Your Baby’s First Year: Documenting Your Child’s Growth with a Scrapbook

Things can get really exciting when you’re a first time mom, especially during the first year of your baby’s life. Every day and everything your child does will feel like an adventure, whether it’s the first time he smiles at you, calls you mom, and takes his tiny first steps. Of course, it’s only natural for you to want to document all these special milestones in your child’s life. One creative and easy way to make a keepsake from this short but truly fun phase is through a customized baby scrapbook.

Start by gathering the right supplies

For many sleep-deprived new parents, it isn’t unusual to feel overwhelmed the first time you walk into a crafts store. Thankfully, you don’t need to buy all these items just to start your own baby scrapbooking project. A few pieces of colored paper, scissors, glues, and some cute photographs are all you need to get started. And when you’re ready to take it to the next level, you can start adding more materials such as yarns, ribbons, paper punchers with interesting designs, stickers, calendars, and cards.

You can print out photos taken from your phone or, if you want professionally taken photos for your scrapbook, you can hire a photographer that specializes in baby photography in Melbourne or other locations for better quality photos.

Give it a more personal touch

Some common milestones parents who are into scrapbooking usually have are first steps and first haircuts. While these are both fun and definitely something you’d love to look back to after a few years, it’s still important to add a touch of personality and uniqueness into your baby’s scrapbook. Other than your baby’s firsts, you can also add photos of him making funny dances and facial expressions, as well as some interesting phrases they uttered out of the blue.

Choose a suitable theme and design

Give your scrapbook a cohesive look with a solid, well-chosen theme. You can make an original one or look for any available template online or a commercial scrapbook you can readily purchase. Some fun theme ideas may include animals, pets or zoos, space, princes and princesses, pastel colors, circus, cartoon characters, or even movies.

Choose which ones should really go into your baby scrapbook

Even if you’re only planning your child’s first year, you can still find yourself keeping more keepsakes than you expected. When you add way too many details on your scrapbook, it can start to look messy and cluttered. So, choose only the most important items that should be included in your book. Of course, raising a baby is not always fun and games. Part of being a mom is encountering some challenges, so if your baby has overcome any of these, take note of all the progress they’ve made. It will definitely be an inspiring thing to look back to as you flip through the pages.

Finally, once you’ve started to take on a scrapbook project, remember that consistency is key. Be sure to set aside enough time to work on your pages, so you can truly look back to all these moments with fondness.