In my parent’s house there is a huge bookshelf full of photo albums. They are organized by year, starting three years before I was born in 1982, then going right up to right before I left home at 18. As a kid I used to be fascinated by these albums and would spend hours flicking through, looking at memories of family, friends, holidays and homes, our old lives looking like they were lived through Instagram filters.
It’s almost sad to think this way of preserving our life stories, the concrete process of sending away film to be developed before sticking it in these hard backed books, has been near-enough eradicated by technology.
I mean, not that sad, I’m still totally wedded to my new iPhone X. Sorry, analogue technology.
In contrast, despite having taken way more photographs over the last 15 years than my parents ever did, my photo album count is exactly null. Sorry, kids, your memories will live on forever… in external hard drives and iPhone back-ups.
Creating physical books out of all the amazing (and not so amazing) images I have stored away has been on my agenda for absolutely ages, so when photo printing company Cheerz dropped me a note recently I thought it was about time to just get on with it.
Cheerz is a company dedicated to printing all sorts of memories. Their brilliant product range includes gorgeous memory boxes, prints, magnets, wall decorations, calendars and of course the ever-classic photo album, which I chose to kick-start my very own memory collection. There are a range of albums available, starting at £17, and I decided to go for the mid-range hardcover option.
I’ll be honest: I put off making this photo album for ages. I knew I wanted it to be about our brilliant holiday to Greece earlier on this year, but it sounded like a job that would take forever, and these days I’m partial to spending my evenings watching an old classic on Netflix rather than buggering around on my laptop.
Thankfully for me (and two episodes of The Good Wife) it was a totally pain-free experience. I simply selected my favourite photos, uploaded them and then Cheerz arranged them chronologically into a pleasant layout for me, which I gave the thumbs up before adding a little bit of text, designing my own cover and ordering. It took fifteen minutes and I was finished in time to have a weep over Alicia Florrick’s latest heartbreak.
Cheerz also have a free app available on both Apple and Android devices, an even easier way to create beautiful albums out of your phone images.
The finished product dropped through the door just a couple of days later and we were all thrilled. Hux was convinced a book had been written about him, I loved flicking through all our happy memories and Elfie is so happy with the album she’s taken it into school to show all her friends.
It was so lovely for the three of us to sit down as a family, talking through the memories of our holiday as we giggled over the photos together. As the Cheerz process was so marvellous I’ve been left with an urge to do this for as many of the thousands of photos I have languishing on my external hard drive, starting with each of the children’s births.
I’ll have stacks of albums before you know it! If you want to give it a go I have an offer code for you – just type in XY8GTV at check out for £5 off orders over £20 (valid until the 01/12/2017).
Cheerz are giving away a hardcover little square photo album to a More Than Toast reader: to enter, just tell me the memories you’d want to keep forever in the comments and fill out the Rafflecopter widget below…
Terms and Conditions: Entries received after the time of competition close will not be counted. UK residents only. Winner will be selected at random after the closing date of 30th November at 11.59pm and will be notified within 3 days of competition end. Only entrants received via the Rafflecopter widget will be considered valid. No cash alternative is offered to the prize: a hardcover little square photo album. Cheerz is responsible for provision of the prize via code to be used on their website.
I totally need to sort out albums of photos of my Grandma with my kids. We lost her over the summer, and they loved their Great Grandma
love these photobooks. I know there’s lots of offers around just now with potential for Christmas gifts etc.
I think these books are great for youngsters to flick through without fear of photos falling out or damaging original unable to get re-printed pictures etc. However, I have a love of photographs – old sepia, black & white, postcard etc with notes, names, dates scribbled on the back. the dogeared, the smell of them. Equally I am a fan of the wonky feet chopped off cringeworthy family occasions as well as teenage bad hairstyle years.
Guess there is a place for all though!
I need to sort out an album of my son’s photos from birth – the usual leaving things on hard drives and not printing off. Only 9 years to catch up with… ! X
I’ve used Cheerz before to make an album of Matilda’s first two years and they were great. It’s so lovely to look through it every so often.
I would love to put all the photos of my daughter in an album-have so many on my phone and my laptop but she loves looking at photos of her and her loved ones. Xx
Winning one would give me the push I need to get my photos in order- it looks like a stunning book!
One of our family holiday to Crete
Our first family abroad to Florida.
I would love to keep the memories of my little ones when they were tiny newborns, it seems so long ago now, and that time is so magical, and goes too quick!