Saturday, October 8, 2011

Baby Weekly Journal

Hello! How are you this fine Saturday? It's raining here...gasp...I know, big surprise for Southeast Alaska in October. *wink* But that's ok! I kind of like knowing it's that time of year to get cozy indoors. Plus it's a good excuse to scrapbook. *smile*

So onto the subject of baby books and documentation...

I bought a bright pink 12x12 We R Memory Keepers ring binder scrapbook album for Jeralyn months ago. So far it's filled with stuff like our hospital bracelets, some cards she received with gifts, and other such things. For a few weeks I've been thinking about how I want to document her first year. I decided to do a weekly documentation. From her first week I've kept a journal through my Hotmail account. Babies grow so much and change so much in the first year. I wanted to do more than just document monthly. Maybe when Baby Smith #2 comes along (in at least a couple of years--don't worry--I'm not thinking about that yet. Whew!) I will only have time to document monthly, but weekly is what will work best for our first. (On a side note, have you ever read The Birth Order book by Kevin Leman? There's some interesting stuff in there! He teases middle children about not having many photos in the family photo album. I think it's quite true!)

In the beginning of this week I started to play around with some ideas of what I would want the weekly pages to look like. Knowing myself, it has to be something I won't get bored with too quickly since it's going to be a year of journaling/documenting. I know that I need to leave room for creativity. One of my favorite scrapbookers is Kayleigh Wiles. I am drawn to her collage style and I never seem to grow tired of it, so that's what I'm aiming for.



So each week I'm planning on having the photo frame collages. And then I like to draw the color out of the photos using a bit of color from paper and elements. Some weeks I will use more circles, some weeks more squares. It will just depend. Like I said, I want to leave plenty of room for creativity and flexibility for myself. I'm picking my favorite pictures from the week. Some weeks there will be more pictures than others. Maybe for some weeks it will just be one picture. It will just depend.




I'm not really into the traditional baby books. I think they are fantastic, don't get me wrong, but right now, for me, I wanted something more, something different. I really hope Jeralyn will appreciate this some day. I know I would. I struggled with what I should do for her baby book because I didn't know how I should go about it. I really like what I have come up with--I just hope I stick to it. I think the format I am using will keep me motivated though, so that will be good!

For our regular scrapbook album, I will scrap the pictures that mean the most to me, just like I normally would. I struggled with that too. I wondered if I should print 2 pages, one for her book, and one for ours. But again, I think what I have come up with will take care of that.

I will update this project more in the future.

Have a blessed weekend!
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3 comments:

Jamie R. said...

And the beauty of digital photos is if we decide it's not what we were after we can just do it over and over ... until we get it "right" for us. I've scrappedbooked my kids birth photos a few times because I feel like I just can't do the moment justice.

I haven't finished their baby albums, but this year I'm doing Project Life. I have a file box with monthly folders where I stick my stuff as I go and then folders on the computer where I put my selected photos. It's a great system for me. Hopefully, this Winter I can put it all together.

Thanks for letting me be part of your life as a mama.

Gabi said...

I love how you document her first weeks and days of her life. The book will be beautiful!

Jessica said...

Ohh, I LOVE these!! It inspires me!! I just might have to copy cat! ;) Would you mind? I feel so uncreative or unable to come up with any original ideas. Look at you already back in the swing of things. I feel so far behind.