Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages: Thanksgiving

It's been awhile since I shared an update to my son's first year's Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages, and since we're well into November I thought the pages from his first Thanksgiving were a good place to pick up at.  I used pocket pages and Simple Stories' Harvest Lane collection to quickly scrapbook these memories.  I was able to get all of these pages done in one sitting, which is much faster than it would've been if I scrapped them traditionally.

This first page is about the apple hat my mom knitted and that both kids have worn.  It's so cute!  Journaling has been added to the empty card, photographed before finished so I wouldn't have to edit out details to share on the blog.

This is the spread about Thanksgiving.  Family photos on the left and some of the little guy on the opposite.

We normally take family photos and while they are great to document changes and the kids growth over the years there isn't always much to write about them.  That's one reason why I love using divided pocket pages and cute inserts so I can include them without having to do too much to make them look pretty.

I did a little bit more embellishing on this half of the spread, and included a closer look at the cute onesie he wore.  All I added was the title and turkey stickers.  He is with one of his Great Aunts, his Grandma, and me along the bottom.

My Dad's birthday happens to always be really close to Thanksgiving so unfortunately for him, his birthday is often combined with turkey day.  After most of the family when home we had cake and presents for him.

Baby Boy Scrapook Pages: 1st Halloween Costume

Are you ready for trick or treating?  We are excited to take LB to a couple houses, he may even make it around the blocks since he's got so much energy and loves to be on the move.  What a change from the first year when he was left at home to "help" pass out candy while big sis went from house to house. 

My friend gave LB this sweet little green monster outfit from Target his first year.  It's actually a sleeper but so cute I decided to just use it as his costume.  The details on the hat and feet totally make this one memorable. 

I propped the little guy up in his sister's old Bumpo chair to take these pictures after first trying to get him on the couch, but you really couldn't see everything so this worked out much better.  A divided pocket page protector made it each to highlight my favorite picture from the shoot.  It came out a little grainy and a little off color so the extra pockets were used to show some better quality pictures from the same session. 

In case you're wondering, big sis was Princess Leia and yet it was totally the year to have him be Yoda but my thriftiness won out and we skipped purchasing the $30 outfit he would've worn maybe twice in favor of the Little Green Monster.

On the back of this divided pocket page protector from WRMK I put some pictures of me holding him in the same costume and used the top to make a mini layout with my favorite picture from taking him to the pumpkin patch.

It was easy peasy to put this together, the paper is double sided so the orange dots is the reverse of the monster paper so it didn't even use up a lot of supplies.  Most supplies from Doodlebug Design Inc.

Sharing this page at The Memory's Nest's Crafty Creations.

Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages: Dinner Before Zoo Boo

On Sunday we went to Zoo Boo and it was a great night!  This year totally made up having to skip last years event and losing the money spent on the nonrefundable tickets when there was icy cold rain and freezing temperatures the night we were supposed to go.  The kids weren't too upset last year, LB was too little to know he missed anything and E got to got to Build A Bear instead so she was even a little happy the event was rained out.

But enough on last year's Zoo Boo and even this year's Zoo Boo, because this week's Baby Boy Scrapbook Page is about Zoo Boo night two years ago.  It was the little guy's first ever Zoo Boo and he slept through most of it all warm and toasty in his Bundle Me.  That was the year for all intents and purposes his costume could've been a closed up stroller since that's all you see in the most of the Halloween event pictures he is in, big sister standing next to a stroller!

Since LB's sweet little face doesn't actually appear in the Zoo Boo pictures, to document our family's tradition of going to a fun Halloween event each year, in his First Year scrapbook I included pictures from the family dinner beforehand.  We almost always go to a Noodles & Co. that is close by because it's fast, kid friendly, and near the zoo.

This year my parents and brother went to dinner and Zoo Boo with us.  Grandma Norma met us at the Zoo so she isn't in these photos but it was a big family event because we also met LB's Godfather and his family and my Godparents at the zoo too.  Too bad he slept through the whole thing, right!  But then again, holiday events are not just for the littles sometimes it's a fun way for the adults to relive their childhoods in part too. 

