Tag Archives: Scrapbooking

Baby Books

Yesterday, I finished up a baby book for a dear friend and her sweet baby girl and I want to share some of my favorite pages:

The Womb Mate page is a staple in every baby book I create. It’s for the ultrasound pic.

This page is for pics and details about the baby from 0 – 3 months.

This page is for documenting 4 – 6 months.

The milestones page is one of the most important pages because you get to talk about when the baby does what and when the baby does it. From the first word to taking the first steps, the baby will be able to know EXACTLY when she did certain things.

I always include a Family Tree Page. Baby has to know that she has roots!

All of my baby books are customized. Not only do they incorporate the baby’s name, nickname(s), birth year and initials, but I also try to use favorite colors. If you’re interested in ordering a baby book please e-mail me: http://donnienicole.com/contact/. It takes about 4 weeks, but can be rushed for an additional fee. Although personalized I leave enough room for you to add lots of memorabilia and photos to truly make the baby book your own.

Poppas

I had the opportunity to talk to my granny about her father, who she calls “Poppa.” I didn’t know anything about him as he passed away long before I was born. Please talk to the elders in your family about your family history! Ask lots of questions and document it. You may not be into scrapbooking, but even if you include the information in a journal or a typed document called “Family History” you will be able to pass along your legacy to your children.

Most families keep a family tree, but very few pass along stories. I’m going to continue to share information on how to document your history, but you can start with my free “How to Scrapbook” Guide. Simply subscribe to the blog on the home page by entering your e-mail and I will e-mail you the guide.

Businesses come and go. Archivers is more than just a business. It is my “happy place.” The one place in my little world that is completely dedicated to memory keeping. If it were a grocery store or even a shoe store, I could easily find a replacement. This loss is personal.

I received an e-mail approximately one month ago that Archivers had filed for bankruptcy and although we were reassured that business was booming, the e-mail that I received this morning proved otherwise.

Archiver’s is the place that I can find periwinkle pink 12 x 12 paper. It always has my favorite adhesive (Scrapbook Adhesives Tape Runner) and it always has the latest designer line. More than anything the workroom is the place where I celebrated my 29^th birthday, the place where my scrapbook buddies and I relive our old memories and create new ones.

Caption: Designer Amy Tangerine’s “Yes Please” Line

I feel a heaviness on my heart that my Archivers – Orland Park is closing and can only hope that the other Illinois stores remain open no matter how far I have to travel…

Every two weeks I try to go to a “crop” which is a scrapbooking party where everyone brings their own materials and is given a workspace at a table.  Most crops have raffles and some even include food. I’m a marathon cropper (I need at least 6 hours and my ideal crop is 12 hours). I used to organize my “projects” into project boxes but in 2013 started making my own “page kits.” When I make page kits I’m able to get more done and really work with the photos and memorabilia of my choice. I also save money because I know that I have all (or most) of the materials I need to complete one page. Here is my step-by-step guide for creating a single kit:

1. Pull out the photos you’d like to use.
2. Match the photos to colored cardstock and to patterned paper.
3. Choose the alphabet stickers or cut out the words for the title. My favorite brand of alphabet stickers is American Crafts Thickers, but they can be a little expensive, so you can buy an off brand or invest in a die cutting system. I have a Silhouette Cameo.
4. Match your embellishments – for me this always includes a journaling card (or labels for captioning photos), stickers, ribbon, “bling,” and/or flowers.
5. Put all materials together into a project folder and move on to the next kit.

I was able to put together 6 kits in about 3 hours.  I try to take at least 10 kits to a crop that way I can have a choice on what I want to work on and I’ll never run out of things to do. The kits I create are for between 1 to 4 page layouts.

Sample Kits

Here I started with some memorabilia (a movie ticket & flyer to Comic Con) and two photos.

Next, I selected the paper which is Comic Book themed and “pulls out” the bright colors in the movie ticket and the Comic Con flyer.

Finally I’ve added the title “Super hero” and the embellishments.

Here is an example of another kit.

My mom came to Chicago to visit recently and we took a ton of photos. I know that this will be a multiple page layout.

My mom visited in the Fall, so I have these earth tones (oranges and browns) mixed in with a feminine pink to capture the feminine energy of the good time that we had. I’ve also got so many earth tone/fall themed layouts that I really wanted this one to stand out. I picked the patterned paper first and then matched the cardstock which will most likely be used to mat the picture. Here is the paper that I selected:

Finally, I’ve decided to add a yellow title to this layout. I’m going with a Thickers font:

Finally, here is one more example. For this layout, I’m celebrating my step son’s winning Football Season. I’m excited about this layout, because I will be incorporating two 8 x 8 photos. I usually use 4 x 6 or smaller photos on my layouts.

The colors weren’t difficult for this layout, because I’m just going to use the team colors – red and white.

My title and embellishments for this layout will be white alphas I cut out with my Silhouette Cameo. Once the letters are cut out, I put each individual word inside of a ziplock bag with a little word label.

Each individual kit goes into it’s own Project Folder:

And all Project Folders go into my little travel Scrapbook Rolling Tote to the crop:

If you’d like to learn more about Scrapbooking, feel free to download my free e-book How to Scrapbook http://donnienicole.com/for-sale/. Once you get to the page you simply click the underlined blue title of the book and it will automatically download to your computer! Happy Scrapbooking!