Several weeks ago, my very-supportive and visionary friend asked me if I (and my Little Shop) would take on a special order, that she wanted me to create a Baby Book for someone special. I told her I'd look into it and began poking around...
The Baby Books of my own children are still unfinished (my youngest son is 26), but gave me some "don't do that" ideas. I read blogs for the takes from different mothers about wants and wishes with their current Baby Books. I looked in brick and mortar shops to see what was offered. I looked at websites to see what was popular.
I have to admit. I don't do well with comparisons. I always find something I prefer in someone else's work. But, in the Search for Baby Books, I began to gather my own ideas and liked the way I was heading. So I continued down that road...
The biggest challenge was how I was going to bind the book so I talked to a couple of local printers, seeing just what was available, thinking I would create the Book from scratch. But one day, I stumbled upon a Book in a favorite shop: a small, 3-ring binder Baby Book. A perfect solution for the way I was thinking...the pages could be added or changed as desired, so that I didn't have to make chronological decisions for this new Mommy and her wishes for how to keep track of these memories.
I remembered that Target has the cutest little notebooks, small 3-ring binders. Really, Target has the cutest of a lot of things! They were the perfect size, about 6x9", just right for some thoughts and a photo or two.
Instead of many wordy pages, I made journaling prompts...
...on pretty shapes of cardstock. Things that could spark a way to capture a memory (your room, your first haircut, your arrival, etc) and could be easily adhered to a page, then I edged them in gold ink, just because. I also made some fill-in-the-blanks pages...
...for keeping track of weight and such...
I made pages from pretty sheets of cardstock and from watercolor papers. I made some pages from illustrations I'd cut from really old cards and Little Golden books...
...thinking a photo could be displayed on them.
I made some special occasion pages, too, like a First Birthday page...
...a page for Shower Memories...
...and, maybe my favorite, an "I'm Here" page, complete with a bag of confetti...
I used the computer for some things, but mostly I hand-lettered everything using a gold Sharpie.
I put the journal-prompts, along with some pretty tags, glassine envelopes and sheets of sticky-dots for adhering, in a big vellum envelope, used pretty paper brads & bakers twine for closure and attached the whole envelope to the inside back cover. This way, everything this New Mommy will need to work on her book will be on-hand...
The Book cover was of the perfect colors-pink, peach, gold and minty-green, so I just tied a pretty ribbon around the cover...
This Book became the perfect combination of gathered-thoughts plus my own way of doing things. Oh, and a pretty binder from Target.
Use my thoughts to spark your own creativity, or, I could help you with that... This one is already sold, but I'd love to create one for your Special Occasion (think: babies, weddings, engagements!). Message me, we'll talk. Here.
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