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The Next Step in Family Vacation Photos: Organization and Display
As summer is winding down there are undoubtedly many cherished memories of family vacations and outings that have found themselves tucked away in a box or filed deep in your computer’s hard drive. Family memories such as these deserve some attention. So drag out that box from underneath your bed or fire up your computer and get ready for some fun ideas for displaying and organizing those summer moments you won’t want to forget!
Create a ritual. Go through your summer pictures and find fun ways to tackle your photo obsessions. Create an album each year and relive your favorite recent memories as you place your shots in the album as a family. Make sure to toss out any pictures that don’t make the grade.
Construct wall art. One creative way to get those pictures on the walls is to construct a collage of your best vacation photographs by mounting them on top of a map of your getaway destination. Maps can be found in museums, souvenir shops and all over the Internet. Spray glue the map and pictures on a mat board and frame it for an instant reminder of all your favorite vacation memories.
Turn your photos into gifts. Most photo developers now have a wide array of things you can do with your pictures. Make calendars, coffee cups, mouse pads and T-shirts of your favorite family pictures and give them out to close friends and extended family members during the holiday season.
Turn your refrigerator into a magnetic family photo gallery. Purchase a few 4 x 6 inch magnetic strips at your local photography shop. Most strips come with an adhesive front so you can apply the picture right on and cut out your favorite items. Have fun moving each family member and accessory. Create different scenes whenever you feel a need for change.
Make your own postcards. Pick up some adhesive postcard backings at any photography supply shop and forget about cheesy souvenir postcards forever. Now you can mail real memories to friends and family.
Create a family webpage to display your memories. Upload your pictures to your very own website and add captions to each one. Imagehosting.net allows you to upload your picture in addition to providing you with links for posting the image on a web site, emails, eBay auction, forum, or anything else you need. The registered free accounts allow you to keep track of all your uploaded pictures, see how often your images are viewed and you get 25 MB storage space. Freewebpage.org offers 150 MB of space along with a direct FTP address, guest book, message board and more. There are countless other services to help you get started in sharing your memories with the world for free.
Assemble a scrapbook. Create a scrapbook using photos, journal entries about your trip, tickets, brochures, receipts, postcards and even your natural surroundings (shells from the beach or leaves from the campground). Working page by page, arrange your items on a background sheet of paper and attach them with spray glue. This is a great outlet for all the countless pieces of paper you have collected.
Adding these fun ideas to top off your summer is a great way to pull the family together as well as add interest, organization and thought to your memories and home. While you’re recalling another great summer you’re also creating a new family tradition. Whether you implement one idea or all of them, spending time together as a family is sure to be fun for everyone.
