When my twins were born, my goal was to make each of them a scrapbook chronicling their first year. Well, they are turning three in less than a month, and those books are still not finished. Now that I have a third child, I figured it would take me until he got married to finish his first year book!

Then I heard about How Fast They Grow, an online scrapbooking company that claims that you can create a scrapbook page in seven minutes using your digital pictures and their free online Digi-Scrapbook software.

Seven minutes? It seemed too good to be true, but I had to check it out.

I joined the site (free), uploaded some pictures, and got to work. Sure enough, I was able to crank out some pages that I am really proud of in five to ten minutes per page, depending on how long I spent thinking about what to write.

The sample page I have below is just one of six I created in under an hour.


How simple is the process?

1. Upload pictures to Digi-Scrapbook (the most time-consuming part of the whole process).


2. Choose a layout from over 480 page designs.


3. Drag your pictures into the page - it is easy to zoom in or out and move around as necessary.


4. Type text on the page and add your own title.

That's it! Once your page is finished, you can publish it to share online with family and friends or print. Printing costs just dropped as of December 1, and now pages cost just $5.50 each. When I think of the time saved and the money not spent on more scrapbook supplies, it is definitely worth it for a busy scrapbook lover, especially for such a great finished product. The 12”x12” pages are printed with Kodak printers on 110-lb. cardstock, and they should last for generations if well-stored.

If How Fast They Grow sounds like something you or someone you know might be interested in, check out their website for a ton of great example pages and to view all of their templates. The company is currently running a special with free ground shipping on gift card packages using the code GIFT4U. Each package comes with the gift card as well as a sample 12”x12” page to see the quality of their product.

Maybe there is hope yet for my little one's baby book! - Sara I.