Not everything that you keep from your baby’s first year will fit in or be appropriate for a scrapbook. Here are a few other ways I keep memories from my son’s Elias’ first year.

Keepsake Box

Keepsake Box

Keepsake box

Chances are, you received A LOT of congratulations cards when your baby was born. You may have also bought magazines from that week, kept a newspaper from his birthday, and a few other mementos that won’t fit in a scrapbook. For these items, I have a large, acid-free box that I store everything in. Whenever I get something that I want to keep, but not necessarily scrapbook, the item goes right in the box. It keeps me organized and I know will be a special box to go through in the years to come.

Hospital Shadow Box

I created this shadow box to display a few keepsakes from when Elias was first born. In it are a newborn diaper, his onesie from the hospital, his id bracelet and a picture from when he was one day old. I simply painted and altered the box using my Xyron 900 and some patterned paper. I then added all the elements, creating an adorable decoration for his room. I plan to make one of these for each one of my children. It was so easy and receives compliments all the time.

Shadow Box

Shadow Box

Traditional Baby Book

Knowing that I am a scrapbooker, I wasn’t sure at first if I would want to keep a baby book. However, I decided to because some things about Elias’ first years that I probably won’t scrapbook – like his shot schedule, list of first visitors, etc. A baby book is a good catch-all, even if a few redundancies occur between it and your traditional scrapbook.

Calendar

In Elias’ room, hanging next to his changing table, is a baby calendar. Baby calendars are different than regular calendars because you write the days of each month in the squares – so my month one is July 12-August 12, to correspond with Elias’ first month. I try to write something at least a few times a week on the calendar. Some ideas include:

  • First foods
  • Doctor’s appointments
  • Milestones
  • Special visitors
  • Holidays
Calendar

Calendar

A calendar like this is great for two big reasons.

  • It requires little work AND you are still chronicling memories. I have it hanging by Elias’ changing table, with a pen attached so I don’t forget to write on it.
  • When you are ready to scrapbook some of those memories, you have the dates written down. I am amazed by how quickly I forget things that I thought I never would.

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