If you’re like most of us you want to scrapbook your baby’s firsts, first bath, first smile, first time sitting, walking, and so on.  So now that you’re ready to do it, what’s next?

The purpose of this article is to help you organize and plan out what will surely be one of your most treasured scrapbooks.

The first thing you’ll want to do is pull out any baby books and journals you’ve kept since your baby’s birth. Next, you’ll want to choose what special mementos and other items you want to include with the photos. Third, you’ll want to choose just the right album and layout.  This is another example of a scrapbook that you may want to lay out chronologically.

After you’ve chosen your album and layout it’s time to pull out those photos.  Be sure to take your time so that you’ve selected just what you want to include.

Don’t forget those all important first- feedings with dad or grandma, first trip to the park,first solid food or first haircut. These are all moments that sometimes slip by us when we’re thumbing through those cherished photos.

After you’ve selected your photos it’s time to choose the mementos you want to include. These can be anything from the keepsake hospital birth certificate with the baby’s footprints on it to clippings of hair from baby’s first haircut. Don’t forget the hospital bracelets and crib cards, too.

Now it’s time to think about what you want to write. You can write facts like the baby’s weight, length, eye color, hair color and other observations at birth. Maybe you’d like to write about your labor, dad’s reaction to finding out you were in labor and other experiences of that nature.

Other possibilities are baby’s personality, how she slept, her favorite song or her favorite toy. You may also want to include more personal content like your feelings and thoughts about having this new little person in your life and how you’ve felt when each of your baby’s firsts have occurred.

No matter what you choose to include in your scrapbook it will be something that you’ll
cherish forever.  So, take your time, and most of all, have fun!

Adobe PhotoShop is one of the few, but favored, photo editing programs used by digital scrappers.  Perhaps it’s the reputation Adobe has built that makes the program so popular, or it could be all the features it offers.

Either way, it’s a program well worth discussing.  If you’re familiar with digital scrapbooking then you may already know some of its applications. If you’re not familiar with digital scrapbooking you may be looking into it more after reading this.

PhotoShop, as it’s more commonly called, is a digital photo imaging and editing software.  It can be used for tasks as simple as storing photos for viewing on your computer or for
more complex tasks like creating slide shows or digital scrapbooks.

If you’re new to this, the word complex might scare you, but don’t be scared. Let me take a few minutes to explain to you what PhotoShop can do and how easy it can be.

PhotoShop makes simple work of tasks like creating backgrounds, cropping photos and journaling. You can literally sit down to your computer and in minutes have an original background, cropped photos and your journaling finished in a beautiful font of your choice. Along with these tasks you can use PhotoShop’s Custom Shapes feature to create shapes like you would with Die Cuts.

One of the most important aspects of your scrapbook is the background you choose.  If you’re tired of trying and coming up empty-handed, then PhotoShop might be right for you.

You can create a custom background with just the tools offered through the program or you can even create a background from one of your own photos!  Imagine this, you’ve taken a family vacation to Hawaii and now you want to put together a vacation scrapbook. 

You’ve looked and looked and  none of the backgrounds are just right for your scrapbook.  You want something tropical, like the island with a realistic touch.  No problem, simply load your vacation photos and choose the background you want.

Are you fresh out of ideas for the perfect wedding or anniversary scrapbook?  Let me take a few minutes to give you some tips and ideas that will inspire you. 

And remember, you’ll want to add  touches of the couple’s personality, taste and style to make the scrapbook more personal and meaningful. This is much simpler to do than
you may think.

If you’re scrapbooking a wedding there are a number of steps you can take and items you can include that will really enhance its intimacy and reflect the couple.  First, consider the theme of the wedding.  Whether it is a simple color scheme or a full-blown theme, add elements of this to the scrapbook. 

Next, if there was a poem read or personal vows exchanged you’ll want to add it to your scrapbook.  You can type and print them in a nice font or hand write them, either way it will be very special. 

Third, add items like place cards, gift lists, invitations and pressed flowers to your layout. 

Last, but not least, place a photo of the happy couple either on the first or last page of the book.  You will have created a scrapbook that will be cherished forever!

When creating an anniversary scrapbook one of the most important things to remember is to use colors to embellish the book that represent the number of years the couple has been married, especially if it’s one of the more symbolic anniversaries such as the 25th or 50th. 

If you’re unsure of what colors to use or if you think the couple simply wouldn’t like the color, you may revert to the colors used at their wedding.  When filling the scrapbook try to gather photos of special occasions like previous anniversaries, honeymoon, special trips or parties and the like.

You may also want to include a copy of the lyrics to “their” song and an invitation to their anniversary party.

You may also want to consider a chronological layout for this type of scrapbook.  Years from now when the couple looks through it, it will be like a stroll down memory lane.

And last, but certainly not least, try to include at least one photo for every year they’ve been married.

If they’ve not been married for many years or you don’t have the space for many photos, select the ones that you believe are most precious and significant to them.