This is your life book - things you could include in a This is Your Life Book or a Photo Album
| When those really BIG birthdays come around, you want to have something pretty special to give those you love. One idea as friends & family get older is a "This is your Life" book. Give them a book of memories to enjoy for years to come. Making and Giving a This is Your Life Book When I was considerably younger, there was a TV Show presented by Michael Aspel called "This is Your Life". Every week, he would surprise a famous face with a red book called "This is Your Life" and the show would take the surprised guest through their lives, bringing on friends and relatives they hadn't seen for a very long time, or at least video messages from them, to join them for the occasion. At the end of the show, Aspel would present the guest with the red book "This is Your Life" and they had a collection of memories contained in a book. |
| Make Your Own "This is Your Life" book as a gift of memories Making such a book of memories for a loved one is especially well worth the effort for a big birthday, such as a 60th, or a 70th etc. Leave it much later, and those closest to your loved ones (i.e. their friends & relatives in the same age group or older) may have died along with their memories & thoughts. Old people carry many memories with them, so it's nice to have some of them written down and passed on through the generations. It gives everyone a feeling of belonging, connecting with the past, & continuity. In a fast changing world, these can be very comforting things to feel & have. Photo Album - Or Photobook? You can buy a photo album where you stick everything in or create a photobook online. Much of this choice depends on how your technical abilities are. Both versions need thinking about and organising, so that you plan pages out before you stick them into a photo album or create them online. You'll need to think about the order you put things in, what captions you want to put with pictures, if any; and you'll need to get it checked for spelling. Whatever you do, don't rely on a spellchecker alone. Get someone else to look through what you're doing and check for errors. |
| Creating a Photobook Online The advantage of creating a photobook online is that you can usually buy extra copies to give to relatives and friends who would like a copy. The disadvantage is that the person who received it and who it's about can't really add to it. You should also make sure that the people who give you contributions in the form of photos etc know that this book will go out to the receiver, but there it may also go to other members of the family or friends. Get their permission to include their photo in your book. I made my parents a photobook to celebrate their wedding anniversary with Photobox - it was very easy. (It needed to be, if I was going to do it!). They have lots of different sizes to choose from and you can get themed ones as well. |
| Giving a photo album The advantage of buying a photo album and physically putting in photos, letters, sayings or whatever you want to include is that you can have some spare pages for the recipient to add their own items, and even continue the book after they have received it. We created one of these for my mother's 70th birthday.  How about doing a scrapbook? Paper High have a sustainable scrapbook making guide! We chose to use a simple photo album and didn't go for the red book idea, but this was just a personal choice. Mum was just as thrilled with her own photo book, especially because she could see that a lot of thought and preparation that had gone into it and that it was a story of her life. We left a number of pages blank and she is still adding to them. She often looks through her book, so it was well worth the time it took to create. Ten years plus on, we are all still looking through the book we made her, and it is giving us all a lot of pleasure, and bringing back lots of memories. And Mum is still adding to it, bless her!
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