This is your life book - things you could include in a This is Your Life Book or a Photo Album

 
 
 

Making and Giving a This is Your Life Book

When I was considerably younger, there was a TV Show presented by Michael Aspel called "This is Your Life".  Every week, he would surprise a famous face with a red book called "This is Your Life" and the show would take the surprised guest through their lives, bringing on friends and relatives they hadn't seen for a very long time, or at least video messages from them, to join them for the occasion.  At the end of the show, Aspel would present the guest with the red book "This is Your Life" and they had a collection of memories contained in a book.

Make Your Own "This is Your Life" book as a gift of memories

Making such a book of memories for a loved one is especially well worth the effort for a big birthday, such as a 60th, or a 70th etc. Leave it much later, and those closest to your loved ones (i.e. their friends & relatives in the same age group or older) may have died along with their memories & thoughts. 

Old people carry many memories with them, so it's nice to have some of them written down and passed on through the generations. It gives everyone a feeling of belonging, connecting with the past, & continuity. In a fast changing world, these can be very comforting things to feel & have.

There are lots of different size and themed photobooks to choose from at Snapfish

Snapfish have a wide variety of photobooks of all sizes and layouts
and you can choose a themed one as well, such as Travel, Wedding, Baby, Year Book - or design your own!
Find out more

After all, when those really BIG birthdays come around, you want to have something pretty special to give those you love. One idea as friends & family get older is a "This is your Life" book. Give them a book of memories to enjoy for years to come.

Photo Album - Or Photobook?

You can buy a photo album where you stick everything in or create a photobook online.  Much of this choice depends on how your technical abilities are.  Both versions need thinking about and organising, so that you plan pages out  before you stick them into a photo album or create them online.   You'll need to think about the order you put things in, what captions you want to put with pictures, if any;  and you'll need to get it checked for spelling.  Whatever you do, don't rely on a spellchecker alone.  Get someone else to look through what you're doing and check for errors.  

Creating a Photobook Online

 
The advantage of creating a photobook online is that you can usually buy extra copies to give to relatives and friends who would like a copy.  The disadvantage is that the person who received it and who it's about can't really add to it.  
 
I made my parents a photobook to celebrate their wedding anniversary with Photobox - it was very easy.  (It needed to be, if I was going to do it!).  They have lots of different sizes to choose from and you can get themed ones as well. You can also create photobooks through Snapfish or The Book of Everyone.  
Giving a photo album
 
You can also buy photo albums & similar books, including 100 year diaries, from Boots.  The advantage of buying a photo album and physically putting in photos, letters, sayings or whatever you want to include is that you can have some spare pages for the recipient to add their own items, and even continue the book after they have received it.  
 
We created one of these for my mother's 70th birthday.  
 
We chose to use a simple photo album and didn't go for the red book idea, but this was just a personal choice.  Mum was just as thrilled with her own photo book which wasn't red at all!  What thrilled her was the thought and preparation that had gone into it and the fact we'd put so much effort into it and that it was a story of her life. We left a number of pages blank and she is still adding to them.   She often looks through her book, so it was well worth the time it took to create.  

Ten years plus on, we are all still looking through the book we made her, and it is giving us all a lot of pleasure, and bringing back lots of memories.  And Mum is still adding to it, bless her!  

 

 Create your own photobook with Inkifi.com
Create your own photobook with Inkifi.com
Just remember the moments!

 There are photoshoots for all the family at Virgin Experience Days!
How about a photoshoot experience
from Virgin Experience Days?