| A memory book is a great gift to help celebrate a | | | | each contributor have his or her own page, or you |
| birthday or other momentous occasion. Here are a | | | | can divide the book into sections that were |
| few tips and ideas to help get you started. | | | | contributed by friends, family, children, etc. |
| Gather Your Material: | | | | When you are designing your pages, it might be a |
| For your memory book, the first thing you are going | | | | good idea to include clip art of the GOH's favorite |
| to want to do is to enlist the help of as many friends | | | | hobbies, or items that are representative of what |
| and family of the guest of honor (GOH) as you can. | | | | the story on that particular page is. If, for instance, |
| Get an email list together and send a list of questions | | | | someone is telling a story about a fishing trip, you |
| out to all of them, or ask for great stories that | | | | can include clip art or images of fishing flies and rods, |
| involve the GOH. Some examples of questions might | | | | etc. |
| be: tell us about how you met the GOH, what is the | | | | When you are putting your memory book together, |
| funniest thing he or she ever said or did, how he or | | | | keep fun in mind. Your GOH is going to be totally |
| she helped you through a rough time, etc. The idea is | | | | surprised, so depending on his or her personality, you |
| to get as many different anecdotes as possible, and | | | | may not want to do anything too embarrassing or |
| if there is one great story, get some different | | | | tear-jerkingly poignant. Then again, you might. It all |
| perspectives on it. If the GOH has children, see of | | | | depends on the person. Just keep in mind that the |
| you can get them to do a drawing or write a poem. | | | | book you are creating is something that you want |
| The key here is to not be to rigid in what you | | | | the GOH to keep forever. |
| expect from your contributors. Those who have a | | | | Printing and Binding: |
| natural bent for writing should given free reign to | | | | When it comes to printing, you will probably want to |
| contribute whatever they would like to, whereas | | | | make the pages as high quality as possible, so use a |
| those who busy or are hard to pin down can just | | | | digital color printer if possible. There are lots of |
| give short answers to specific questions. | | | | options for binding the book. "You can take it to the |
| You should also ask for some great photographs | | | | print and copy shop, send it away to one of many |
| from the past and present. You may have to | | | | online services, or for less than one hundred dollars |
| encourage some people to scan photos that are not | | | | you can get a machine that will allow you to bind the |
| already in a digital format, or to send them to you | | | | book yourself. Thermal (hardcover) binding machines |
| via snail mail. | | | | are really easy to use, and allow you to make as |
| Putting it Together: | | | | many copies as you want at a moment's notice. |
| There are a few different ways you can go about | | | | They are great to have around for other projects |
| this. You can either put the stories and pictures in | | | | too, as well as repairing your old and worn out books. |
| chronological order of the GOH's life, or you can let | | | | |