Hope you are having a sweet and safe Halloween!
Monthly Archive for October, 2010
With Halloween a few days away I thought it would be fun to have a Halloween photo contest. Simply submit any Halloween photo for a chance to win a free custom designed Halloween scrapbook layout from Tara Sroka Designs! The free layout will be delivered as a high resolution jpg. Scrapbook layouts are great ways to share with friends and family the big moments in your life – plus they are super easy to email and post to social media as well! Email me by November 7th at tara@tarasrokadesigns.com or share a link to your photos as a comment to be entered*. Enter as many photos as you like – each photo will count as a separate entry.
*Earn extra entry points by:
1 – Fan (Like) me on Facebook and come back here and post that you liked TSD.
2 – Follow me on Twitter @TaraSroka – then Tweet:
@TaraSroka is having an awesome Halloween photo contest for a chance to win a free Halloween scrapbook layout!
Then come back to this post and tell me you tweeted.
3 – Sign up for my newsletter and then come back to this post and tell me you signed up.
To get you in a spooky ghoulish mood here’s a few Halloween layouts from the past few years to get you inspired.
And to help you with your Halloween photos I came across these great photography tips to get some spooktacular photos! So go look through all your photos – old and new and enter my Halloween Photo Contest!
Now that we’ve discussed all about maternity scrapbooking it’s time to discuss the baby scrapbook!
Most of the same ideas from capturing your pregnancy journey apply to documenting your baby’s special moments. Many moms opt not to do a maternity scrapbook but rather a baby book. Even if you don’t want to do a whole book about your pregnancy it’s a good idea to add at least 1-2 pages in your child’s book documenting your journey. What I like to do for baby books and I encourage clients to do is a 1st Year in Review book.
Here’s a list of page ideas and themes to get you started:
- Letter from Mom
- Sonogram photo and momma baby bump photo
- Room/decor photos
- Photos from the day of birth – family shots
- Coming home from the hospital
- Baby Announcement & photo
- Newborn photo shoot photos
- Baptism/Naming Ceremony
- First bath
- First words
- Crawling
- First steps
- Playing
- Sleeping baby
- With grandparents
- With siblings
- First birthday
- First Holiday(s) – Christmas/Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, Easter, etc.
- Any other great photos that capture a special moment
Also, take a peek at the book I did for my cousin, Kayla for her 1st birthday – it incorporates a lot of the above themes and page ideas.
Next time, we’ll talk about journaling, photos and what you can do with all your baby special memorabilia.
And, if you want to scrapbook your baby’s 1st year memories but don’t want to actual do it yourself or know where to start, contact me and I can help.
Check it, check it…Michelle Underwood has a new fabulous kit out today, It’s a Hoot that I love and it’s GREEN with OWLS – I’m in heaven!
Here’s a layout of me from the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. I “actually” like this photo and glad to show it off.
Hope you are having a fantastic Tuesday – more soon!
Seven years ago today John proposed to me on the morning of his big move to NYC. Before I found digital scrapbooking I did “some” paper scrapbooking although I really hated every minute of it. Paper scrapbooking is too stressful for me but this page did come out pretty good so I thought I would share this with you – a pre-digi page!
What’s your engagement story? I’d love to hear it. Proposal stories make great additions for a “Story of Us” book which showcase a couples relationship through courtship, proposal, wedding, honeymoon and all the other fabulous times together. If you want to scrapbook your story but don’t want to actual do it yourself or know where to start, contact me and I can help.
In keeping with the “maternity matters” theme I thought I would post this event for anyone in or around New York City. This Biggest Baby Shower Ever from Big City Moms sounds like it’s going to be a fun event for moms and moms-to-be. I hear there is some good swag as well to be had! Love the design and look of this evite too – very cool!
I apologize for not posting much here this week like I promised. Life has gotten quite busy this week and there wasn’t much time for blogging or scrapbooking. It’s all good things that have me distracted but nonetheless side-tracked. Anyways, bare with me and I’ll get back to soon with some baby scrapbooking tidbits and inspiration.
Happy Friday and have a great weekend!
In my travels on the web I’ve come across some great maternity and baby inspired kits/art for scrapbooking. This is just a small sampling of some of the great artwork out there to scrapbook with – so there is no reason not to document your journey. Check out the links below to find where each product is sold.
Oh Baby Kit, Prego Word Art,Press Lines no.10 – Pregnancy, Here We Grow, Mom and Baby Girl Stamps, Momma to Be Doodles, Momma To Be Blueberry, Baby Bunches, Great Expectations, B-ing Pregnant Word Art, On That Beautiful Day, On That Joyful Day, Little Miracle, My Gift, Meant to Be, Pea in a Pod, Pregnancy Word Art, Pregnancy Week by Week, Pregnancy Brushes
And, congratulations to Amanda Dunn who won a free layout from last week’s contest. I can’t wait to get started on your design!
