Scrapbooking Baby

I have found a couple of interesting blogs that I thought you mind also find interesting.  There are quite a few little tips and ideas, so jump over and have a look if you want.

• Scrapbooking Themes or Ideas - Your baby scrapbooks theme. Another ideas of theme you can consider if you already or just having a baby. Especially for the first baby of your first son or daughter. It would be exciting if you could see baby’s grow phase day after day …

• Looking at Baby Scrapbooks - My daughters were looking at their baby scrapbooks. Author: BetnyBekah Keywords: kids scrapbooks Eden Addy Lin baby pictures Added: August 14, 2008.

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A couple of my friends asked me about some of the photos I have of my daughter in my scrapbooking baby album. They commented on how nice they are and how professional they look, but the funny thing is that they aren’t. So I thought I’d share a few tips with you that I have learnt along the way.

Well for starters you can’t go too far wrong when you are photographing a baby, they would have to be the cutest subject in the world wouldn’t they? I mean there are cute puppies and cute kittens, but then there are some not so cute puppies and kittens too, but come on, all babies are cute, and they are simply gorgeous!

So we know the subject is going to be as cute as a button but sometimes there are other little tricks and tip that can really make a photo stunning. And with digital photography nowadays, you can see your results immediately, no waiting to get that film developed and no fear of wasting film on mediocre shots. So that leaves us free to click away madly and edit the bloopers later.

So let’s get down to business and learn a few little tips for getting the best result out of our photo efforts for your scrapbooking baby album. This was a tip given to me by a friend of mine who said to me,

“Some of the best photos you will ever take will not be taken in direct light.”

Now I didn’t know what he meant first of all, until he explained to me. Now I will try to explain it to you and pass on this little piece of wisdom because it is just such a small thing, but it made a huge difference to my photos.

Ok, so when it comes to photographing kids and babies (well anyone actually), nothing beats natural light, not bright sunshine, not the flash, but just nice natural light. Sometimes out on a patio where you have lots of nice natural light is where you will capture some really nice shots, either that or if you are inside, pick a position near a big window or glass doors where lots of light fills that area of the room. So do you get the idea of what natural light is? The easiest way I can explain it is kind of like saying, when there is lots of light that comes from the sun, hence why it is called natural light, but when you cannot actually see the sun. It is not always possible to take photos this way, but it is something worth keeping in mind.

Now if you are taking photos outside, try if you can to avoid taking photos right on midday, this kind of light is very harsh and will not produce your best work. However if you are taking photos out in bright sunshine, take a moment to think about shadows, yes those things the sun causes. You will be amazed at the kind of shadows the sun can cause one your subjects face and those shadows don’t come from trees or buildings but from eyebrows and hair. So if you are taking a photo in the direct sun, the best thing you can do to try and get rid of the shadows on your subjects face, is turn the flash on. Sound strange? Well it’s true, have a go and try it, you will be surprised.

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What exactly do I mean? Well you’ll have to read on to find out.

This actually goes for all forms of scrapbooking, but it’s something that I quite often see in regards to scrapbook baby albums. There is just so much that we often want to cram into our albums, so many photos, and all of those beautiful embellishments they sell at the local scrapbooking store, and then there are little bits of memorabilia to squeeze in too, gee so many things, so little space!! Help where am I going to fit it all??

Well slow down and think it through, like I said at the beginning, more is not always better. Have you ever seen a piece of art, whether it be a scrapbook album layout, a painting, a picture, a mural, that just looks too busy? By that I mean, when you look at it, there seems to be too much going on in it, you are looking from top to bottom, left to right, and you still feel like you are missing part of it. Well it is an easy thing to do by mistake and sometimes it really distracts from what you are trying to achieve.

Most people presume that the best scrapbook baby layouts are those that have lots of the little trinkets and lots of photos and journaling, but sometimes it is in fact the total opposite. Don’t get me wrong the little embellishments do make a page look lovely, and you will use them, but some layouts look better when they are kept very simple and plain. That often depends on the photo itself, but especially if you are taking a photo of your babies tiny little hands or feet, or their perfect little face as they sleep, then these layouts often look fantastic if you keep the background of the layout very simple and plain, it can really make the photo itself stand out and take centre stage.

Especially if you are only using one photo in your layout, it is easy to find yourself feeling like you need to fill the page up with some form of decoration, as you may think it looks a little bare or empty. Not every layout in your scrapbooking baby album needs to be dressed up with embellishments and trinkets, try picking a photo or two that has a simple background in the photo and try to keep it simple. I find this works particularly well on black and white photos of you baby or toddler, it can look very classy. I did exactly this with some of my daughter’s photos, and a lot of people love that layout, including me.

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With a new baby, there are so many ideas, ideas, so many ideas……but lots of people still get stuck on what to do. Personally when it comes to scrapbooking baby, I tend to find there are just too many ideas and sometimes that can be just as bad as having no ideas at all. One of the best and easiest album ideas I can suggest for anyone who wants to scrapbook baby, is to do a Baby’s Firsts Album. Sound simple? Well that is because it is!!

