Scrapbooking Baby

When it comes to that delightful news that you are pregnant, about the first real view you get of your gorgeous new baby, are the ultrasound pictures.  They are usually very special and very important to you so it makes perfect sense to start your scrapbooking baby album off with the ultrasound pictures.  Not forgetting that some parents like to also include things like a photo of the pregnancy test which first confirmed the happy news, so this may in fact be the first layout in your album, but the ultrasound pictures are definitely a must have in your scrapbooking baby album.

Now it depends on your doctor as to how many scans you have throughout the duration of your pregnancy, but most commonly it around the 12 and 20 week mark.  Your first scan you are full of anticipation and fear, you want to know your baby is okay, and the 20 week scan is an exciting time to see how much your baby has grown and if you want to know the gender of your baby, this can often be looked at on this scan.  Whether you decide to use both the 12 and 20 week ultrasounds in your scrapbooking baby album is up to you, some parents only put the 20 week pictures in as they show so much more of the baby.

If you don’t know the gender of the baby, then choose mutual colors that would fit with both a baby boy or a baby girl, you may even add some quotes questioning whether the baby is a boy or girl.  On the other hand if you do know the gender, feel free to do a very blue or very pink layout to reflect what you know.  Most ultrasound pictures are black and white, (unless you are lucky enough to have a new 4D scan pictures) so you can easily pick any color to suit the images.  Quite often many members of your family and even your friends will want to look at these pictures before your baby is born, so having them safely mounted in your scrapbooking baby album can really help to preserve them when many hands and fingers will be touching them.

Another idea is to add some notes from your pregnancy journal to the layout.  If you only have one or two pictures and there is a lot of room left over on the page, you can combine the ultrasound pictures with some of your baby journal notes to help fill the page and it adds a story to the pictures, has it been an easy pregnancy so far, any complications, fears, dreams, hopes.  It can all be added quite nicely and it can really make an ultrasound page complete especially when you don’t have many pictures.

Whichever way you choose to create your baby’s ultrasound pictures layout, I am sure it will turn out beautifully, just make sure you put them into your scrapbooking baby album as they really are such an important part that you don’t want to leave out.  They are the things you look back on and treasure, and so will your baby in the years to come.

Many thanks to Wes and Eli for the ultrasound layout image above.

LO: Baby Mini Book on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Hi everyone, time to tackle another one of those common questions I get asked all the time, which is….what should I put on the cover of my Baby Scrapbook?  Well there is no right or wrong answer, like everything that goes into your scrapbooking, you have the choice to do it however you like, there are no set rules.

Some people like to create their own albums and design it all, the actual size of the album, the way it displays, (opens out in folds or turns like normal pages), some people like to pre-make the pages so it’s just a just of adding the photos, they design the cover, the possibilities are endless really.

However, if you are like me and really don’t have too much time to make things from scratch, it may be a lot easier and far more practical to just buy your album and save your creativity for your layouts inside the album.  I have made a few from scratch, but now days I just really don’t have the time.

When it comes to baby scrapbook albums, there are some beautiful albums readily available to compliment both baby girls and baby boys.  You can choose one that is more traditional and plain, or go for some of the newer and more interactive album that’s allow you to capture an impression of your baby’s hand or foot print.

I think these albums are really quite special, as there is something special about picking up that precious baby scrapbook years later and seeing that plaster imprint of your baby’s hand or foot.  It really gives you that sense of size, how tiny they were, photos are wonderful, but things like ink foot prints or plaster foot prints really remind and show you just how sweet and tiny they were.

But again there are just so many to choose from, so don’t go feeling overwhelmed, you can choose to go for a simple plain covered album, it is however only the album, the magic is inside, or you can choose to go with a specific baby themed album so that the album stands out and is never mistaken as one of your other scrapbooking albums, that is the joy of scrapbooking, the choice is yours.

Happy scrappin and talk to you soon.

A few people have been asking me for some ideas for either scrapbooking baby layout ideas or for ideas on specific photos to take of their baby’s to capture specific memories. For me these ideas flow freely but I am also aware that sometimes we all get some form of mental block and end up at a loss for what to do. So I thought I would put this post together to give you all an idea that you may not have thought of.

One of my favorite layouts for newborn babies would have to be their hands and feet. They are just so tiny and sweet, so little, so perfect! But here you go, a big tip is don’t just click away taking photos of hands and feet, you need to plan the photo a little bit. For example, have you ever taken a photo something that was amazing large or small and later looked at the photo and found that the photo really didn’t do it any justice? Perhaps a really big butterfly and later in the photo it just looks like any other normal sized butterfly. Well that is what I mean, it takes a little bit of planning.

So when you take a photo of your baby’s hands or feet, make sure you also capture another object in the photo that gives a true impression of the size of your bay’s dainty sweet little feet or hands. You can use anything at all, you might choose to use your own hand or foot as a comparison or even a ruler to show the exact size. I do have a personal favorite when taking these kinds of photos and that is to use your wedding ring. Or if you do not have a wedding ring, any other ring you commonly wear.

I think it makes such a sweet photo, your wedding ring or rings hanging on baby’s big toe or around their thumb, it gives a true picture of how tiny their little feet or hands are, and it symbolizes your love by using your wedding ring. And then when you actually use this photo in your scrapbooking baby album, keep the layout clean and simple, don’t use too many photos, in fact I like to only use the one photo on the page and make that photo the center of attention. You could do a double page layout and have the feet on one side and the hands on the other side. Trust me on this one, it makes for the most adorable layout.

Give it a try and keep watching out for more ideas and tips in the coming weeks, happy scrapping.

Thanks to Amy from Flickr for the wonderful photo, simply stunning.