Well, not literally. But an important part of preserving these pictures is making sure you don't do anything irreversible to them. Conservators say that with anything irreplaceable or valuable, you should never make a permanent change. It affects the value and the stability and long term use of the item. If your grandchildren want copies, non-permanent mounting makes it possible. So don't pull out your photo squares or your tape runner to stick down these pictures. Instead, here are some ideas for you.

Photo Corners: These are a staple for any heritage album. They come in different forms and sizes. Some have an adhesive on the back for you to "moisten" Some come in a variety of colors. There are black, gold, silver, copper and white. If you want to match a certain color scheme, you can use white ones and color them with anything. My personal favorites are clear corners. They come in a variety of sizes and don't interfere with your picture or your decoration. You can even have the illusion of a sticker touching your picture by laying the sticker onto the clear corner; the same can be done with punch art. Creative Memories and Light Impressions both sell the very large size, around 2" as do other companies. These are particularly good if you have very old photos mounted on heavy cardboard.

Rubber Stamps: A variety of corner designs come in rubber stamps. You can, with a positioner, line up the corners on a mat where your picture will be. Then cut slits in the mat so that the photo's corners are under the stamped corners. Or you can cut a hole in the center of the mat which the picture shows through, leaving the stamped corners there to give the illusion that they are holding the photo. Attached the mat around it's edges to the page with the photo underneath it.

Slot Punches: Once of the most popular and latest ways to attach your picture is to use a slot punch. You must use a mat for your photo to use a slot punch. Cut the mat 1/2" longer and 1/2" wider than your picture. Then, punch the slot punch in the corner as you would any other corner punch. The photo's corners slide into the slots, and you attach the mat to the page. You can also double and triple mount the photo - maybe even using the slot punch on each layer of matting.

Initially, this option seems to be the most expensive. But realistically, if you use this for even half of your photos, you will probably save money vs. photo corners.

Folded: You can also fold your own photo corners. All you need to do is roughly follow the idea shown in the illustration. This is also shown really nicely, with decorations in the Design Originals book Punchin'. These can match any design you want in color, etc., but they are time consuming and somewhat tedious. I have heard of plans to make a template for these, but I don't know anything definite yet. For a very special picture, though, these might be worth it.

Envelopes and Sleeves - There are a variety of safe plastic sleeves that can store a variety of memorabilia. I used a small safe envelope to hold a very battered newspaper clipping in my most recent heritage volume. You could use it to hold old money, hair or fragile pressed flowers.