How many scrapbooks does one baby need?

3 as it turns out. Or will turn out. 

When I was pregnant, I decided to spend my Christmas money on a lovely chocolate brown American Crafts D-ring album. My mum brought me a lot of Rusty Pickle White chocolate Bunnies papers and embellishments and I had a colour palatte of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla to work with which would not tie me to a specific range for any future purchases. The album was to be for her first year, just higgledy piggledy of all the little moments from conception to 1 year.

I didn't manage to scrap LO's scan photos before she cam along so that album is sitting patiently waiting for me to get started. But before I gave birth I visited the range. To find that Papermania have just launched a new range of Forever Friends new baby items. To whit 2 scrapbooks, a 12x12 cardstock pad, decopage, A4 papers and stickers. How lovely of them!! I brought the A4 die cut pack with a view to making some thank you cards for all the lovely things that I had received at my baby shower and told my mum (fellow crafter) about the range at The Range. 

When LO was born, she brought pretty much the whole set for herself, in order to scrap LO's first years. 1 album for monthly pages and 1 for random pages. And I thought "that's a good idea" so I brought 1 album and the paper pack for LO's  first years random pages. And the thought that I would use the other album for her key photos; scan pics, birth photos, yearly photos etc etc. 

I have already made a mini-album of the pregnancy, which includes pictures, receipts for important things but I am struggling to find a cover. I did think of my Once Upon a Time stack which after 5  years is still unused but it wont co-ordinate with the page colours. I briefly thought to use it for LO but couldn't come up with a good album theme. Until now that is. 

So my OUAT pages (and the co-ordinating album when I can justify the cost) will be LO's monthly photos. 1 picture plus the associated blog post with what she is doing at that month. If I have enough pages, this will span 2 years. The Forever Friends album will be for her first years pictures, although at this rate I may need to buy another one. And the brown album will be a slow work in process as she grows with key photos and yearly photos. 

And then we'll see what else we can fit in....

Love Elliefantasy

Looking to the future

Having had experience of being a parent for 8 weeks and being home alone with a small baby for 4 weeks, I can now start to gauge how much time I have to craft. Which is not a lot.

I have also not had time to sort out my new craft room after the hasty change of venue pre-baby and have had to cram a lot of stuff in a small space. I know that in 2-3 years time I will have to move to an even smaller space and this has led me to think about what crafting I really want to do.

So For the next 2 years (as much as time allows) I am embarking on a large scale stash busting exercise which will also allow me opportunities for trying out techniques and crafts that I haven't yet tried. My stash and tools will be whittled down to only what can be fitted onto a 4x4 Expedite unit.

I will try to collect together all my stash busting tips to share to help anyone else like me who started out by buying massive paper stacks which are now collecting dust somewhere. It may also result in some Robo templates to download so keep an eye out if you are interested.

I will also be scrapping my daughter as she grows. I have big plans for this but it is a post for another day.

Love Elliefantasy xxx