need idea for a memory book?

[katshe]

I have recently lost my sister to illness. I would like to put together a sort of thoughts book or something.

i would have everyone write their fav memory of her and put it into a book or something and give it out March 21 (her birthday) for all my siblings and parents.

I am a soap and candle maker so I need some help in this department as to what and how to do this to have it look nice , Maybe even a wall hanging

I don't know but my idea is to always remember what we loved best about her.

Any advise is welcome

Thanks so much:grin2:

[Suna]

I am so very sorry to hear of your loss katshe. My heartfelt condolences to you and your family. I think your idea is an absolutely wonderful idea. My family have been doing memory books for a few years, a little differently though from what you are thinking about. Let me ponder this for a little bit...hopefully I can come up with something to help you out.

[katshe]

I went to Michaels yesterday but couldn't decide on anything and wasn't really sure what I was looking for/

Thank you Suna

[VerticallyEnhanced]

I am so sorry for your loss.

It is not the same event, but same idea. For my husband's 40th bday, we had a big surprise party. With the invites I sent a note with my email address, and asked them to share their favorite story about him. Oh boy, did I get some doozies! I just copied and pasted them and was able to print them out on cardstock. I put them together in an 8x8 album. I think all in all I had about 65 entries. I did his in a denim/western theme. All the papers I bought were in the blue/brown family with some red thrown in there. I kept the pages fairly simple...just concentrating mostly on the messages. You could always do a theme around something she liked...flowers, buterflies, certain color combo. If you are interested, I will scan a few pages for you and post them.

[sockmonkey]

Sorry about your sister. I think it's a wonderful idea to make something in her memory. A wall hanging might be nice, but for some people it might be too painful at this point to display it, so keep that in mind if you happen to give one away and someone doesn't put it up immediately; but it's a gift from your heart, and you should do whatever feels right for you.

One thing that is cool, is to take old photos and have copies of them made and enlarged (or reduced) and printed at maybe 50-30% darkness so that the image you print will look light and faded. Then, type the memories that people gave you and use the copy as the paper they will be printed on.

Another option is to make an exact copy without changing any characteristics of the photo, and print the memories on vellum paper, then when you assemble the book, put each vellum sheet with a memory on it before each photo.

[katshe]

Sorry about your sister. I think it's a wonderful idea to make something in her memory. A wall hanging might be nice, but for some people it might be too painful at this point to display it, so keep that in mind if you happen to give one away and someone doesn't put it up immediately; but it's a gift from your heart, and you should do whatever feels right for you.

One thing that is cool, is to take old photos and have copies of them made and enlarged (or reduced) and printed at maybe 50-30% darkness so that the image you print will look light and faded. Then, type the memories that people gave you and use the copy as the paper they will be printed on.

Another option is to make an exact copy without changing any characteristics of the photo, and print the memories on vellum paper, then when you assemble the book, put each vellum sheet with a memory on it before each photo.

Please explain what you mean by use the copy as the paper

My brain is a bit slow this week.

Thank you all for the great Ideas...I do like the vellum idea I am gonna do a trial rum with that and see how it looks

I have decided to do everyones fav memory along with a photo of their choosing. and add in pic of her favorite things as she was a saver. She saved every card my Mom gave her etc. I will group things and take photos I will add the collage pics as a sort of devider between each memory I think or a special things section in the center and also one for the cover ..For that I have some printable fabric I may use.

My nly concern is that I have an inkjet printer and am worried that if the pages get wet they will smear.

[sockmonkey]

Basically, all that meant was instead of using blank, white 8.5" x 11" copier paper in your printer you would substitute the paper you had reproduced the photos on (which is why they should be reproduced at a much lighter percentage than the actual photo, so that all the text will show up on it). Does that make any better sense?

I use the generic term, "copy paper", but for your project you'll want to select paper that is identified as "acid free" so that it doesn't turn yellow or disentegrate. A lot of copy paper is acid free, but if it doesn't state that it is, I wouldn't use it.

About the fabric you're considering using, can you a spray sealant, or modge podge on it?

[katshe]

Sockmonkey,

the fabric I am using is Jenkins miracle fabric sheets, pretreated.

They will not smudge

More worried about the paper I use for the book pages.

Perfect sense. I do need to check into acid free printing paper

Thanks