First off, many thanks to Blurb for sponsoring today’s fun!

If you’ve been following along, you’re probably aware that I gave birth to my second son last fall.  Yep, Mr. Brayden Patrick arrived in October, and we of course had professional newborn photos taken to capture all of his tiny cuteness.

While we’ve printed out several of our favorite photos and have them framed in our home, what about the rest??  I mean, there are just so many adorable shots of our newest little man, his older brother, and some great family ones too.

They ALL deserve to be displayed in real life and not just in an online Facebook album!

Enter a photo book!  Yep, photo books are a great way to collect and display special memories or occasions….and you don’t have to worry about piling all those individual 4×6’s into a shoebox and then never having them see the light of day again, forever lost somewhere in the back of a closet.

Here I’ll share all the details on how I made my son’s baby photo book, as well as tips to help you make the perfect one of your own!

 

Tips for Creating the Perfect Baby Photo Book

Most of these tips can be applied to photo books of all types, not just those for wee ones.  These include wedding, travel, kids’ artwork, family yearbooks, photography, etc.  Take what you find useful and leave the rest! :)

 

Determine Your Style

First things first.  What’s the look you’re going for?

Do you want a straight-up photo book with nothing but pictures (like I did), or will you also be combining the pics with text?  If using text, how much?  Just short captions or full paragraphs or even stories?

Figuring this out before starting your book will save you lots of time during the design phase.  I only included text on the front cover, spine, and first page of Brayden’s book….and it was only his name and birth stats!

Let me tell you, it’s MUCH quicker and easier just including photos….no need to think of all those pesky words. ;)

 

Figure Out The Basics

Before diving in and designing your photo book, you’ll need to decide on the basics:

• COVER: Do you want a soft cover (like a paperback) or a hard cover?  Dust-jacket?  What will your covers (front and back) look like or say?  How about the spine?
• SHAPE/ORIENTATION: A landscape, portrait, or square book?
• NUMBER OF PAGES: Most books come with a pre-set number of standard pages, and you can always add more if you want….for an additional fee, of course.
• PAPER TYPE: You’ll also need to choose the type of paper for the pages.  Do you want a glossy, matte, or pearl finish?  What weight or thickness are you after?

 

Narrow Down the Moments You Want Included

Are you just going to include professional newborn pics like I did?  Or are you wanting more, like shots from the hospital?  Your kiddo’s whole first year?  Pics of their nursery too?

Determine the moments you want included in your photo book and get all of the pictures organized together in advance.

This was pretty easy for me since I wanted only the professional newborn photos.  In the famous words of Tim Gunn (any Project Runway fans, here?), I wanted to keep the book cohesive.

Before starting, I made sure I had all of my images saved in a single folder on my desktop.  This made uploading them and creating layouts quick and easy.  Hooray for no searching!

 

Just the Facts, errr, Stats, Maam

This book is for a baby, after all, so you gotta include the stats!  Everyone wants to know allllll the details, so make sure you include the birth weight, height, time, full name, along with any other pertinent info (like the name of the hospital and city) somewhere in your photo book.

I kept my son’s pretty simple and included everything on the very first page of the book.  That way you see Brayden’s stats then start flipping through all of his adorable ten-day-old cuteness.

Depending on the theme you decide to go with, it might also be fun to include pictures of their little hospital footprint, their hand wrapped around your finger, the time on the clock of their birth, a family picture with the delivery doctor, and any other fun memorable moments.

 

Don’t Forget the (Extra) Little Things!

Ahhhh, babies and their super tiny features.  Those fingers, toes, button nose, and pouty lips.  And oh, those adorable scrunchy faces.  Too, too sweet.

They’re only little once, so make sure you capture closeups of all that sweetness and include them in the photo book.  You’ll definitely want to remember them!

 

Mix It Up & Make It Pretty

Not that your little one isn’t exciting enough as is, but keep things extra interesting by mixing up the look of the photos and the feel of your book.

Use some color photos with others that are black and white (unless you’re like my parents and have an intense aversion to black and white photos for some reason….).

 

Change up the layout too by having some vertical images mixed with landscape or square ones….

 

….and keep things simple with some full-page pictures.

 

Don’t be afraid to use some photos that span the gutter (or where the pages connect to the spine). Those look oh so fancy, don’t they?

Moral of the story….spice things up!

 

Use a Photo Service That Has It All

I’ve used a variety of photo services throughout the years, and let me tell ya….most are quite time-consuming and mentally taxing, or they’re outrageously expensive. The whole process can just get too darn arduous and intimidating that no books are ever actually completed….and all those precious photos never get to see the light of day. Boo.

That’s why I LOVED creating Brayden’s newborn photo book with Blurb. It was SO freakin’ quick and easy! For real.

 

Our Completed Baby Photo Book

All in all, I probably spent an hour and a half putting together Brayden’s baby photo book in one sitting. It’s amazing what a momma can accomplish after her kiddos go to bed! :)

About a week later, our book arrived, and I can’t express in words how much I love it! Now we have ALL of Brayden’s ten-day-old newborn photos collected together and easily viewable. I know I’ll cherish this for years to come….and I plan on adding lots more photo books to our collection too. #sentimentalmommy

 

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Make sure you check out my Project Gallery for lots of other baby fun, crafty creations, tips, and freebies, like these!

 

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!