Our grandmother, Norma Jean, has an amazing photo album collection.
There is a large bookshelf that wraps around one corner of her living room. On
the lower shelves sit rows and rows of photo albums. She has been archiving photos
of her family since the 1970s. We always love picking an album at random and
flipping through the pages. We might see our parents from their first few years
of marriage or one of us unwrapping presents at Christmas or sitting by the
pool on a family vacation. Grandma’s old photo albums are an absolute treasure!
Her dedication to taking and printing photos of her family through the years
inspires us.
was one of the only ways you could share your memories. Over the past couple of
years, we’ve noticed we store and share the vast majority of our photos
online through our blog, Flickr, Instagram or Facebook. We love how instant and
easy the Internet can make sharing photos, but the drawback tends to be that we
don’t print out photos as often—which is kind of sad when we think about our
grandmother’s epic album collection. Plus printed photos can be used in so
many ways! Who doesn’t want more family photos to hang or decorate your home
with, to use in scrapbooking or cute craft projects, or to give as gifts to
family members and close friends. Sharing memories should be so much more than
just posting them on the Internet!
using our printed photos. We’re going to be printing lots of photos this year
and sharing the progress of archiving our memories at home. We’ve been planning
out inspiration, DIY projects and practical tips to share with you, all using
Canon printers. Photo printers can be intimidating or even a little frustrating
at first, so we’ll be using a range of printers (PIXMA MG6320, PIXMA PRO-100, and the SELPHY CP900) to show you tips and ideas for projects of
all sizes. This is a dream collaboration for us, so we hope you enjoy this
series as much as we enjoy creating it. We’re so excited about the challenge,
and we’d love for you to join in the fun!
108 Comments
How exciting!!! Looking forward to this! 🙂
Tangibly archiving all my photos is a project that I am about to embark upon myself. I just started a blog of my own yesterday, and I can’t wait to see your progress and absorb all of your brilliant tips and tricks. 🙂
I think this is wonderful! I am one of the many who no longer prints many photos at all, so I’d love to see your ideas of ways to incorporate them back into our homes!
So awesome!
stunning photos. what an exciting collaboration! I love going through my old photos, but haven’t printed nearly as many as I used to in the past five years! sad, really. thank you for inspiring me to start printing again 🙂 xo
Wow..This is exciting. Love the video..Good Luck to you both on this collaboration.
xo Janika
http://crazysketchbook.blogspot.com/
Amazing – I love photo projects – Cant wait to see what ideas you crafty ladies come up with 🙂
I want to make a photo album as sweet as yours.
Ooooo! I cannot wait to see this unfold. Congrats!
Allyson
http://allysonwonderlandphotography.com
I love the video, and this is a brilliant idea!!
xo, Clare
http://thewanderingelefant.blogspot.com/
What a wonderful collaboration! The video is so sweet, intimate, and inspiring. I’m definitely already motivated to display more of my favorite memories in my home. 🙂
The best thing you can do when working with higher quality printers is making sure your computer monitor is calibrated to your printer! It takes a while to calibrate, but is SO worth the effort. It makes colour balancing so much easier (because its accurate, haha) and helps with problems in contrast also. 🙂 Good luck! As a photo student I’m so envious of your pretty new printers!
That little girl is precious!
http://talisatalksbeauty.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/trilogy-rosehip-oil-antioxidant.html
Awesome! Can’t wait.
xo,
RN
http://www.rachelnicoleblog.com
The last album I made was about my AuPair-year. I´m thinking of making one about the three years of my Bachelor studies. But there are thousands of pictures from that time… I need a plan.
The video is great by the way, feel free to make more. 😉
That is so awesome!! I love having printed photos. It’s great to have them online, but it’s so much more fun to pore over a photo album than a computer. Also, I miss having photos around. You’re right, they’re so much more fun to look at hanging up in my house!
Ugh, I should REALLY begin to print my photos – I´m terrified that I´ll lose them somehow!
Incredible! I love these photos!
xoxo
Juliette Laura
juliettelaura.blogspot.com
Such lovely and cute photos. They are aweseome!