In order to take great photos for scrapbooking you really need to have a good camera. Luckily my friend Patty is having a FABULOUS giveaway on her blog where you can win a Kodak Easyshare M580 Camera & Digital Picture Frame! So head over to her blog to enter. Good luck and if you want to create a scrapbook with all your great photos but don’t want to actual do it yourself contact me and I can help!
Along with photos of the ultrasound it is important to take pictures of yourself too! Make sure to take profile pictures throughout your pregnancy to document your month-by-month progression of your growing tummy. In Karen Lisa’s photography Q&A the other day she discussed the importance of taking photos of yourself during pregnancy.
In the end you can then put all the profile pictures together on one page in order in your scrapbook. When your child is older, he or she will really enjoy seeing pictures of him/herself in mommy’s belly. It will be fun for you to look back at how your body changed as your little one grew inside of you.
Another fun idea if you have other children is to take photos of growing belly and profile with your little ones.
My friend Jessica graciously agreed to let me showcase her very own profile shots she has been taking during her pregnancy. It’s fun to see her progression from beginning to end. I love how she did these photos too! And congratulations are in order for Jessica, who recently had a beautiful baby boy!
Here’s a few tips to when taking your profile shots:
- Try to pick a place that has a simple background behind you – like a wall shown in Jessica’s photos.
- Try to pose in the same place or position in your photos to get a true progression over the months.
- Try to take a photo every 4 weeks.
- Wear something comfortable and don’t feel like you have to show your actual exposed belly – covered up is just fine!
Besides photography you may want to save some special items throughout your pregnancy to make your scrapbook extra special.
Here are some ideas of memorabilia to save and include:
- Pregnancy test (a photo of this will do)
- Ultrasound photos
- Appointment card(s) from your doctor appointments
- Name tags from childbirth classes
- Cards of congratulations received from family and friends
- Drawings done by your other children if you have any
- Tags from baby and maternity clothes
- Registry lists and information
- Baby Shower invitation and favor(s)
- Information from hospital and birthing classes
- Wrappers from your favorite pregnancy craving foods
- All receipts from any baby items purchased for your baby’s nursery
Just when we should be winding down this Maternity Matters week I feel like I have so much more to tell you and offer you! So I plan on extended this super fun topic to next week to give you more fun ideas “All About Baby”! Plus we can talk more about designing and putting together your baby albums, which is the next big step after capturing your maternity journey!
Have a great weekend and see you next week!
P.S. A few people have asked and or hinted to me this week about being pregnant – sorry I’m not but thanks for asking! Just want to share with you my experience and knowledge from previous friends, family and clients’ books I’ve designed 
A great thing to do for a pregnancy record is to write a note to your baby. This is something your child will want to read and look back on when they are adults.
- Writing a note to your baby may sound easy but it can be overwhelming to find the right words, so keep it simple. Talk from the heart and express your love and excitement, as well as the ongoing hopes and dreams you have for your child’s future. There really isn’t a real or wrong way to write a letter to your baby – just be you! And when you scrapbook this letter feel free to add a photo of either your ultrasound, profile photo or even a picture of the baby once born.
- If you have other children it could be fun to have them write a little note as well that capture their feelings about the new baby’s arrival.
- Feel free to have the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives write letters to the baby too.
If you feel shy about showing your letter to baby in your scrapbook (if others might be looking at your book), consider hiding your letter in a pocket of some sorts. In the above layout (when I used to paper scrapbook) I created for my cousin, her letter was tucked into a decorative envelope – hiding it from quick glance but easily accessible when she wants to read it. This is harder to do when creating a digital scrapbook, but something to consider when doing a paper scrapbook. If you are creating a digital book and don’t want to include your letter, just make sure to keep it together with your scrapbook so you don’t lose it.
Recently a few moms told me that they wished they documented their pregnancy better with the ways I’ve detailed so far. Although they have already had kids it’s not too late to document their pregnancy experiences. There are no rules or time limits in scrapbooking – so if this applies to you sit down and start writing about your pregnancy. List your feelings, symptoms, cravings and the thoughts you had. Journaling backwards like this isn’t the most authentic but it’s still a great way to capture your feelings to preserve them for the future.
And even if you didn’t get a chance to write a letter to your baby when you were pregnant that shouldn’t stop you from writing a letter.
Here are some more creative letters to your child you can pen:
- Write a letter every year telling them about what that year of life was like and what they learned during that year. This is a bit of an easier project then keeping up with yearly scrapbooks.
A letter like this can feature:
- What they did that year
- What happened in the world that year
- Anything you feel about their past, present or future
- Things that happened in your life
- Write a letter to your child for the future – give it to them when they turn 18 or get married.
- For women trying to get pregnant or hoping to adopt it’s a good idea to also write a letter for their future baby. Share your hopes, dreams and what kind of parent you want to be when you have your baby.
So whatever your situation – it’s time to get writing!
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