Some of the most meaningful gifts you can give for holidays, birthdays, or thank-you gifts may be sitting in boxes, on shelves, or hidden away in closets. They’re your family photos, videos, and more from years past.
Read on and learn how to permanently store your photos, organize them, and give them as Christmas gifts that will last or a gift at any time of year … and for any reason. It’s a creative way to safeguard your memories as you can see in this photo of my colleague Michelle Collinge and a family portrait that she turned into wall art.
Michelle Collinge is a colleague who finds creative ways to use photos in decorating and as gifts
Why photos make great gifts
What do gifts mean?
They can show you care and that you understand that the one receiving your gift has important qualities that you appreciate. In our immensely fast-paced world, choosing the right gifts show that you’ve taken time to consider what’s important to the person receiving your gift.
The best gifts show you understand the needs of the gift receiver. Gift-giving can build relationships, even with the ups and downs that invariably come with being in the same family or working alongside a colleague.
Giving photos in creatively packaged ways shows that relationships are meaningful. If digging into your family line is important, then family research can be given as a gift as well.
So how do you make it happen?
Get organized and upload to one safe and secure place, FOREVER®, a complete memory-keeping system.
Let’s begin with the Library.
Using the digital platform FOREVER®
FOREVER® makes it easy to digitize all of your older media files—from photos to videos, slide shows and more. You can also upload and store files from any of your electronic devices like your phone or laptop.
The FOREVER® platform builds on how you already use and access webpages online so it’s a user-friendly and user-familiar site. There are six headings:
- Library
- Albums
- Tags
- Projects
- Friends and Family
- Profile
A peek at how the headings are arranged in the FOREVER platform
Here’s how you use them.
Just like your local library stores books and magazines, your FOREVER® Library is the place where all of your media files are uploaded and stored, permanently. It’s the holding place and it’s guaranteed to last for a lifetime, plus the next century and beyond.
From the Library, you can create Albums that reflect themes. I’ve created an album called Travel which is organized into sub-albums, or nested albums, and shows the various places my family and I have taken vacations or combined vacations with business trips.
Tags are one-word or brief phrases you create to track your media files. You can tag a photo with someone’s name or title like Mom, Dad, Johnny, or activities like vacations, sports, or the year a photo was taken like 1995.
Projects This is where you can create gifts and it’s the part I’ll get into more, down below.
Friends and Family are those you select to share your photos with.
Profile is on the farthest right of the menu and is where you can upload a photo to personalize your space and provides key information about your account.
Turn your photos and more into gifts
The Projects tab is where you can turn your files into gifts that are lasting and meaningful. Photo books are a favorite of mine.
Photo books come in three sizes: 8×8, 10×10, 12×12. And you can choose style that opens seamlessly and is flat.
The photo books are great gifts to rekindle relationships and they’re useful for our seniors to use and relieve their memories.
The value of digital storage grew even more real for me a few years ago when my dad showed signs of confusion and couldn’t help me or my mother organize their photos.
Photo books boosted my Dad’s spirits during COVID shutdowns.
I gave him an iPad to view the photos and films that we had digitized and uploaded to their FOREVER Permanent Storage account.
The stored memories took on more importance when he needed help and moved to a Skilled Nursing Home the first day of COVID lockdown.
We sent photos to the staff who decorated his walls with them because we weren’t able to visit my dad. But he stayed connected with me and the grandkids through FOREVER®’s printed photo books that are easy to create.
Gift giving tips and ideas
In addition to photo books, other ideas for creating gifts include items you’ll see and use every day like wall décor, notebooks, and coaster sets.
Click here to see the full range of gifts you can design and print using FOREVER®.
Ask me
Questions?
Me and mom today
Contact me and ask me any questions you might have about FOREVER® or the best methods to organize and store your family photos.
Why not try FOREVER® yourself with 2 GB of free storage?
Write your family story and meet new friends!
I’m passionate that you preserve your family’s story for generations to come.
Visit the Events page on my website and attend one of my free virtual events where you’ll learn more about FOREVER®, tips on using photos to chronicle your family’s story, and you’ll enjoy meeting new friends.
Make this coming holiday season special by giving gifts that are meaningful and designed to last—gifts of your photos, personalized for those you love.
Interested in a terrific business?
Photo coaches are needed to help families handle the overwhelming nature of their photos, videos and more–from years past and the ones they’ve just taken.
I’ll gladly share with you my experience as a photo coach that’s spanned almost 30 years and show you how to leverage FOREVER® as a robust home-based business and a part-time or full-time income.
