Digital Baby Book: Using the Scanner to Preserve Keepsake Items

Today I am sharing the next post on Lyla's digital baby book that is now finished.  I can't wait to order a copy so I can see it in print!  So once upon a time I attempted to be a scrapbooker.  I was in my first couple of years of college and I wanted to catalogue all the photos and items from my senior year of high school and my freshman year of college.  I went to a craft store and bought a bunch of scrapbooking items.  I completed several pages that didn't look super great and then I lost my momentum.  It turns out that I don't actually have the patience for scrapbooking in the traditional way.  

After our honeymoon I decided that I didn't want all of those photos to just sit on my computer so I decided to create a photo book of the trip.  Each year since then I have also made a yearly photo book to highlight all of my favorite photos from our year.  I love putting it together every year.  That is why it was a no-brainer for me to do a digital book in place of the traditional baby book for Lyla. 

I did, however, want to preserve some of those items that you would find in a traditional baby book like Lyla's hospital bracelet and all of the cards we received.  I plan to put some of the items (like the hospital bracelet) in a shadow box with one of her first outfits but I turned to the scanner on our printer to help me digitally preserve some of those items.  Here are some of the items that I chose to scan into the baby book.

I scanned in the birth announcement from the paper and her hospital bracelet.  Her birth announcement at the top was actually a screen shot of the digital preview on Shutterfly where I purchased the announcements from.  

In the section of the book on the baby shower I included a scan of the adorable baby shower invite which was made by one of my shower hostesses and her cousin.  

I scanned in all the cards we received from the shower and the ones we received after Lyla was born. I made sure to scan the front and the inside with the message from the card giver.  It was a lot of scanning but totally worth it.  When I arranged the cards on the page I made sure to put the message from the inside on or near the front of the card it came from.  I love how the card collages turned out in the book.

I also scanned in the cards that she received at her baptism and the church bulletin from her baptism.

At the end of her baby book I included the little sheets with her stats from each doctor appointment during the year.

Finally I scanned in some of the little "art" projects that Lyla made at daycare throughout the year.  I wonder if the daycare teachers ever get tired of making art projects with baby feet and hands.  It always makes me chuckle when Lyla comes home with a pink foot from doing an art project.  I really like that multicolored blob towards the top left of the page because I believe that is Lyla's first finger painting.  Also the poor bee and turkey lost an eye somewhere between daycare and home.

Well that is it for today.  Next up on the blog-an update on the pretty much finished bonus room/playroom.