Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Baby Layouts Galore!

Hi!  Welcome to our final day of Baby Week!  Whether you are mother, a mom-to-be, a grandmother, or a friend of someone with a baby, I hope you have been inspired by some of the baby-themed projects and ideas you have seen here this week.  To conclude our Baby Week we will be featuring my favorite baby-related scrapbooking project: baby layouts!  Before I had children, I swore I'd never be one of those people who only scrapped photo after photo of her kids.  Then...I had kids!  I bet you can guess who the subjects of the vast majority of my layout are now!!  I just can't resist sweet little baby faces, and neither can a lot of the scrappers here at write.click.scrapbook!  Here are some great baby layouts from myself and other members of the W.C.S team!

 

Baby's First Days

There is nothing more precious than a newborn baby. If you are like me, you are busy snapping away with the camera, knowing that this stage of life flies by way too quickly!! Team member Celeste Smith created this beautiful digital layout of baby's first photo. I love all the lovely light pastels to showcase this beautiful newborn!

 

I created this layout with photos of my daughter's first hour and included her name. We were so sure she was going to be a boy, that after she was born, I kept repeating, "You're a girl?!" 

 

I absolutely love this two-page layout by team member Lisa Kisch.  She scrapped both her daughter's birthdays on the same layout, even though they are two years apart.  What a wonderful idea!

 

Lisa also created this sweet newborn boy layout. The pacifier in the bottom photo may have originally been a tiny distraction, but instead Lisa incorporated it's teal color into the color scheme of the layout.

 

I made sure to take a photo of my husband and my son exactly 24 hours after he was born. I included the clock to show the time. I showcased the photo in this mist-filled layout!

 

Milestones, Memories, and Firsts

It seems like every day a newborn baby has changed or is doing something new! Keeping track with a baby book, a blog, or some other system is an excellent idea so that when you go back to scrap the photos later you will have all the dates handy.  On Wednesday Keshet shared some ideas about taking monthly photos of your child. Think about how you could incorporate those kinds of photos into a single layout.  

In my layout, I included a photo from each of the first nine weeks of my daughter's life.  They don't all match, but I tied it all together by using both black and white and color photos and also using colorful patterned paper that would include the variety of colors in the photos.

 

First events are also perfect to scrapbook! My next two layouts document my daughter's first bath and first smile!

 

Finally, be sure to document those moments that you maybe wanted to forget at the time!  Life is not perfect, so don't be afraid to embrace it!! I have layouts of temper tantrums, injuriles, and ones just like this one of Celeste's, which includes four photos of messy dinnertime, something all parents have had to endure!

 

Motherhood

Looking through my baby layouts, I realized that many of them were not about the babies, but actually about me and my thoughts on Motherhood and the incredible sense of love and awe I am constantly feeling for my children.  Here are four of my layouts featuring my innermost thoughts on motherhood!

 

Lisa Kisch created this layout about why she is a "baby person." The journaling is so incredibly sweet!

 

W.C.S team member Lisa Ottosson's daughter is far from a baby, but that doesn't stop Lisa from fondly remembering those baby times. She created two layouts that look back to the past when her daughter was much younger.

 

Baby Boys

To conclude our baby week we simply have some cute baby layouts that will hopefully inspire you!  First, we have Amy Sorenson's layout, which is such a perfect boy layout! I love the little blue banner!

 

Finally, I have three more layouts of my son to share!

Baby Girls

Our digital extraordinaire Celeste has three more perfect girl layouts to share, as well. I especially love the non-traditional "girl" colors she often uses!

 

I also created a girl layout with some non-traditional girl colors. Blues and greens are not just for boys!!

 

The embroidery on this next layout by Lisa Kisch is divine!  It adds so much to this already beautiful baby girl layout!

 

My final girl layout is super simple! Not surprisingly, I found myself scrappping with a much simpler style once my life was suddenly taken up with feedings and diaper changes and, of course, snuggles!  

 

Thanks again for stopping by Baby Week at write.click.scrapbook!  We would love to see some of your favorite layouts that you have created about your favorite babies!  Have a wonderful Friday and a great weekend!

and the giveaways go to . . .

