Digital Baby Book: Monthly Photo Pages + Custom Stickers

Wow it is almost November already!  I thought I would try to squeeze in a few more October posts in before the end of the month so here is the first of several.  I am back today to share another post on Lyla's baby book.  So far I have shared how to create a custom calendar page and the items that I scanned to files for preservation in the book.

Custom Calendar Page

Scanned Keepsakes

In today's post I am sharing the monthly photo pages from the book and how to create a custom sticker to use with the Mixbook software.  I have written several posts on Lyla's monthly photo sessions from her first year including this post on the burlap bunting I made for the set, this post on the monthly photos, and this update on how the photos were going at 4 months.  These photos were fun to share on FaceBook each month and also worked well as decor for her 1st birthday party.  But I knew that these photos would shine the most in her baby book.  

Each month I recorded all of the little things that Lyla did and all of the activities she participated in. Some of these things are recorded in the calendar pages but others were used to help me write a letter each month to Lyla.  I loved doing this and I recommend that every expecting mother plan to do something like this for their child.  It is really touching for me to go back and read each letter and I hope that someday it will be meaningful to Lyla as well once she gets to read them herself.  I plan to continue to write one every 3 months up until she turns 2 and and then yearly after that.  It would be fun to include all of the letters in a book that I could give to her at her high school graduation.  

As you can see I made each monthly page have the same format.  I chose to keep these pages clean and simple because I wanted the photos and the letter to be the focus of each monthly page.  I wanted to add a little "handwritten" element to the letters so that is where the creation of the custom stickers comes in.  Here is how I created them:

I opened up my Pixelmator software (you can do this in photoshop or any other photo editing software and I am sure the steps are similar) and selected a blank canvas size.  I just used standard letter size in this example.  I then selected a font and typed my message.  Next I clicked on the background layer in the layers window and hit delete.

Once the background layer is deleted then you will see a checkerboard pattern behind the text.

Now you need to save the document.  When the save menu appears click in the box next to "save a copy as" and then select PNG from the drop down menu.  PNG stands for portable network graphic.

Now open up your project in Mixbook and click on the stickers tab on the left side of the screen and then click on the browse stickers button.

Select the upload stickers tab in the menu that pops up and then click on the orange upload stickers button.  Find your file and select it.

Once the sticker has uploaded you can close the window and your sticker can be found in the project stickers section of the stickers tab.  If you hover your cursor over the sticker then it will magnify it.  

To add the sticker to a page simply click on it and drag it to the page you want it on.  When you have the sticker selected on the page you can change the size of it and also manipulate it in other ways using the gray tool bar that pops up below the sticker.  

I used custom stickers in other places in the book as well.  The hot air balloons on each calendar page were vector files that I purchased on Etsy.  The little bison that you see on this page was just an image that I found by doing a google search.  I saved the image to my computer and opened it in Pixelmator. I used the magic wand tool or paint selection tool and clicked on the background surrounding the image and deleted it.  Then I saved the image as a PNG.  The only problem with this is that the images are often poor quality which limits how much you can enlarge them with out them becoming blurry or pixelated.  This wasn't a problem for me, however, since I was using them on the calendar pages and needed them to be small.  You could also type png after the image you are searching.  You will know it is a PNG if the background comes up with a checkerboard pattern when you click on the thumbnail in google images.  Then you can eliminate the step of removing the background in photo editing software.

I also scanned the footprints from the hospital into my computer and made them into PNG files.  I had to adjust the darkness of the footprints to make it work properly but you just have to play around with it little bit.

One of my favorite pages in the book is this page with all of her monthly photos and her 1st birthday invitation in the middle.

It is so fun to see how much she has grown.  And now she is 15 months!  Time flies!

Here is my little cutie playing in the leaves.  I love her so much!  Up next: a simple diy Kitty costume.

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.

Digital Baby Book: Custom Calendar Page

Today's post is the first in a new series on the digital baby book that I have been working on for Lyla's first year.  This is a massive project so I thought I would break it up into a series of posts instead of writing a massive post.  The book is almost complete, I just need to add the photos from Lyla's professional 1st birthday photo session once we receive the gallery.  You can take a look at the almost completed book here.  

I chose to use Mixbook for this project because there seemed to be a lot more customizable features than other websites I've used in the past.  So now let me tell you about the first page that I am featuring in this series: a custom calendar page.  I created this page in Pixelmator but it would be easy to create it in any photo editing/graphic design software.

