Keeping Your Past Close To Your Heart: Family Memory Books

Keeping Your Past Close To Your Heart: Family Memory Books

February 6, 2013 • Photography

Time flies when you’re having a good time and many of us find ourselves randomly looking back in time, only to find that life has sped by much faster than we’d intended it to. If you’re looking to slow things down and apply those ‘virtual breaks’ during special moments, a memory book is a fantastic place to start. This is going to allow you to keep track of those treasured memories that may slip your mind from time to time and enjoy them all over again.

Allow Your Creative Juices to Flow, Naturally

Many of us go much of our lives in a ‘zombie-like’ state, and it never hurts to take things down a notch in order to take part in little activities that help us enjoy the moment, not getting so caught up in the pressures of life; such as bills, work and raising our children. Not only do stimulating activities such as dancing, writing or creating pieces of art allow us this much-needed ‘break’ (no matter how small), but they also ground us and keep us more in touch with who we are and where we want to be.

Going to a dead-end job day in and day out may pay the bills but it does not feed your internal desire. Taking a moment to cut old photographs and place them in an organized photography booklet not only helps you to relive the good times, but also motivate you to keep working hard so you can enjoy more moments like that. Whether it be going on a much-needed family vacation next summer or visiting your parents who live a few states away.

Ideas to Get Yourself Started

Intrigued by the idea of making your very own memory book, but not sure how to select a theme or where to begin? Never fear, because we have a few ideas to get those juices flowing. First and foremost, it’s important to think about what types of things are important to you. What are you most excited about in life? Maybe you have a wedding coming up soon, or your family is expecting a child. Remember, you don’t have to have one book for a single event. If you’d like, you can do a life-long, family book that is going to have sections for everyone (Mommy, Daddy, Sister, Brother, Pets, etc).

Maybe you recently went to the mountains and took some pretty stunning photographs of the local wildlife. Instead of placing those photos in a drawer or storing them on the internet, why not take a few moments to print out some of your favorites and put them in a location (whether it be a family book or even up on your bedroom walls or in the hallway for guests to enjoy) where the whole family can relive those special moments over and over again?

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CC – Attribution Photo by kevin dooley on Flickr – source

Common Items Added to Family Books

Still not sure how to make a book that will show off your family as you see it in your head? Commonly, crafty folk like to put things such as receipts to events, movie and concert tickets or even personal notes inside. All of these things may seem like small details, but later on down the road, you’ll be glad you kept them. It’s such a rush to go back in time and remember things about various days of the year, trips or family get-togethers that you may not have previously been able to recall. This is a great way to lift yourself up during those rough spots that we all come, to no matter how great or happy our lives may be. It truly does give you a whole new perspective on life and can change your current outlook from the negative to the more positive side.

A Bonding Experience for the Whole Family

Creating and sharing memories doesn’t have to be a single person job, it can involve the entire family; all the way down to the children, who may not even be old enough to write their own names. Looking for a way to bring your family closer together? How about giving the kids pieces of construction paper and allowing them to decorate to their heart’s content, while the adults focus on the preparation, copying and pasting? You can then add those pages to their individual family books, placing photos over or around their doodles. Depending on the age of your children, you may want to incorporate glitter or even stickers to the mix to make the pages even more interesting and give them additional ways to make their personal pages their own.

Article by Yolanda Fisher

Yolanda Fisher is a teacher, a home-maker, a wife and a proud mother of two lovely kids. She enjoys building little knick-knack with her daughters. She just purchased some custom sized mats from WholesaleMatBoards.com and is really loving them.

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