I have lots of friends with kids, and of course they are all so adorable that I want to look at pictures of them every day. However, I do not want to have a million frames cluttering my shelves! I solved this problem some time ago with the purchase of a 9-opening collage frame. I don’t just grab random photos to put in the frame, though. I take it one step further.

The photos of each child are always close-up shots with beaming smiles, with them looking directly at the camera. I also print them all in black and white so that they will match each other. By doing this, I end up with a very clean look that focuses on the children.

I then put the pictures into the single collage frame and give it a place of honor on my mantle. With minimal shelf space, I now have an adorable tribute to my friends’ kids. The kids always love to look at the frame whenever they are over, because it has many of their friends featured and they love to identify them all. The parents love it too, because their little angels look so cute.

I update all the pictures every 6 months or so (boy, do they grow up fast!). Whenever I replace a set of pictures, I put the old ones into a scrapbook.

You can find collage frames just about anywhere, including Amazon and eBay. For the best effect, select a frame that has all the openings of equal size and in a grid pattern, like this one.