Chalkboard Blue: A Baby Journal

I wanted to share with you how you can make a journal for a Baby. Do you know someone expecting a baby or perhaps you are expecting one yourself? These journals make the perfect gift!

They are fun to make. I'll show you how I made this one...

My friend Texie made one of these journals and I loved the idea so I made some as gifts and one for our Ava.

I purchased a basic spiral notebook that comes with two pockets located in the front of it and some ribbon to coordinate with the colors I wanted the book to have. I've done this journal two ways in the past. I have done all of the cover and monthly pages digitally with scrapbook elements and also with actual scrapbook papers and elements. You can do it either way.

This journal is designed to be a monthly marker of your baby's 1st year. Each month has a title page and several papers for you to write about your baby's progress or what they did during that month.

A ribbon is used as a tab for each month to divide the months from month 1 to month 12, and for you to grab and open the month with as in the photo below...

Here is a side view of how the ribbon tabs are spread throughout the journal. There are approximately 10 or so lined papers in between each month...

I made a cover page to put on the front of the notebook...

I made a digital scrapbook cover page for each of the 12 months to place at each of the ribbon tabs throughout the journal... It can be printed as an 8x10 photo or I have had them printed at Alphagraphics on Cardstock too.

For example, here are some of the cover pages for the months, placed over their respective ribbon tabs..

This is how I did a ribbon tab for the months. For month #1, it is placed at the first of the notebook.

I cut a small amount of ribbon and folded it. Used glue dots to place it under the cover page and placed it at the first of the notebook on the first set of lined paper...

here it is placed under the cover page...

This is where the cover page will go in the notebook, right on the lined paper.

So once that ribbon tab was placed, I counted out 10 - 15 pages and placed the cover page for that month right on the lined paper and glued the ribbon tab for month 2 under it. You do have to be careful to space out your ribbon tabs so all 12 fit throughout the book...

Here is another cover page...I counted out another 10-15 pages and placed the 3rd month again right on the lined paper with the ribbon tab under the cover page...

here are some other examples of the other month's cover pages... You can design your's any way you prefer and colors of your choice! (Notice the tab off to the side, When you grab that yellow tab, the journal will open to month 5)

This is how I did the ribbon on the spiral edge... I just cut several pieces of ribbon at least 3-4 inches long and then just tied them with a knot along the spiral part of the notebook...

a few more added...

finished!

One more fun thing I did to add to this journal is, I made some milestone marker cards to be used throughout the journal...

I made several cards and thought of different things that the baby would achieve. For example, 1st time rolling over, 1st steps, 1st baseball game, 1st trip to Grandmas, 1st tooth, 1st smile, 1st bath, etc. You can even personalize them to your lifestyle. For example, my sister's husband Races Cars, so when I made her baby journal I made them a card that said 1st time to the Race Track.

The cards are roughly 3.5 inches by 4 inches. I just made up a bunch of them in photoshop and had them printed off on 8x10 cardstock paper.

Cut them out and stapled ribbon to the sides.

Now if you are wondering where all of these cards are kept until you need to place them in their respective month of the journal...This is where the pockets in your notebook you purchased come into play!

Here are the pockets in the notebook right?

I covered the upper portion with card stock...

I made a smaller cover page for the lower portion too!

Then I placed all of the milestone cards inside the pockets to be stored there until needed!

I also made up some cards for each of the Doctor visits your baby goes to throughout their first year. They go in the other pocket that comes with the notebook.

Here is a Doctor card up close.

Stapled some ribbon to them also!

To illustrate how I have used the milestone cards, I'll show you how I used them in my Ava's journal. Now the cards I made up for her journal are different than those pictured above, I did Ava's journal in Red and Blue, but I wanted you to get an idea of how I used them.

This was Ava's first trip to a Baseball game, she was just a few weeks old, so I took out her card that said 1st trip to a Baseball Game and placed it in under her 1st month section of the journal. I also printed off a picture of the kids with her and placed it there too for fun!