Preserving Your Child’s Memories With a Photo Collage

“They grow up so fast,” every parent bemoans. Scrapbooking is one of the most effective and enjoyable ways to keep childhood memories intact and fun to share. Whether you have one child or several, you’ll want to capture many of those precious moments forever in an album or photo collage.

A child's scrapbook is among the most prized possessions a parent can create, so if you choose a paper scrapbook, you may want to put it in a fireproof safe for safekeeping. Easier yet is to create a digital photo collage.

Today it’s easier than ever for anyone to become a collage maker. All it takes is a camera and computer. You can create wonderful scrapbook pages on your computer and print them out to add to your traditional homemade scrapbook so you have a mixture of homemade and digital pages. With the advent of the Internet and computers, this is only natural; even traditional scrapbookers have begun to combine the ancient art of scrapbooking with some digital downloads integrated into their layouts and albums.

With collage maker programs, you can try out different types of backgrounds, designs, formats and embellishments before you commit to one style. Anything you do to your page can be redone many times over until you choose the perfect photo collage to help preserve your child’s memories.

Below are tips that will help you chronicle and preserve those moments so you and your family can view them over and over again. Many parents create a separate album and photo collage for each phase of their child's life.

The baby book. Your child’s baby book may feature items such as baby pictures, locks of your baby's hair, cards you received before and after the birth, and various journal entries made by the proud parent, including entries during your pregnancy. You can also include when he began to walk and talk, and memories of his first birthday. To help protect this priceless heirloom, consider using a collage maker to create a photo collage and then integrating these digital or scanned photos of your baby into your book.

The toddler book. Since most children are quite photogenic and active during this stage, you will probably accumulate many photos to fill this album. Increase the vitality, organization and interest in these pictures by creating a photo collage. Make journal entries that help the pictures tell a story in such a way that anyone reading it can easily imagine being there.

The young student book. As your child gets older, be sure to photograph important moments such as graduations, birthday parties and any other important occasions. You can also save and scan drawings your child creates at this time and add them to a photo collage. Many digital photo collage templates feature themes such as birthdays, school days and holidays.

Consider teaching your child to be a collage maker too. A photo collage can be a bonding family project and provide a positive learning experience for your child, teaching them the principles of creativity, inspiration and patience. Encourage your child to choose photos and suggest ideas. A young collage maker will add personality to the photo collage and help make it more special to both of you.

The student book. Create a photo collage chronicling your child’s junior high and high school years. Include pictures taken at school functions and family events, providing appropriate captions for each.

The photo collage for your grown child. Naturally, a photo collage is ideal to help remember your child’s momentous occasions such as her first job, college graduation and wedding. If your children have taken part in the photo collage process, creating a photo collage might even become a family tradition that they will take with them throughout their lives.

It is likely these albums will be viewed many times and can make treasured gifts for your children and your parents. Choosing a digital photo collage allows you to duplicate each album as it is created so you can easily print and share copies. After all, your child isn't the only one who will wish to look back on these special times. Your child’s grandparents and godparents, and even your future grandchildren, may wish to own copies of the photo collage collection you create now.