Displaying Your Fond Family Memories
Preserve family memories, special invitations, photographs, newspaper clippings and important announcements in a decorative way.
Family Memory Board
This is an elegant alternative to a bulletin board or magnets on the refrigerator. Begin with a 2 by 3-ft. bulletin board, stapler, thumbtacks and 8-l0 yards of 1-in. wide grosgrain ribbon, and a yard of pretty fabric (It can match something in the room. Belgian linen or moire are nice. Don't use stripes or plaids.)
Center the bulletin board face down on the wrong side of the fabric. Trim the fabric so you have 2-3 inches extra on all sides. Wrap it tautly and staple to the back of the board. Working from the center outward, cut and arrange strips of ribbon in a symmetrical, crisscrossing pattern of a grid or diamonds with 2-3-in. spaces between. Cut the ribbons so you have enough extra at each end to wrap around and staple to the back of the bulletin. When you have something to remember, jot it on a pretty piece of paper and tuck it into a ribbon "holder" along with invitations, snapshots, theater tickets, etc.
Personal Travelogue
It's fun to arrange photos of a recent trip that might normally go into a scrapbook, in a collage on the top of an occasional round table covered with fabric. A piece of glass cut to size holds everything in place and you can change the whole thing next year.
Wedding Collage
Combine mementos with photographs. For a romantic, old-fashioned theme, arrange wedding snapshots with bits of lace and ribbon and pressed flowers overlapping the edges here and there.
A Very Good Year
For an anniversary or birthday gift combine personal photographs from a specific year with cutout magazine images or sayings, a political promotion, an announcement of an event from the paper, a school pendant, any period piece from that year. Arrange them on a piece of heavy paper and frame.
Copyright Leslie Linsley, author
Reprinted with permission, HouseNet, Inc.