Thursday, March 12, 2009

Pregnancy Journal

I had such a blast making this adorable pregnancy journal for someone special!! It is 6x6 and full of notebook lined pages for tons of journaling, calendar pages for tracking dates and memories, and has plenty of room for pictures and even some pockets for keepsakes, appointment reminders and those kind of things. I have the book temporarily bound with 3 jump rings, but when the mother-to-be is finished filling it out I will put the final binding in with my Bind-It-All!! The Bind-It-All is what I used to punch the holes in all the pages.

The pocket pages are filled with tags that have ribbons attached on the ends...ultimately making this book nice and thick!

I will give a quick run through of the types of pages within!! I would love to share every page (which I did take a picture of), but there are 70 pictures. On the inside cover I used a large 7 Gypsies sticker and punched animals from the Making Memories Jack line. Each notebook journal page was cut with either a border punch or a decorative scissor. This page was designed for the mother-to-be to talk about the journey into her pregnancy!!


For the next page I found a sticker that fit the tone of the book!!


Next is a small paper bag that holds a journal tag/card. This is a great place for her to place her OB's business card and maybe a note of how she came to choose that doctor.


Each page with a solid color cardstock was designed to adhere photos or mementos to. In the back of the book I supplied clear photo corners to make it quick and easy to add ultrasound photos in a flash!!!



This is a "pocket" page where journal tags are tucked within. It is another pattern from the Making Memories Jack line and has stars cut from the page revealing a teaser of the tags within.


I pulled the tags 1/2 way out so you can see their design. I stamped them with Autumn Leaves "Doodle Tagged" acrylic stamps, chalked the borders and then tied on the super cute American Crafts ribbon in tons of bright patterns!


You can see the stitching from the "pocket" page better on the backside! I put the 2 patterned cardstocks together with the patterns facing out, and sewed up 3 of the sides!

On this page I used a small left-over piece of the polka dot paper (used on the cover) to create a fun laced edge over the next page.

I love the pre-cut journal pages I found at my local scrapbook store! They are 12x12 so I was able to make 4 pages out of each one!

I found some "pregnancy" vellum stickers that even matched the colors of my cardstock!

These cute tabs separate the journal into trimesters! I attached them with complimentary colored eyelets.


After each trimester tab I inserted calendars for her to fill out. This is a great place to mark Dr. appointments and pregnancy milestones (i.e. felt first kick, found out sex of baby, had craving for ? food, etc.) that she may want to remember later.


More cute patterned paper and notebook paper.


On some of the solid cardstock pages I attached a couple of mini binder clips to hold papers or photos with.

Again I used a piece of the left over polka dot cardstock to use as an art element. I punched 3 holes in it with the same scalloped Martha Stewart punch that I used to cut the animals out. I think a couple photos behind the circles and maybe a journaled word like "love" or "baby" would look cute through the holes!!!

More super cute journaling pages and a new trimester tab! The look of the pages after each trimester tab are pretty similar to all the previous ones, but I mixed up the color combinations and patterns to edges of the notebook pages.

I will skip to the very end of the book where I created a pocket that holds all the extra journaling tags, clear sticker photo corners and things. I also included the left over 7 Gypsies stickers that I did not use, so that she may add them to the pages as she likes! The jumbo paper clip keeps everything from falling out.

This is a picture of the tags, photo corners and extra calendars.

As much as us Mommies like to think that these special moments will be locked in our memories forever......the memories DO unfortunately fade. That is why it is so important to take notes, write the quotes from things people have said, thoughts you may have had, good advice and even the "not so good" advice too! You will thank yourself later for it!

6 comments:

Michelle Vandepol said...

ultra cute book :)
love all the textures

amy said...

this book is amazing. what a labor of love!

Anonymous said...

WOW! What an amazing creation!

Anonymous said...

I love it Mimmers! you are so gifted. Love,Corina

Gabriele said...

Wow, I am looking for some inspiration for a pregnancy journal, as my husband's daughter told us yesterday that my new name will be "grandma" ;-)

And surfing through the web brought me to your blog: WONDERFUL! I LOVE your journal, it is made so beautifully and with lots of thoughts and heart...

Thanks a lot for sharing!

Hugs from Germany,
Gabriele

PrinzessinN said...

Wow, this is great! Thank you for sharing it with us.