If you’ve been following me over the last couple of years, you know that every year for Nathan and my Anniversary, I make him a scrapbook. You can see one of the previous ones that I blogged, here.
This year, due to a major lack of time, I decided to outsource my scrapbooking routine. I didn’t want to go to any basic company and do any regular book. This was our 4 year Anniversary, after all. I couldn’t stop my creativity at a drop of a hat because I didn’t have time to! So – I turned to my new favorite company, Artifact Uprising.
This company is SO great. I ordered their 5.5×5.5 Instagram-friendly soft cover book. Nathan and I both use Instagram like crazy. (If you’re not following me yet, I would love you to! You can find me @TMinspired) I thought it would be a great way to showcase our last year by using ONLY our Instagram photos.
It took me a while to sort through our entire feed and save/organize the photos that I wanted to use, but it was well worth it!
The user friendliness of Artifact Uprising’s website was divine. There were pre-made templates that you could use for the pages, but they also included an option to create your own page completely. I LOVED it. It allowed me to still creatively scrapbook, but sped up the time I usually take tremendously.
Sometimes it’s easy to figure out the layouts you want (especially when you can click to add in their page templates), but often times I find myself stuck after page 4. I loved how I could play around with the layout, drag and drop photos, add in borders and colors, and keep the “fun” alive throughout the process. I’m somewhat of a perfectionist so this took me a lot longer than it probably would any of you. Just in case you need layout ideas for your own Instagram book, or if you’re just genuinely curious as to what the book looks like as a whole, I took some photos – just for you!
The presentation of his gift was super hipster. I bought a plain cigar box from Joann’s and stained it to the color that I wanted. (More about that later!) Then I put some shredded brown paper that you can buy at a party store (I grabbed mine from Michael’s) and filled the box. The book fit nicely inside, and then on our Anniversary, I let him open it! He LOVED it, which means that my new idea was a success!
Enjoy!
I would love it if you go and check out Artifact Uprising for your next online photo book order. Everything looked exactly as it did when I ordered it. I’m a VERY happy customer, and I think you would be too. 
Happy Anniversary, Nathan!
They are asking for everyone to make and send snowflakes for them to hang around the school. Their only request is that the snowflakes have no words on them. Think bright, sparkly, happy, and magical!
