Creating a Family Archive for Mother's Day

by Caroline Ulbrich

2010-04-19 15:04:48

Everyone has a role in the family and the task of “historian” or “archivist” usually falls on mom’s shoulders. This Mother’s Day take the opportunity to do some of the job for her and make a lasting gift that will truly be treasured. With significant items, mementos and family photos you can make a unique canvas print and wall design that she will just love.

Digital photo prints of today will have a much longer life span than old chemically developed photo prints. This way, you can make digital copies of antique family photos, or even prints from just a few decades ago and make sure they will still be around for future generations. Just make a quick scan and secure the original photo away for safekeeping as long as it will last. We are happy to make scans for you, but for old and fragile one-of-a-kind photos you may feel better holding onto them. For more information on getting a good quality scan and protecting your photos check out the articles linked below.

Gather new and old photos, maybe even some souvenir items that could be scanned. A ticket stub, wedding invitation, graduation announcement - anything essentially flat - could also be incorporated into the project and can easily be digitized. Once you’ve collected some of your favorite photos it is time to do something with them.

One option is to make a collage of all these photos and items on a single canvas. You can set this up yourself if you have some knowledge of Photoshop, or send all the photos to us on a disc and we’ll work with you on putting it together.

Another way to present this is to make a collage on the wall with each photo on its own canvas. Showcasing a variety of photos and objects on one wall makes for a very unique and interesting design element in any room. When mixing color and black and white photos, consider giving them all a black solid border so there is a consistency that makes them all fit together. Mix up sizes and shapes for an eclectic look, or crop everything to the same format for a more organized and formal layout.

Choose a theme for the design. Maybe all of the photos are antique of ancestors and older family members, or use baby photos of everyone at the same age and see the similarities and compare the styles throughout different years. If you have photos of your mom and dad when they were dating and some shots from their wedding, tell the story of their life together before kids.

Finally, you don’t necessarily have to go all out and find decades old photos to put together and create a family archive. It can easily just start with one, and it can be a current digital photo of your entire happy family right now. Someday when your grandchildren see it they’ll enjoy looking at the “ancient” photo and add it to their family archive.