subject: How To Start Your Family Archive [print this page] If you are looking for a good thing to do with all of your boxes full of photos of your friends and family members, you may want to consider creating a beautiful family archive. There are so many things you can do to present your cherished photos in a beautiful, safe and easy to look at way, and over time the family archive that you create will grow to become the most valuable item that you own. These are excellent not only to have, but by creating them as a family, you will gain valuable family time together where you all can learn and laugh about the memories that are important to your family. There are many different ways to get started, and depending on your budget, the amount of photos you have and the time you have to spend on the project, you will be able to find the perfect platform to get your family archive started.
First of all, it needs to be said that even if you do not have that many photos, creating a good archive will take a lot of time. Do not expect to get it done in just a few hours! Set aside one night a week for the family to get together for a couple of hours when you all can work on it together. Creating something like this is really an ongoing project; it is never finished because precious memories are created every day. There are many items that you will need to collect other than your photos before you get started, and you need to do a few things to prepare before you start sticking photos in an album.
Make sure that anything you use for your family archive is photo safe and acid free. This includes paper, glue, pens and ink, cut outs, stickers and anything else that is going in your book with the photos. This is because with regular materials, over time the acid is going to eat away and slowly dissolve the pictures, which would of course be devastating. Take the time to shop online or go to your local arts and crafts or scrapbooking store for acid free materials.
Next you should probably organize your photos in some way. This is going to save you a lot of time in the long run. You can organize them according to a time line for all family members in chronological order or you can organize them by family member. That is up to you and how you want to present your family archive. Most people organize their books following a time line, beginning with when mom and dad first met or got married, or even with grandparents. Once you have your photos organized it is time to be creative, and you can fashion your family archive any way you like.
