This is your life book - Photo book, photo album or scrapbook?
| 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.
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| 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.
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. It can also give you an idea of what older people lived through and how stoical they are and were.
Making a This is Your Life book gives you a very human link to the past. For instance, we were amazed at how neatly Mum’s friends wrote – many of them had beautiful handwriting, just the sort they would have developed at school all those years ago. A This is Your Life Book enables you to capture the memories of your loved one – and the memories of people around them of what like was like. It’s almost like a very personal history lesson, giving you the chance to dip your toe into times past.
How to make a This is Your Life Book There are a number of different books and methods you can use to create a This is Your Life book or a Memory book, so here are some of them. Use a photo album You could use a photo album where you stick your photos in. You could have an album where you use photo corners, putting the corners on the photos and then sticking them in; or, you could have a self-adhesive photo album where you pull back a self-adhesive film covering the page and then put your photo where you want it to go. Just bring the film then back over the photo and flatten it out. 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! Create a photo book You could also create a photo book which is then printed off and sent to you. You usually do this by uploading your photos onto a website which gives you the facility to create a book of the size you need. One of the great things about these is that you can usually order more than one copy, so that you give one to the recipient and perhaps one for yourself or yourself and your siblings and their family so you all have something to cherish your loved one's life with. Do plan this out well - you can't add extra pages to the finished version, so you need to be particularly attentive to what you intend to put into your book and what order you'll put it in. 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. Use a scrapbook I think of these as being more informal and actually great fun for kids When we used to go on holiday as kids, we'd do a mini project about the country we were going to - we'd find a map and draw it (no computers in those days), write a bit about the geography and history, things to do, animals to see, famous people who lived there, facts about it (language spoken, national dress, the national flag and so on). It was a great way to develop a natural curiosity about different countries and people and to learn more about geography. (And it kept us wonderfully quiet on those rainy days in the holidays.) But it could cover all sorts of things such as My Favourite Pony so that you child can create their own selection of memories in the album.
Writing a "This is your life book" can make you think about your own life....  How about a Personalised Milestone Birthday/Anniversary 1/2 Pint Mug? Something for them to treasure! From Emma Bridgewater for £23.33 More Tips on Making a "This is Your Life Book" What could you include in a This is your life book? This is your life book: ideas for books Writing a "This is your life book" can make you think about your own life.... |