When it comes to babies, there are hundreds of ‘firsts’ to consider, everything is a first for a baby. Now you can just compile a scrapbook baby album that has no set theme, which is often how I choose to do it, but some people really like everything to have a theme to it, so why not do a ‘firsts’ album? Gee the ideas are just rushing into my head at the moment, but the easiest way would be to start at the very beginning and work forward. So what would babies very first thing be???? Now that’s up to you, you could choose to start at baby’s birth, thus being baby’s first appearance, or is it? Perhaps the ultrasound would in fact be baby’s true first appearance? See it is up to you, some people prefer to start as far back as their wedding, there are no rules and if anyone tries to tell you there is, don’t listen to them!

It’s your album and therefore you get to have full creative control over it, you decide what goes in and what doesn’t, either way it will be a magnificent scrapbooking baby album that has been constructed with love and tenderness.

Some examples of ‘firsts’ if you are stuck are:

Your first glimpse of baby, the ultrasound photo

Baby’s first physical appearance, the birth

Baby’s first bath at the hospital and at home (2 different events)

Your first really good look over baby, their little fingers and toes

Baby’s first night at the hospital and at home (again 2 different events)

Grandma and Grandad’s first cuddle of baby

Baby’s first trip in the car

The list just goes on and on, everything is a first, and you can choose which firsts you want to record in your scrapbooking baby album.

One of the best things is that there is an unlimited amount of resources you will find, in the form of patterned paper, stickers, and embellishments; oh the list is just enormous. You can find these things in most scrapbooking stores and they will compliment any of your beautiful page layouts, if you choose to use them. Again, there are no rules, so you don’t have to use these commercial embellishments, you can stick purely to using card stock or papers to decorate your pages, and you can use the computer to do the journaling for your pages if you are not totally happy with your handwriting, or if you just want a different style of writing for your pages. Don’t feel as though you have to go out and buy all the little nic nak items to decorate your pages, some of the most beautiful pages are just really quite simple.

When you make a scrapbook baby album, you want people to see the photos and to read your journaling that’s what scrapbooking is all about, it tells a story, but without needing a story teller. Each page, each layout you complete, it should tell a story, without you having to say a word, the page will say it all, and some people seem to forget this, instead they try to make each page as pretty as they can, and unfortunately sometimes all of the prettiness actually ends up distracting you from the story and what the page or layout is really about.

Remember, your pages don’t need to be full to the brim and bursting at the seams, so to speak, sometimes more is not better.

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There are lots of us out there who have just always loved scrapbooking, but there are also those who had never discovered scrapbooking until their precious new baby came along and then all of a sudden, scrapbooking baby became an instant passion to them. Scrapbooking baby is one of the most rewarding and enjoyable aspects of photo scrapbooking, watching a new little life grow, develop, learn and explore, the pleasure you can get from capturing just a little glimpse of this magic in the form of a scrapbook album.

You’ll never run out of photos or ideas for scrapbooking baby and that won’t change even when they become a toddler. All the physical changes as baby grows will have you constantly adding something new to your scrapbooking baby album. There will be lots of firsts, first smiles, baby’s first crawl, baby’s first roll over, the first baby tooth, those magical first steps and many other exciting and memorable milestones. Quite often, many of those beautiful special events are captured in the form of a photo, but if they aren’t recorded in a scrapbook and unless someone has taken the time to note something on the back of the photo, we often end up losing, in a way, part of the picture.

Scrapbooking baby is a very special thing to do, it can be a lot of fun and very interesting and in the future it will end up being a very special unique one off album that you can always hold onto and cherish, or you could even give it to your child someday for them to cherish when they are older. The kind of things you will add to your scrapbooking baby album are things such as hospital bracelets, birth announcements, a lock of hair, little handprints and footprints and other important things that are all part of your beautiful baby boy or baby girl.

Scrapbooking has always been a method for preserving personal and family history in the form of photographs, printed media and memorabilia contained in decorated albums, or scrapbooks. Historically, scrapbooking was a tradition of storytelling, but with a visual and tactile focus, rather than an oral focus. Nowadays the embellishments and page layouts may have changed and evolved and now have a much more modern feel to them, but the reasons behind why we do scrapbooking, are still the same. We do it to preserve our most precious memories and to capture and document those significant events and memories that we hold dear, and that we may indeed want to share with our children and grand children in the future. What better way to show them how life was, how your life was, and the enjoyment you yourself will get from looking back through your scrapbooks in years to come will truly surprise you. Things that will fade in your memory will become almost like it were yesterday, in years to come, as you browse the pages of one of your many completed beautiful albums of memories.

So if you have never scrapbooked anything in your life, don’t fear, it is a wonderful hobby which will bring you much enjoyment, and it is so very easy to get started. One of the best books to get you started is Scrapbook Pages Starring Your Baby, it has over 150 pages with loads of different layouts including pages on sleeping, playing, first steps and lots more. It will help you with your journaling and teach you exciting ways to embellish and decorate your beautiful unique layouts, a must have when you are scrapbooking baby

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