Preserving memorable moments: making a family photo album with a Canon PIXMA printer

One day, not long ago, Juliet Amma's 9-year-old daughter looked around their home and asked her mother why there seemed to be so many more baby photos of her older sister, now aged 18, than of herself, the younger daughter. Juliet suddenly realised: she had taken just as many pictures of her younger daughter over the years – probably many more, considering that these days we're all able to snap away on our smartphones so readily – but all those photos were just sitting on her phone, unnoticed and unappreciated.

Juliet knew what to do. In addition to being a devoted parent, she is an enthusiastic crafter who enjoys vinyl and paper crafts, works full-time as a science teacher, and also runs a small business from home making personalised gifts. Her Canon PIXMA printer is central to all her creative activities around the home, as well as for work and her business. So she put it to use once again and made a printed family photo album together with her daughter. "She loves crafting as well, so we craft together," Juliet reveals. "and this was something lovely that we did together."

Here, Juliet shares how they crafted their family photo album using her PIXMA TS6550i printer and added their own creative touches to produce an even more personal keepsake.

Juliet's daughter had lots of pictures on her phone as well, so the two began by going through their photos on their phones together and selecting different pictures of the family and different times in their lives. Doing this together made it an opportunity to relive experiences and talk about family members that might have been forgotten.

There's a range of Canon printing apps and software available, and Juliet had the option to use software such as Easy-PhotoPrint Editor on her laptop to create collages and photo compositions to print out, as well as adding text, frames and other creative effects. There are ready-made templates for print projects such as calendars and greeting cards. For this project, though, she opted to simply print individual photos out and then arrange the prints on the physical album page.

"We printed our chosen photos using the Canon PRINT app. It was very straightforward. The app tells you what you need to do every step of the way, from selecting the photos or documents to print, right through to output. You can use the app to check the ink levels in the printer before you start, so there are no surprises. When you put the paper in, the printer tells it the paper size and the app asks you to confirm, so you can't go wrong."

Juliet's Canon PIXMA TS6550i printer has the paper tray at the front, meaning you never need to reach around the back or move the printer to use it. "Everything from putting in the ink cartridges to loading the paper is easy. The only thing I wasn't too sure about is which way up you put the paper in – glossy face down or glossy face up. Then I saw that this information is on the paper tray. It's pretty foolproof!"

You can choose from a wide range of paper for photo prints, from Canon and other suppliers, and Juliet opted for a touch of variety. "Instead of having them all the same size and finish, we decided on a mix of matte or satin-finish 4x6 and glossy 5x5 photo prints. I had never used square paper before, but I liked the opportunity to create some variety in our photo album. It looked good to have that contrast of rectangular photos and then square photos as well.

"I absolutely loved the quality of the photo prints. On both the matte and the glossy paper, they were sharp and clear, with the colours vibrant and true-to-life."

With their love of crafting, Juliet and her daughter didn't stop with simply printing their family photo album. "We wanted to glam it up and make it our own. We assembled the prints maybe two or three on a page and then filled in the gaps with some stickers, some shapes, and so on." Some of the stickers were printed with patterns, logos or parts of photos, and some were just shapes in vibrant colours.

Using both scissors and vinyl shape cutters, Juliet cut out some individual figures from photos and some colourful frames with patterned edges from card, to add even more variety to the album pages.

To finish, Juliet chose a special cover image, "a double rainbow we saw once. In all my life, I'd never seen a double rainbow before. So we put that on the front, just as a special memory we shared."

"We loved crafting our family photo album together, and it's a way that we can hold our memories close to us," Juliet comments. "My daughter can keep it on her bedside table, flip through it and relive some of those memories, and we can go through it together and talk about it.

"I'm actually planning to go through my whole phone and print out all my daughter's baby pictures, because I realise how quick it is with the Canon PRINT app – you get beautiful quality prints, printed in seconds.

"Pictures just get lost on your phone, and it's much more satisfying holding a physical photo album and turning the pages. Plus, of course, a personalised photo album makes a lovely gift. I think I'll be making those for Christmas presents."

Juliet is also thinking of gifting Canon's distinctive Photo Cube, which is designed for holding and displaying square photo prints. It makes a perfect complement to a hand-crafted photo album, turning extra prints into a three-dimensional keepsake that can sit on a mantelpiece or table and give family members another way to display cherished memories. Juliet particularly liked the acrylic frame that comes with the Photo Cube, which she used to display some of the 5x5 borderless prints she made. "I absolutely love how it came out – it's sturdy and it looks great. I'm going to make one for me and one for my two children – and I'm thinking of adding a few rhinestones around the edge just to glam it up!"

Whether it's a keepsake, a personalised gift, or a memory book for grandparents or distant family members, a custom photo album is a fun family crafting project. Making their photo album brought Juliet and her daughter together to relive shared memories and enjoy adding their own creative craft touches. And as Juliet notes, a craft project like this is both very satisfying and even therapeutic – "you can start with nothing and end up with a masterpiece!"

Written by Alex Summersby