Genealogy-Gencrafts » Blog Archive » Family Memory Game – For all ages

November 19

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Playing your customized “Family Memory Game” is the perfect opportunity to get the elders in your family to tell stories from their past and or teach your children about their family.

You might consider producing extra pairs of cards so that you can customize the game any time you play it.
Use more photos small children would recognize if they are playing
Adding a few pairs of cards that start the elders telling stories when they participate.
Using less pairs at a time makes the game easier for children.
More pairs at a time makes the game more challenging for adults.

The absolute simplest way to make a memory game is to pick 10, 15 or 20 pictures and have 2 prints each printed at your favorite 1 hour commercial printer. You can even use current photos out of your phone, or use your phone’s camera to quickly take pictures from portraits on the wall or out of albums.

Scanning photos is best,

Getting it done before the family shows up is better : )

Photos face down on the table

Put them face down on the table.

Each person turns over 2 cards.

If the photo matches they keep the set.
If not they return the photo face down and the next person turns over 2 cards, until somebody remembers where 2 matching cards were and picks them up.
You keep taking turns until all the photos have been picked up.
The “Winner” is the person with the most pairs after all the photos have been picked up.
Telling stories about the events in the photos as you turn them over is the perfect way to introduce children to relatives and ancestors that they may have never met.

A Little More Time – A Nicer Game

If you want to “Kick It Up A Notch” and avoid the word KODAK on the back of your playing cards, (or whatever other watermark is on the back of their photo paper) you can either create your own art for the back of your cards or download this piece of free downloadable art.

Have an equal number of backs printed for the number of photos you choose to make for your game.

I chose to do my set of memory cards at wallet size which meant I had to trim the photos myself (because of where I had them printed) It is preferable to find a printer that prints the photos individually if you are in a hurry and want the cards to look perfect.

Cut out the matching number of backs to go with your photos.

I chose to glue my fronts to backs with rubber cement. It is repositionable until it dries if you put the two photographs together while it is still wet. If you let either side dry before you put them together the rubber cement behaves like contact cement and will not let you slide the two cards into alignment.

Align cards by holding the back art card face down between your thumb and fingers and placing the memory card face up over the back. Align them, press together and it should be an easy fit.

If you did not get your photos printed to size and have a little white showing from the back of the opposite card, trim with a sharp pair of scissors.

Using a corner cutter makes your cards look professional.

Cutting through 2 pieces of photo paper takes some extra strength, but is definitely worth the time and effort.

A simple rounded corner is adequate.

Rounded corners also show less ware and tear.

You can make this professional looking set of cards in just a few hours, including the time it takes to have the photos printed. If you print the cards at home on photo paper or card stock it will take even less time !!

I have designed some Photoshop templates to add boarders to photos that would be printed 2 up on 4×6 prints. Leave a comment if you are interested in seeing a more advanced version of this project.