Family Photo Timeline with Framebridge

I have gobs of family photos, but most of them just live on my computer. The one “golden ticket” family photo gets printed for Christmas cards, but the rest never leave the hard drive.

That’s probably the case for most of these days, right?

I’ve had this idea for a while about using photos to create a family timeline of sorts. Not in the cheesy grade school history project kind of way, but instead a more subtle play on the idea.

OUR FAMILY PHOTO TIMELINE
Creating my photo “timeline”, I picked one snapshot from specific time periods of our little family’s journey. The result was a simple visual history of the last nine years in mine and my husband’s lives. The first photo I chose was from our engagement session. Then I added my favorite picture from our wedding day.

(Oh, those two skinny and naive kids…they had no idea what was ahead of them.)

Next up was a maternity pic. This is probably my very favorite picture I’ve ever taken with Stu. The second row represents the next chapter of our family when we became parents. I added one of Gemma’s 6 months pics, our first family photo shoot, and a pic of Gemma at two years old full of sass and showing her little personality.

Maybe we’ll turn this into a 9 photo series when we add kid #2 into the mix.

HOW TO CURATE YOU OWN FAMILY TIMELINE
I think the main reason I loved this little project is that it forced me to choose only one image to represent a specific time in our lives. Here are some tips if you’d like to create your own family timeline…

1. Pick your very favorites.
   If it’s not an “Oh, yeah!” then don’t use it here. You really want to find the pics that stick out in your mind as totally representative of that phase in your family’s life.
2. Consider color.
   I kept  the color palette simple here. I made sure it was mostly neutrals and that the most common color used was blue. (This was easy since we wear a lot of denim in our family.) If you feel like the colors are all over the place in your photos and the collection reads disjointed, you could always go black and white.
3. Stick to one photo style.
   You’ll notice that the style of these photos is pretty casual. They feel a bit photojournalistic rather than totally posed. This is just the style of photos we prefer most of the time. If you have more posed pictures, stick with with that style for your timeline.
4. Arrange so the progression it’s obvious.
   Because this is a timeline, I purposely chose a symmetrical arrangement as opposed to a more organic and collected looking gallery wall. This helps to show the chronological order of the pictures.

5. Print and Edit Photo Size Digitally.
This makes the days of going to a pharmacy for photo development a thing of the past. Need a specific size for your frames? You can always reduce image size online.

When I found out about Framebridge and their online framing services, I pretty much stalked them until they agreed to work with me on this.

(Actually, they were very nice and totally up for it. Only minimal stalking was needed.)

A client told me about Framebridge several months ago, and since then I’ve used their framing services on a few projects. I loved the frame options on their website, which is super easy to navigate. Seeing the quality of framing in person sold me on the service.

ADDRESSING THE ART PLAN 
In addition to wanting the family photo timeline, I also needed to address the art plan for this entire wall. It’s felt disjointed for a while. I knew I wanted family photos in this area of the house, but my hodgepodge corner gallery wall just wasn’t working.

First of all, this is an awkward spot in our living room that serves as an entry wall since our actually entryway is too tiny to house a table. I wanted to add the flamingo in this area, but he wasn’t really large enough to anchor the wall above my console table.

I decided that a larger collection would work better over the console table to more appropriately fill that wall. The flamingo could hang out in the corner by himself since he was just the perfect size, and his new gold frame really popped off the walls. I picked the Mandalay frame for my flamingo and the Providence frame for the timeline pics.

My flamingo print is probably my very favorite piece of art in my entire house. Sadly, it’s no longer available online where I ordered it.

(Insert many, many frowny face emoji’s here.)

We call him “Mr. Wonderful”, and my daughter really does think we have a pet flamingo. I’ve tried him in a couple frames, but he never really had a home that fit him properly. His new thin gold bamboo frame is perfect. And it kind of reminds me of a flamingo leg. (Which I realize how creepy that is only after typing it.)ORDERING FROM FRAMEBRIDGE
I know ordering things online can seem a bit risky, but we’re not talking about a sofa here. Frames are pretty low risk, and honestly it was so much easier than dragging my things down to craft store and waiting in line. Then heading back once they’re ready.

If you’ve gone that route and still weren’t really excited about the frames you ended up with, let me share with you the process of using Framebridge instead…

1. Preview art online in the collection of frames.
   This was really nice because I liked three different frames on the website, but after viewing my photo in each I knew immediately which one looked best. I picked my sizes, and requested mail-in boxes.
2. Mail-In Boxes arrive at my doorstep
   By the way, the shipping is free.
3. Pack my photos and artwork with notes to the Framebridge team.
   
4. My artwork comes in packed safely.
5. Hanging supplies and instructions are included.
6. My artwork is ready to hang. 

*I did work with Framebridge on this. Seeing as there are so few sponsored posts around this blog, you oughta’ know that the opinions I share come from the bottom of my home lovin’ heart.

The whole process did take about two weeks since I needed to mail in my artwork. (If you upload your artwork or photos, it goes much faster.) In my opinion the convenience and frame choices were well worth the wait.

Maybe you’re trying to get your home cozy for the holidays. Updating your photos is one way to make sure you add your story to your walls and give the grandparents something to love.

Or if you really want to win their hearts, just have the kids’ pictures framed and wrap them up. For grandparents, this pretty much beats a vacation home in the south of France.