Such beautiful photographs 🙂
Carina
http://carstina.blogspot.co.nz/
I am so sad that we dont print as many photos now! I want albums that my future kids can flip through! I am going to make more of an effort to get photos printed. and I am sure your posts will inspire me! 🙂
Kim
azulhome.com
Congrats. Super rad collaboration!!
Beautiful, love this! xx
http://www.creativityandchocolate.com
super gorgeous!
kw ladies in navy
j. crew giveaway!
This is so exciting!! I’ve been wanting to get a canon photo printer for a while but not sure which one! Can’t wait to see your projects!
Love,
SimplyLively
simplylivelyblog.blogspot.com
great pics 🙂
Congratulations, girls. This collaboration sounds amazing and I’m sure the results will be just great.
Also, I really love your grandma’s name, Norma Jean.
xo Julia
So strange to hear your voices after reading your blog for so long!! Really exciting collaboration girls you must be incredibly proud of yourselves!
xx
http://sarah-nunn.blogspot.co.uk
No joke, I’m TOTALLY excited about this.
The video was fabuloso. I’m sure it was a ton of work, but seriously, so good–y’all should do more of them!
I’ve been thinking about purchasing a photo printer… I’m doing a project life album, and I end up ordering prints weekly. It’s pretty weird to take a trip to Walgreens so I can pick up 10 prints. I’m excited to see your upcoming projects!
This is such a great idea! Looking forward to it 🙂
-Karina Louise
http://www.KarinaLouise.com
omg this is an amazing collab! can’t wait to see what fun diy posts you come up with! I never even knew canon had their own photo printers and now I want one I sure do love my canon t31 camera so I assume I’d love those just as much! thanks for sharing the video too so cool to see behind the scenes! xx. gigi. food and beauty blogger @ http://www.gigikkitchen.blogspot.com
I am so excited for this as I have been looking at both of those printers. I hope you are able to share photos of your grandmas albums as they sound amazing 🙂
I have so many empty picture frames and unused photo albums it is kind of sad actually! I should get on that!
p.s. my mother in laws name is Norma Jean 🙂
what an exciting collaboration, congrats! I really need to start printing out more photos!
Is this the video you were hinting about?? I love prints, I think they have a richness to them that their digital versions don’t. Whose voice is that? Is it one of you girls?
Lydia
lupinelydia.blogspot.com
Hi Lydia, Yes! Thanks so much. 🙂 The video has both our voices!! Xo!
I was just thinking about this the other day looking through old photos. Makes me sad I don’t have more albums around.
Jillian – http://epic-thread.blogspot.com
very exciting!
Val
http://valentinaduracinsky.blogspot.com/
Beautiful pictures! Love the fact your Grandmother has the same name as Marilyn Monroe too 🙂
Lulu xx
http://luluslittlewonderland.blogspot.com
So excited for you guys! Thanks a bunch for such an inspiring post…I totally need to jump on the printing photos wagon!
So excited to see more from this collaboration! I would love to get back into making photo albums but it just seems so overwhelming!
XO Hannah
I love love LOVE my Selphy! Looking forward to new inspirational ideas on how to use my printed photos! 🙂
It’s so cool to hear you’re voices!
I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with! You’re so right, too; so many photos get lost in the ether of the internet. I’m hoping that this summer we might install new shelves in our living room and then fill them with lots of framed photos 🙂
Lovely video!!! =D
The photos are great! I need a new camera
Please check out and follow my blog! I’d really appreciate it! http://seasidebeauty.blogspot.co.uk/
The video is so cool! I have to say, it’s so interesting to see you guys, you know, in motion and stuff! And it’s always great to hear someone’s voice after just seeing their photo for so long.
I love prints! Your post is getting me so excited to print out photos for my apartment!…when I move in that is. 🙂
xo Lisa
Making Life’s Lemons
Fabulous!
I always try and print photos and put them in albums. I am of course behind, but I will catch up. I love putting photos on the interweb, but there is nothing like grabbing an album and looking through them. My kids love the photos of them when they were little and hoot with laughter at their baby photos!!
In 30 years I hope we will still be looking at print photos and hanging them on the walls, not sure where the ones on the Internet will have gone. I prefer to rely on ole fashioned prints for the long term.
