A Hoppin' Party: Decorating with Albums

For Liam's first birthday party, I wanted to display some albums that are very special to me. They chronical the time from the moment I knew I was eating for two to the present.





My first album was started many months ago. It took a long time to put together, but it is something very special. It is my pregnancy journal. When I was pregnant with Sophie, I looked at the journals you could buy in the bookstore. There were lots of things where you filled in the blanks and such. They seemed good, but I knew it would be difficult to keep it up. I knew I'd feel guilty about all the empty blanks and would most likely leave the journal unfinished. By using a small scrapbook, I only added things important to me and most importantly no blanks and no guilt!





It's not fancy. I didn't go scrapbooky cooky. I typed out my stories in Word and printed them on cardstock, trimmed, then glued them to the scrapbook paper. Then, if there were pictures or mementos, I glued them in too. I didn't fuss with the frills you normally find in scrapbooks these days. If I had, I think I would still be working on Sophie's book.

I added all the ultrasound photos, using photo corners to adhere them to the paper.

Here's his little toesies.

Did you know that if you send a birth anouncement to the White House, they will send your child a card? It may take a little time to come to you, there's lots of babies out there ya know. But when it comes in the mail, it deserves a place in a baby book for sure. Find the info here.

Here's my favorite part; I call it Fat Celebrities. These are just a few of the famous mommies who just happened to be preggers when I was. I had to look most of these up. Although I'm not a celebrity watcher, it was fun to see all the big bellys here.

My second album is just photos from Liams first days. Here is Sophie meeting her brother.

The third album is Liam's Milestones. I don't want to forget all his firsts and I don't want to forget how sweet and funny this boy has been. For each month, I wanted a black and white photo and the milestones/cute things he did that month. This album was for 5x7s but I wanted to use 4x6s. So I cut some cute scrapbook paper to 5x7. Then I just glued the photos onto the paper. Easy Peasy. For the milestones pages I created a Word document that I could change each month and print out.

This album lets me go up to 18 months with one page leftover. I used it for a tooth eruption chart. I'll be keeping up with the order they come in and how old he is for each.

At the party, I let these albums circulate. Now that they are home, I can display them or just pull them out when I'm feeling sentimental.

Linked to Polly Want A Crafter and Get Your Craft On.