WFMW: Preserving Memories with Photo Books

I have always loved photos for preserving and sharing memories.  When I was a teenager, I organized over ten years of my family's photos, and I was very into scrapbooking as a hobby.  Then I had kids.

When you have three children and your oldest is 4-1/2 and you still haven't finished her first year album, you know that it's time to make a change!  I have come to realize that for me, scrapbooking is no longer a viable hobby.  It can be very expensive and time-consuming, and, although I enjoyed the creativity, I'd rather have current and past photos of my children available to enjoy.

That's why lately I have turned to photos books.  I have now created several digital photo books from a few different sites, and I have been very pleased with the results.  While you probably could spend several hours creating a book, I have spent no more than an hour on each.  I usually use the option where the site fills in the photos for me, and then I can move them and edit if necessary. 

The photo books are attractive and sleek, and they can range from pocket sized to large and hardcover.  I can include any number of photos and text I wish.  Best of all, it is easy to find deals on them!

Even if you pick one photo-sharing site to use and one size book to have uniform albums, you can regularly find deals around 30% off.  To save even more, you can do what I do: I'll jump on the best deals, even if all my albums will be different sizes and shapes.  You can find deals for free books (for only the price of shipping) on a semi-regular basis on the money-saving blogs.
Here are some deals that I see today:

Snapfish:
Buy one,Get Two: Buy a 12x12 Photo book receive a free 5x7 & 2x3 Mini Book Code: B1G2PB Exp: 2/01
Free Shipping on Photobooks plus 75 Free Prints Code:FSCPFP 1/1-1/31
Shutterfly:
Save 15-30% on Photobooks
Vistaprint:
50% Off All Photobooks! Hurry, this is a limited time offer! Order today, receive in as few as 3 days.
Clark Color:
After Holiday Clearance! 40% off anything! Includes prints! Enter Code: RINGIN2011 at check out. S&H not included. Exp. 2011-01-31

In this age of digital photos, I like to make sure that I always have at least some physical photos of my family to enjoy together.

How do you handle creating photo albums?  Have you used photo books?

Check out more tips at Works for Me Wednesday.

This post contains affiliate links, which help support this site.

Frugal Gift Idea: Ornament Craft Kits

There are a number of extended family members, friends, and teachers in our lives who I would like to remember at Christmastime, but simply don't have the money to gift with individual presents.  Luckily, I now have children old enough to start making gifts for people, which automatically adds meaning to something simple.

My oldest, GiGi (age 4), has really gotten into arts and crafts in the past year, and LuLu (2) wants to do everything her big sister does.  That, and a Christmas catalogue from Oriental Trading Company made me hit on the perfect idea for little gifts - Christmas ornament kits!  Oriental Trading has dozens of simple craft kits for very inexpensive prices.  Since the kits seem to be designed especially for churches and schools, most make at least 12 crafts, often for under $5 for the entire kit!  I also figured that ornaments were the perfect gift for young children to create, because even if they're not perfect, most people don't mind a homemade Christmas ornament.  Having popsicle stick ornaments on the tree is traditional!

We did the first kit a couple of days ago, foam gingerbread man ornaments (similar to this; I couldn't find the exact kit).  The kit had peel and stick foam embellishments for the foam ornaments, which even my two year old could do herself.  They had such a blast creating the ornaments, and my four year old even added initials designating them for particular recipients. 

The other two kits I ordered were these Christmas trees and some fuzzy woodland animals to color.  I'm so pleased so far with my idea - it's been both a fun seasonal activity for the girls and a way for them to learn about giving, as well as a very inexpensive, yet meaningful gift for special people in our lives.

Check out more money saving ideas at Frugal Fridays.

Cinderella's Carriage Jack O'Lantern

I do not claim ANY credit for this, except for a bit of the inspiration. It was a moment of, "that would be so neat if I had the time and energy," and my sister-in-law came through with the execution. Needless to say, my girls were thrilled with their project!

This post is linked to Frugal Fridays and Finer Things Fridays.