Here's a look at some of the scrapbook pages from my 2025 yearbook. This time I'm including both the digital layouts before I had the book professionally printed and also photos of the final, printed product, too.
This page was fun to put together because the digital art (see Credits below) was just so darling. Being a Gryffindor at heart, that's the background paper I chose for our Harry Potter watch party with themed dinner. I meant to get a picture of our family at the party but never did! The themed food is always fun for me to remember, especially with a few new additions this year.
And this is another memory I love being able to re-live and re-love through my photos and story in a scrapbook. For this one, I wanted a few hints of decor but I wanted to really let the photos themselves take the stage.
I took the layout idea from Forever Design Map 11, which I added beach-themed papers to. (credited below)
I really like how the sea-colored paper at the bottom with the rip makes it look like a wave! I had so much journaling about this trip that it ended up being a good spot for that, too.
Here's what those pages look like in my printed book. The pages feel like velvet, and I feel like I could touch the water!
Digital book printed here (in gorgeous, high-quality pages I fall in love with every time), with the digital version PDF also kept forever there in my private account.
NOTE: I am a Forever affiliate called an Ambassador (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post. I earn a commission from anything purchased at my website, and being your Ambassador means I'm here to help you with questions, too. If you're new to Forever and open your free account here to give it a try, you'll get a $20 welcome coupon towards anything mentioned in this post.
FAQ
Why digital?
First, there's no "right way" to scrapbook, except for two things: 1- quality so your book will last for many, many years to come, and 2- something you will love and therefore do.
I personally choose digital because it's faster and easier, taking up less space in my house than the papers and scissors and stickers (and table space) I needed when I was a paper scrapbooker. I like that instead of having to crop (cut) a photo to make it fit, I can easily resize, zoom in, etc.
I also love the ability to print multiple copies with just the click of a button, and for safety reasons I like that my scrapbooks exist both digitally and in print. (I have scanned my old paper scrapbooks for the same reason.)
Why digital just to print it?
Aside from what I mentioned above: Accessibility! Yes, I print my digitally-created scrapbooks because print is an easily-accessible form of seeing and also sharing (and gifting!) photos and memories. Print doesn't need a full battery in an expensive gadget. Plus, photo experts still recommend print as an important way to store photos and memories, in addition to digital forms.
SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR PAPER SCRAPBOOKERS
This month I have something special for paper scrapbooking friends who worry about only having one copy of their scrapbooks.
There's nothing better than a lovingly-created scrapbook page.
🔥Except fireproofing it!🔥
Right now through June 30, FOREVER has a special Scrapbook Page Digitization Box! You can get 100 scans (50 double-sided pages) for $100, with additional scans available at $1 per side. This service helps safeguard years of creative work—capturing photos, handwritten notes, and layered designs—while making it easy to enjoy, share, and print in the future.
Order your Box before June 30 for the $1 per page price (minimum 100). It will include packing instructions and bar codes so your special pages can be tracked every step of the way. (If you read this after June 30, 2026, you can still digitize your scrapbook pages with a regular FOREVER Digitization Box at regular prices.)
Thanks for stopping in. See you at next month's Scrapbook Look! (Or, first click the Scrapbook Look tag at the bottom of this post to see more scrapbook pages.)
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Welcome to our new monthly series, Scrapbook Look, in celebration of our 16th Blogiversary! That's right--this blog turns 16 years old this month. Over the years, our content has included:
And probably a bunch of other things I'm not thinking of. After all, it HAS been 16 years.
You can still find regular inspirational and informational articles here on the first Friday of every month, with Scrapbook Look popping up on the third Fridays.
"Scrapbooking isn't just re-living memories. It's re-loving them." ~Janna W.
So, without further ado, here are some scrapbook pages I completed recently.
I absolutely loved this digital art collection (credited below) and how the layout came together. It's just full of darling papers and embellishments. I do a lot of journaling in my scrapbooks, so I loved the little notecard you see at the bottom left of each two-page spread.