I started by opening up the program and then selected "create new image." I set the preset to "custom" and set the dimensions for 4429 by 4499 pixels with a resolution of 600 pixels/inch.  I can't remember how I came up with these particular dimensions since I did it so long ago but I am sure I looked up the best dimensions for making a custom page and somehow came up with those numbers.

Next I did a Google image search for herringbone background (you could search for any kind of background of course).  You will want to make sure that the image you use doesn't have any watermarks.  I saved the image to my desktop and then dragged the file onto my Pixelmator canvas.

Next I enlarged the image to the size I wanted and duplicated it as many times as I needed to fill the canvas (in this case, I needed 4 images to cover the canvas).  I carefully lined up the pieces so that it looked like one continuous background.

I then drew a square over the background.  

Then I turned down the opacity of the square so that I could see a bit of the background through the square.

I added a boarder to the square using the shape controls right about the canvas.

Then I drew lines until I had the square divided into enough small squares for a month. This was the trickiest step because it took awhile to get it lined up just right. It probably isn't perfect but it looks good enough to me.

I added numbers and the name of the month using the text tool.  You can use any font on your computer for these steps.  You can also change the color of the text using the text controls above the canvas that show up when you are using the text tool.

Then I duplicated the name of the month.

I changed the copy to navy.

My layer with the text copy was actually in front of the other text layer so I just dragged the copy layer down below the original layer in layer window to put it behind the original.  Then I offset it a little from the original text to make a shadowed look.  I saved the image and then exported it as jpeg file with maximum quality.

Next I opened up Mixbook and uploaded my calendar files into my photo library for the project.  

I selected a full page picture layout (it had text but I just deleted the text box) from the layout tab.  I then dragged the month that I needed onto the page from my photo library.

Finally I added text to the days that included milestones, trips, and other special events from her first year.  I added stickers from the sticker menu or that I uploaded myself to decorate the page and make it a little more fun.

I hope you gained some inspiration on how you can create your own calendar page for your digital book project.  I am so excited to share more posts in this series in the future because I am pretty proud of how her baby book looks so far.  Next up on the blog: I will finally post about the teepee that I made for her 1st birthday!  

A Simple Backyard 1st Birthday Party

Hello everyone!  Today I am posting about the party that we threw for our daughter's 1st birthday.  I was on the fence of whether or not I wanted to throw a party for a 1 year old but after attending the 1st birthday parties for a few of my friend's kids, I realized that it is just a fun excuse to spend some time with friends and family and to make cute decorations.  I kept it very simple and since it was summer I decided to make it an outdoor event.

I started by making the invitation.  My daughter loves kitties so I decided to make the invite cat themed even though the party itself didn't have a specific theme.  I usually make this sort of thing with my Pixelmator software but this time I decided to use my Silhouette software instead.  I chose to use the Silhouette software because I could find the kitty shapes in my library in the software instead of having to find and purchase the right png images.

For the smash cake I made a kitty cake.  I made the cake layers in a 4 inch CorningWare ramekin.  I made a basic buttercream frosting and after frosting the cake with a crumb coat I piped on the "fur" using  Wilton No. 233 Multi-Opening Decorating tip. I then used some purchased fondant to make the face and ears of the cat.  The black and pink on the eyes and nose was gel icing.  The whiskers bled a little, they looked better after I first finished the decorating but I forgot to take a picture then!

The cake stand was a $5 purchase from the dollar aisle at Target.  I used a barnwood frame purchased at Hobby Lobby to showcase the monthly photos of Lyla.  You can read more about the monthy photo sessions here and here.  I purchased the prints from Shutterfly because they have a new 4" by 4" print option.  The baker's twine, thumb tacks, and clothespins were all leftover items from this photo display in Lyla's nursery.

I used a tablecloth I had on hand and the bunting from her monthly photos to finish decorating the food table.  We served fried chicken, watermelon, cowboy caviar and chips (you can find the recipe in this post on our last NYE party), a couple of store bought pasta salads, a layered jello salad, and this delicious broccoli salad.

My mom borrowed some tables and chairs from a couple of friends and I simply decorated them with a few jars wrapped in burlap ribbon (originally from Lyla's baptism but they also made an appearance at this baby shower) filled with some budget blooms from a local grocery store floral department.

We also set up Lyla's birthday gift for the kids to play in at the party.  There will be a separate post on the making of this teepee at a later date.  There you have it, a very simple 1st birthday party.  It was fun and the weather turned out perfect despite a little bit of wind.