About a decade ago, I set a goal of visiting all 50 states. I ended up making a spreadsheet for all 4 of us to see where we had been and plan future adventures. While it’s great for me, I wanted something more concrete for my kids to have and visually see where they have been. This led me to creating a 50 states photo album for each that feature their own first visits.
The Idea
I love scrapbooking and am constantly working on new ones. I’m not always so quick to finish. And being that I do a lot digitally now, it also means I’m slower on getting albums done and printed. I knew I wanted to keep this project very simple, doable, and able to add to over time. A small photo album made the most sense.
Photo album format decided, I needed to get some. Sticking with simple, I quickly decided on 50 pages. Searching for small 50 page albums led me to 52 page albums. Perfect and even better – I found a nice option that came as a 2 pack. Exactly what I needed.
State Photos
Fortunately, my kids lives have been during the digital photo age so I was pretty quickly able to find a photo from their first visit to each state. Sometimes that occurred at the same time (like when we went to California). Other times simply due to age, our son visited earlier. This meant I pulled together a mix of photos for each. Many are individual especially if I could find a photo that was unique to that visit and child. Other times, I used the same photo for both of their books.
One consistent detail in photos for both books – the label style. I wanted the state name and date (month + year) for their first visit to be clear. Keeping with my goal of simple, I literally just picked 2 clean fonts and added the details in text directly over the photo. I did this is Photoshop, but it could also be done in other photo editors.
Once I had the photos labeled, I saved to a single file folder on my computer. Each named with the state and year plus the child’s name if it was specific to them. I uploaded the photos to Shutterfly in an album and ordered prints.
Future States
Since we still have states to visit, I wanted a placeholder of sorts. I decided on simple 4×6 white cardstock with the state name printed. I added a line underneath where we could jot a date later if we want to. Then, as we have future states checked off and photos printed, we can add those photos and remove the placeholder cards.
Assembling the Album
Knowing each album had 52 pages, I planned out my photo and card placement accordingly. Title page with checklist, state photos in alphabetical order, and Washington, D.C. at the very end. Then it was as simple as placing each into the album.
Now my kids each have a photo album unique to them that will grow with them as they travel. And, at any time, they can pause, flip through the pages and enjoy a few fun memories of our adventures through the 50 states.
Looking for another fun way to document travel? We also gifted each of our kids an age appropriate travel journal this past Christmas. Our teen received a leather page-a-day journal and our 10 year old got a fun kid’s journal. Both have been enjoying adding notes and drawings during our recent travel.