I often Google layout ideas, and this was a combination of a couple. Because I'm a digital scrapbooker, I can resize and photos and embellishments by just clicking and dragging them instead of being restricted by the size of a sticker or the space in which I need to get a photo in.
I love scrapbooking because it really is re-loving memories! It was delightful to put the experience of this Siblings Trip into something tangible that I can look back on forever.
And thank you to Joanne at Slices of Life for the inspiration for this new series. She shares scrapbook pages and cards she's made each month, and I always enjoy seeing what she's done and getting inspired! I hope Scrapbook Look will inspire you each month, too.
You'll find Scrapbook Looks every third Friday of the month here at Life Tales Books.
When completed, the digital book will be printed here (in gorgeous, high-quality pages I fall in love with every time), with the digital version PDF also kept forever there in my private account.
NOTE: I am a Forever affiliate called an Ambassador (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post. I earn a commission from anything purchased at my website, and being your Ambassador means I'm here to help you with questions, too. If you're new to Forever and open your free account here to give it a try, you'll get a $20 welcome coupon towards anything mentioned in this post.
FAQ
Why digital?
First, there's no "right way" to scrapbook, except for two things: 1- quality so your book will last for many, many years to come, and 2- something you will love and therefore do.
I personally choose digital because it's faster and easier, taking up less space in my house than the papers and scissors and stickers (and table space) I needed when I was a paper scrapbooker. I like that instead of having to crop (cut) a photo to make it fit, I can easily resize, zoom in, etc.
I also love the ability to print multiple copies with just the click of a button, and for safety reasons I like that my scrapbooks exist both digitally and in print. (I have scanned my old paper scrapbooks for the same reason.)
Why digital just to print it?
Accessibility! Yes, I'm going to have my digital scrapbook printed because print is an easily-accessible form of seeing and also sharing (and gifting!) photos and memories. Print doesn't need a full battery in an expensive gadget. Plus, photo experts still recommend print as an important way to store photos and memories, in addition to digital forms.
Thanks for stopping in. See you next month at Scrapbook Look!
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There's always so much to do around the holidays, and Thanksgiving runs right into "When do we put the tree up?" and "When do we make time for Christmas shopping?" that gift-giving can become more of a chore than a joy.
And that's how my Annual Christmas Challenge came to be!
This is an annual Christmas Challenge, so if you Pin or bookmark this post, you can come back to it every year!
What is the Annual Christmas Challenge, and What Can it Do For Me?
The Annual Christmas Challenge is great because you can:
spread out the cost of your gift-giving
give unique, cherished, top-quality gifts
gift either something personalized you've created or something available with a click
have all your shopping done by Thanksgiving (there's even a step-by-step checklist with dates)
be entered into the drawing for a gift certificate!
There are so many options to choose from! You'll find ideas that are great for parents, teenagers, friends, kids, siblings, in-laws, and anyone else you can think of!
NOTE: I am a FOREVER affiliate, called an Ambassador, because I love FOREVER so much! This means I'm here to help you with questions and have a great FOREVER experience. I also make a commission from any purchases at my website.
How Does it Work?
The Annual Christmas Challenge officially starts until September 1, but you can always explore early and start thinking about what you want to do! As I mentioned, everyone who participates in the Christmas Challenge goes into a drawing for a gift certificate, too! (You just have to email me to let me know you're participating.)
You can watch this 7-minute video introduction to The Annual Christmas Challenge, if you like.
Here's how it all works.
Look at the plan (link below) and the steps you'll be following from September 1 - November 30 (or, better yet, Thanksgiving). These steps in the checklist will help you spread out both the cost of your gifts and also the time spent "shopping." The checklist and some additional resources and helps are on the first two pages of The Christmas Challenge Worksheet.
Peruse pages 4-9 to see a lot of unique gift ideas that will be meaningful for years to come, both digital services and in print.
