Handmade Memory Albums
A beautiful home for life's treasured memories
How It All Began
Every Album Has a Story to Tell
My journey with memory albums began in 2009, two years after my husband, Dave, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
I wanted to find a way to help him remember the people and experiences that had been such an important part of his life. I gathered about 60 photographs of our family, friends, and the adventures we’d shared and created his first memory album.
Dave treasured that album. He looked through it every day, and it became an important part of his life as his memory and ability to communicate gradually declined.
When Dave was in rehabilitation recovering from a broken hip, he proudly showed his album to the nurses, sharing his memories page by page. That moment has always stayed with me.
That first album inspired me to begin making memory albums for others.
What Makes My Memory Albums Special?
Each of my memory albums is individually handmade using specialty papers from countries around the world, including Poland, Italy, Hungary, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
I love creating interesting pages with flaps, pockets, magnetic closures, and sections that unfold to reveal more photographs. Opening an album can feel like a treasure hunt of memories, with something new to discover as you turn each page.
In a world where thousands of photographs are stored on our phones and computers, I think there’s something special about having a collection of memories you can actually hold in your hands.
My albums are designed to be displayed on a coffee table, shared with family and friends, and eventually passed down to the next generation.
Inside a Handcrafted Memory Album
I create the albums, but it’s your photographs and stories that bring them to life.
Explore My Memory Albums
Every album is individually handmade, with its own colours, themes, and special details.
Here are a few examples of the albums I've created.
Browse the photographs below using the arrows,
or
Explore more of my handcrafted albums, including my newest creations, in the Memory Albums Gallery.
Who Are Memory Albums For?
There are so many ways to use a memory album.
Grandparents can fill one with photographs and stories from their lives to pass along to their grandchildren. Parents can create albums for their children, whether they’re young or grown, and families can bring together photographs that have been sitting in boxes for years.
For families living with dementia, an album filled with familiar faces and places can be especially meaningful. I saw that firsthand with Dave and the album I made for him.
But you don’t need a special occasion to give someone an album filled with memories. Albums can celebrate favourite travels, beloved pets, friendships, hobbies, or the everyday adventures and experiences that make life special. There are so many stories worth remembering.
What I love about these albums is that they’re more than a gift. They’re a way to preserve family memories and create something that can be treasured and passed down through generations.
Bringing Your Memories to Life
These two albums hold photographs and memories of family and beloved pets.
They offer a glimpse of how your treasured photographs and stories can become part of a handcrafted memory album.
My Children’s Album
Beloved Pets
Handcrafted Recipe Albums
Since Dave was our chief cook and baker, I also create handcrafted recipe albums to preserve treasured family recipes and the stories behind them.
Like my memory albums, these are individually handmade, with interactive pages, pockets, and special details. They're designed to hold your favourite recipes, family photographs, and memories to share with future generations.
Memory Album Workshops
I enjoy sharing my passion for memory albums through workshops at local libraries and community groups.
My favourite workshops are the ones where participants bring their own photographs, and I help them arrange and add them to their albums.
We experiment with different ways of displaying photographs, making use of the pockets, flaps, and unfolding pages. There’s no right or wrong way to put an album together, and it’s always interesting to see how differently everyone’s albums turn out.
I’ve also taught workshops on making albums from scratch, although I prefer helping people bring their existing albums to life with their own memories.
Interested in learning more?
If you’d like to know more about my memory albums, see what I’ve been creating, or find out about upcoming workshops or arranging one for your group, I’d be happy to hear from you.
Stories Through Photographs and Words
My memory albums tell stories through photographs.
Goodbye Gentle Giant tells ours through words.
Discover the story behind Goodbye Gentle Giant