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Creative Techniques for Preserving Memories
Author: Kathy Murdock
Babies change daily during their first year of life. They will transition from smiling, babbling infants to sippy-cup toting toddlers with whom you can’t keep up. Blink your eyes and you’ll miss it, which makes it so important to find ways to save the memories and make them last a lifetime.
Snap It
Photographs have recorded memories since 1827, only the techniques have changed from black and white film to digital photographs. Flipping through a stack of photographs offers most people great joy, but one problem continues to follow the latest digital snapshot trend: photographs get taken and loaded onto the computer, but are not thought about again until the computer crashes and they are lost forever.
To avoid losing all of those precious memories, utilize tools like Photobucket and Snapfish, which are free online storage spaces, capable of storing, printing, and editing your prints. Make a habit of printing out your favorites every few months, and store those you don’t print on an external hard drive, or jump drive.
Get Creative with Those Pictures
Your baby stuck her face in her first birthday cake and you want a fun way to showcase the photograph. Start scrapbooking! This hobby has grown so much over the past few years, and crafters can find classes and workshops at stores, such as Michael’s.
If you are low on supplies, but still want to enjoy creating fun photographic memories, throw a scrapbooking party. Invite over your scrapping friends for a day of sharing stamps, stickers, paper, and equipment. And if you know someone having a baby or celebrating one of their baby’s milestone birthdays, add a bit of pizzazz to the shower or party by hosting a scrapbooking table and letting each guest create a special page for the guest of honor.
Digital scrapbooking is another way to preserve photographic memories. Faith True, owner of Faith True Originals, says, “I can't say enough about how much I love digital scrapbooking over paper scrapbooking. Especially as a mom of two young children, I am able to sit down and create a page with my program of choice (I use Photoshop) and be able to save a work in progress and get back to it later.”
After creating the layout, Faith prints it at home or uses an online printing service. The product can also be saved on CDs, or an external hard drive, for later use. Digital scrapbooking can be cheaper than its paper-only alternative, too. Faith adds, “Pre-made papers and elements can be used time and time again, and you don't have to purchase anything twice."
Record It
Video has come a long way, and you don’t have to be Steven Spielberg to capture the moments on film. Most cell phones today offer some type of video camera, and a larger handheld version can be purchased for a few hundred dollars at most department stores.
Don’t know what to do with the video once it’s taped? Check out a variety of video-editing software, which allows you to cut what is not important, such as a seven-minute accidental shot of the grass, and keep what is – your baby’s first step. Ranging from free to several hundred dollars, these editing programs make it easy to create fun, memorable keepsakes that can be viewed on the television over and over again. Some programs allow you to add music, transitional effects, and text for a true feature film.
Have the video on your phone but not sure what to do with it? Eye-Fi is touted as the first wireless memory card. It offers an easy solution to capturing and sharing images on your camera. The company says that “not only does Eye-Fi make it easy for Moms and Dads to record all their kids’ memories, but it also takes the chore out of backing-up and organizing those unforgettable moments.” Simply upload videos and photographs from your cell phone to a computer via any public Wi-Fi or home network. Eye-Fi cards are available for thousands of camera models at places like WalMart, Best Buy, and RadioShack for as low as $50.00.
Write It
As a writer, I accumulate notebooks like some women accumulate shoes, and I write in all of them. When my daughters were born, I purchased a journal for each, in which I could write all of my special memories about their lives. I try to write each month, jotting notes about what they are doing at the time, what they like to eat, the cute things they do (like always wearing a princess dress), and the fun things we’ve done as a family, such as going bowling or vacationing in the mountains. When my children turn 18, I will hand the journals over for them to read.
Want to be even more creative? Combine journaling with photographs by purchasing a larger notebook with enough room, in which you can place a photograph next to your letters to your child. Be sure to note the date and occasion that the photo was snapped, and then write about it.
From first tooth to first grade, creative memory keeping can preserve all of your baby’s milestones – and you can have fun doing it!
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