Clare x
Your blog has always inspired me to print and take more photos! I’m very excited for this adventure! 🙂
I’m loving this post! Printing photos is certainly a lost art, but it’s something so magical and beautiful. Thank you girls so much for reviving the tradition!
Also, PLEASE make more videos. I want to see your beautiful faces in real time more often! 🙂
xo
Wow! What an amazing collaboration! I am so excited to be following you along with you all on this adventure!
I’m been appreciating even more lately how much more satisfying it is to have printed copies of photos!
It’s weird to hear you guys’ voices after just reading your blog for so long and imagining them. I love this video!
Can’t wait to see the projects you create with your printed photos. And the video was gorgeous!
It’s SO weird to see you guys in movement and hear your voices (Weird the best way possible of course!)
I want more of these videos! (Pardon my overly excited demands)
you should make more videos. i totally loved this one. who’s voice was it? 🙂
Wow, the collaboration with Canon sounds like really fun challenge! Your photos are always so beautiful, can’t wait to see new projects!
http://dcinstyle.com/
Perfect collaboration! It made me think I should not storage photos in my hard drive… I must print them, duh! Obviously.. Tnx for share! And how nice to hear your voice 🙂
I liked the video, congratulations for that colaboration, is a great oportunity to have fun and being creative :3 i can´t wait to see more, because i love lifestyle photography
and your blog is a great inspiration, good luck with everything
xo
Ruzu.}
PS. The dog is so cute,
sounds super exciting! can’t wait to see all the projects. 🙂
i love my pixma mp980 home printer. i’ve had it a few years because photo printing is a MUST for me. i don’t want my photos just on a screen, i want them in a book and in our hands! i’ve been doing project life, 365 style and the printer helps sooo much. excited to see what y’all come up with.
The video and these pictures are great!! I’m so expired by you both to use my new camera 🙂
Erica
sweet-endeavors.blogspot.com
Beautiful! I just love your blog.
Unforgettable pictures…
So great to hear your voices ! 😉 I love the video, and tis coming project.
You two girls are an inspiration, it is amazing how you have achieved so much, all by yourselves. For a person that is our age (well i’m Elsie’s age I think Emma you’re slightly younger) you really are a dream team, two people I look up to for inspiration, creativity and for believing you can have FUN in life by doing what you love. Congrats on your latest success and enjoy your vacation, looking forward to your every post
This is why I love scrapbooking. The memories are kept!
Sam
http://liveandlove.typepad.com
fun to see video and hear voices, since we always read your writing and see still photos! i’m interested to see where the collaboration will take you…
Ooh, I’m excited to learn!
They are very beautiful pictures.
Esther x
http://www.esther-aw.tumblr.com
So great! I’m really looking forward to the projects that this collab will get us to! 🙂
Yay for photoprinting!
This is such a great video, I’d love to see more videos of the two of you – maybe some tutorials?
Also I would love to hear about some programmes you use for finishing your photos on the computer. I loved reading your tips for taking photos here on the blog but I don’t think I read something about this before. (I’m already using afterlight on my Iphone, the app your recommended some time ago – and I love it)
I like these images so much.Particularly the little girl looks so pretty and cute.I have just came here and found so amazing information from here.You have done a great effort here.
YAY! awesome collaboration and cannot wait to see what ideas and projects you are going to share. now to go printer shopping!!
so that’s what you guys sound like xD I’m actually practicing photography and photoshop so this is a great idea to step up my game and print two or three photos a week 😀
I loved the video 🙂 you guys should make more videos together!
That’s a really cool project.. I’m looking forward to it.
I just created a scrapbook from our vacation to New England last fall… I enjoy working with printed photos!
Share some cool new ideas, please!
Lots of love from Germany
Cute pics !!
http://www.thestilettoholic.com/
Love from Paris <3
You made a perfect pics and I like, when was the pics in printing form. Because now I have so many only in Pc. Hm. But when I would be old.. I would like to see it only in printing form. Have a great day.
http://www.fashiondenis.com/
Yay, looking forward to this! I keep telling myself I must print up some photos, and my poor mom keeps asking for some, but I am lame at getting it done. I think that will change after being inspired by what you will bw showing us with these posts!
as an archivist myself (a real one, its my job!) i think that printing is a really good idea. who knows if we’ll still be able to read our digital pictures in 15-20 years from now? paper is the best way to keep them 🙂
very cool! looking forward to learning more about different paper types to print on!
