Have you made a memory book for your parents?

amother

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 6:25 am

My parents are having a big anniversary, and we want to put together a memory book for them from all the kids and grandkids. I'm supposed to send out the original email, and maybe a template or something to make them all "come together" and not just look like a random collection of papers. Has anyone else done that that can give me some ideas of how to make a look nice?

On a budget, and not really talented at designing things, so any help would be very greatly appreciated...

amother

Impatiens

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 9:10 am

I just did it on snapfish. I picked a template and everyone sent me pictures. I had to rearrange and organize each page though… it took time and has a few typos that I’m upset about but you can’t blame a busy mama

amother

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 9:52 am

Thanks! So I think I want something different from just pictures. We're going to have each family member write something (or draw something, for the younger grandkids) and then maybe somehow put a photo along with it, of that family member with the grandparents?

I just feel like I'm biting off more than I can chew. Has anyone done something similar?

amother

Hydrangea

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 10:09 am

I haven't done it, but try searching on Etsy for "memory book," and I think you'll find a lot of options for people who can take your inputs and work together with you to make something really amazing.

amother

Burgundy

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 5:35 pm

Are you sure your parents would appreciate it? My anniversary is coming up and I would rather my children and grandchildren commit to doing a mitzva.

613mitzvahgirl

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 5:41 pm

Hi..that’s so sweet and special.. my friend did it for her parents.. she added pictures of the family, stories that they want to share, wedding pictures of your parents and whose ever married with their invitations, some jokes that they had with their kids over the years, some art work from the grandchildren, you can add favorite recipes, you can call their friends and ask them if they’d like to add anything,
It’s going to be beautiful, and Mazel Tov 🥰

amother

Plum

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 5:46 pm

We did for my parents the mishpacha magazine. It was a lot of work but it was beautiful.
The main magazine had all different write up, from us kids memories growing up and an article with pictures about my parents growing up.
The family first was my mom's recipes, an interview with her on chinuch (one of my sister called her for 'advice' on her kids and used the questions in the article).
The Junior had articles from the grandchildren, a kiddie recipe (my mom's recipe) and the kids all made pictures of things out of clics like that page in the magazine. The kids also prepared riddles and games like the magazine.
I must have left something out but you get the gist.
It was a lot of work, we got a graphic designer to do the design and we printed it like the magazine (we did thicker paper because we wanted it to last).
It is such a beautiful memory

amother

Yarrow

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 6:15 pm

We've done it more then once! It's a lot of work, but a beautiful present if done well.
Either you can have everyone draw pictures or write something nice (depending on the age) and then scan everything onto the computer and make a book on shutterfly or snapfish.
Or you can have everyone decorate their own paper and put it into a scrapbook or decorated loose leaf with sheet protectors.
If you want it to work you need to be clear exactly what you want from everybody.
Good luck!!

amother

Cerise

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 6:33 pm

We did something similar. We bought a scrapbook and everyone got a page. I decorated each page-if you look at scrapbooking pages for inspiration. It came out really nice and my mother loved it.

amother

Khaki

Thu, Jun 15 2023, 6:41 pm

My niece is really good at this. She just started doing it as a business. Look up sears studios or Chedva sears on instagram

amother

Sun, Jun 18 2023, 8:29 pm

amother Khaki wrote:

My niece is really good at this. She just started doing it as a business. Look up sears studios or Chedva sears on instagram

Hm, I don't see this on Google, and don't have access to instagram.

I really appreciate the good ideas! Anyone else have a template or anything that they used, that they wouldn't mind sharing? I'm going to try to make something up this week, but trying to figure out how to make it work...We have kids from older teens down to an infant, and people who are very computer literate and probably won't want to work in hardcopy to people who don't let their kids touch a computer.

Trying to figure out how to make it work for everyone is tough.