A Special Keepsake

Would you like to come and make this with me? I'm doing a one off special class on Thursday 5th June 2014. See my Upcoming Class Date page to book a place 

So - back from yet another cycle! The 'bike fit' worked - no right knee pain - yay! It made a really massive difference - much more enjoyable. We did 37 miles today, pretty slow but it's getting better.  It was the first time my Dad had taken us out and I think we were almost fast enough to make it bearable for him! He's turning 60 this year and he's way more bike fit than I am.  Here we are setting off....

I'm loving that it means I can eat loads of cake and chocolate without feeling guilty - I ate extra food last night, more for breakfast this morning, and a chocolate bar almost half way round.  We then stopped at a lovely cafe and had a large slice of Vanilla Fudge cake and a large mug of tea before heading back to a large bowl of soup and home made sour dough loaf for lunch. What can I eat now?.......

Anyway - back to the Stamping!

Last year my Stampin' Up Mummy Liz, did a special class where we made a beautiful Vintage Scrapbook.  I love all things vintage so there was no way I was missing it and I loved the result!  You can purchase the instructions from her blog for just £3.95 and the structure of the scrapbook also works for any other small scrapbooks - and I made one earlier this year for my vintage postcards - you can see it here. 

This scrapbook is a little more special.  LOADS of our friends are having babies at the moment and I wanted to make a babies 'firsts' scrapbook with the beautiful DSP Birthday Basics.  As mentioned before I'm generally a vintage girl, but occasionally a fresh bright paper comes along and really inspires me.  I've struggled to leave this paper alone!!

The book is tied with Crisp Canteloupe Ribbon, and has various size panels and patterns from the Birthday Basics DSP on the cover.  

This is the closed, and tied book.  I've left the front blank so that I can add a name and date of birth

I've tied the book with crisp canteloupe ribbon, and added Labels Collection Framelits in various sizes to the front, along with a Lion from the gorgeous Zoo Babies.

The first page

The first page has room for all the important details, including a little frame for a first pic.  I created the words for the whole album in a word document and printed them out onto Very Vanilla cardstock.

I created the little envelope using my scoring board, but the new envelope punch board would be perfect

This page took a little bit of time to create! I wasn't sure how I wanted the pseudo-family tree to work - in the end I kept it really simple.  I thought about adding siblings and then it occurred to me that these books only really get done for the first baby anyway unless Mum and/or Dad are super organised and committed. 

I handcut the wiggly bits!

This has got space for a little note from Mum and Dad, and a pocket for  a copy of their birth announcement

Zoo baby stamps - AWESOME!

The lower piece of DSP forms a pocket, to slot in photo's and a list of visitors.

I absolutely LOVE the Zoo Babies stamps, but they weren't coming to life enough when I first stamped them.  I found using a very tiny circular punch and using biro for pupils really makes the eyes pop, and i've taken to hand cutting a tiny heart to add to most of them....

Spaces for photographs, and to stick a lock of hair

you can't miss out a first handprint and footprint!

All the firsts! I've used a slightly larger punch for the eyes of the Rhino and Elephant 

So - that's it! My very special 'Firsts' Scrapbook. I hope you like.  Back to the cake for me now......:)

Leigh-Anne 

x

Would you like to come and make this with me? I'm doing a one off special class on Thursday 5th June 2014. See my Upcoming Class Date page to book a place