Baby Scrapbook Ideas for the Digital Age

The first year of life is filled with so many milestones. A great way to capture these events in one place is with a photo album or scrapbook. Depending on time available and your personal preference, these albums can be cut-and-paste-style scrapbooks or digital baby memory books created online and sent to your home.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the most popular options today, along with some tips for staying focused no matter what kind of scrapbooking you’re doing.

baby scrapbook

Making a scrapbook out of paper and physical photos is the only way for some. Something about cropping photos and adding embellishments satisfies that creative need. These handmade baby memory books allow places to put that lock of hair from the first cut and the hospital imprint.

Most brick-and-mortar scrapbook shops offer classes and workshops (some offer events specifically for baby photo albums) where they’re happy to teach new skills, act as consultants, and sell new tools. Many offer “marathon” events where patrons can stay for 6-12 hours and potentially finish an entire album in one day. These are a great way to get ideas, stay focused on the task at hand, and feel energized to finish album after album.

digital scrapbooks

When considering digital books, it’s a good idea to shop around before uploading any photos. Find the company you’d like to work with based on the factors most important to you, such as print quality, binding quality, speed of delivery, and ease of sharing/ordering, etc. Some places offer less expensive books, but the binding may be glued rather than sewn; while fine for short-term enjoyment, this is an important distinction when creating a book that is meant to last a lifetime.

Digital photo websites allow you to upload photos and create a digital book using a template or design them “from scratch” using some basic design tools and decorations. There is space to write over the photos so everyone can read about the first birthday or the first time the great-grandparents and baby met. These books are usually created quickly once the photos are chosen and uploaded.

Choosing photos and setting goals

Choosing the photos is an important step for any method. Sort photos, whether digital or physical, and choose a few favorites. For starters, an efficient use of space is to allow a page or two for each event or each month. As you design your starter photos, be sure to arrange them without gluing anything down permanently; there may be enough space for more photos and they can be added at that time.

Set a simple goal, such as completing three months at a time instead of the entire year at once. If your “baby” is already 4 or even 14 years old, focus on the most recent year and work backward through the photos by year. You’ll remember more about last year than the day she was born, but keep working and you’ll finish each year.