Now start your Gift List on page 3.
Go back to the checklist and begin with the first item!
Everything you need is here at the Christmas Challenge Worksheet. Just click this image above!
And If I Have a Question?
I'm happy to help! In fact, I really love helping people gift something so fun and so meaningful and lasting!
If you have questions about ordering a Digitizing Box so you can help your parents digitize their slides or their parents' 8mm film reels, or if you'd like to make a vacation book or a puzzle or ornament and want to know what that looks like, or you'd like to let someone stop making monthly payments for cloud photo and video storage (and get *private* cloud storage, to boot), I'm here to help!
You can ask your questions in the comments of this blog post, or contact me here.
These are truly amazing and even life-changing gifts, so get ready to start September 1. Or today!
Let your gift-giving this year be a joy!
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It's pretty amazing that we now have the capability to digitize an old scrapbook! Isn't it? Something that used to be a one-of-a-kind object can be duplicated.
This can come in handy for several reasons. Maybe you want to have multiple copies to share. Maybe you want downsize and take some of the bulk out of old scrapbooks. Maybe your scrapbooks are so old they're on magnetized pages from the 60s or 70s (which are acidic and eating away at your photos as we speak) and need to be rescued.
Whatever the reason, if you have an old photo album or traditional scrapbook that you would like to digitize, you definitely want to do it with care.
NOTE: When I say "digital book," I really mean a book with a digital version that you print. I know some people stick with digital-only versions, but photo experts maintain that a printed, hard-copy version is still one of the best ways to preserve photos and memories. A digital, shareable backup is smart, too.
In my experience, Forever is the best place to do it. That's because their digitizing services are rated highest in both quality and customer satisfaction, and because the quality of their print products is the best in the industry (including nearly indestructible spine bindings).
NOTE: I am a Forever affiliate (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find affiliate links in this post, from which I earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.
So, if you've been looking for a high-quality way to convert your traditional scrapbooks or old photo albums to digital books, you've come to the right place!
There are two parts to converting a traditional scrapbook to digital books, so let's get right to it.
FIRST, DIGITIZE
Digitizing your scrapbook pages means having them scanned. You can certainly do this on your own if you like. Be sure you use a high-quality flatbed scanner, saving your images at a minimum of 300dpi resolution as JPG (or JPEG) files. Be sure the glass on the scanner is free from lint, smudges, etc., for the best scan, and make sure your pages aren't dusty. Be sure to set aside some scanning time on your calendar, too.
If you'd like to save time AND let the pros dust your pages (and remove them from the book, if needed) and use their top-quality equipment and skills, I definitely recommend Forever Digitization because I've used and loved them multiple times. They actually have the highest rating on Trustpilot (an independent platform for business reviews), too. Plus, security is an enormous deal:
For more details beyond that quick, 3-minute introduction, I made this video for you.
By the way, if your book is already a digital PDF, you don't need this digitizing step to print your old book, but you do need to convert the PDF file to individual JPG files (one per page). This is an easy, free resource for converting PDFs to JPGs. When you convert, select the best quality (300dpi or above).
SECOND, UPLOAD AND PRINT
Now you're ready to upload the scans (or the JPGs you converted from the PDF) and put each page into a book page. You can do this easily with Forever using AutoPrint, an auto-fill method of creating the book. The pages get placed automatically for you, and then you can adjust as you like before submitting it for professional printing.
Note: All of the designs you'll see in Forever's Create & Print platform are free to use. The ones labeled "AutoBook" or "Make it fast" are the AutoPrint templates that make it easy to convert your traditional scrapbooks to digital books. The other templates you'll see just don't auto-fill, but if you'd rather place pages one at a time yourself, you'll just need to find a template with "full bleed" pages, meaning there's no border around it, so that your whole scrapbook page can fill the whole book page. I can help you find those non-AutoPrint full-bleed page templates if you like--just reach out.