Wow- what an exciting new venture for you guys!
I have been needing to get more pics actually printed for a while now! It is on my list of things to accomplish this month.
thanks for the inspiration!
eeeek I can’t wait!!!!!
Such lovely, lovely photos!
This really makes me want to start printing my photos! I’ve got so many on my computer, but need to display them!
Hooray! I can’t wait to see your photo projects!
I’m so excited to see what you ladies come up with! Question – I am currently on the hunt for a good scanner actually so I can create some projects using my grandma’s old photographs. Do you use one that you would recommend?
I had a Grandma Norma Jean as well lol I only hope to take as beautiful photos as you guys do in the future. Your site really helps with camera tips, my family says I’m the best out of the six of us and it’s all because I’ve taken your advice. Thank you!!
I use the Selphy at my Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre for when customers want a photo with cast. This keeps me from having to send in the mail. So good!
XO.
http://dropsofjupiterBLOG.com
I’m so excited for you (okay, and me) for this collaboration. One of my 24 before 25 goals this year is to “print and display” all photos, so I’ll be watching out for fun way to do this over the next few months!
wow! excited for you both!!
Beautiful Pictures… large prints on wall worthy 🙂
http://secretsofmissdaydreamer.blogspot.in/2013/04/diy-cute-over-sized-clutch.html
Manali
I 100% agree. Photo archives are fantastic! I absolutely love going through the dozens of photo albums that my family has collected over the years, and I am so thankful that my grandparents, and then my mother started that tradition. I actually did a photography project where I recreated photographs of my mother in the 1970’s (you can see it here if you want, http://www.akpettinato.com/photography_analogue_memories.html), it was a lot of fun!
I think that digital photography is great, but I don’t love the digital archive. There is just something so great about being able to go through an old photo album, and it makes me sad that future generations may not get to have that experience.
oh i can’t wait to see the ideas you guys come up with. i own a photo printer that i received as a gift, but i haven’t been able to really showcase photos in a cute way. i’m really excited for this series!
http://www.crumpledfantasies.com
This must be such a trip for you guys, seriously congratulations!! 🙂
This is such a big issue for lots of people, I am sure. Having a good system for keeping track of photos is a topic at the top of my mind! And deciding what to print, how to combine them and how to display them so I can see them everyday, instead of having to troll through hundreds and thousands on my computer…. I will be watching this space closely.
So excited! I got that canon printer from my brother last Christmas!
Elsie,
I am one of your older fans who discovered you because of scrapbooking. And yes, since I’ve gone digital I found myself only printing the photos I scrap, which leaves a ton on my computer. This year I decided to start Project Life, and while for me, a mom who works full time, it would be impossible to do a spread every week, I’m doing a spread for each month. That puts more photos in my albums and still gives me time to make the layouts for my kids that I love making.
I’m excited for this new collaboration of yours, and knowing your background working with photos, I look forward to seeing this new series. Thanks!
You know, I haven’t really thought about this. What a brilliant point! I don’t think I’ve printed any photos in the last 4 years maybe.
I should take more photos too!
Love,
Katie
http://www.agirlnamedkatie.com
Awesome. Loved the video. I really need to print out some of my lovely photos ^_^
xo Melanie
http://www.thehalfginger.blogspot.com/
XvTT5
What a neat idea. Love your video!
This will be great. Can’t wait!
What a collaboration! I can’t wait to see more of your photos. Oh, and Norma Jean is my mom’s name! 🙂
Supernova collaboration! Look forward to seeing all the stellar pictures y’all make! Have a blast!
http://www.yoetsateproductions.wordpress.com
I love canon printers. I worked at an ink cartridge refilling company and we highly recommended Canon for ethics, reliability and quality. I bought one myself but got rid of it a while back and now I’m printer-less. I wanted to buy a new one but wasn’t sure what to buy for photos. I hope you get us a lot of feedback on these 3 printers as I’ll be watching closely to see what you prefer and for what. Great news!
A lot of people found great interest in photo printing especially with the available technology these days. Canon has a good reputation in producing high-quality print output and for sure, excitement will be doubled upon seeing the results of your work.