The proud new owner of We R Memory Keepers' Baby Mine line is

and the bunting goes to

Ladies, please send us your mailing addresses so that we might get you your packages!

Stay tuned for the final day in our Baby Week!

give.away.day. featuring WE R MEMORY KEEPERS

This week we are thrilled to have

sponsoring our

We wanted something special for our baby week, and fell deep in love with We R's baby line, Baby Mine, when we first saw it as CHA.

and we adored what Aly did with in for their booth.

We couldn't be happier that one of you will get to have some of this yummy baby line with which to play and create!

One lucky reader will receive a sample of We R Memory Keepers Baby Mine Collection. Throughout the Baby Mine collection, bold blues and pinks are paired with stylized baby icons making it a sweet collection. Whether creating a birth announcement or compiling babies first year of memories, the Baby Mine collection incorporates prompts for each important milestone. It’s also a great gift for the new mom-to-be. The due date for the Baby Mine collection winner is midnight tonight!

If you would like to be considered for today's giveaway, please leave us a comment telling us a favorite baby memory. For one of your children, or for you. If you would like a second chance to take this home, visit We R Memory Keepers' facebook page and become a fan or post a comment, and then come back here and leave a second comment letting us know that you did.

And just for fun, stop by their pinterest page and see what inspires them! They also have tutorials and all sorts of ideas for pages, cards, home decor, and more! We love peeking behind the curtain!

 

but wait, there's more...

Tina Cockburn, an original write. click. scrapbook. founder, has turned her talents to sewing. She has an etsy shop, Tina Magee Sews, which features vintage sheeting and buntings, felt garlands, coffee cozies, and her creme de la creme, quilts. Oh, she is amazing.

This week, Tina is offering one lucky reader a chance to take home a vintage baby bunting from her shop!!

Again, all you need to do is leave a comment telling us a favorite baby memory. Then take a moment and scrapbook it! Comments will remain open throughout this evening. Two lucky numbers will be selected at random and posted tomorrow morning. Please remember it is your responsibility to check back and claim your lucky number before midnight  Saturday! This week you must have a US mailing address to play along. Thank you!

Mama-razzi

Hello, everyone! It's Keshet Starr here to continue Baby Week with some tips on photographing that little munchkin and using the photos on some fun projects!

My baby is less than three months old, and according to my Picasa albums, I've already taken over 1300 photos of her. Oy. Some of my favorites of those shots of her, though, are the "monthly" shots, since they highlight her growth so clearly.

Each month, I gather my photoshoot tools--plain white long-sleeved onesie, sticker with the appropriate month (found on etsy), matching headband, beautiful quilt (handmade by a very talented friend!), chalkboard, and (hopefully) a cheerful baby.

Here are my first attempts at getting the money shot:

Not exactly what I had in mind, but hey, it's still pretty cute, right?

Eventually I bribed my kid by nursing charmed my baby into a less angry pose. . . 

To give you a sense of what my little "photoshoots" look like in action, here's a pullback:

Gotta love the awesome apartment carpeting!

I had a lot of fun using the photos to create a layout with more information about my Ellie at a month old.

Here's a close-up (and if you're wondering, the adorable "1 month old' card is from a set by Elle's Studio!

Just a few days ago, I took Ellie's two month photos, and I was surprised by how different the experience was! Let's just say I had to bump up my shutter speed significantly to keep up with her!

When it comes to photographing babies in general, I'm really learning as I go!  Whenever I have a happy baby and pretty light, I take advantage of it with the camera.  Even adding a cute headband to a onesie is a quick and simple way to have a girly photoshoot. 

One of the most helpful tips I've learned is to position your baby to face the light source.  Aside from that, rules are rules--capture the little things you want to remember, good light or not.

 

Marnie had a few photo tips for newborns. First,don't forget the little details. Think of all the little parts you love to touch and admire. Then snap away.

 

Next, don't not take pictures because of bad baby acne. It happens. So can photoshop.

Baby P had a bit of acne. We tried to put her good light so that there wouldn't be dark shadows. I did my normal photoshop routine. Then a took that photo and ran it through a smoother (The one in the new PicMonkey, actually!) Then I laid the super smoothed over the other in photoshop and cleaned out the parts that I didn't want so smooth. And here is what we got.

