*This post does contain affiliate links, however, all opinions are my own.
I love our Shutterfly Photo Books and wanted to share how I use Shutterfly to document our lives and keep our memories presentable and easily accessible. I have never been one to spend a lot of time on scrapbooking, but I love designing beautiful pages online.
Before my first child was born, I decided I wanted to document her first year of life on a calendar. They grow and change so quickly and there are special things about each day if you look for them. So about once a week I would look back and try and record all the special milestones and memories.
At the end of the first year, I realized that I didn’t ever open the calendars and look at them; that’s when I decided to make a Shutterfly book. See more pics below…
I loved how it turned out so much that I decided I wanted to go back and make a book for our first year of marriage. It soon became addicting. We now have a book for our first 3 years of marriage and I’m currently working on our 4th and 5th year. Yikes!
I also decided to make a special book to document Lanae’s second year of life telling some of the unique stories and experiences she had during her second year as well as noting some important milestones.
Our second child, Owen turned 1 this year and I made a first year book with the daily calendar marking milestones. It was so fun to have their two books side by side to see the clear differences in their growth and personalities.
Ever since I first made them, Lanae has pulled them off the shelf and enjoyed looking through them. It is partly through these books that she has learned about all of her aunts and uncles that she never gets to see or hear from.
I love the Shutterfly books for keeping family memories because they are very easy to pull off the shelf and I don’t have to worry about the kids pulling pieces off the page or losing pictures.
It is also such an easy way to remind myself of special family trips and experiences that we’ve had without having to search through all my pictures or my family blog.
At first glance I thought that Shutterfly books would be too expensive. But then I started noticing that they have all kinds of great deals going on ALL the time. You just have to be patient and watch for the right one. I always order the smallest size 8 x 8 and on average I spend about $10-15 per book, however I have gotten several books for just the price of shipping $8. And I have gotten 2 books for FREE just by pairing them with awesome deals.
This does mean that you have to be a bit patient when making and ordering books. I have had 1 book made and just waiting in my account for a month or two and then I will start on a second book. That way when I order I will have two books. Which will definitely push me over the free shipping limit and usually I can pair with a 40-50% off… And you see how that becomes a super good deal!
On the other hand, sometimes I will see a good deal and sit down and make a book very quickly, which is easy to do if you use the pre-designed layouts that Shutterfly has available. Shutterfly offers more than just photo books, including calendars, wall art and other photo gifts. My husband designed me a custom mouse pad and note pad for my birthday, which are both adorable and I love using them!!
Make sure to check out Shutterfly Special Offers. Save up to 50% on selected items such as photo books, calendars, wall art, photo gifts, and more. I promise I wouldn’t recommend anything that I didn’t truly love myself.
Check out some recent favorites from Messes to Memories….
Pumpkin Waffles with Peanut Butter Maple Syrup
DIY Distressed Chalk Paint Table
Britney says
I love Shutterfly! It looks great and is easy to use! Looks like fun!
Carisa says
Thanks Britney!
Anne says
I love this idea! Lots of work, but so worth it! I have years (like 8) worth of photos to put through some books. I thought about doing this for my husband for Christmas, but maybe I’ll give myself a few more months and give it to him for our anniversary. Thanks for sharing!
Carisa says
It is a bit of work, but with some practice (and organization) I can whip a book out in a couple nap times. Ha ha!! 😉 Good luck!
Abby says
I love that you used calendars! That is so smart. I badly need to do something like this!
Carisa says
Thanks Abby! I love these books!!! You’re kids are so dang cute they would have the cutest books!!
Chelsea says
Oh my goodness, I love these so much! I tried to make a book for our life together before kids and then one for Little J’s first year, but never finished either of them. I am so jealous of how awesome your books are! I wish you would’ve posted this right before Little A was born because I love the idea of the calendar for their first year! Maybe for our next little one 🙂
Carisa says
You could totally get started a little late with Ava! Just try and remember key moments from the first couple of months!! Ha ha… I played catch up a couple time and luckily between my blog, pictures and my calendars I was able to piece a week or two together that I missed! Thanks though. I honestly really love our books and love being able to look back on them and have them so easily accessible.
Taswmom says
Thank you for sharing this! My children got baby books with holes and spaces, with papers added here and there. Some of my children are doing blogs about their families. Maybe I could put something like this together for my 40 wedding anniversary. I’ve got just over 5 years to do it! ; )
Carisa says
Thanks for your comment! I think that no matter how you choose to document having those memories where you can enjoy them is the important part! Congrats on nearly 40 years and good luck! 🙂