Preserving the childhood moments is a real lovable gift from parents to their children. It’s definitely a decent idea to keep the memories of your baby in a scrapbook. Moms have more scope to capture the initial moments of child as they are always nearby them. All you need is a good scrapbook, some paper material, a reliable camera by which you are comfortable to take good photos. Don’t depend on someone for taking pictures as the golden movements of your child may not be repetitive, and hence select the camera which is comfortable to you and reliable.
1. Collection of materials
Camera plays the most important role in this activity. Select the one, which is comfortable to operate, and is robust and reliable. You need not go for hi-end cameras as while dealing with children the cameras are liable to get damaged.
The next step is selection of the fun album with removable pages. These pages can be removed one by one and safely arranged at a flat surface. Suppose, if some liquid like coffee falls on the sheet, only that sheet will get spoiled instead of the whole album. Make sure your albums and other materials are not having acid contents or lignin as it spoil the paper and photos in the long run.
Keep all of your materials out of children’s reach to avoid any danger to the child with an unforeseen event like swallowing glue stick, damaging themselves with scissors, etc
2. Think creatively
Scrapbooking starts with a photo and an idea. There is no limitation for your creativity. Start writing the events that you want to capture in a notebook as and when you get an idea.
It is always better to prepare some pages that you want to make with blank spaces for photos and with captions to save your time and ideas.
A plenty of pre-made baby scrapbook layouts are available for beginners in the market. They are also separately available for baby boy and baby girl. They come with an instruction sheet explaining the recommended size of photos.
You can start with the photos of different pregnant stages while carrying the baby. You also can include first glimpse of your baby by securing the ultrasound image (sonogram) of your child. Photos of baby in hospital, your delivery room, first pictures of your child at home , etc… are some of the creative ideas for taking photos.
After the child’s birth, there are plenty of memorable occasions to capture the photos. Keep your camera always ready to click as everyday is an adventurous day in the first year of your kid’s life. You can capture photos of your child’s first roll over, when in cradle, crawling, sitting, standing, first step with support and without support, first bath, first swim, running, first birthday, cycling, school going, etc, are the endless occasions.
3. Keep safe, cut in fun shapes and arrange orderly
After capturing photos, immediately you may not get time to arrange them in a scrapbook. So, just keep placing them in a secured place while not disturbing the order. It is better to write order number with pencil at the back of these photos.
Whenever you get time, then, cut the photos in attractive fun shapes like star, triangle, circle, etc and paste them with glue stick at appropriate pages. Don’t forget to write dates, places, occasions, or captions against each photo as they self-narrate the situation. For example, you have gone for pilgrimage with your little child, then, if you write the names and specialties of those places near the picture, it will be more attractive.
4. Organize events with relatives and friends
Once you have decided to make a scrapbook for your baby, you need to have much patience to conduct some collective events with relatives and friends. If you follow your traditional culture for celebrating events, it will be graceful. You can celebrate birthdays, Christmas, New Year, some traditional ceremonies such as naming the child, first solid food feeding, first time teaching alphabets, etc with friends and relatives. More people mean more fun and more memories. The memories with parallel age group of children will impress the child when they grow up.
So, the outcome depends on your creativity and patience. After all, the baby scrapbook is the wonderful gift to your kids other than anything else.
