As part of the preparation for First Communion for my second grader, I put together a scrapbook album with some help from him. Since I was never into scrapbooking and donated the few supplies I had years ago, I turned to scrapbooking software, Creative Memories Storybook, to create the album.
I had a small learning curve with the Creative Memories software, Storybook. The interface was mostly similar to other software I’ve used, though I found a few things native only to Storybook. I was able to bring in free digital scrapbooking resources from Persnickety Prints, however, the free resources showed up as blanks in the Storybook Content library. They did show up properly on the pages that I created.
The benefit to using a digital scrapbooking program like Storybook is that you have easy access to your photos, backgrounds, and embellishments. However, a creative person could do something similar in the photo editing programs like Adobe Photoshop elements with some work arounds.
Through Creative Memories, I was able to emboss the front of the album. They also offer the option of embossing the side which I didn’t do.
The albums come in a range of colors. For First Communions, most moms chose white for their girls and blue for the boys. It was pretty easy to add more pages to the album as we made them.
I had my son’s pictures done at Target on a Monday night which happened to be a quiet night. We were able to take our time picking out a background and working with the props. Two backgrounds were offered – black or stained glass. Since my son’s hair is dark, we found the stained glass background worked better for him.
We bought individual poses, thank you notes, and this 10 x 10 photo that I used in the album.
Through the Storybook software, I found a set of basic templates for the photographs giving me a choice of how many photos I could place on the page. Once I had my photos in place, I added the background and embellishments.
We also made several pages using mementos from my son’ birth and school years.
Because there were quite a few photos which I wanted to include in the album that may not have fit the themes we were given to organize the album, I made up 4 pages of collages semi-organized by year. I’ll be adding a few more pages when I put in the pictures of the actual day of my son’s First Communion, plus a page on his godparents which wasn’t ready in time. When he receives his Confirmation later on, I’ll add several pages for that milestone.
I printed my 12 x 12 photo pages through Persnickety Prints. The prints cost $1.99 with shipping $5 flat rate. Through Creative Memories, 12 x 12 prints are $3.99 per page for the first 9 and $3.49 per page if you print 10 or more. Shipping is $2.75 for the 1st print, and $.25 per print for each additional one. Costco 12 x 12 prints are $2.99. Shipping is $1.99 for the 1st print and $.29 for each additional print.
Overall, I found the digital scrapbooking to be easy to do. I also didn’t worry about setting up supplies or putting things away. Almost everything I needed was on my computer. Since I need to repeat the process 3 more times for my younger children, I will have a supply of images already on hand, plus I set up a folder on the computer to collect new images.
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I am not affiliated with Creative Memories nor did I receive compensation from them for this post. I’m just a happy customer! Ditto with Persnickety Prints.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
What a beautiful memory book. You did a great job.
Thank you! I’m looking forward to adding to it, and making other books. Definitely my cup of tea compared to traditional scrapbooking.
Thanks for sharing!!
What a beautiful book! I scrapbooked a lot when my oldest was young, but haven’t made time since… I’m considering going the digital route and it looks way easier (and cheaper!)
Thanks for the beautiful peak at your book and for linking up at Thrifty Thursday!
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Personally, I think digital is the way to go, especially if you don’t have space and have little ones around. I don’t think you need to spend a lot to do it since there are freebies out there. Since I knew I had 4 albums in total to do, I saw the software as an investment. I have been grabbing freebies where I find them.
Oh the old albums. We lost ours with numerous trans-locations
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Oh, no! Do you keep all your photos digitally?
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