How did you commemorate that amazing time with a pregnancy scrapbook layout?
Being a father, my pregnancy scrapbook layout - which you can see at the bottom of this page - is never going to have the same meaning for me as it would for a mother. That's just life! As I'm never going to know what this is like, I'd be very interested to see how you marked this event in a scrap layout.
For my Pregnancy scrapbook layout I wanted to feature an imaginary dialogue between the unborn baby and his or her expectant older sibling. If they actually could converse, I wonder what they'd say!
TO THE POWER OF '3'
I always find that if I'm going to tell a mini journaling story (VERY mini in this case!), that there is something satisfying about the number 3. Rather like with jokes, using number 3 - in terms of photos or captions - just creates a mood of amusement.
NURSERY ACCENTS
I found some ideal paper from Ellory, rather like nursery wallpapaer. That brings back some stressful memories. As soon as my daughter could stand up she started peeling it off! The nursery embellishments from the excellent Royal and Langnickel were handy. I couldn't resist hanging the lampshade mobile over the foetus - enough to make anyone's eyes water.
HAVE YOU EVER HAD 'SCRAPPERS' BLOCK'?!
Every time I think about making a layout I um and ah for ages, not knowing how to start it. I might have some great photos, maybe even some great embellishments but I can't get a handle on the 'big picture' - literally. I am therefore hugely grateful to Jen Gormley's superb book '
500 Scrapbooking Sketches
', that has a ton of great layout frameworks that bust through my scrapper's block every time! What a lot of time I might have saved. Hey ho.
TOP VIDEO FOR ANY BUDDING PREGNANCY SCRAPPER
I do like a well-written scrapbooking teaching book but sometimes I just wanna be SHOWN! Anyone who thinks the same as me should really check out Stephanie Barnard's Simply Scrapbooking Video Guide
. It's been what a lot of us have been crying out for like newborns!
HOW ABOUT USING 'CRICUT' FOR YOUR PREGNANCY SCRAPBOOK LAYOUT?
A lot's being written about the 'Cricut', as well as the Cricut 'Expression', the higher-powered version right now, and most of it is very good. The only recurring moans seem to be about the Design Studio Software.....
i) Although Cricut doesn't require a computer to use, the DS manual does seem to assume more technical knowledge than it might. That can be frustrating for us 'technophobes'.
ii) You can burn through a lot of cardstock while you're 'trial and erroring'!
(iii) Lack of really helpful video tutorial support. I had to search around the web.
Fortunately Brandi Gore, a very experienced Scrapbooker has put together THE manual for using the Design Studio Software both for
Cricut
and for
Cricut Expresssion
- the manual that many people think should have come with the product in the first place. Get yourself a copy and save yourself a pile of frustration!
CLEAR CHOICE FOR STAMPS
For my captions, I used some great letter stamps from Clear Choice. The red ink by Clearsnap did rather fade after a while, but that's not uncommon with dye inks. I 'touched up' the borders before I uploaded the image.
GINGHAM OVERKILL?
Looking at this pregnancy scrapbook layout in the cold light of day, I think the border ribbon (HMA Creative - not their fault!) doesn't really work. If I see space round the edge of a 12 x 12 I can't resist sticking ribbon on it. I think ribbon looks better when it's not supposed to be uniformly straight. We use ribbon for several effects - but maybe I could have achieved a straight edge with something different. Never mind, the baby's bound to peel it all off anyhow!
