CLICK HERE TO ENTER MY MYPUBLISHER GIVEAWAY!
10 prizes! Hurry ends Tuesday 7/12/11!
Hi Folks! Wanted to share some exciting news with all of you!
Photo Book Girl is soon to be Photo Book Mom!
I suppose after sharing two years of wedding, honeymoon and vacation photo book posts, it’s time to explore another topic and I know we have lots of readers who are moms and dads! I’ll be looking forward to sharing some of my baby photo album ideas and hearing about yours as well.
Not surprisingly, I’ve been eagerly planning my first baby-related scrapbooks. I’ve been keeping a pregnancy journal and gathering my baby “stuff” that will make it into a photo book soon! I’ve heard that after baby is born, time will be at a premium, so I hope I can get some books done now!
Here’s my initial list of baby-related photo books:
1) Pregnancy photo book – a place for all those baby bump photos, ultrasound images and excerpts from my pregnancy journal. A more personal book that I probably will keep as a personal diary of sorts…
2) Baby Shower photo book – I’ve already made a couple baby shower books including a few books as thank you gifts to my hosts. We were lucky that our wedding photographer happened to have the date of our shower available – it was the only Saturday he had open for months! Yes, it was a bit indulgent to have a professional take photos at our shower, but I’m so glad we did it. We went on a mini-photo shoot before the guests arrived with me and daddy-to-be showing off my baby bump (similar to an engagement photo shoot)! 🙂 I’ll share some shots of that book in an upcoming post…
3) “Dear Baby” scrapbook – I have seen some beautiful examples of books that expectant parents are making their babies as keepsakes for when they grow up. Topics include, “how we found out we were expecting”, “how we told our families”, “your first visitors”, etc. etc. The narrative is written directly to the baby. How nice would that be to have a cherished keepsake from your parents? (I suggest making two copies cause you know you’re definitely going to want to keep one for yourself!)
There’s so many more ideas I have – like a personalized ABC book, board books etc. etc. – I’ll talk about them in posts to come!
I look forward to sharing my baby photo album making with you and hearing about any ideas you would like to share.
What are your best photo/photo book tips for a mommy-to-be?
______________
Photo Credit: Second Print Productions
Congrats!!! I do a different book for each calendar month. I also take a picture of my son with the same stuffed animal and a sign on each month birthday. Really amazing seeing him grow from month to month. I am hoping to make a really special 1 year book for his birthday
Congrats! How fun for you! I want to do a life book for my kids. I had one the traditional photo albums ad baby stat books, but they no longer look right to me, redoing them in an all in one photo book will be great! A tip for you: save things like the baby bracetes from the hospital and scan them in to include in your photobook. You may still want to keep them as well, but it’s a mice touch for the book, too. Best wishes!
Congratulations!!! How exciting!!! Can’t wait to see those pics of photobook baby!! Especially since my first grandbaby was born two 1/2 weeks ago–I’m working on the first photobook now.
Blessings for a healthy baby, mom, and smooth delivery!!
Thank you and congrats on your first grandchild! 🙂
I made an ABC book for my Stinkpot! I love the idea of a Dear Baby book.
Congrats on your pending little one!! I have four kids, all boys! The last time I hand scrapbooked was when i was about 1 month from having my 3rd… sigh. But thank goodness for digital. With my fourth (he’s 10 months old now). I have been doing a digital book of him for every 3 months. The memories are fresh, pictures SO adorable :)… and I do it while I’m nursing him (one handed! lol) and at night when he’s happy but not sleeping but the rest of the world is… keeps me sane 🙂 Then I figure I can eventually make one big first year book, and I can pull from the best of the little books. Works for me so far and at least I have the pics off my computer and someplace I can enjoy! The other kinds of books I actually prefer written in by hand… so I have a baby book (I love the C.R. Gibson 3 ringed baby books, you can add to them, etc) and I write in Dr’s appt notes, firsts, etc. Why by hand? because when my Nana died a few years ago, I found her handwriting to be very comforting, a part of HER, and I can still hear her voice in my head when I read something from her own hand, so, I try to make sure I hand write stuff too… its a part of me that way. 🙂 Good luck on this journey… before you know it, you will be in such deep love with your tiny little one… a love no one can explain, true, unconditional, I will die for you LOVE. Enjoy! 🙂
I hope I become adept at the one-hand thing! Given that you have 4 boys, I’m very impressed at how you can still get a book together every 3 months! 🙂 I was thinking of scanning some handwritten things as well – I’m such a packrat now, I can’t imagine how much I’ll want to save of our baby’s things. I agree with you on the handwriting thing – it’s going to become a lost art! I heard briefly on the news that a school somewhere in Indiana was going to phase out teaching cursive writing. That’s so odd to think about. Maybe I’ll take my handwriting into the 21st century – I was planning to get my handwriting made into a font – I’ve seen it on another blog and it’s not that expensive – I think I may have to give it a go! 🙂 Thanks for your well wishes! 🙂
Congratulations!
