Ideas for Putting Together a Book of Letters

I make scrapbooks for people and one of the popular themes is remembering/highlighting/celebrating a person's life. It is a very thoughtful gift and the recipients love being able to look at the book whenever they start to miss their loved one. If you are going to make one yourself, definitely check out your local craft stores for albums, paper, stickers, embellishments, etc. If you need help putting it together, PM me and I'll help in any way I can!

You can scan the actual letters/written pieces and add them to a photo book as images/pictures.
That way they would retain the original personality of the writers, which I think would be very important.
You can always add additional pictures and graphics to each letter/page as well.
What an incredibly awesome idea! She is going to LOVE it!
Good luck!

I think i saw something similar in concept on pinterest. It was for a 60th biday and the daughter had contacted 60 some people or something so that the dad had 60 lettters to open.
I sort of like the idea of each person physically writing a note with paper and pen and then just binding them with a hole punch or something,
Maybe i just need to get digital, lol.

Whether you go with Emailed stories or snail mail of even maybe a video. I'm sure your friend will treasure it and find it healing.

If you ended up doing Shutterfly and the text was too much maybe you could either go out and take photos or find some graphics on line that match the story.
so if uncle dan writes about your friends hubby's first car, you could take a photo of a camero or what ever, even if your friends hubby isn't in the photo. or super impose the letter on a photo/graphic of a car. hope taht nakes sense.

Anyhow, awesome idea and I hope it turns out wonderful.

I think your gift is wonderful!

Stop in a scrapbook store (Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and Joann's if you don't have an actual store). Ask someone to walk you through the scrapbooks that are available. Decide if it is something you can do.

If not, there are several scrappers out there that would be willing to do this for you for a small fee. You could easily find someone, set-up a budget, and time frame.

Depending on the amount of letters and pictures you get, I would use an 8X8 or a letter sized (8.5 X 11) album. A 12X12 may be too big.

I wouldn't do it digitally. I would do it by copying the print outs from email on some nicer paper, and printing the pictures at the store. Even a simple matte (cutting a solid colored paper just bigger than the letter or picture) looks very nice. Maybe you could include the person's contact information under a flap on each page?

Good luck. It is such a thoughtful gift.

I used BookSmart to do a memory book for my friend's girls after she passed. We did both pictures and stories, it was really easy and affordable. I'm not creative, but it was a pretty easy process. It'll lead you through how to download the program and upload photos and add text.

http://www.blurb.com/make/booksmart

Check out voicequilt.com
People can call in and tell their story.
The result is much more personal when you hear the person and emotion of the story.
You could add this with your photo book.
dfwmommy.com always has offers for free or reduced photobooks.

Have you looked into blurb.com? We have made a couple of books using this online program. You could have them send the letters via email, and you can put it in the book. They can add pictures that they have of him or him with them, and scatter them throughout the book. There are other book making programs out there that are similar: mixbook.com is one. What a wonderful, loving gift this will be for her!

Ready made scrapbooks. They're designed to simply add the "photos" of your choice to pages that are already designed and/or require just a little embellishment that is provided with the scrapbook. You could place the letters in it rather than photos. What a great and thoughtful idea.