Creating an Album of Love for Baby

If you are anything like me, you have the best intentions.

The day you brought your baby home from the hospital is the same day you swore you would capture every single moment of his childhood. From his first tooth, to his first smile, to his first steps, you promised to take pictures, shoot videos and design a fancy scrapbook that the two of you could look at and reminisce on his high school graduation day. 

Fast forward six months, and you realize that although you have taken a lot of pictures, which are conveniently stored on the digital camera, you barely have enough hard copy photos to fill one quarter of a photo album, let alone an entire scrapbook.

Although the ideal time to begin a baby album or scrapbook is before the baby is born, it is never too late, and you can begin with something as simple as a box, according to Marsha Green, a Creative Memories consultant.

“Take photos along the way of this new path of your life. Whether you are choosing to do a traditional style scrapbook or a digital storybook, the first few pages can include pictures of the positive pregnancy test, congratulations card you received, and of course, pictures from your baby shower, along with the shower invitation. And, you can have just as much fun designing the baby book for consecutive babies as you did with the first. Take pictures of the painted nursery and the older children listening to the baby’s heartbeat.”

Perhaps the most important contribution to the book that you can make is the written word.

“Write down what people said when they heard you were pregnant, what your older children said, what your hopes are for the baby, and what the world is like that you currently live in,” Green said. ”We think that we will never forget what someone said during specific times in our lives, like what the kids said on their first day of school, or how we felt the first time we looked at our baby. But our lives get busy, and we do forget.”

From that box filled with written memories, photos and cards, you can decide how you want to organize everything into one album.

“Designing an album of love and hope is not about creating, it is about the love that goes into it,” Green noted. “That said, there are several options you can choose from that will help you capture that love. Creative Memories has a number of products, such as slide-in albums,
display boards, digital storybooks and traditional cut and paste scrapbooks. Many of these are very easy to use and some of them can be created in just one evening.”

A digital storybook is an alternative to a traditional scrapbook, and men, as well as women, prefer this option because it can be done in their home on their own timetable, usually late at night, according to Green.

A display book is the perfect way to showcase a person and let them be the center stage, especially for the person who does not
have an album.

“Imagine your mother-in-law is coming to visit. You can find a few pictures of her with the kids and a birthday card she sent and use magnets and clothespins to attach them to the display board that is hanging in the kitchen.”

After you dedicate the time to creating a special place to hold family memories, you want it to last. Green recommends keeping the photos out of direct sunlight and the albums stored upright.

“There is nothing that compares to holding an album in your lap while listening to and reading the stories of your own life, the life of someone you love, a fantastic family trip or even family holidays,” Green said. “I believe everyone deserves an album of his life, at least one volume. When people pass, it often is as if the doors of the library have closed. With them goes their stories, photos and memories. I want the library to be left open.”

Green hosts workshops for kids who want to create their own albums. Kids camp takes place during the summer and is for kids age 6 and older who want to create photo albums to capture their own memories.

Green also schedules monthly workshops for adults called Thirsty Thursdays. Participants bring their own supplies and work on an album of their choice.

In addition, Green hosts an SOS-Scrapbook workshop from 2 to 8 p.m. on the first Sunday of each month during the school year at a local community room. She provides dinner and teaches something about a new tool, scrapbooking or photography.

For more information about the workshops or Creative Memories products, visit Green’s website at www.mycmsite.com/marshagreen.