It looks a bit ethereal against the other, but P's mom was happy to have a clean one she could blow up and put up on the wall.

 

Marnie also noted that when she does a baby shoot, she plans no fewer than four hours. Sometimes the magic needs a little (or a lot) patience.

 

And lastly, babies are so tiny but that can get a bit lost if they are alone in the shoot. That something you add in for scale can be a beloved item, a tired parent, a sibling, a grandma, or some furniture.

 

Before I go, let's talk about one more way to use baby photos--announcements! I didn't use announcements for Ellie, but Marie Taylor shared some adorable ones with me.

This first one was created in Photoshop--how adorable is that shot?

(Also, please note Jack's awesome birthday.)

And this next one was created with this Tia Bennett kit.

Such a sweet robot:)

Thanks for joining in the Baby Week fun! I hope this gave you some good ideas for photographing the wee ones in your life. Have a great Wednesday!

Keshet

Oh, baby...let's celebrate!

Hello everyone, welcome to the second day of baby week! Today is all about helping the mom-to-be prepare for the arrival of her sweet baby. I don't know about you, but attending a baby showers. As friends and family of the expectant mother we do our very best to shower them with gifts and love in preparation for their new bundle of joy.

As scrapbookers, I think it is safe to say that in general, we are crafty people, and planning a baby showers definitely falls into the crafty category. Let's pull out our supplies and put them to use for a baby shower and baby gift.

Themed Showers 

It is easy to create a beautiful shower by carrying a common theme through the invitations, decor, food, party favors and gifts. Lisa Kish, created an elegant shower by using a pastel green and yellow color scheme and banner design element through the decor.

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You could take the words "baby shower" quite literally and use pastel colors, soft clouds and rain drops throughout the party theme, like this example from Le Frufru blog.

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If the mom-to-be is expecting a little cowboy, throw a shindig that she and her guests will never forget, as shown on the Thoughtfully Simple blog.

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Baby Gifts

I don't know about you, but I love giving gifts that have special meaning for the recipient and presenting them in unique ways. Of course, the baby essentials are always needed and appreciated but you can make the ordinary gift extraordinary with creative packaging and displays.

You can begin with a unique gift table like this one from the anna with love blog. I love how she hung clothes, bibs and stuffed toys from a clothes line behind the gift table. Absolutely adorable!

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Another cute idea for giving essentials, like onesies and receiving blankets, is to roll them into cupcakes and package them in a bakery box. Little Birdie Secrets has a great tutorial on how to do this.

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Are you a good with your sewing machine. Make a baby quilt, like this one by Amy Sorensen, for a gift that will be treasured for years to come. Visit Amy's blog for a tutorial for creating this baby quilt.

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Subway art is so popular right now. Using your computer, type baby phrases in various fonts and print in your color of choice, and frame it, like Marnie Flores did with this beautiful subway art she made.

 

Customize a wooden display, like this one by Francine Clouden for a keepsake in baby's room. You can personalize the display with the baby's birth date, photo and name once he/she is born. Francine has completed a tutorial giving step-by-step instructions for making this gift.

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Do you have an abundance of ribbon in your stash? Use an assortment of ribbon in varying colors and patterns to create a plush toy, like this one from mmmcrafts.

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Gifts for the mom-to-be

In the excitement of a new baby, don't overlook the mom-to-be. Now, more than ever, she'll need some things to help keep her organized and some pampering too.

The busy mom on-the-go will love this gift basket filled with individual bags that hold a diaper and wipes or baby food and a bib like these on the Procrastination Station blog.

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For the scrapbooking mom, put together a collection of monthly index cards and put them in a tin that can be placed in the kitchen or other easily accessible location for recording special dates or memories during baby's first year. Follow the lead from the Northern Cottage blog, but substitute the embellishments with a baby theme.

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Don't forget to shower the mom-to-be with something just for her. An ensemble of special spa and bath products will be appreciated after a long tiring day.

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Parting Gifts for the Guests

At the end of the party send each guest home with a small gift to show your appreciation for their gift and attendance.

A simple treat in a paper crafted bootie, baby carriage or cleverly wrapped bag of popcorn is a great parting gift.

