Film vs Digital

I've been a little old picture crazy lately. I dug through a few boxes of old pictures that my parents have laying around last week to find a picture for this post and now I can't stop. I've been scanning picture after picture up to my computer for safe keeping.

There is something a little more memorable about having pictures printed versus just saved to your hard drive. Nothing quite beats spending an afternoon sitting on the floor with a cup of tea and a shoe box full of old photos to sift through. I love my digital camera (and even my iPod camera) and I would love to save up to buy myself a brand new fancy Digital SLR, but I still really miss the days of film. Film, to me, had some mystery and so much realness to it. I remember taking rolls and rolls of film to the store with my mom to get developed and being so excited when she would let me fill out the order forms or get the first peek at the prints when they were done.

And maybe we have the best of both now. With digital you're never saving those last few shots on the roll for something special. You can capture real, everyday moments freely, discarding what isn't needed (like pictures of the carpet?) and saving what turned out special. All while never fearing running out of film or space. And you do still have the option to print when wanted. But honestly, how many of us do that on a regular basis?

Maybe all of the pictures didn't turn out perfectly with film, but there is still something I love about that. Even those imperfect, out of focus, poor lighting shots say something.

When searching through old pictures, I also happened upon an old scrapbook that I made myself when I was younger (probably ages 10-12). I mean, it was super cheesy and laughable at best, but I loved it. I miss printing pictures and saving them in this way. My mom had been working at a scrapbook store near my elementary school at the time I created it and I can remember going there after school and spending hours creating pages for my picture book. I think it helped me appreciate memory keeping so much. I'd love to take that up again. I think making a small scrapbook each year or two would really encourage me to get more pictures printed and to save our memories in a tangible way.

I'd also love to go back to shooting a bit with film too. If for nothing else, I think it'd be fun. If you follow me on instagram, you may know that I recently acquired TWO old film cameras!

Will found them in an electronics/computer recycle bin at work. They are old Fish and Game cameras that they were just going to get rid of, as they had no need for them anymore. I am so excited to get some batteries in them (especially that Olympus SLR) and see what they can do.

Do any of you still shoot film? Or do you have a good memory storing system (like creating scrapbooks)?

P.s. If there are any hiccups as you look around the blog today (and possibly tomorrow), please excuse them. I am updating a few things!

DIY Gift for Him: (25) Reasons Why I Love You

Monday I talked about Will's birthday (which was last Friday) and how we celebrated it. He turned 25, or how I like to think of it, he's been alive now for a quarter of a century! I'm the sentimental type and those dear to me tend to be as well. I always mull over gift ideas for weeks before holidays because I do really like to give things that have meaning. Because of this I tend to be a gift maker. I even handmade every single gift I gifted last Christmas! Handmade things just pack so much meaning, personality, and creativeness into a gift. Plus they are great for people, like me, who are on a tight budget but still want to show someone some love.

Ideally, if I had the cash to blow, I would have bought a whole slew of new backpacking gear for Will for his birthday. I know he loved my homemade things though. I thought it would also be a great idea to do a little booklet of sorts instead of a card. Since he was turning 25, I titled it 25 Reason Why I Love You. See below how I created this simple little booklet for him.

How to Make a Card Booklet

What you'll need: To create a booklet similar to mine you'll need some card-stock paper, cardboard (or another sturdy material) for the cover, foam stamps, paint, a paint brush, small letter stamps, ink, various pens and markers, other embellishments (stickers, die-cuts, etc) optional, a hole punch,  and twine.

Directions

1. Begin by creating the cover for your booklet. I chose a thin cardboard like material that was already cut to a small size. Create the title for your booklet. I decided on {25} Reasons Why I Love You because it was Will's 25th birthday. I used foam stamps for the 25 (apply paint using a paint brush and stamp onto your surface) and regular letter stamps to write the title and then used some stickers as accents. I distressed the edges by rubbing them on the ink pad.
2. Measure the size of the cover and cut pieces of card-stock into smaller pieces that will fit into your booklet. My cover measured 4.5 square inches, so I cut each page in to 4.25 inch squares. Cut as many pages as you need, and number them by stamping them with the same foam stamps you used on the cover.
3. Allow any paint to dry and then make sure all pages of your booklet align. I rounded the corners of my pages to match the cover. This is not necessary, just an extra little touch. Punch holes in each of the pages and the cover to ensure you will be able to bind your booklet together. A good way to make sure all of your hole punches line up: Begin by marking where you want the holes to go on the front cover and punch them out. Then align different pages, one or two at a time, (centered) with the top of the front cover and punch through the holes you have already made.
4. Go through and personalize each page of your booklet. Do this before binding it together! If you make a mistake you can make a new page without having to unbind everything. Get create with each page, writing and stamping with different fonts. Add pictures, stickers, different embellishments, or print out everything and adhere it to your pages. I chose to keep it pretty simple. Then bind your booklet together by feeding twine through the holes.

Here's a little peek inside my booklet!

The design/concept is simple for this little booklet, but you could make it so many different ways. Some other ideas for little personal booklets:

• An anniversary gift, using the number of years you've been together to share things you love about that person. 
• Highlights from the year (maybe one for each month), including pictures and things you did.
• A trip highlight, including your favorite stories and places visited.
• A collection of instagram photos printed out. How cute would this be?!
• A booklet featuring highlights and monthly pictures from the first year of a baby's life.

Happy memory keeping!