Gift Idea – 6 x 8″ Baby Album

Like many of you i’m sure, i LOVE getting handmade gifts for all occasions … but i think i love to give them even more … i get SO excited to see the reaction of the person receiving the gift !!

I am at the stage in my life where there aren’t many babies being born in my circle of friends … in fact some are even becoming grandparents … so when i have a friend that is welcoming their FIRST baby it gets me VERY excited !!!!!!

This Mama isn’t super crafty – she will tell you that herself 🙂 – so i knew that i was going to make something super special for their baby gift !!

… i used a Bella Blvd. collection from several years ago – it was a fave of mine so i have been saving pieces of it from both the boy and girl collection – and it was perfect for this baby boy mini album !!

I will let you in on a little secret … i am a bit of an album ‘collector’ – no i did not say hoarder 😉 … i said collector … albums of ALL sizes and materials … and i’d been saving this woodgrain Studio Calico 6 x 8″ album for a very long time !!

… and i also love ribbon (shocking i know 😉 ) so i dug into my equally large collection and chose this beautiful 1 1/2″ American Crafts green polka dot one and wrapped it around the front cover … stickers and cardstock and twine were the perfect finishing touches !!

  

I wanted to be sure that i was working with sizes for photos that would be easy for this new Mama to add into the album since she didn’t have all the tools to trim etc … so i used either full pages that she could adhere any size photo to, 4 x 6″ prints or 3 x 4″ … since these are easy to have printed at most photo developing shops !!

… the first page is one of my faves … LOVE the giraffe and the sticker is the perfect way to start this 1st year album …

The birth story is so personal for every mom, but i wanted to be sure to add a spot for her to add some memories at this point if she chose … if not, the title on these stickers can easily be covered with a 4 x 6″ photo !!

  

Throughout the album i added monthly milestone stickers and lots of animal cut outs …

  

… cardstock and journalling prompts combined with LOTS of pockets for photos …

  

… one of my most favourite things that i did for my family was to write down as much as i could about this special time … i’m not going to lie, there is MUCH more detail in Em’s first albums than Alex’s … while i promised myself it wouldn’t be that way, there simply never seemed to be enough time to document it all … so my advice – ALLLLWAYS to new moms, is to write down EVERYTHING … i wish that i had kept a pen and paper all over the house during the first couple of years so that i didn’t miss a thing … thankfully i have a husband with an excellent memory 😉

    

I wanted to be sure to give this new family a great space to document on this baby boys first birthday as well as a special space for a letter from Mom … while it won’t fit ALL the photos that they take over this first year, my hope is that it will be a special space to collect some of their favourite moments and memories …

Oh, and i was sure to include a journal pen in the gift too !!

j. XO