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Give the mom-to-be enough thank you cards for all the attendees. During the party, have each guest address an envelope to themself. After the party the mom-to-be can simply sign the card, insert it into the envelope and place in the mail. Create customized cards, like this one made by Jenny Chesnick, in the shape of a onesie.

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Are you still with me? I know this post is long, but I tried to keep it easy to read with little text and lots of pictures. I hope you have found something that will inspire you the next time you plan or attend a baby shower. For more ideas, visit my Oh, Baby! Pinterest board.

Welcome to Baby Week!

Hi, and welcome to baby week! That's me with my three babies, the oldest of which has decided it's fun to make faces when having her photo taken. Sigh.

This week will be full of ideas for documenting the babies, or used-to-be-babies, in your life. And if you're thinking, "Eh... babies!" Don't go! Please stay! Our ideas for mini-albums, gifts, layouts and more can be easily used as inspiration for scrapbooking all the important people in your life.

We're starting off the week with baby-themed mini-albums and I have three fantastic ones to share with you.

 

Pieces of You

First up is Diane, with this cute mini about her sweet baby boy.

This mini album came together quickly using the coordinated Baby Boy line from Bella Blvd. The sticker sheet includes lots of cute baby themed designs that I used to embellish each page along with word stickers for journaling and captions.

Faith's First Year

Next is Aly, who put together this album documenting her daughter Faith's first year.

With the exception of the day she was born I took a photo of my youngest daughter, Faith, in front of the same blanket each month so I could document the tremendous growth of her first year. I also wrote about what she had learned and how she had changed each month on my blog. I put those together into this mini album to chronicle her first year.

Welcome to the World

Here's Marie's album, virtual guest-album put together from Facebook posts after her son's birth. For the record, now that I can go back and get older posts with Facebook's Timeline I'm totally doing this.

When I was a baby my mother received many, many cards. So many in fact, she created a whole scrapbook of cards and letters sent from friends and relatives. Things have changed a bit since 1977. Cards and letters are sent fewer and fewer, replaced by texts, emails, and Facebook. After Jack was born I decided to make a Facebook version of a well wishes scrapbook. I found icons on the internet, and now I have a place for all of those congratulations in one simple mini album.

As for me, it's no secret I love mini-albums, and I've posted my share of baby albums here over the last couple years. Here are links to five of my baby-themed mini-albums:

• Ryan's First Year from last month's gallery
• Side by Side from February 2011's gallery
• Where He's Been 
• Emma's Firsts and The Week You Turned One, scroll down for both albums

Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to come back tomorrow for day two of Baby Week!

Sunday Photo

 

click.

Hi! Welcome to this month's click. saturday! Today I have a fun challenge for you. The next time you are preparing for a walk, remember to bring your camera because you are going to hunt down all of the letters of the alphabet! Yes, you are going to look around your neighborhood and take photos of letters you find. The idea came to me while I was looking for kids photo projects, but I think this totally isn't a kids only project! 

It was this photo (above) that I found on Janet Lynn Phillips blog in a post where she tells the story of when she and her family did this together! 

 

I remembered that I had seen something like this on Angie Lucas' blog also. While out for an anniversary dinner with her husband, she set the goal to find the letters to eight years as they celebrated 8 years of marriage. Fun, right! 

 

 

If you feel like you want to play along, please share your photos/projects with us in the WCS flickr group! 

Just Add: Art

Thank you for all your fabulous cleaning suggestions yesterday, I think we need to do a whole week on cleaning because perhaps all this playing with products that artists use has grown on you and you want to take it to a different level? Well, that's what has happened for some of us at WCS in the past few years.

Fellow WCSer Paula and I had our ah-ha moment around the same time, for a while, we'd been discussing how we wanted to do something a bit different from our scrapbooking, but we hadn't known what our next creative adventure would be. We were at CHA and happened upon a table piled high with paint and mist and gesso and molding paste and stencils. Sitting at the head of the table, looking like a mixed media goddess, was the lovely Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Julie had just released her first line of stencils through the Crafter's Workshop and she wanted us to play with them. Paula and I sat down, but we weren't alone. Guess who else was there? Marnie Flores and Ronda were also there. We had a blast!

