Simple Baby Shower Memory Book

Baby Shower Scrapbook Pre-Assembly

I always wanted to be the crafty one and I never was.  This summer everything changed.  I finally found my inner crafter!  Now I am both handy with my tools and nearer to crafty and I love it!   I was part of a group of girls who threw a baby shower for our friend Michelle this summer and someone had the idea to leave a guestbook so that everyone could leave a congratulatory note.  I just did not like the idea of leaving blank book with no pizazz!  So I created my first scrap / memory book and it turned out great and was so special to Greg and Michelle!  Much more so than a empty book.  You could also do something like this for a gift at a shower and create a page for every month of the baby’s life or for pictures of big “firsts”.  I would have loved that!

First, I used my usual 40% off coupon at Michael’s (seriously I think you get them every time you check out – good for one item) for an 8×8 scrapbook in chocolate brown, one of the colors in the nursery!  I then went back the next day with my coupon from that purchase to buy a pack of little boy like paper that was SO cute.

I cut the paper so that there was 1/4 inch on all sides. I liked the look of showing the black paper and I wanted a solid canvas for the pictures and cards.  I used a simple Fiskars cutter.

Cute Paper

After making my pages I decided to go all out and make small envelopes to put the little notes in.  There was nothing pre-made that matched my paper or was the right size.  Crafting is like furniture – if you need something of a certain size – you DIY!  I found an envelope template online.  I cut my template out of the thickest cardstock I could find in my craft closet so that I could use it to make all of my envelopes.  In total I had 15 pages.  This took a LONG time to do, especiailly for a first timer, but it was so worth it!  The scrapbook pages have two sides so both the inside and outside of the envelopes look adorabe!  You simply fold the two small sides in and use glue to attach the bottom that will fold up.  You can choose whether to leave the envelope opoen as I did or close it.   I will now be making all of my envelopes.  They are so precious!

Envelope Template

Outside Envelope

Inside Envelope

Once I had all the envelopes ready I attached them to my pages, trying to make each look good as far as coordinating paper and envelopes.  I then figured out the right size cardstock to slip into all of the envelopes so the guests could easily write their notes and slip them in!

Page with Envelope

We decided to take a picture of each couple at the shower to be included in the memory book.  I wanted it to be classy looking and easy for Michelle to put the pictures in as soon as we sent them to her.  The 8×8 page size made me decide to use a 3.25×5 size picture as a template to create my black cardstock “frame”.  You can get 3.25×5 pictures online at Winkflash.   I cut blank pieces of paper in this size so the book would not look “empty” without the pictures for the party.  On each template I included a remider to get the picture taken so as couples slipped in their note they would know they needed to have their photoshoot!  I then also chose some adorable boy stickers (with yet another 40% off coupon!).  It took awhile to arrange all the pages so they did not look the same and had different layouts.  Some had larger or smaller stickers.  Some envelopes were on the top and some on the bottom.  Some pictures were horizontal and some vertical.  They all turned out adorable!