Our Summer Scrapbook

It is a year since I bought my ‘proper’ camera and looking back at my photos from the last twelve months gives me so much pleasure.  I may still be on auto, but the quality of the photos is so much better and I try and think more about the composition too.  The next step for me is to get a little professional help and I am going to do a session with a local professional photographer once the children are back at school and I will be reading as many amateur photography guides as I can to help too as I really want to be able to use my camera more effectively.  I will still take endless photos of the children of course, but hopefully there will be better photos.

Whilst I have always taken lots of photos, the last few years have made me accurately aware of how quickly time passes and how quickly things can change and photos are such an amazing way to remember people, places and moments in time.  Only the other day, I was looking back at photos of the boys in 2009 when R started school and all of the children in 2012 when A started playgroup.  Both my husband and I enjoyed looking at times we had forgotten and seeing how much the children had grown and changed since.

It is all about keeping hold of memories and one thing that I wanted to do last year, but never got around to doing, was to make a summer scrapbook.  We are so lucky to have most of the summer holidays together as a family and we always do lots of things.  Last year, I got around to buying a scrap book and then the weeks passed by and I didn’t have time.  This year, we are up and running already.

I bought a blank ring bound journal from Paperchase and each time there are a set of photos from a special event or outing, I print them off and stick them into the journal.  There will be comments and other things in there too such as tickets or leaflets.  I also want it to be a family thing and if the children want to contribute something, they can; a picture, a description or just a comment.  Anything goes.

There are already some lovely memories in there; A and I’s visit to Cotswold Lavender, R’s leaver assembly, sports day, fruit picking and a visit to the story museum in Oxford.  We are already enjoying looking through the entries and I know that it is something that we will love looking at in years to come.  I hope to do one every summer too; a new family tradition perhaps?

Obviously, I will be sharing lots of photos on here too as this is all part of the grand scheme of keeping our family memories and I hope that I will be able to share not only the photos and how we are getting on with our scrapbook, but also any progress that I am making with the camera.  To get started, here are some great tips from Photobox to help create those special photos.

This guide was sent to me and created by Photobox.