Kenley's baby book

Today we got a box in the mail that I've been looking forward to for a long time - Kenley's baby book! I decided before Kenley was born that in lieu of a traditional baby book, I would be making a digital scrapbook to record her milestones and changes over the year.


I already had my eye on a set of digital templates by Nisa Fiin, specifically designed for making a baby album. I decided to make a monthly blog post featuring my memories from the month and the monthly photo of Kenley.


Then I made an album for each month of her life in my iPhoto and started sorting through the (many) photos to put some favorites together. I started putting together the digital pages when she was about 10 months old. I've been working on it on and off for the last few months. It did take many hours to put together, mostly because I'm still learning about digital scrapbooking and how to make everything work in Photoshop Elements. I think this was actually a great project to start with, because the framework was set up by Nisa, and I just had to customize the pages the way I wanted.

I set myself a deadline to be finished with the album by August. The main reason was that I had purchased a Groupon for Blurb that was about to expire, and I wanted to use that credit for this book. After designing the pages using the templates in PSE, I saved them as JPEGs, then uploaded them as a full page photo in the Blurb book-making software (does that make sense?). I am thrilled with the quality of the book. The photo covers are so pretty and the colors and text throughout the book are consistent and clear. The binding also seems very sturdy. Definitely recommend Blurb.


The content covers photos and stories from my pregnancy, the birth story, newborn days, then a 2 page spread for each month, a few spreads about her birthday party, and a 2 page spread for both her newborn photo shoot and 1 year photo shoot with Shelley Haganman. While it doesn't have that "fill-in-the-blank" feel of a traditional baby book, it does contain so many stories of little moments and milestones that I never would have remembered otherwise. I'm sooo glad that I stuck with the monthly blog posts and followed through with making this book!


I also have an 8 1/2" x 11" scrapbook album that I add individual pages to as I complete them. As you can see, I have many pages to go before it is as full as Lachlan's baby scrapbook (birth-age 2).

All this week I've been working on my digital pages for the Week in the Life album and also putting together 2.5 x 3.5" pictures and memorabilia to put in the divided page protectors. Planning to finish the 8 1/2" x 11" digital pages this weekend and send them off to be printed on Monday.

Then I just need to make the July pages for my Hipstamatic album and update my summer mini-book with the highlights from July. Obsessed with memory-keeping much?

Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!

Supply list for Kenley's book:
Splendid Fiins Life In a Nutshell 8 1/2" x 11" templates
digital papers from Jen Allyson's free kit