

2. Next I took some of his favorite things/things he uses and photographed different amounts for them for the numbers 1-10. ( 1-Teddy Bear; 2-Oreo Cookies; 3-(play) Tools; 4-Airplanes; 5-M&M's; 6-Superheroes; 7-Socks; 8-Spoons; 9-Goldfish; 10-Cars)

Here are some sample pages from our book:

DIY ABC Book

1. First make a list of the alphabet and what you want your kid(s) to take pictures with for each.

2. Get your camera and your kid(s) and start snapping photos!


For this photo book I used a 5x7 softcover book from Shutterfly.com. I did this project with my son over he course of about 3 days. My son is now 3 years old and he still enjoys looking at this book!

Here is a list of what I used for each letter; some letters I chose to do more than one photo:

A- Applesauce
B- Books
C- Cousins
D- Daddy, Diapers, Ducks
E- Eggs, Elijah
F- Family, Fan
G- Grandparents
H- Hats, Haircut
I- iPod
J- Jeans
K- Keys
L- Laundry Basket, Laptop
M- Mommy. Mickey
N- Naps
O- O-Ball
P- Piano
Q- Q-Tip
R- Remote Control, Rocking Chair
S- Snoopy, Socks, Santa
T- Tummy, Trains
U- Umbrella
V- Vampires (He has a vampire shirt because mommy loves them)
W- Winter Coat
X- XOXO Hugs and Kisses
Y- Yogurt
Z- Zebra

Here are a couple sample pages from our book:

"A Day In The Life Of..." Book

This is a photo book idea I found on Pinterest a while back and saved it until I had an extra free photo book from Shutterfly! I chose to do a 5x7 photo book but it would work with whatever size you want to use! If you don't use Shutterfly, go and sign up, they are always giving away free stuff or fantastic deals on things and the quality is great!!

1. The first thing I did was pick a day where we didn't have anything special going on...an ordinary day. I made sure my camera was charged and my memory card had plenty of room on it the night before.

2. I kept my camera by my side ALL day and photographed EVERYTHING from the time my son woke up until the minute we put him to bed!

3. When he was asleep for the night I loaded my pictures onto my computer and used Shutterfly to make my photo book.

Here are a few sample pages but I really didn't follow any type of format since everyone's days are different.

To make the photobooks look nice can take some time but I think they are worth the effort! Elijah loves looking/reading the book and it is a nice keepsake for him when he gets older!