The Best Baby Scrapbook Ideas To Remember Their Special First Year

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Are you looking for creative ideas to help record the first year with your new baby?

Well, we have done the research and found the easiest, cutest and most creative ways to document everything you will want to remember from the first year and beyond with your new baby. So get your washi tape and your gel pens ready, it's time to scrapbook.

So what is a baby scrapbook? You may have already been gifted or bought a baby scrapbook, hopefully with some useful prompts of what you could include. These cute scrapbooks are just a way to store all the sweet mementos in one place, so that as baby grows, you can turn the pages and remember these hazy early days.  

Image © Scrapbook.com

Where To Start

When it comes to scrapbooks for babies, there are a lot of creative ideas online to get you started with layouts and themes, baby scrapbooks are big news in the crafting world.

There are endless scrapbook themes and styles to choose from, for example, you might specifically want a  baby girl scrapbook with a pink theme, or a baby boy scrapbook, or if you are waiting for a surprise you might like to go more minimal.

Alternatively, why not embrace the full on 'Pinterest mum' scrapbook way of life, gather all the materials, glitter, stickers and washi tape you can get your hands on and just cut and stick to your heart's delight?

You could layout your baby scrapbook as a journal, writing about your experiences and baby's milestones as you go along, 'dear diary' style.

If you want to design each scrapbook page with a different layout and make it up as you go along- go for it, if you have other children you could even get them involved too and have a family scrapbook session.

Image © CreativeMemories Blog

What Will You Need?

A Scrapbook- We would recommend choosing a fairly large sketchbook style scrapbook, square pages make a great base for fun layouts.

An Instant Camera- Having a Polaroid or Instax camera means you can take a quick snap, and boom it's in the scrapbook.

Washi Tape- Great for creating borders around the scrapbook pages and framing photos.

Scrapbook Craft Supplies- Textured paper, stickers, buttons, ribbons, glitter, fun pens- go wild!  

Double sided tape and/or glue stick

Scissors

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Scrapbook Page Ideas

Here are some ideas for your baby scrapbook layouts and pages. You might want to dedicate a certain amount of pages to each topic before you start, or just work your way through as you go along.

There is also no shame at all in gathering all of your supplies and a year's worth of photos and creating your entire baby scrapbook in one go!

Image © iStock

The Pregnancy

You could start your baby scrapbook off with memories of the months leading up to your baby's arrival, along with ultrasound images and photographs. If you are starting your scrapbook before the baby comes along you could write about how you've been feeling, and maybe even some hopes and dreams for your new arrival too.

Adding in your name lists is also fun, kids love finding out what they were 'almost' called and it can be funny to look back on years later, your previous choices might surprise you!

Arrival Page

The arrival page is super a fun one, you can write about all the things you now know about your baby that were a mystery before. Things you could include on this page are, the baby's birthday, time of birth, birth weight, perhaps your midwife or doctors name, pretty much anything you would like to remember.

You could even write out your birth story, there may be some funny or special details that you'd like to talk to your child about someday.

Coming Home

Coming home from the hospital can be a pretty special moment, you could take a page of your baby scrapbook to write about what kind of day it was, and add some photos of baby's journey and arrival.

If you have visitors on that first day to visit the baby you could take some photos and write about who was there to meet you all.

Star Signs

Another fun thing to do is to get your baby's natal chart done, this is when you take the time and location of birth, and find out their sun and moon sign and the position of all the planets when they were born.

Their natal chart will tell you so much about who they might be, you could add yours too to compare.

For this page of the baby scrapbook, you could add cutout stars and moons, and horoscope symbols.

Hospital Mementos

If you gave birth in a hospital, you could add in a few things from the experience to your baby scrapbook, such as the hospital bracelets.

You can make pockets within the pages by taking another piece of card or paper, cutting it to size, and then sticking it down leaving the top side open, then you can pop thing like the hospital bracelets inside- or simply clip or stick them directly to the page.

Image ©iStock

Monthly Photos

You have probably seen those cute month on month photos of a baby with a little card or number to signify how old they are, its cliche to say but the time really does go quickly, looking back it's amazing to see how much your baby will change month on month.

Instant cameras are great for this as you can just take a snap of your baby at any time and pop it straight in the book.

Milestones

Over the first year, your baby will reach many 'milestones', first smile, first giggle, first baby bath and the first time they sit up or roll over, it's lovely to look back over these in years to come especially with your child. You could put photos of these moments in the scrapbook or just write about them.

Image ©Pixabay

Footprints And Handprints

A wonderful way to remember how tiny your baby was in these early days is by making prints of their hands and feet. You just need some water-based child-friendly paint, some card, and an extra pair of hands as babies are notoriously wiggly!

Simply paint your baby's little hands and feet and gently press onto the card, once dry you can cut around the edge and stick straight in the scrapbook for baby to compare in a few years time.

Personality

As your baby grows and develops into their own person you will start to notice aspects of their personality shining through. Every few months you could write a little list of baby's likes and dislikes, their favourite toys and songs, things that make them laugh and which friend or relative gets the biggest smile.

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Day To Day

You could have a page dedicated to your typical daily routine, which baby groups you've been going to (even virtual ones!), going out for a walk, Face-time calls with the grandparents and playing with their favourite toys. The sweetest and funniest little moments often come out of nowhere, feel free to just add random notes and photos throughout.

First Birthday

You made it through the first year! Whether you have a particular celebration or not, make sure you get some photos of your baby on their big day, and make sure you are in the photos too!

Dedicate a whole page or a few pages to their first birthday, you could make a pocket to store cards in, or cut out the messages and stick those in for you and your little one to look over in years to come.