10 Family photo book ideas to capture your unique story

Family photo albums aren’t just a collection of images, they’re a store of beloved memories, stories and history. They’re also heirlooms that can be passed down through generations. With everyone capturing special moments with loved ones on their phones, creating a family photo book is a great way to bring these images together.

Jump to family photo book ideas:
1: Note down special memories
2: Add in artefacts
3: Sum up the year
4: Create a 365 project
5: Document your family history
6: Capture your sibling story
7: Mark a milestone
8: Celebrate a new family arrival
9: Capture a family gathering
10: Introduce little ones to loved ones

Why you should make a family photo book

Living in a digitally focused world, it’s easy to take a photo in the moment and then quickly forget all about it. Instead of keeping these tucked away on our devices, creating a family photo book is a great way to bring them to life. They also preserve special memories and stories that are unique to your upbringing.

Family photo books can tell the stories of the moments that you never want to forget and can be revisited time and time again. A beautiful memento, you and your loved ones can get together and treasure stories of special occasions or lost relatives. Photo books are also great for children and grandchildren to connect with their origins and historical family members.

Creating an album is also a great way of bringing the people you love together. As well as viewing the photo book as a group, you can collaborate to create it using digital creator tools such as CEWE MyPhotos. That way, everyone can add their own memories and images to make a richer, more unique family photo album. Below are some ideas for your special project.

Family photo book ideas for your next project

1. Note down special memories

Create your own family story book by asking relatives to share their favourite images and a short text memory. It might be a funny joke, an incident of mischief between siblings or a precious moment with a grandparent. By encouraging everyone to caption their photos, you’ll make sure no special memories are lost.

Template: Family Time
Find it in: “Family”
This fun design has plenty of space for you to customise with your own photos and text, so you and your family can remember all the details of important moments spent together.

2. Add in artefacts

Family history doesn’t just lie in your photos and stories, but your art, recipes and letters, too. Create sections for each type of artefact or match each one to a relative. For example, you could put grandma’s recipes next to photos of her. This will create a richer, more beautiful memento of each family member.

Theme: Rustic
Find it in: “Colours”
This layout has an “old-school” feel and is a great way to display personal mementos alongside special photos to create the perfect collection of your family history.

3. Sum up the year

A year can bring about huge changes, especially for young families. Capture 12 months of main events and milestones in a yearbook. Birthdays, holidays, get togethers and funny moments can all be summed up in one place. Then you can use the same template for years to come and start building a collection.

Template: Moments of Happiness
Find it in: “Yearbook”
Capture a whole year of memories in a chronological order with this design, helping you to organise the hundreds of photos all in one place for you to look back on.

4. Create a 365 project

If highlights from a year aren’t enough, then you might want to consider starting a 365 project. This involves taking a photo of your family every day. Whether it’s candid shots or posed positions in the same location, it’s a great way to mark progress and change, especially in little ones. Although it takes plenty of commitment, the results are worth the effort.

Theme: Our Year
Find it in: “Yearbook”
This layout can be used for your 365 project with a simplistic format that makes your photos the centre of attention.

5. Document your family history

If you’ve already done the hard work researching your family history, then summarise it all in a photo book. Collect together all the images and information you’ve gathered and enhance it with maps or special design elements. Easy to reorder and print multiple copies, you can pass it down to any relative who wants to know more about their origins.

Template: Old Photo Album
Find it in: More categories > “Cream & White”
This layout works particularly well for a more traditional feel. So if parents or grandparents have a special anniversary coming up, we think this design looks lovely and would make for a fantastic portrait photo album. Use the space at the top to write a little bit of text - maybe the year the photo was taken or who’s pictured and what was happening at the time.

Template: Family Tree
Find it in: More categories > “Cream & White”
The family tree template has timelines and text placeholders. It's a book you can read as well as look at. So you can write the story that goes with your collected photos in a few words.

Top tip: Digitise your old photos for safekeeping and sharing

If you have cherished old photo prints tucked away in albums or boxes, you could give them a new lease on life by preserving them forever in a digital format - they won’t fade, be damaged or get lost over time. Scan your precious memories with the Photo Digitisation Service to keep your family history alive and accessible for generations to come. You'll have the flexibility to surprise a loved one with a digital archive of their favorite childhood memories or share treasured family photos with lots of relatives at the click of a button.

6. Capture your sibling story

Get your siblings to share fun stories from your childhood together. Then combine them in a photo book with images from old albums. This is a great way for families to digitalise lots of physical photos and collect them in a single place. It’s also a beautiful gift for grown up brothers and sisters to give both parents and children.

Theme: Time Travel
Find it in: “Birthday”
This theme is great for big photos and ideal for gifting to grandparents. Use photos that highlight bigger achievements such as milestone birthdays, school graduations and confirmations, showing one event from multiple perspectives to create a rich and emotional sibling story.

7. Mark a milestone

Make a book filled with people’s favourite memories of a relative for their big birthday. Celebrate your mum and dad’s anniversary by recreating their love story in a stunning set of photos. You could even create multiple books, each sharing memories with a different relative, to mark your own special occasion such as the Confirmation ceremony or First Communion.

Theme: Special Day
Find it in: “Birthday”
This template allows every photo to take up an entire page. So you can show off the central individuals and make them feel special on their big occasion.

8. Celebrate a new family arrival

Create a baby's first photo album to mark the arrival of a new family member. Then mark the first few years of their lives with a different photo book each year. Not just a great way to remember special moments as they grow, they also make lovely Christmas gifts for grandparents.

Template: Hello World
Find it in: “Baby”
This versatile template will give you plenty of options to display your baby photos. Fill a double page spread with the baby's adorable outfits, or include photos of first days out as a family to create a warm and loving account of your most cherished family moments.

9. Capture a family gathering

A fun idea for children is to give them a camera at a family occasion and get them to document it through their eyes. Then you can make it into a small photo album, either as a keepsake or as a gift to relatives. You could do this at a wedding or a big birthday party by giving several family members a disposable camera.

Template: Our Anniversary
Find it in: More categories > “Cream & White”
Turn an important family occasion into a special keepsake that lasts forever. With this template, you can relive all the moments from the big day in one place by combining images taken by different guests and loved ones.

10. Introduce little ones to loved ones

The personalised kids’ board book can be used to create a fun story that introduces them to different family members. Doubling as an activity book, the act of turning the pages and talking you through the photos is also a great way to help with their fine motor skills and communication.

Template: Little Dinosaurs
Find it in: Children
With this design, each page can have a photo and name of a family member to introduce a child to their siblings and extended family members. It's also a great way to introduce those loved ones they never got to meet so you can remember them for years to come.

It’s time to design your family photo book

Whether you’re making a fun photo book of funny images, a family tree album, or a memento to welcome a new addition, designing is half of the fun. We’ve made it easy for you to get started with our ready-to-go templates.

The CEWE Creator Software is great for design because you can save your work in progress as you collect photos and stories to be included. You also get to keep the files forever. This makes it super easy for you to edit the designs, resize, order additional copies and even include new arrivals when they come along.

To create a memento that you'll get to keep forever in a cover that will stand the test of time, print your design with a hardcover. Then, once you have created your CEWE PHOTOBOOK, you can print as many copies as you like to give to all your family members. This thoughtful way of preserving your family legacy will mean so much to each of them.