anyone any ideas for an old life story book?

[jetcat32]

to cut a long story short, myself and all my brothers and sister grew up in care from birth or thereabouts. One of my brothers, 1 year younger than me, was never placed with me but we managed to have sporadic contact as kids (usually depended on which social worker we had at the time lol!)

Anyway, we lost touch when we left care and he joined the army. I was given his life story album which he had worked on for months as a young child, and it is now very old and tatty.

(sorry, this isnt turning out to be very short!!) Anyway, thanks to the miracle of a social network site, we are now back in touch THis is after 20 years!! So, before we actually meet, i would love to transfer his work into a new, tidy and very presentable manner - but as i am not that crafty, have no idea on how to do it! Money is tight, as i am aware that there are professionals who would do this, so that isnt really an option.

Any ideas?

personally if it was me, i would like the book just how i had made it (what about wrapping it in tissue paper and presenting it in a fancy box) after all he spent a lot of time and effort on it.

He'll be chuffed you have kept it all this time. I'm sure he'll love it for it's tattiness iyswim.

What a lovely story.

If you do want to do it up - what is it like? An exercise - type book or is it in a binder?

i will keep the old album cover,just to show him that i have it - it is a ring type photo album, but really - the cover has come apart from the rest of it, and loads of pages are yellowed, ripped, bent etc, though thanks to it being a photo album, the stuff underneath the film seems ok! I just want it to look special, and cared for - which it has been but time takes its toll lol! It was in a bit of a state when i got it to be honest (look at me deflecting the blame

There are a collection of photos, drawings of his various homes/foster parents (they are so cute lol) and typed a4 pages.

www.albumsandkeepsakes.com/a-photo-albums.shtml

memorykeepsakes.co.uk/

I'm sure there are more of this sort of thing out there.

I'd scan the current one, keeping the original intact (the tattiness would be part of it's appeal for me). Then you can cut, paste, crop etc. in Word or whatever you use, and create a new book.

That's how social services generally create life story books nowadays.

You could bring it up to date too, with recent photos and stories, if you've got time.

ooh, i like the sound of that shortshafe!! And PBaR, thanks for the links - they look lovely!!

many thanks, and good luck with your crafting!