Scrapbooking Your Baby's First Year | Nicole Samuels & Creative Live

Tune in on October 30th for Scrapbooking Your Baby's First Year with Studio Calico Creative Team Member Nicole Samuels at Creative Live. Nicole will be providing tips, prompts, and sound advice about how to capture and keep all those special firsts. We'd love to have you check it out - RSVP for Nicole's free, LIVE class here.

Check out more information, including a list of videos and downloads and a schedule of events here. Not only will you be able to watch this event live, but you will also be able to participate in a chat room where Nicole will be answering questions in real time!

As a little warm-up for the class, we thought we'd ask Nicole a few questions about this workshop and her personal sources of inspiration.

Could you tell us a little about one of your favorite projects from this class?

I think my favorite layout from the class is the one titled "Around Here." I've actually already scrapped this photo before, but I took a totally different approach this time. I used Ali Edwards' Story Stamps as prompts for documenting some random thoughts about my youngest at the time the photo was taken and I really love the result. I also really love the Handbook that I completed of my son Will's first year. I sort of challenged myself to finish this Handbook over the course of just a few mornings (while Will was at preschool!) and I'm really happy to see that you CAN complete a project like baby's first year in just a handful of scrapping sessions.

Have you done one of these books for each of your children? Have you noticed that you approach each one differently to show the personality of that particular child?

Yes, each of my children has a scrapbook that covers their first year. For my twins, I did a monthly review layout documenting each month's milestones. I would design one baby's layout and then scraplift it using the same papers, etc but with the second baby's photos. This was a huge time saver! My daughter's first year album is more than just the monthly reviews. There's more random pages in there as I got more and more into scrapbooking. Will's baby album is really the most random. There's monthly pages in there, moments, layouts… it's really all over the place! But for sure, as I've gotten more confident in what I want to document and which moments are most important to me, my albums have become less regimented and more a work in progress.

Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration in my photos, the product and when I'm really stuck… I turn to Pinterest. I love finding images on Pinterest that can be translated into a scrapbook layout.

Can you list one of the apps you use to keep track of milestones and moments?

I didn't have a smart phone when my kids were babies, but if I did…. I would have LOVED the Momento app. This app will sync all your social media entries and organize them for you by date. It also allows you to use it as a diary, entering thoughts and memories and having them also organized by date. So when you are ready to create a page, you can just open up Momento, click on the date and see everything you had posted and entered on that date! Easy, right? There's also a feature that prompts you for a diary entry. You can set the question to "What is baby doing today?" and then you'd have a daily reminder to document something! I've been so busy prepping for this class that I haven't actually started using Momento as a diary, but I can't wait to put it to use in the future.

How long have you been scrapbooking?

I've been scrapbooking for about 15 years now. Actually longer than that, but I'm counting scrapbooking from the time when I started using actual scrapbooking products rather than just cutting words out from magazines!

Have you found your audience members to scrap along with you for this class (as mentioned on your blog)?

I have! And I'm so excited that there will be a group of real, live women there in the studio with me! Some of them wanted to share their info with the SC readers here, hoping to connect with other scrapbookers. I can't wait to meet them!

Here's a short list:

Emily (Blog | IG: @knownasmj)

LeeAnne (Blog | IG: @bluegiraffecr)

Jeska (Blog | IG: @geekswithdrinks)

We hope you'll join in with Nicole at Creative Live on October 30!