A New Year’s Resolution to use and display family photos

Over the holidays we re-arranged our living room. The layout had stayed the same since we moved in 5 years ago, and I didn’t like it. The seats were at the wrong angle to the tv and all the shelves were cluttered with toys and paperwork. So we moved the sofas around, got rid of my beloved, but ill-used vintage bureau, making a cosy family living space.

I found time to sort the clutter so we could display lego creations on the shelves. I even managed to carve out a new desk space for me too. It felt so nice tidying up for the start of a New Year and I thought I would take the opportunity to update and use the family photos we had on display too.

Using and displaying family photos

I was delighted when Snapfish asked me to transform the photos on my iPhone for the New Year. I take hundreds of photos every month but rarely use them except on a blog post or Instagram. Finally, a chance to use some of my favourite photos to brighten up our house.

The first thing I did was make a new calendar for my work space. My kids rely on Alexa to know what date it is but I’m a visual person and love a calendar. Snapfish have a new wood block desk calendar which I loved the look of. There were 13 pre-designed templates to choose from, all consisting of a wooden block which held 12 sheets, one for each month. You could personalise the desk calendar with 12 different photos, captions and even add embellishments.

I had fun looking over photos from the previous year, choosing my favourite photo from each month. I tried to balance images of both children (because I knew they’d check!) and was able to upload them directly from my phone and laptop. I added a phrase or caption to each sheet then looked through the embellishments and added something different to each one. I was so pleased with the way it turned out and the kids are happy with the photos I picked too.

Did you see the New Year printable I shared? I made them for my children who love to record their thoughts as much as I do. I found my son’s secret diary when I was changing his sheets, so I knew he would love his own notebook. Snapfish have a variety of notebooks you can personalise using favourite photos so I made one for each of my children. They make a great gift idea, and creating Snapfish photo gifts is easy!

My daughter won’t forgive me for giving her a beautiful but unusual name. I looked through the templates for the Hardback Notebooks, found one I knew my children would like, and added photos of each of them. I chose different designs to suit their personality and was able to further customise them by adding their names on the front cover. They love them and they were so budget-friendly that I can see myself doing this every year!

I loved using my family photos in different ways. They are are on permanent display thanks to our new calendar and the children get to look at fun photos of themselves thanks to their new personalised notebooks. I couldn’t resist making a few more items with my photos via Snapfish. I think once you start it’s difficult to stop!

Nothing beats a hand-written Thank You card but I admit I find it hard getting my children to sit long enough to write them. This year I made a personalised Thank You card using a Snapfish template, used two photos and added my own text. My children were more than happy to sign the back of each card, which made for a quicker task than usual, and the photo doubles as a nice keepsake for our friends and family too.

Finally, I took the opportunity to update the photos on our Gallery Wall. The silhouette wall art I designed has been up for a while and I wanted to display some more recent family photos. Again, I uploaded some of my favourite photos from last year directly from my phone, chose the sizes I needed and got them printed out.

It’s great to start the New Year with a look back over some of last years’ adventures and I love the fact that I’ve updated the family photos we have on display quickly and in an affordable way. January is a great time to reflect on happy memories from last year as we look forward to making new ones this year.

Disclosure – post in collaboration with Snapfish