While helping my friend plan a 50th birthday party for his wife and thinking about theme and possible party decorations I thought it might be fun to have a few photos of her through the years displayed around the house. Then I remembered that like many moms she doesn't actually appear in a lot of photos. (Funny how our photos center on our kids!) So that set me off on a mission. I knew there must be photos of her and I decided to collect them from every age of her life. I contacted her mom and sister, kids, husband and friends. I perused baby books and college scrapbooks. I found PLENTY of photos. So many that as a way of displaying them all I had to create a collage - well really three collages. Three giant, 24 by 36 inch posters, one for her childhood, one for college and single life, and one for the "married with children" years. Created in Photoshop and printed on high quality photo paper, they truly told her life story in pictures.

The posters provided some laughs and tears at the party as she saw photos she hadn't seen in years, and some she had never seen. Old friends found themselves embedded somewhere in the collage, bad '80s hair and all. Best of all for me was that I was able to give this dear friend something she would never have done for herself, and something that will last.

This may be my new favorite gift - for birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, any occasion. Maybe a fun decoration for a dorm room wall?

You can get these printed at your local Staples or Kinkos in a variety of sizes to fit in standard size poster frames, including 12 by 18 and 18 by 24. If you are a Photoshop user you will not find these hard to create - but take care with photo resolution to ensure the highest quality finished product.

Not a Photoshop person? Let us know and we can create one for you!

~Kristi