Having a new baby has been the most exciting time of my life! Each day is filled with moments that I never want to forget. The days are going by so fast and I don’t want to miss out on anything! I found a way to document all of Gracie’s funny faces, smiles, laughs, and yes… even her cries. I was first just testing out a new app I found in the app store, and it turned out to be one of my favorite parts of my day! This simple project is a great way to document your baby’s first year of life… by choosing one photo a day.
To do this photo journal project, you need to download the collect app. It’s technically called collect-photo journal in the app store. It isn’t free… it costs $1.99- but it is so worth it. You won’t regret it. Simply take a photo every day of your baby. If you are like me, you probably take like 1,000 photos a day. HA! But seriously. You can only choose one a day. That’s the hard part- choosing the one photo that sums up that day. But I also like that about this app. It simplifies all my photos to just my favorite one of the day.
Everytime you upload a picture, you can journal a few sentences to remind yourself of what you did that day. I don’t know about you, but this is just an easy way to journal! I know I will be happy with myself that I took the time to document what happened each day. Now I won’t have to say… hmm.. when did Gracie first roll over? I can just look in my app!
This app puts the photos into a calendar format. I love this! It is so organized and easy to look at. I love going back and looking at past months. Gracie is almost 5 months old and it is so much fun to look back at how much she has already changed.
Once the month is over (side note: did I mention how fast time goes??!?), I use another app to edit my calendar to make it a little prettier. The collect app has the option to do this, but you have to pay extra. I already had an editing app that I love so I went with that one. I use the Rhonna Designs app ($1.99) to edit the month photo.
To edit the month, click the share button in the collect app. Click create collage and choose a collage design. I always choose the basic one so I can add designs in my editing app. You can also just choose the one that already has the month and the year. If you want to edit your calendar more, open up your photo in the Rhonna Designs app. I always make sure to add the month and the year to my photos. Then, I usually add a few little designs to make it more fun. And there you go! You finished one month of your photo journal! Keep it up every day for 11 more months and you officially documented your baby’s first year of life with a photo a day!
I’ve already done 4 and half months of photo journaling with this app. I am planning on doing it as long as I can- even past Gracie’s first birthday! I think I will get the first 12 months printed out and make a book out of them! Stay tuned for a future blog post with her finished book!
Do you have any questions on how to do this project? How did you document your baby’s first year of life? I’d love to hear other ideas!
Our dog Chika thought it would be fun to be apart of the photoshoot. Gracie loves Chika!