I'm sure this is probably based on a sketch but since I made this page awhile ago I don't remember which one exactly.  But the design allowed for me to use lots of themed pattern paper to help reinforce that it's about a Halloween event even if the photos don't necessarily reflect that. 

Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages: Lunch Date

This is another quick Halloween page, mainly because the little guy was a mummy themed onesie.  I know it might be a bit of a stretch for a holiday correlation but the first year I just love putting my kiddos into every holiday outfit/onesie/shirt I can find!  Plus with a boy, in my mind there is a more limited time I can go full on holiday cutesy before it become Halloween scary with things like vampires and stuff like that!

The reason he's wearing this particular onesie on this particular day is because his Godmother gave it to him and she is who we were meeting for lunch.  I had to make sure I snapped a couple of them together.  Halloween is one of my friend Margaret's favorite holidays so it that was another reason I wanted to go all out with this page.

Supplies are mainly Doodlebug Designs, older collections.  See all of the scrapbook pages in this series: Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages.

Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages: The Pumpkin Patch

Oh my, we only just got back sharing Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages and already I am off my schedule of posting on Mondays!  It couldn't be helped, I had some backlogged reviews with due dates that I needed to take care of.  I hope no one minds that this is later in the week than planned!  To make up for it, I have another page to share tomorrow so its another 2 in 1 week.

These are from our first time taking the little guy to the pumpkin patch right by us.  It's a traditional experience from the hay ride out to the field to the animals to pet and donuts to eat - stopping for hand washing in between I promise!

I will admit that when I was working on this layout I was powering through a lot of fall pictures and on a mission to get it done as opposed to making a grand creative statement.  Sometimes that's necessary and it's okay.  Not every page has to be a masterpiece.

I love fall photos with all the colors and textures and I wanted to use these photos without a lot of cropping and still  keep everything on one page.    Normally I start off with a sketch for inspiration but this time I just laid down my pictures and moved them about until I liked how it looked.

Then I filled in the remaining spaces with paper, leaving one spot for journaling.  While not planning on it, I thought the arrangement looked a little reminiscent of divided pocket page protector scrapping.   So to break up the boxy feeling I layered my embellishments, a collection of fussy cut leaves and stickers, over the margins between photos and patterned paper. 

I think extending the elements and titles break up linear look this layout would have otherwise.  Even though there wasn't a lot of room leftover, once the photos were placed, I think it still ended up being a very nice seasonally themed page due to the embellishments and papers, that while used sparingly, make a good impact.

Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages: Visiting the Grandparents

For our next pages in the Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages Series I have the continuation of a group of memories from the First Time Apple Picking layout shared on Monday.  When we went with my family, it happened to be on a Friday ER didn't have school and we spent the weekend at my parents'.  The next traditional scrapbook page and the following divided page protector all have pictures from our visit.

I took a lot of pictures of them all with LB, because you can never have enough precious baby photos!  I liked several but had way too many that were similar.  I picked three of my favorites, one with each of my family - Uncle, Grammy, and Papa and used them on the "main" page.

Then I used several from a series of photos I took the interaction between my mom and LB while he was hanging out on ER's old baby quilt.  It was back when he was just beginning to really respond, so sweet.  I thought the "Stitched with love" card from Harvest Lane by Simple Stories was just perfect for these because of the quilt.

On the reverse side of the We Are Memory Keepers photo sleeve I inserted pictures of LB with my Dad taken that night in my parents' TV room.  These are meaningful to me because I have some similar ones of my Dad with ER when she was a baby.  The last one is of LB giving my brother Dave a big grin.

I liked the designs printed on the reverse side of the cards I picked for the side with my mom that I left them and didn't pick new ones to go with these pictures.  I've added my journaling on the fruit card, but since I have to edit out so many personal details for blog posting I decided it was just easier to leave it blank for sharing.

Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages: 1st Time Apple Picking

This week's I have two installments of Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages to share.  Today's layout is about the first time we took LB apple picking.  Not that he did much other than ride around in the baby carrier, but it was fun to have him along nonetheless  The design is based on the Winning Layout Sketch from Close To My Heart book Cherish.  I highly recommend the it, the layouts are beautiful and will help you use many of the beautiful patterned papers you may have in your stash.  There are handy cutting guides for each layout making assembly quicker.  You do not have to have any CTMH supplies to get a lot of use out of it.

Left Side

I was able to use up a lot of paper from the Fall paper category in my stash.  I've had these papers for a couple years, they were picked up at Target as a set and I no longer know who the manufacturer is for sure but I suspect K&Company.  The apple rub-ons inside the metal tag and on the green label are also older Target supplies, this time from the Dollar Section.

Right Side

The journaling will eventually go on this side, on top of the apple paper on the top left.  I just neglected to print it out before photographing.   The metal tags are very old Oriental Trading Company, I've had them since we lived in CA over 8 years ago!  I got a ton in a package and have used them for a ton of stuff.  They were inexpensive but are on the cheap looking side.  I found that to be the case for most things I ordered from them so I've stopped purchasing from there.  I spend too much time on my scrapbooks to use cheap materials!

The "memories" tag is brand new, this winter and I got a package of them but took them out awhile ago to sort into my Project Life stash and can't remember who makes them.  They are pretty trendy just now, I've seen them pop up in various kits and other scrapbook blogger's layouts.

Sorry about the terrible glare on the page protector here.  I was feeling lazy and didn't bother taking any of my pages out of my binder when photographing these.  Won't make that mistake again!  Click any of the images to see larger versions and come back for more on Thursday!

Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages: Playing on the Floor Mat

So by now, you might have noticed that I believe in simple and sweet scrapbook pages.  I remember reading something Lisa Bearnson, the founder of Creating Keepsakes Magazine, once wrote.  She said something along the lines that it's more important to spend your time creating the memories than scrapping them.  I could not agree more!

This entry into our Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages Series was a quick page, the design in part dictated by the size of paper scraps I had on hand.  It's just two 4X6, journaling on vellum, a few stickers, a few more little paper scraps, and our story of the floor mat is preserved.   

Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages: Mixing Page Sizes

Awhile ago, I rather abruptly stopped my weekly series of Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages. That wasn't because I stopped making progress on my little guy's first year of album. I had just reached a point where there were a lot of seasonal layouts coming up and it didn't seem right to be posting pages of fall activities and pumpkins as summer was beginning.

I decided to hold off sharing those pages until September when they'd be more seasonally appropriate BUT I meant to share a couple more pages, like the ones I have today, and explain why I this scrapbook series was on temporary hiatus. Obviously, I never quite got around to that, guess we were enjoying our summer too much!

I'm excited to start sharing this collection of scrapbook pages again!  There's just one little change, I've decided to move the post day from Monday to Thursday.  So expect to see installments on a regular basis.  I hope they give you some ideas and inspiration for scrapping your baby's precious first memories.  Even if you don't have a little one to document, many of the ideas and layouts can be easily modified to any theme.

Getting back on track, let's start back up with a couple 8.5X11 layouts from LB's first September.  These two layouts are placed in LB's First Year Album Vol. 1 between previously shared layouts Sibling Love and So Happy Together and above, is how they appear within the scrapbook.  As you can see, I've mixed up page protector sizes.

Prior to starting Project Life I pretty much exclusively scrapped 12X12 pages.  Now that I regularly include inserts and all sorts of fun stuff into my Project Life albums, I've gotten way more comfortable mixing page protector sizes.

This really works for me because I have never really been a one photo scrapbook page maker because 12X12 just seem like too big of a scrappy canvas.  I would think the one photo would get lost in such on such a big space.  However, 8.5X11 is the perfect size for highlighting one precious photo.

