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Basic Baby Album
by Andrea Steed
(Oct 27, 2004)
For so many of us, it’s hard to find time to sit down and scrapbook. Add a new baby to the picture and it’s even tougher. However, those first few months of a baby’s life are the ones you’ll want most to remember. Creating a scrapbook of his first year is very important and is an album that will be cherished forever. Here’s a simple formula that will help you create a Baby’s First Year album without completely overwhelming your already busy life: Keep a Calendar. There are hundreds of baby-themed calendars that are created specifically for recording your child’s new discoveries and development over the first year of his life.
Each calendar page can go directly into your scrapbook as the introduction for each month of the year. Calendar pages serve as a quick overview of the events of the month and allow you to include valuable information in the scrapbook without creating 30 pages for each month. Choose Favorite and Significant Photos. Babies are probably the most photographed subjects in the world. It’s easy to take tons and tons of baby pictures, but scrapbooking those all can be very overwhelming. Give yourself permission to NOT scrapbook each and every picture you take. That doesn’t mean you should stop taking them (keep snapping away); just don’t feel like every single one has to go into his scrapbook.
*Be sure to safely store the rest of the photographs you take each month. You may want to go back and scrapbook those some day down the road when you have more time (maybe after he graduates?). Photo storage boxes are convenient or photo sleeve albums are a good way to store them and still enjoy looking at them. Scrap by the Month. You may have already guessed that this album is categorized by the months of the year. Begin with the month he was born and end with his first birthday party. Consider adding decorative tab dividers to the album for each month of the year. Not only does this help you flip directly to a certain part of the year (for instance if you’d like to reminisce about his first Christmas), but it also adds continuity to the album and pulls all the months together into one comprehensive book. Journal as you Go. This is perhaps the most important part of creating your baby’s first year scrapbook—journaling. It does take a few moments to do, but it’s such a valuable part of recording a baby’s first year. When you’ve chosen the photos for the additional pages for each month, take a few minutes to write your journaling on an index card. Even if you don’t scrapbook the photos right away, you’ll have the Before you begin journaling, decide what “voice” you will write with. You may want to write directly to your child in a letter-style of writing such as “Every night you’d fall asleep holding your favorite stuffed toy.” Another option is to use a third-person voice such as “Bobby had a special toy he loved to fall asleep with each night.” You can also use a combination of both. There are so many emotions and feelings that you go through while your baby is growing. Writing about them as they happen (or soon after) will help you capture those feelings forever. Not only will you enjoy going back and reading them, but your child will appreciate having the insight into your soul and knowing what your thoughts and feelings were when they were little. Stay Organized. The process for this album is simple, and can be an enjoyable way for you to reflect on your baby’s development. However, if you’re like most mothers, it might not always be possible to complete all of the pages for each month before the next month begins. That’s okay, and this system allows you to take as much time as you need to actually finish the pages. The important part is to keep up with the calendar and index-card journaling for the photos you choose to include. Actually scrapbooking the pages can be done at any time. Use the album itself to help you stay organized and keep all of your materials together. As you choose photos, finish the calendar, and write the journaling for each month, add them to your album by sliding them into the corresponding page protector. Even if you aren’t quite ready to sit down and scrapbook them, when you are ready to create the pages, you’ll have all of the materials you need. A Baby’s First Year Album is a great way to take the stress out of creating an elaborate and detailed baby scrapbook. It allows you to remember the important moments and milestones in your child’s first year, without completely overwhelming you. All too often when we become overwhelmed, we give up. The first year when a child develops and changes so much is something that we’d certainly regret not having recorded. This system is a step in the right direction of making a baby’s first year album very do-able.  Shop at the Scrapbook.com Superstore for all your Scrapbooking Supplies!Enjoy 5-Star service, HUGE selection and LOW prices! Click here to start shopping! Featured Scrapbooking Supplies (from Scrapbook.com):
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Keep a calendar and each night write down what happened that day. You’ll want to include things like when he first came home from the hospital, when he first tried solid food, when you first left him with a babysitter, friends and family members he met during his first few months, etc. These are things your child will love to read about when he gets older. 
Instead, choose your favorite photographs or photographs that depict significant moments or events and include those in the scrapbook. Choose three or four groups of photographs taken during each month to show your baby’s growth and development throughout that month. 
By separating it into months, it’s much more manageable than trying to scrapbook individual days or even weeks. A calendar page can introduce each month and you can add 4-5 additional pages to each section giving you about six pages per month. By the end of the year, you’ll have created an entire first year album about your baby. 
journaling completed while the moments are still fresh in your memory. 
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