Congratulations!! I have three kids and try to keep up a separate scrapbook for each kid every year.
Congrats on the new “soon to be” addition.
My advice for picture books for a little one… use a memory stick assigned for specific events. I always had two cameras going and when it was time to make a book I had to find differnt memory sticks to complete it.
Congratulations to you!!! I know I’ve made WAY more photobooks than ever before since becoming a mom…endless possibilities!
Congratulations
For our daughter (now 4) we did a photo a day for her 1st year and put it all together in a photo album. I wish I had went down the route of making a photobook with them though as the 6X4 album lacks some of the personal touches that we have been able to put into recent photobooks.
Enjoy
Congratulations!!! Such an exciting time! You’re really good at documenting, so you’ll be great at keeping up with it. I am still scrapping/documenting about when my kids were babies(they are now 6 & 8yo). I think photobooks are the best & quickest ways!
tweet: http://twitter.com/#!/wizardhlee/status/90794110226673665
Congrats! (Also love your nail polish in the picture!) I’d love to see some tips on baby books. Maybe I could pass along to my cousin, who just had her second child. And keep in mind some of the tips for myself one day. Gotta get through the wedding book first!
Huge congratulations to you, PBG! I’ve got six kids (!!–three boys, a girl, and then nine years later, blindsided by twin boys). I started out as a scrapbooker, reluctantly (I’ve told you this before but you don’t remember). What I really wanted was something like a National Geographic photoessay. I’m happy to say I’m making baby books for my twin boys, and after that it’s photobooks all the way! I’ve made several already.
I’d definitely recommend scanning some of your handwriting, or even writing a personal note on the inside front cover.
Take a picture every week of the first year, in the same location and with the same props. That would make an awesome book, pairing each picture with a very short note about that week (you really do learn or experience something new every single week, and you won’t believe how much they change).
Do a book of favorite things. Favorite blanket, lovey, preferred people, favorite foods, all the things your baby shows a preference for, your favorite outfits your baby wears. That way you might be able to relinquish some of the physical items…right?
The biggest thing is to recognize that you can’t do every good idea you hear, and that’s okay! You need time to just be a mom. Because it rocks. It really does.
Wow – 6 kids! Thanks so much for the great tips! 🙂
Congrats! I have a toddler and just welcomed a new addition in late July! I am really struggling with so many ideas and of course – time! I wanted to create a baby book for each in photoshop elements since I have more fonts and options to use, but then where to print? I like the idea of spiral bound from Viovio but they only offer in 11×14 and it is softcover. I like the idea of lay flat from Adorama but they are pricier and it seems you are stuck with a pre determined number of pages. I made some books with Shutterfly and love the colors, Mixbook is cheap and their online software has many options, the colors don’t pop like shutterfly but it is a decent product and inexpensive. I have about 50 pages of journaling for my toddler’s book so I found some great journaling fonts online free (email me if you want them) I also thought of doing my own fonts but after reading about kerneling etc I just gave up – I don’t need an extra project! I am very interested in what format will you use to print your baby book and what size and which software or publisher! I go back and forth so much but I am leaning towards creating my book in 12×12 so I can have options from different places! GOod luck!
Thanks Andrea! Our babies are very close in age aren’t they? It’s funny – I was mulling over who to go with myself and I also decided I would just make my own pages in Photoshop so that I could have the flexibility to print them anywhere as well. Flexibility is key since it will likely be an ongoing project and I haven’t decided who to print with yet – so I may let the deals dictate the photo book company. I figure I can always do a second printing with another company if a deal pops up and I will likely want a copy for myself and a copy to give my little guy when he grows up (he’s growing up too fast b/t/w!) I actually have my own font which I intend to use. I will write a post on where I got mine done in case you want to check out the service I used. I’m really happy with the way my font came out. I’m either going to do a square format (maybe 10×10) or a portrait oriented book. I think I’m kind of bored with 8.5 x 11 landscape, plus using full bleed with two page spreads tends to leave out too much of a single photo when doing landscape. You’ll all be the first to see what I end up doing – haven’t decided 100% yet! I’m probably going to do my pregnancy book first 🙂