oh baby!

Alberta has had a big baby boom. big baby boom.

that has kept me busy!

if you've been following my creative blog for awhile, you may remember me mentioning my big turn in scrapbooking after the birth of Aidan, my first born. the name "Baby, Oh Baby" may ring a bell. that was the name of the magazine that inspired me to start putting time, effort.....and money! into my own scrapbooks.

someone mentioned to me that they had a calendar and wrote down everything for the first year of their childs' life. she had one child...if someone is wondering how she was able to continue this!

after a few months with Aidan, i had already started to forget some of the stuff he had done. thankfully photos with dates attached (thank you digital cameras) helped with major stuff. if i had a photo.

one of the projects in this magazine was a first year baby calendar. so i put one together for Aidan.

my goal was to do one for every child i reared. so i knew i had to do one for Kiara. her's is mostly finished.

i'll take photos of them and share. i had photos of the ones i've worked on recently. thought i'd share them.


this one i did a year ago. {can't believe little Isaia is already ONE}

you can see that the left side of the calendar book has been coiled.

i make them 81/2 x 11 inches. i decorate the cover. i add pockets to the inside pages to hold photos or other memorabilia. i have a great (old, but good) program that prints the calendars for me.

after the pages are completed, i take them to Staples and get them professionally coil bound.

here you can see i added a spot for a photo. there are also some details of the birth day.

you can also see part of the printed calendar.

the back two pages had the pockets. {Serena, you might like to know that the vintage looking measureing tape along the top....came in a package that had a couple of these. i used another one on the very first scrapbook page for Aidan....sigh....it just looked so good with the papers i used}

this first album had almost all of the patterned papers and the adorable "baby" tag from My Mind's Eye. they had my favourite line of papers last spring.

moving on to this year's baby boom!

all of the supplies were from the "Animal Crackers" line by Making Memories. it was actually tempting to buy a bunch of the paper (although i probably could still find some of these!) and make 2 all coordinated mini baby albums for the kids. it was the thought of the time and work involved that stopped me!

this one went to my niece, Violet. i just used her initial for the front cover. when her big brother, Malachi, was born i remembered just using his initial on the front cover. an attempt at some continuity.

this was the cover for Alina. you can see a lower-case "a" at the bottom. i stamped her name on the inside.

and another girl! i think it is obvious who this one was for!

all three albums had strong similarities on the pocket pages. the first page contained pockets as well as the last page.
part of the "animal crackers" line included these tear-out journalling tags. they were so cute! and so perfect for a baby calendar album. the moms can add more information to these little tags. maybe adhere a photo on one or even both sides.

i loved all the little accents with the kit. and had to use them all!!! LOL



another new line came out in the store this summer. it's by Autumn Leaves. they have the cutest little felt embellies to coordinate.

this is just the front page. i stepped my design up a notch here. i was inspired by the felt embellies. i used the little train on the patterned paper to make my own larger model with cardstock. can you figure out the name of this little guy? leo. my fave is the "L" i made with felt and buttons and embroidery thread. and the star on the engine? acrylic. made red with my alcohol ink!

as i've done more and more of these -- we are now sitting at ten calendars, i think -- i've gotten smarter and smarter. i now print the calendar directly onto the coloured cardstock. funny. it's one of those things where you say to yourself, "why didn't i think of that in the first place?"

i may try to use my hole punch and use either binder rings or zip-ties for the binding on this recent album. soften it with some ribbon. i'll share what it looks like.

so that is how i've been spending my time lately.