Making Memories Last: Neat Ideas for Family Keepsakes - s post

Childhood is a veritable treasure trove of memories. It seems but the blink of an eye and one’s offspring have grown from wailing infants in cots to college-bound football and girl-crazy young men on the precipice of adulthood (and raring to go, too). Where did the time go and how often did the batteries fail in the video camera or the familial photographer have an unsteady hand, so everyone seemed blurry that wonderful vacation way back when? These questions are rhetorically asked, but when the children fly the nest time unfolds itself into a more languorous entity (you did well, it seems to say; here’s a bonus round), and it is then that those memories collected over the years can be transformed into tangible keepsakes to pass down through the family from generation to generation.

#1 The Quilt

There is perhaps no more American tradition than the quilt. An historical document in itself, a family quilt is priceless. However, the modern take on this stretches that concept of history and is, essentially, twofold: printing photos onto material and then patch-working from there, or cutting up old baby and childhood clothes to use those pieces (so very full of memories) for the squares. What better gift to receive then a quilt covered in cherished photographs of loved ones or a patterning of touch-memory significance? A sewing machine is a must, but craft stores offer lessons these days and machines for hire, too.

#2 The Wall-Mounted Collage

Not everyone is handy with textiles and a needle and thread, nor does the artistic touch bless the masses. To this end, the collage maker evolved. Man, woman, and child are capable of creating a collage, blending photographs with souvenirs such as postcards and that gem-colored wrapper from that delicious chocolate given you so long ago by a child who at the time would rather have sacrificed an arm than share their candy. Once in place, additions such as paint and other 3D effects help to make the collage all the more vivid and eye-catching (though no effort will be needed for the recipient to recognize the meaning in each parts’ inclusion).

#3 The Scrapbook

Similar to the collage, is scrapbooking. Though digital scrapbooking is on the rise, tangible, real life scrapbooking is possible for anyone. Just as apps like Chatbooks have seen the need for faster photo collation in the digital age of camera phones (and the slow process of downloading cherished images), scrapbooking harks back to a time when one had to wait for film to be developed at photographic stores and the subsequent pleasure taken in finding just the right order of placement in a carefully chosen album.

Scrapbooking, indeed, expands on that near-forgotten endeavor and lends itself to collage-type additions such as old movie theater stubs and bus tickets from long-ago road trips, while also being open to near quilt-like proportions of creativity in the option to choose to build the book itself from scratch, or to purchase one to be filled with your family’s own personal memories to be looked upon and enjoyed for many years to come.