That delightful day opened up a lot of possibilities for me. Julie led us by the hand to create tags using all those fun products. I got to just play and when I made a mistake, Julie told me to embrace it and just add another layer. She was right! There is no correct way to do art, it's not about getting worried that something isn't going to meet the approval of some amorphous authority. It's about trying, the "Let's see what happens" philosophy. And my friends, it's about FUN! I will always be grateful to Julie for this day.

Ronda had been threatening to take me to Meiniger, an art supply store here in Denver, for months. We finally made a date of it and off we went. I don't believe anyone could walk out of that store having spent less than $50. Candyland for the artist! I am now the proud owner of my own set of watercolors, but not the 8 pan palette of my youth. I bought a nice 12 pan set of opaque watercolors from Grumbacher, nothing too spendy, but a fun way to dip my feet back in the artsy world.

The colors are really intense and I fell in love. I've played with them a few times and I won't say everything I've created I loved, but 75% love is pretty good. Here's a card I made using embossing powder, a stamp from Cocoa Daisy, and watercolor paper. I love the irregularity of color as the paint dries. I'm having fun exploring the medium.

Paula has made a concerted effort this past year to get messy, she's been far more dedicated at playing than I have. Here's her story: 

I've been scrapbooking for almost 10 years and consider myself as a simple scrapper. I generally shy away from techniques because I don't like when things don't turn out exactly as I've envisioned. I've loved art and crafts since I was a little kid but I've been intimidated by the whole art journaling movement. Until I went to CHA last summer and was lucky enough to sit at Julie Balzer's make and take table for her Crafter's Workshop stencils. Julie is so much fun and encourages everyone to be messy.  Julie's philosophy is that there is no such thing as a mistake, just happy accidents. I had such a good time the first day I went back for more on the second, and the third day! I vowed to pick up a few stencils and spend some time playing with my supplies. It wasn't until this year (February) that I decided to spend some time every day (~15 minutes) playing with art journaling.

 I found a lot of tutorials around the web that gave me ideas on what to do and I've had a lot of fun playing. I even tried an online workshop called "She Art" where I made some girls (see below).

I've used the odd technique here and there in my layouts but I've learned that sometimes it's just fun to play without having to produce a layout at the end of the day. My art journal has turned into an experiment book where I play with paint and ink rather than journal about my deepest, darkest thought and I'm ok with that.

Celeste, after taking a class from Dina Wakley, another fabulously inspiring mixed media artist, started working on an art journal. She describes her foray into another medium like this:

I took the class to see if art journaling was something I wanted to do. I also thought it would be fun to get a little messy and break out of my straight line - minimalistic style. As you can see, I did just that! It is really hard for me to use mediums that are messy. I have a box filled with art journaling supplies, but have not put gesso to paper in many moons. I just can't find the time to fit it into my life right now. I'm happy documenting our families memories in scrapbooks. Of course, who knows what the future will bring. I think if I were to pick it back up, I might delve into digital art journaling - no mess and an undo button!

See? It's OK to try things and then put them aside! Here's an example of what Celeste created:

 

Karen has been doing her art journaling for a few years now and if you'd like to read about her journey to this medium and learn about her process, she's shared her thoughts here. Karen is a good example of make it work for you. She was taught you had to paint the background a color, she doesn't typically work with anything but white backgrounds. She tried painting the background but it didn't feel right until she was true to her style and started on a white background. There are no rules, make it work for you!

I hope you've found inspiration this week, perhaps even attempted a little messy-ness yourself? I was going to give you an exhaustive list of supplies to get you started, but a conversation with Paula changed my mind. Use what you have, if you want to try a new technique and product out, build a little at a time. Make due with what you have and if it's not working, do some exploring on the web, there are lots of tutorials, lots of inspiration on Pinterest, lots of classes you can sign up for, and there are lots of artists out there who would love to share what they know. Check out Ronda's blog, she shares her work, answers questions, and is so willing to teach. Here's a peek at one last piece of her artwork. Thanks for joining us this week!

Just: ask.

 

and the giveaway goes to . . .

Thank you, everyone for your helpful tips! Emily is back soon with her final messy post!! Danielle, please email us your mailing address to writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com. Thank you!