 {Sweet Little Baby of Mine 8.5X11 Layout}

While planning scrapbook pages, I noticed that once we brought LB home, there was a shortage of photos of just the two of us.  I have never been a willing photography subject, but I know it's important for me to appear within our family's memories so I do try to get in front of the camera from time to time.

I think this oversight was because I had a rough recovery, with post delivery complications that meant I was just trying to get through the day!   Since there aren't many of me with LB I thought it was especially important to scrap them.  This isn't of a particularly special time, just some snuggles on the couch.  It was okay to use rather generic, albeit cutely themed, supplies.  I was able to use a pre-made sticker title, quote sticker, and a onesie epoxy sticker all my stash.  These were all leftover from my now seven year old daughter's baby pages so it was great to revisit older things.   A Project Life journaling grid card, border sticker, and new papers round out the supplies used.

On the other side of the "Sweet Little Baby of Mine" layout is "Snug as a Bug".  I took this photo for a MAM Baby Products review.  While you could say this was taken on assignment, it turned out to be one of my favorite newborn pictures of LB.  He just looks so itty bitty and still has that brand new infant look.  The little hoodie was also a favorite, it has a cute little bug face complete with antenna on it's hood.  It seemed like an obvious place start when picking supplies for the layout and Basic Grey's Bowties 6X6 paper pad gave me the perfectly scaled down papers to use.

{Detail of Snug as a Bug 8.5X11 Layout}

While both of today's layouts are simple, I think they are the perfect size for highlighting a memory when there is only one photo to support it.  So tell me, do you mix up sizes in your albums?  What is your favorite size layout to scrap?

Baby Boy Scrapbook Page: A Favorite First Outfit

Hello!  Thanks for coming by for another entry into my Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages Series.  I finished this page up a couple months ago and have been excited to share it because I love how it turned out.

I got this sweet outfit from a friend before LB was born, it was so kind of her to dress him - literally from head to toe!  I fell in love with the darling hat and little loafers.  On occasion, LB would even consent to keep them on for more than five seconds!

I took him out on our back deck and found the perfect spot to prop him up in a corner of the landing of our stairs.  Then I managed to take what would end up being one of my first absolute favorite pictures of LB.  It's the one I highlighted on the far right by offsetting it's placement.  I used that one to make a canvas, put it on cards, you name.

Favorite pictures deserve a very special scrapbook page!  I broke out my Echo Park This & That Charming to use, it's perfect with the vintage feel I think the hat gives to the pictures.  Echo Park is currently one of my favorite companies to scrap with.  They often sell collection kits with a piece of each paper design, stickers, etc. It makes it so easy to get pages put together because everything coordinates so beautifully.  I am bummed that they come out with a seriously cute baby collection in March.  I've got most of LB's little baby pictures scrapped now, but I could've really used it a couple months ago when it was really hard for me to find a baby collection I loved.

Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages: 2 Little Love Bugs

While perusing around Pinterest I found a great sketch site called Creative Scrappers.  I loved that unlike many, you can search by number of photos.  Since I usually start by selecting my pictures this was ideal for me.  Then I did a little reading and found out that in March they were taking a break, just my luck!  Happily, the site will be staying up so you can still access their sketches; I thought it was a resource too good not to share.  It's where I found the inspiration for this entry into our Baby Scrapbook Pages, which is based on Sketch 119.

This was another stash buster and it took awhile to dig out all the supplies as I'd already added them to the pile I let ER create with.  At first I thought the colors were a bit bright and pink...can you use pink on a boy page?  Then decided since his big sister is in each of the photos, bright colors and pink were A OK!  It turned out really cheerful and I was glad I went ahead and went for it after I checked out the selection of bug and insect related paper at the store.  Ick!  They were either way too realistic and almost scientific looking really dull dark colors.  Definitely NOT something I'd want to use for my two cutie pies!

Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages: Pre-Making A Quick & Easy Page

Before I had LB I put together several quick page layouts with a generic baby boy theme to have on hand ready for some of the many pictures I knew I would take during those early days when time to actually scrapbook would be slim to non-existent.

