Caylin’s Baby Album: Part 3

I’m so sorry this blog post didn’t go up on Friday or over the weekend like I planned. It became a bit larger than I anticipated and very photo heavy, but I wanted to include all of it into this post. So bear with me – this post is a doozy. ;)

I’ve made considerable progress on Caylin’s baby album – Project Life style. I’m not going to say that it wasn’t time consuming considering I basically went through ALL of the scrapbook layouts that I created for her early on and then took the journaling and the photographs and incorporated them into the Project Life format, but it is TOTALLY WORTH IT. I just love the way it’s coming along. It’s more simple, neater, more organized and I just love how it concentrates more on the memories and not so much on the mass amount of embellishments, product, etc. I don’t have to worry about photo placement, trends, titles, etc. – it’s just all-around easier and more enjoyable. It’s definitely the way to go if you are wanting to do a baby album or a childhood album.

When it comes to Caylin’s album I debated on how I was going to do it because I have taken A LOT of photos of her. LOL. She is almost 8 and there are a ton of photos, scrapbook layouts, memories, etc. What I decided to do is to complete her baby album for the front part of the album and then just continue on with photos and journaling of her toddler and younger years. Then when the photos got to 2012 I am going to just let the photos that I have of her in our FAMILY Project Life album be enough because let’s face it – I don’t want to have to do a separate album for EACH kid through the years when I have this super awesome and cool family album that has so many memories of each kid, what they are like, what they love, photos, journaling, “right now” moments, etc. There would be a lot of redundancy in a separate album for them so I’m going to stick with the baby album for each child and Caylin’s will have just a bit more to it since unfortunately Project Life as not around back then. ;) Once again, I’m just adapting it all to what works for me and my family and I’m content with that. Caylin, Jack and our other son (name is being kept a secret, heehee) will all have baby albums. Caylin will have a bit more in her album and Jack will have about a year’s worth of extra photos and memories behind his baby album, but our other son will just have his baby album and then all other photos, journaling, memories and every day moments will be contained in our family Project Life album each year. I think that’ll do! :)

Ok, so you can see the FIRST and SECOND installment of Caylin’s baby album progress by clicking on those links.

Here’s what I’ve done since then – I still have plenty to do, but thankfully THIS part won’t take as long as getting the photos reprinted and going through the memories, will. SO neat to take a trip down memory lane though and like I said, it’s turning out so great – it’s worth it and I’m loving it!

I decided that when it came to the monthly photos I took of her that I was going to do them all continuously for a few pages. I thought it would be really neat to see her grow every month and to have the stats and details of each month together like that. I thought about spreading them out a bit (and you totally could do that), but decided against it.

(Note: The 7th month title card is supposed to be where that pink milestones card is on the bottom left. I accidentally put that card in front of the 7th month card, but it has been fixed now.) :)

I love the “Highlights and Milestones” cards and I decided that I did want them with the monthly photos and the “this month’s stat’s” and so I put each one of those cards with more details on it BEHIND the numbered 4×6 title cards.

I know they’re there and just thought that would be a good place to tuck them. I also numbered each photo so I know for sure which month that is for – even though the monthly card is close by – I figured it would be a sweet little touch to have the monthly number on the photo as well. Another thing I did was when it came to some of the “this month’s stat’s” cards – I didn’t have room for them close to the photo that corresponded with that month so I just glued the 3×4 card onto the 4×6 card -you can see an example of that in the first photo above on the 5th month card.

I STILL have to fill out the monthly stats AND the details cards, but trust me – I have all of that information contained on scrapbook layouts and I just figured I’d get my photos all in, my little post-it note notes where I need them and then go back through the album and spend some time rewriting those details and memories down.

Now that I have all of her monthly photos in the album I just jumped right in and after printing some photos, I just made sure they were in chronological order and started plugging them in her album.

As you can see – there are some of my mini post-it note notes where I need to take journaling cards and rewrite the journaling about the photos/event. :)

The pages obviously aren’t complete (I’ll share the entire baby album/early years album once it’s completed), but I thought I’d just share my process and how I’m doing her album so that you get an idea. :)

Some spots will have “filler” cards – others will have journaling. I am also NOT wasting the embellishments that I could salvage from the scrapbook layouts that I took apart. ;) I am using them sporadically throughout her album. I’m not BIG on adding a bunch to my Project Life pages – I’ve always been more of a simple gal, but I definitely did NOT want to waste them and so I’m adding them here and there and the ones I’m not using Caylin has asked for to put to use in HER Project Life album. :)

I have so many photos that on some pages I am just letting the photos speak for themselves and doing no journaling cards:

I think it’s totally OK to just go with the flow with your baby albums AND your family Project Life albums. It’s totally no stress and just having these photographs and memories contained in ONE album organized like this is seriously making me giddy. There’s just something so much more special about eliminating all of the clutter of scrapbook supplies and concentrating on the photos and memories. :)

Also, some other cool things I’ve included in her album so far are things like:

• The timeline that I kept during labor (see photo below)
• The baby shower invitation for the baby shower my sisters threw for me
• The photo that was the way we announced we were pregnant
• The birthday party invitations that I created for her – I don’t have them ALL, but I do have some and I’m going to include those. :)
• I also, as you saw in one of the previous posts, included her little hospital hat and her hospital bracelets.

Oh, and when I come across some scrapbook layouts that I just can’t bear to NOT include – I’m just slipping them in a page protector and including them in the album. Easy cheesy. :)

Now what I need to do is go back and handwrite the journaling and memories onto the journaling cards that I already had tucked in their appropriate spots.

I also have a few pages done of her “early childhood” section of her album. I’m just continuing on after her baby section of her album. I’ve been using lots of different Project Life cards in this section (especially Blush which I ADORE!).

I hope seeing these pages has inspired you to create a baby album for your child(ren) or to even revamp one that you’ve already done into the super awesome Project Life format. It’s such a classic, beautiful album and I love concentrating on the MOMENTS and MEMORIES because after all, those are what matters the most.

Let me know if you have any questions! I’m happy to answer them! I’ll also be sharing even MORE pages soon of her album. I’ve got plenty of pages left to do, but it has been a fun, enjoyable process and the end result is one to be cherished for sure!

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

• I’m also linking up with The Mom Creative’s Project Life Tuesday post HERE!