As photographers, we sometimes fall into the trap of forgetting to take snapshots and family photos during these occasions. However the best photos that we can take are the ones that bring back memories when we look at them years later and the ones that mean something to us.

Capturing Holiday Memories

It’s the little things

Small faces covered with chocolate, sticky fingers, messy clothes, smiles & laughter. In my family we bake cookies every year for the holidays, the tradition of holiday baking gives us so many opportunities to capture photos of our families in their element, relaxed and enjoying themselves. Focus on the details and worry about cleaning up the mess later!

Relax

The holidays are full of so many things worth remembering. A few years from now you wont care what type of camera you used to document all of the smiles and fun, or how much staging you put into each photo. Relax and be patient, give your subjects a little space and capture the moments as they happen naturally.

More than Memories

Don’t leave your holiday photos trapped on your computer. Why not take your traditional family recipes and photos of holiday baking and turn them into a photo recipe book? Create a family heirloom that you can pass on to your children when they have families of their own.

Do you have any favourite memories of holiday baking as a child? Do you have any favourite memories of holiday baking with your own children?

AdoramaPix Contributor: Rebecca Sims is a British transplant living in the bustling city of Chicago with her husband and son after the three years that they spent living together in Germany.
Her blog, Bumbles & Light, is a place where she shares her love of photography, writing, cooking, and creativity.

So here we go, week one , we’re doing a craft with the kids for the holidays. So you’ve given the grandparents every picture you can find of your kids and you’re stumped for the holidays. Why not turn their pieces of art work.. into well, art work? ha. I’ll explain.

About one month ago, when Adoramapix ran their special on 8×8 -14 page photo books , I decided to scan all of my daughter’s art work and put them into this photo book.  I enjoy looking back through the school year to see her drawings, pastels, paintings and more. It got me thinking,  since they are already scanned, why not order some square prints of them and turn them into coasters for the grandparents.

So here you’ll see the photo book I made. I then ordered some images as 4×4 size. I chose four of my favorite images for the coasters, but for this demonstration, I’ll just show you the one. I then went to Home Depot and picked up a small pack of tumbled tiles. Now the 4×4 images were just a little too big for the tile, so instead of cutting them down, I decided to rip the edges to give it more of a rough look to it to match the rough tile.

For this art project, we also had to buy Mod Podge and a foam brush.

The beauty of this project is that my 11-year-old was able to do this mostly by herself  with very little help from me. So next we glued the image down to the tile. Then we put several coats of  Mod Podge on top. It’s important to let each coat dry thoroughly before applying the next one.

Now although it looks great once it’s dried. It’s still not complete. Remember, someone is going to put a drink on this so there will be moisture. So we finished this up with a final spray of matt sealer. This step should be done by an adult.. look at all those warning signs!  I did this part, outside on top of parchment paper. Apply several coats again and make sure each coat is dry before applying the next. Now it is sealed.

We made three more coasters of my daughter’s art work and we are now ready for the holidays with a truly unique, home-made gift with the help of Adoramapix. Thank you Adoramapix!

Materials:

(4) 4×4 tiles

(4) 4×4 prints from ADORAMAPIX

(1) foam brush

(1) bottle of Mod Podge

(1) can of finishing spray/sealer