hi,
i am not super crafty but have made one scrapbooking album about 6 years ago and still have some of the cutters, paper etc. i would like to make a first year book for charlie, with anecdotes and photos. does anyone have any hints or tips, as i imagine there are a few of you out there who have done the same...

i am into my scrapbooking, infact thats where i have been ALL day at a National scrapbooking day held once a year.
i mainly use a product called "Creative Memories"

But when I first started i got whatever i could from a number of stores.
"Riot Art" not sure if they are in every state but thats where i first started
Spotlight have a HUGE range of scrapbooking pages,albums etc now
Lincraft have some really nice stuff
Ebay have stacks of products, if u type in creative memories for instance u will see just how much in one brand
and locally you may even find some good cheapish things

i can try and scan some of my pages i have done and show u, however they are nothing spectactular but special because i spent hours upon hours creating them.

Best tip: write lots..... over years we forget the "little" details, while it is still fresh in your mind write it all down.
i do my albums like a story, so if there was a particular thing that happened within those pics becing taken etc, i write it on the page.

um a while ago someone posted a link that had scrapbooking pages for prems! must try and locate this ste and let u know.

I don't do scrapbooking as such, but I made a photobook of Talia's first year.
I found it helpful to go through all the photos month by month and work out which ones I liked best. Then I did the album roughly chronologically, but also with some themed pages throughout eg Talia with her teddy taken at x weeks, y months, z months etc all on one page; a page of photos of her eating things; a page of photos of her asleep etc. I included all her
NICU milestones, the dates she first sat by herself, stood by herself etc and the sort of foods she liked when she first started solids. I also took photos of her favourite toys, and one of her surrounded by her favourite books.

I hope you have a lovely time putting it together.

ooh thanks - good tips. think ill look on ebay for some supplies. i would like to write down annecdotes etc, not sure how much ICU stuff to write as i want it to be shared around the family etc,

Yes I know what you mean, I was making copies of this book for the grandparents. I decided to keep it fairly simple and not go into details of any particular complications or technical details, or go into the negative side of things. In the end only 6 pages out of 44 were hospital pictures, and they include photos of Talia with the humidicrib, CPAP, NG tube, oxygen tubes etc so the detail is there if you have the eyes to see it, without making a song and dance about it.

here are a few i have just taken a photo of it so quality not the greatest.
I have recently printed a few extra pics of Nixon in hospital as looking back now i hardly put any in. I think at the time when doing them (this was my begining of scrapbooking) i didnt want to put photo's in that were not good ie: with tubes coming out machines etc, now i realise that it is about the entire story no matter what was happening at the time for instance Nixon's 2nd birthday i barely got a pic of him smiling, rather then not do any pics his frump will be in them and a short story of how he wouldnrt smile on his birthday!
I will send some of the more recent ones as i think u def get better with practise.

thats what i initially thought but have decided to now put in the whole story. the photo of your little darling is very familiar to me - charlies sunnies were a bit plainer though
thanks a lot for sharing that, it looks great. i have been selecting photos all morning for the first 6 months, its so hard to narrow them down!!

good on ya for making a scapbook.ive yet to put one togher for lil chelz but ive done a photo album now i want to do the scapbook after seeing how crafty people r on this forum

Good idea Nic, I took some photos of my 6 NICU pages so you can see what I did.

wow you'r crap all over mine lol!
is that actual prem paper or something?
i tried to upload a few more but was having probs will try again tomorrow

Mine is/was all electronic (then printed like a book) - so you can set your photos as background, make them different sizes, add a heap of different frames including the ones that make your photos look as if they are polaroids or photos with peeling corners, etc. It was a lot of fun to make, but that format is no good for including actual things like your eye shade.
This is the first photobook I've ever made but I've been making free layout photo albums (as opposed to 'slip it into the pocket' style) for many many years, and always included things like tickets, postcards, stamps etc. In some ways they feel more "real" than this book, which looks really professional but at the same time feels less personal. I don't know if that makes any sense. DH loved the book, but asked me if I would keep making the old style albums as he prefers them.

wow your photo book looks amazing - were you able to do that online? i have ordered mine to print out but will keep in mind the digital ones for future. i came into my study last night to find my husband crying and looking through the ICU and special care photos that i had left on the desktop. its only now that we are able to re-look at them. he has come so far and we are so proud of him!

I did it via a company called Momento, you download special software (free) from their website and use it to make your book, then upload it or send it via CD to them for printing. It's not cheap, but we wanted multiple copies of the same book for the grandparents (who loved it, so lots of brownie points to us!!)

I just realised as I was falling asleep last night that I have been making proper photo albums for 20 years...

Good luck with it all! I did a bit of Charlie's when I couldn't visit him because I was sick... I am ashamed to say I haven't done anymore since! I will take some photos to show you the sorts of things I have done!

Love the ideas Nic and Kathryn! Stunning!

Here are some that I have done.

They are a bit sad looking but I was only just starting out in scrapbooking when I created these pages.

I almost forgot to do this, sorry. Here are some I've done. I apologise for the crappy photos...still waiting on that new camera..

Because I have so many photos, I tried to focus on particular moments or milestones. eg. First cuddle, first Easter, first 1kg. I'm sure you have lots of similiar moments with your Charlie.

more...

last ones..hope it helps you out with some ideas!