If you grew up flipping through old family photos in albums and scrapbooks, you know why family photos are important. They help you relive life’s most precious moments and keep them preserve memories for future generations. While it might seem intimidating to take on the task of creating a family photo album online, it isn’t nearly as scary as it seems! Creating family photo albums is easier than ever (we promise - no glue or scalloped scissors are needed!) and we’ve rounded up some fun and unique ideas for how to create photo books that your family will cherish for years to come.
Pick Your Theme or Topic
The first step to creating a custom photo book is to decide on your theme. Are you going to use photos from your own family that are fairly recent (and probably already digital?) or are you going to use old family photos from your own childhood and family history? You might want to create a family history photo album for your father with photos from his military service, a compilation of the last five years of pumpkin patch adventures, or a photo album that shows how much your beloved puppy has grown. If you aren’t sure which theme you want to use for your family photo album, here are a few more ideas to help you inspire you:
Family Reunion
If you have a large family and all your family members gather together for a family reunion, you can create a memorable family reunion photo book. Take photos throughout the reunion and save them in a special folder on your phone or camera to make it easy to find them later. If your family regularly hosts reunions, you can even create custom photo books for each reunion or one large photo book with a few pages for each year. This is a fantastic holiday gift, particularly for grandparents (or great-grandparents) to treasure your family tree ancestry. You can even share your family photo albums digitally, through the SimplePrints app, so anyone in your family can order a copy of it for themselves.
Family Vacation
Whether you have taken a family vacation to Disneyland or on an annual camping trip, those memories are priceless. Family vacation photo books are one of our favorite family photo album ideas because it makes the memories last and you can use captions to tell the special stories that come along with them. You and your family will love looking back on all those memories cherished for years to come.
Annual Family Pictures Album
There is a lot that goes into creating beautiful family pictures, but the most important part of your family picture day is the stunning portraits that you will get out of it. If this is an annual tradition for your family, it can be fun to create a family photo album that features photos from each photography session and shows how much your family has grown and changed throughout the years.
Family Holiday Photo Books
Similar to an annual family photo book, it can be fun to create holiday photo albums to show how your family has changed year to year. Maybe the theme is Christmas or Hanukkah or even create a photo album for your birthday celebrations. This family photo album is especially fun if you have family pictures matching outfits, such as holiday pajamas or group Halloween costumes!
Family History Photo Books
One of the reasons why family photos are important is that they help future generations know their own family tree ancestry and learn more about themselves. A family history photo book might include photos and stories from your grandparents and great-grandparents. It might include your family tree with cousins, aunts, uncles, and other distant relatives that live in another country or state. You can preserve memories, important stories, family biographies, and your family’s special journey in a custom photo book all about your family.
Family Biography
Home Remodeling Photo Books
Your first home will always have a special place in your heart. And if you are into DIY projects, you have likely done lots of work to make your home your own! You can help preserve photos of your home renovation ideas and how they turned out. If you have done a lot of work to your house exterior or you’ve completed significant home remodeling, you can wow your guests with a photo book that shows off the old house vs new house and highlights all those dramatic changes. It is so satisfying to see the before and after photos from a project you have worked hard on with your family.
Organize Your Photographs
Once you have decided on a theme, you can start organizing your photos. It can be helpful to create a folder or album using your phone’s photo app and naming it the same as the family photo book titles that you hope to use the photos in. An example might be “Christmas with the Johnsons 2012-2022”. Then add in all your family pictures.This is also a great time to edit any photos that need to be cropped, have the lighting adjusted, or any other edits that you would like to make. If you are creating this project with another friend or family member, you can also organize your photos on Dropbox or a shared Google Drive. These apps are both compatible with the SimplePrints app, so it is easy to upload right for your shared folder and start creating.
Start Creating in the SimplePrints App
After you have downloaded the free SimplePrints app, you can create a new project and upload the photos. Then your photos will be imported into your new project and you can make any necessary adjustments to the order of the photos, add captions, and create photo collages. SimplePrints photo books can hold up to 230+ pages, so you don’t have to limit the number of photos you include in your family photo album. Get started creating your custom photo book in the SimplePrints app today!