If you’ve ever wished your favorite family photos weren’t just stuck on your phone, you’re going to love this concept: a Family Yearbook.
Back in 2011, I made my very first Family Yearbook… and I’ve made one every single year since.
The Family Yearbook gives purpose to the thousands of photos piling up on my phone. It became my way of doing something meaningful with them, that my family could enjoy, instead of letting them sit in digital limbo.
Now, I’ve definitely seen other moms making books for every vacation, every birthday, every milestone… and while those projects are certainly beautiful (I love that for them!). But I knew, for me, that many books/projects would be impossible to keep up with over time. So instead, I decided to make one book. One book for the whole year. And that decision changed everything.
More than a decade later, I’ve created one every single year. It’s become one of my favorite traditions. My kids love flipping through our old books, and I love knowing our family’s memories aren’t lost on our phones anymore.
What Is A Family Yearbook?
A single photo book that sums up your entire year… the big moments and the everyday ones. You can call it a “photo book”, but I think it’s more fun to call it a Family Yearbook.
It’s different than a traditional scrapbook because it doesn’t require creativity or artistic design skills… the photos tell the story.
Why I Love A Family Yearbook
This project has become one of my favorite family traditions for so many reasons:
💛 It gives my photos a purpose.
My photos are documented as our family’s story instead of living on my phone (where no one sees them).
📚 A Family Yearbook gets our memories into our hands.
My kids love flipping through our books- laughing at old Halloween costumes, remembering vacations, seeing how much they’ve grown. These books actually get paged through and enjoyed.
🕰 A Family Yearbook builds our family legacy.
Each book tells a piece of our story. As my personal photo library grows over time (it’s currently sitting at about 30k photos), I know the best ones that I want my family to have after I’m gone are printed in these books.
😌 A Family Yearbook keeps things simple.
One book per year means I never feel “behind.” No pressure to create a book for each kid, every year or design something fancy. Just our memories, printed and done.
How I Make Our Family Yearbook
Here’s my simple process (it’s the same one I teach inside my Family Yearbooks Course):
1. Gather your photos
I look through my camera roll, select about 350–450 of my favorites, and add them to an Album.
Reviewing a full year of photos may sound like a lot, but it’s easier than you think once you get going. When I get tired of making decisions, I take a break. One month at a time.
Don’t overthink it! If a photo makes you smile, include it.
2. Design page spreads by month
I start each section with a monthly title page. That’s enough on its own, but I typically add a little written summary that lists a few memories or milestones from that month.
Then I create collage pages with the photos from that month. I use a program called AlbumStomp to create my layouts. It’s super simple and lets me drop photos into clean, modern designs. (You can read more about why I love it here.)
I don’t have a set goal number of pages to make for a month- just however many it takes to use up the photos I selected in Step 1. Some months are two pages while others may be 6-10 if we did a big trip or had a busy month.
My books don’t have stickers, fancy embellishments or artsy elements… instead I let the photos shine. Simple white backgrounds, minimal text. That’s it!
3. Print the book
After designing the pages, I upload them to Printique, my favorite printing company. I’ve been printing with them since 2019 because the quality of their layflat books is exceptional. (You can read about why I love Printique here.)
We keep our Family Yearbook collection right in our living room so they’re accessible… the whole point of making these Family Yearbooks is for your family to enjoy them so don’t hide them away!
Time-Saving Tips
If you’re just getting started, here are a few tricks to make the process faster and easier (especially for busy moms):
📸 Pick photos first.
Before you start designing, choose your favorite photos. This is the key to actually completing the book, instead of abandoning it after a few pages. It saves so much time when you’re designing the pages, if you’ve already made the decisions about what should be included.
💡 Minimize design decisions.
“Decide once” on your font, layout, and colors- then reuse that same simple style each year. You’ll save time and your books will look cohesive on the shelf.
Examples of my “decide onces” for our Family Yearbooks: 10×10 size, with a black cover that features one family photo from the year, has the year written in white on the spine, and is printed with Printique.
⏱ Batch your work.
Tackle it in chunks!
One session to pick photos (feel free to break this into multiple sessions if you take a lot of photos).
Then time to design the pages… one session to design January–June.
One session for July–December.
One session to add journaling.
Breaking it up makes it feel manageable.
✨ Done is better than perfect.
Seriously. I remind myself of this repeatedly every time I’m working on our annual family yearbook. A completed, printed book your kids can flip through is far better than the “perfect” design that never gets finished.
A Family Yearbook isn’t just another project on your to-do list… it’s a gift to your family. And once you make your first one, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner!
If you want step-by-step help (with video tutorials, templates, and time-saving tricks), check out my Family Yearbooks Course. I’ll walk you through exactly how to make one from start to finish. Plus there are templates included that’ll save you even more time!
Want to get more Family Yearbook tips or see my past books? Check out my blog archives!
Your memories deserve more than a spot on your phone… they deserve a place in your hands.
