Making a baby book with Artifact Uprising

As parents we are constantly evolving our parenting style. There are always new things we want to do, old things we want to do better and many things we wish we hadn’t done. One thing we’ve done, maybe too well, is documenting our kids’ childhoods. Thanks to camera-phones there will be no shortage of photos for our little ones to look back on. Thanks to the cloud, there will be no shortage for their friends and future partners to ogle too. I think this is true for most families in the digital age. Still, we’d feel we were shortchanging our kids if all we left them were megabytes of data swirling about anonymous servers. We retain a fondness for real things and with every baby we’ve felt compelled to create a ‘baby book’ — a real, actual, tactile album with prints from the important moments in their first year. (I still have the baby book my mom made for me and the kids and I love looking through it!) For Wilkie, we’ve selected Artifact Uprising and their beautiful The Story of You Baby Book.

Back when Easton was a baby, baby books were complicated. First you had to get the digital photos off your camera or phone–not so straightforward in 2005. Then there was the editing, cropping and color correcting—good luck if you didn’t know a bit of Photoshop. If you got this far you had to save the files in the right format and get them onto a drive or disc of some sort. Then off to the print shop to order 5 x 7s, glossy or matte. Before you got your pictures back you had to find the right album, buy the photo corners or a glue stick, and a good pen for your musings. Then you just needed to dedicate a dozen or so hours penning your heartfelt comments or observations. Mercifully a mother of one has a lot more time than a mother to five, so Easton has a baby book.

Cut to 2017 and somehow we’re still having babies! : ) Thankfully cameras, photo editing and printing have improved massively. And thanks to Artifact Uprising, making a gorgeous baby book for Wilkie is almost too easy. For his book we chose the olive green fabric with gold foil. The book itself is solid, bound with high quality hard covers and nice paper within. The design and layout are refined, not trendy, giving the album a timeless quality which I think is ideal as one of the main reasons to make this is for Wilkie to enjoy it 10, 20, 30 years from now.

Beyond its good looks, The Story of You is easy. It came with everything I needed to complete Wilkie’s book— including a pretty pen and the 2-way tape for adhering the photos – plus page headings and well considered sections to help me organize my photos and thoughts. I love the little prompts, which are there to help guide you towards documenting the everyday moments rather than typical milestones.   Two sets of Everyday Prints in the 3.25” x 3.25” square format are also included with each book — this works especially well if you’ve been taking photos for Instagram and it still looks neat even if not.

Wilkie’s birth and his first four months are now beautifully documented, with plenty of pages for all the fun to come. We’re so pleased to have this lovely keepsake and only wish we could have a do-over on the first four albums. 😉

If you’d like to create your own book, you can now receive a 10% discount with code SMXAU17 (valid through August 21st).

 

This post has been sponsored by Artifact Uprising, and all words and images are my own. We are proud to partner with this wonderful company. 

11 thoughts on “Making a baby book with Artifact Uprising

  1. This is a beautiful book and it really seems to make it easy for the parents to create the book. I love it! I might order it for a friend.

    I have a photo album for each child (a similar ring binder as your baby book from Artifact Uprising) with printed pictures and my own captions. I add about ten more pages with around 30 to 50 new photos for every year of their life. As a tradition I place the freshly updated book on the birthday table. They just love it so much. This year my son even wrote “photo album” on his wish list. I feel so happy to have started these books early, they are a treasure of memories for my children.

  2. Thanks for sharing! One reason I’ve been daunted to undertake baby books in the past is the very scenario you described regarding your Easton’s first book!
    Now I will reconsider the baby book for our new baby coming soon! 2017.14.09!!!

  3. Hi Courtney! I’m a little late making my daughter’s baby book (about 3 years!) Do you think the details are easy enough to fill in even a few years late? Thanks, and Wilkie is just adorable. The photos of him make me yearn for a baby!

    • Hi Beth,
      Thanks for your comment. I don’t think it’s too late at all. The prompts the book gives you are pretty easy to recall, even three years on. As long as you have a good selection of photos, you should be fine. x

  4. Thank you for sharing your life with us! I always waiting for your posts, kids, house, travelling, everything is so inspiring! I wanted to ask, may be you can make a post someday about what is needed for a newborn (your opinion), I understand that the climat is matter but anyway:) what is basic, including clothes (how many and what):) thank you!

  5. Love this photo book! It’s perfect. Thanks for all of the great info on such wonderful products.
    Also, was wondering if you and your beautiful family know yet if you have your Australian citizenship!? I’d hate for you to still be in limbo after all this time!

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