I was so happy when the home office at Forever made this 13-minute tutorial video, "Traditional Albums to Digital Books," walking us right through these steps!
The software programs you're seeing here are free and available to you right from your Forever account (which is free, too). Get started here.
And, yes, you can make brand new digital books at Forever, too!
THAT'S IT!
Follow the DIGITIZE and UPLOAD & PRINT steps, and you've got an old, traditional scrapbook saved digitally. With Forever, you can share it digitally, too, with a simple link, and you can print it (and re-print it) to share with as many people as you'd like, too.
I'd love to see your end result--share photos with Photo & Story Treasures Fans, our Facebook group. Join at that link and then show us photos or even a video of your new digital book so we can celebrate together.
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I'm old enough to know that technology is amazing, except that it comes and goes.
All the slides my father took of our family trip to Greece and Italy when I was 1 year old can only be viewed with a slide projector (Google that if you need to) and a big screen.
That makes our precious family memories endangered.
Maybe "endangered" seems like a strong, harsh word. Trust me: it's accurate! I'll tell you why, and how I got my own outdated media out of danger. (I'm so excited to tell you about it because I'm so happy with the result!)
Family Movies on VHS Tapes
When my in-laws found out we were expecting our first baby, they bought us a video camera. I was so thankful because video cameras were kind of expensive, and we were young and saving money for a house. The video camera was nice and big and recorded video on fancy new Hi8 videos!
I dutifully (and joyfully!) took family videos of our babies, toddlers, kiddos, and teens, of first steps and graduations and family vacations. It was fantastic.
In order to be able to view these videos as a family, I dutifully (and mostly joyfully) set up a tangle of cords so that I could copy the videos onto VHS tapes, in part so that I could send copies to my in-laws and my parents, all of whom lived far away.
Once VHS tapes weren't the latest thing any more, I dutifully (it was so time-consuming!) copied the VHS tapes to DVD with a brand new DVD-VHS combination player that also recorded.
And then we moved across the country.
My stack of VHS tapes on my To Do List got put in a box. By the time I got the DVD-VHS player/recorder set up, and all the appropriate cords plugged into the appropriate machines in my new house, life was pretty busy. I started chipping away at my big stack of VHS tapes (I recorded a family one, and then one for each of my 3 children), and it wasn't very long before my DVD-VHS machine stopped working.
I probably don't need to tell you that you can't go buy another one any more. That technology has been completely replaced. And so, I am embarrassed to say, those precious home movies on VHS tapes sat on my project table for EIGHT YEARS. Until I learned this:
I had already begun to see evidence of that in my VHS-DVD transferring, so I knew that my family videos were endangered. They felt a little like a ticking time bomb.
My First Forever Box: VHS Tapes
It was about this time that I learned about the Forever Box, a digitizing service that is the highest-rated on TrustPilot compared to 3 (I think it was) other popular digitization websites.
I know it can be hard to let your precious family memories out of your sight, especially when they are the ONLY COPY of them, but this is what I decided:
If I don't get these videos out of VHS form, all my kids will be able to do with them in 20 years is throw them away.
The Forever Box is processed at a huge digitization center in Wisconsin, not sent overseas. It is shipped with FedEx and tracked the whole time. My VHS tapes are identified throughout the whole process using bar codes specific to me and my order. The staff at the digitizing center wears gloves, dusts my media, and even makes it better than it was! This is what I learned:
So, based on this, and the recommendations of other people I knew who had done it, and these TrustPilot reports, and--especially--knowing that if I didn't do something with those VHS tapes soon, it would literally be too late, I went for it.
I cannot even tell you how thrilled I was to get my family memories back. They are accessible! They are shareable! We can watch them easily now! I have been able to share videos with my grown kids, and it has been delightful!
