A Special Book for a Special Boy

Until three and half weeks ago, when I heard grandparents say things like, “Being a grandparent is the best thing there is!”, I would consider them besotted and speaking in cliché terms. However, three and a half weeks ago, our first grandson was born and I have more than happily joined the besotted ranks!

For this project, I decided to write a little book for Matthew that tells him a bit about the day he was born and how much he was anticipated and is loved. The FREE KIT that I used to create the book is hardly what I would call a “baby kit”, but I hope to show you that with a little creative thinking, you can make it work quite well.

I made this book 8x8 inches so that it is small enough to hold while reading it to him, but not so small that the photos and words can’t be easily seen. Initially, I thought I would alternate the colors of background paper on each page, but in the end, I preferred sticking to the same one throughout the book. Of course, this is totally a matter of preference and style.

I kept the format consistent on each page in terms of having a header, then photos, then the writing at the bottom. Again … it’s just my preference and style.

I wanted the book to be personal for Matthew so I wrote it as I would write a note to him. The first image is the front cover …

… followed by an introductory page …

… and then the story …

These next pages will be facing one another in the book so I’m showing them to you as double spreads so that you can see how the printed book will look.

The back cover is simply the same paper as used on the front and I put a small tab at the bottom.

I will have two books printed … one as a keepsake and the other as one he can handle every day should he choose to. Jessica’s affiliate printer partner, Rex and his team at ScrappingSimply.com and Paperkiwi.com, has printed things for me before and I really like their work. Their software is easy to use and their book printing is amazing! They also offer specially discounted prices to JessicaSprague.com customers. Click here to read all about how to do that.

Here are links to the fonts I used: A Song for Jennifer, Ali Edward’s Handwriting, Amelie

The techniques used to create this book are all covered in Jessica’s first class, Digital Scrapbooking 1: Up and Running with Photoshop.

If you have not yet gotten your free kit, run to the store now and make a $5 purchase so you can download it … for FREE!