I think this one is a bit old school style, but it's fairly simple and some time that's all you need.  The stickers all came from one package so they coordinate, no thinking there!  I picked bold colors for most of the mats so I backed them on white cardstock, but if I did it again I might use one with a very subtle design.  But it's not important enough for me to go back and change things.

The title "What a Cutie" was supposed to be a sticker but somewhere along the line it came off and I lost it.  I do plan to redo the title, I did it quickly in Word but will do it next time in PSE so I can adjust the amount of space between the lines of text.  There's too much for my taste and I tried a wait and live with it for awhile but have decided it's a quick enough change that I should just do it.

That's this week's entry into my Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages Series.  I'd love to know, have you ever created pages ahead of time, without the pictures, for use later?  If so, as usual, link me up in the comments to any examples or whatever pages you've been working on so I can visit and see yours too!

Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages: Using Double Sided Paper as a Page Base for Two Pages

Double sided paper gives scrappers more options but often I like the designs on both sides, making it hard to decide which one to use.   How I used one sheet to make two pages back to back is the subject of this week's Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages Series.

Page 1

I actually had two sheets of this design but not much else to in my paper stash that would work with it.  I knew I'd have to cut one down for photo mats.  To get the most out of my supplies, I decided leave one as a full sheet and build two pages, one on each side.  With the second sheet I cut a large paper mat, then rounded and inked the edges.  White glitter Thickers were used to spell out our baby's name, but have been blurred for sharing publicly.  The quote is a clear sticker and chipboard stickers, and a stamped journaling spot complete Page 1.

Page 2

For Page 2 I used the the leftover scraps of the patterned paper use for my big paper mat on Page 1 to create a photo strip for a series of pictures that alone aren't very good but collectively tell a story.  The photo strip also covers up most of the distinctive design that was left showing on Page 1's paper mat.

More paper scraps from Page 1 were used to make the green photo mat and the orange journaling section.  The journaling was printed on vellum and attached with glue dots underneath the baby boy clothes stickers and the baby button brads.  The green polka dot area with my kids' stamped initials was printed onto the paper and I just took advantage of it to house this decorative element.

While both pages use some of the same supplies, since they appear back to back in my son's first year album the matchy-match quality isn't very noticeable.  I was able to tell two more baby stories and stretch my scrapbooking dollars.   Have you ever used one double sided sheet of paper to make two pages, back to back?  If so I'd love to see it or whatever pages you've been working on lately!  Link me up in the comments and I'll come by to see you ☺

Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages: Holding Baby Brother

I just finished this page with three pictures of ER holding LB.  They're over a year old and both of my kiddos look so little to me!  My oldest's chubby cheeks have thinned out a bit, losing some of that oh so cute baby fat.  I love each new phase but it's sad how quickly time moves along!

I think it's really interesting to learn the reasoning behind why other scrappers make certain decisions when putting their pages together and decided it would be fun to discuss my thoughts for this one.  I had been really stumped as to how to go about scrapbooking these photos.  They're similar but I couldn't leave one out, I have reasons for loving each one.  I also was running out of ideas for creating a new page along the general baby boy theme.

My first design cue came from my son's outfit.  I looked through my paper stash for something similar.  The stripes and circle paper strips are actually from one double sided sheet.  I thought they went along with the stripes on LB's outfit, not a match but similar.  The little rocket sticker was one I had been wanting to use but never had anything to put it with.  The colors were close to the paper and seeing them together gave me an idea for creating a sort of picture on the page.

The round paper represents water, the stripes the land, and the journaling at the top the moon.  It's abstract, I know!  To remind me of what I was thinking at the time, I picked a title that follows along my theme to help reinforce it.  The phrase is taken from a favorite children's book but it's a sentiment I think everyone has for their children and one I hope our big sister will always feel for her little brother.

Here's a little detail view of the cool layered stickers.  Don't read the journaling too closely, there's a typo - as always - but it wouldn't be a page of mine if there wasn't one!  See you next week for more Baby Boy Scrapbook Pages!