The Results: Not Keeping All Your Memories in one Proverbial Basket
I know the value of having multiple copies in multiple media, so I got DVDs since we have a DVD player still as well as having them saved in my Forever Storage. The videos are downloadable from Forever Storage, so I did that as well, saving them on my computer.
NOTE: I am a Forever affiliate (a decision I made because I love it so much), so you will find several affiliate links in this post, from which I earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.
My Second Forever Box: Family Memories on CD and in Negatives
At least 15 (maybe even 20+) years ago, my parents, my sister, my brother, and I decided to record ourselves reading children's stories. That way, all the kids/grandkids could hear their grandparents and aunts and uncle reading them stories that they could follow along to with their own books!
It is a special treasure now that my mom has passed and we don't get to hear her voice any more.
However, CD players aren't all that common any more. Now with the youngest grandkids--and an ever-growing number of great-grandkids--these CDs aren't useful. They've practically been lost to history, in just 15-20 years.
So, I decided to get the CD digitized (hence, the barcode on the photo above), which I know sounds silly because it's already digital. This is called a Digital Transfer. It's just a change from one digital form to another digital form. But doing so (getting .mp3 versions from the CD's files) will allow these treasured stories to be played from a phone, tablet, or computer now for the newer Littles in the family!
At the same time, I decided that I want to digitize the negatives of my wedding pictures. With the Forever Box, I could have instead chosen to have the wedding photos (the hard copies themselves) digitized by scanning, but I don't have any extra copies of them, and some of them have been displayed and faded in the sun over the last 30 years. So I decided the negatives were the best bet.
And I made you a video to show you how exactly to pack a Forever Box and walk you through the process.
One of the biggest reasons to make old media shareable is this: Even though my mom has passed on, her great-grandchildren who were born after she died can still listen to her reading them stories! Click the image below to hear my mom reading "Go, Dog, Go!"
I had been trying to figure out the best way to share this newly- digitized treasure with my family. Since my mom is gone, Mother's Day can be a sensitive time for us. I decided that these stories would make a wonderful Mother's Day gift, so I emailed them to all the family the day before, using the link to them in my Forever Storage, similar to the one I just shared with you.
That way, they can be accessed from a computer, tablet, or phone AND downloaded to that computer, tablet, or phone as well, which will make these stories so much more accessible to the younger generation of kiddos!
My family (nieces, nephews, kids, dad, everyone) just clicked on the link to see where I had put the audio files (.mp3)--I put them into an Album (like a folder on your computer) in my Forever Storage.
Of course, they're just audio files, so they don't have a thumbnail image to show which story is which. Once you click on them, you can see the details as I have entered them. See that on the right (below)?
After opening the file like this, anyone I share this with can see those details at the right, and they can click on the PLAY arrow in the middle to hear the story. (It's private in my personal account, but I did put a copy in my Demo account for you to listen to, the one I shared above, and I set that to a public setting.)
Another option for organizing your audio files--which I ended up deciding to do--is to put them in different Nested Albums (like subfolders on your computer), labeling each Nested Album as the story it contains. It's so much easier to see what's there, and that's how I wanted to present it to my family.
You can see that I added a photo of the original Family Story Time CD to this FOREVER Album, too, so that I could set it as the Album's thumbnail image.
And because my FOREVER Storage is permanent, these stories will always be here for our family to listen to, shareable with just a link.
Food comes with expiration dates, and I really wish technology did, too!
"Your computer will crash 5/16/28" or "DVD players will no longer come in laptops 6/29/23" or "There will be no way to play this Betamax tape after 3/15/16" would be SO helpful!
It falls to us, then, to stay on top of media that is important to us and our families.
This was a TREASURE in its time because you could take home movies of your family! For the first time EVER! Think of it!
But if someone gave me something like this today, it would be useless. I literally have no way to see, enjoy, or share it. And that would be a tragedy.
Just about everyone has old, endangered family memories, so share this post on Facebook, X, Pinterest, Threads, LinkedIn, email, etc. using the social media share buttons at the left.
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