Alphabitty Moments Instagram book

Alphabitty Moments Meets Instagram

When time permits I also make books for my own family. Sometimes it's a photobook from a vacation (that I used as a pregnancy announcement!) Other times it's a book from our Summer Series.

But my passion, when it comes to photos books, are Alphabitty Moment books.

Don't know what an Alphabitty Moment is?

Let me explain...I'm sure we all agree that the big events of childhood - the firsts we all photograph and document are important, but Alphabitty Moments are about the ordinary moments that fill in the gaps. Using the alphabet to tie those things together weaves a story unique to each child. They are the little moments that might go unnoticed until they are no longer part of our daily life. I wrote in the front of Elsa's book the following reminder to myself....

Don't let milestones overshadow the fleeting moments that make up childhood,
                                for it's the ordinary moments of every day life
                     that define childhood & become our most treasured memories.

A quote that's popular on Pinterest goes something like this, "Some day we will look back on all the little things and realize they were actually big things"

My personal favorite is this Winnie the Pooh Quote I added to Elsa's book:

 
I'm so passionate about this project that I've published four versions so far and have two more waiting in the wings. Elsa's baby book was based on the Alphabitty Moments theme, but was much more elaborate than Sam's and Julia's. What can I say? Technology has made things much easier than when my first two were born! THEY got 30 minute DVD slide shows of their first years so don't feel too bad for them.

This year when I made Elsa's book I used mostly pictures from my phone that I posted on Instagram (I'm 4MamaBear) at some point, but that wasn't always the case. I set up the layouts so no matter the Instagram border or size of the original photo, they will all be consistent and mesh well together.

I made a couple of other design changes so I could include MORE information without compromising the simplicity of the book's theme. Now instead of only a letter, word, and photo in each spread an explanation is included along side the photo.

I use a special section in the back of the book to include the date and location each photo was taken & use a custom designed key to fit all the information together seamlessly.  

My kids LOVE looking through their books and hearing stories of when they were little.

I think you might be surprised at how quickly you can scroll through your photographs & come up with 26 words & photographs that describe your child! And if you want to stick with a general A-Z photobook without a focus on the little things, I am still more than happy to offer my services.

A 60 page book using this format is $100.

If you prefer the 8x10 format the cost is $200

'You Are Loved' book

Below you will find a repost of a post I wrote for my personal blog about a book I made for my youngest daughter:

  Looking Beyond the Baby Book: How to record memories in the 2nd year and beyond.

I will forever be grateful that I found Tiff's post over at A Day In My Life. If it weren't for her post about the photo book she made as an alternative to a traditional baby book, I can pretty much guarantee that all the photos I took of Elsa over the past year on the 1st of each month would STILL be stuck on my computer waiting for me to catch up on 6 years of blog books.  Instead I was motivated to get 223 of my favorite images into a book for me to publish using my favorite bookmaking site. When Elsa turned one I was at a loss as to how to keep recording her milestones in a way that didn't require a lot of effort. I knew I would have plenty of photos, but I didn't know how to tie all the text together or even what exactly I would be able to blend together into a cohesive book.  I searched for a 'prompt' so to speak, and what I landed on is so simple yet so full of information about Elsa each month of her second year.

All I have to do is complete sentences that begin with the word "You". I jot notes on our family calendar and in my daily journal so it's really easy to pull everything together. Despite my best intentions it wasn't possible to keep up with making new monthly pages so that task was left for the end, BUT it wasn't hard because I had all the information in only two places.

Opposite the page with text (I make those in Photoshop almost the exact same way as Tiff), I placed a full bleed photo of Elsa with her white chair.  Like the basket series I did every week for 52 weeks, I used a consistent prop to show her growth. Granted she's so wiggly the chair was off in the background sometimes!

The colors for the numbers were chosen based on whatever outfit she was wearing for her photo shoot. Knowing this ahead of time was good motivation to mix up the colors she wore. I didn't realize how much dark pink she has!

 After the initial spread for each month the layouts vary depending on how many photos I was able to get that month. All but a couple of times I did her mini sessions on the 1st of each month since her birhday is July 1st, but the information for each month covers the entire month. What that means is that below she's exactly 14 months old in the photo, but all the milestones happened over the course of the month she was 14 months old. Make sense? I wanted the 14 to go with the things she did at 14 months, not by the time she turned 14 months. Confused yet? I know I had to stop and think a few times as I sorted out the months, milestones, & photos so I was consistent! Have you noticed that's something very important to me yet? :)

I was able to sneak in a dear photograph spread which I loved! Julia was a little younger than Elsa when her photo was taken next to the same tree, but with birthdays in October and July this was the closest I could get of them in the same dress.

The very last 'you' on every month is 'you' are loved! and so that's what I titled the book.
I hodge podged a font to make the 'you' fit my needs. I'm too cheap to buy a font so I altered one to get the look I wanted. I simply enlarged it for the cover.

I'm still on the fence about whether I'll use the same format for her 3rd year. I think it would be great to go back and make a page a year for Sam and Julia with some highlights of the year, but I think it might be too late :( Besides, they have Alphabitty Moment books to remember their younger years. Eventually they'll have blog books too. What have YOU done to record milestones for your little ones?

If you want to see all of Elsa's book you can click here.
Want your own version? The cost for this book up to 100 pages is $400.

Waiting List for 2013/2014

First I want to say thank you for stopping by my design site! I hope that you take a few minutes to look around at some of the books I've designed over the years and are inspired to keep blogging, keep taking photos, and ask questions about how to turn your blog or pile of photos into a beautiful book!!!

My plate remains full for family blog books, but I am open to other photo book projects that aren't as time consuming. I work after my kids go to bed at night which means unless I want to survive on coffee and 3 hours of sleep, I can only take on a limited number of projects each year. Oh wait, that IS how I survive - thanks to a teething toddler! Anyway, please feel free to email me with any questions or if YOU are a blog book designer and are looking for new clients, I am happy to be a sounding board for resources so more people can get books into their hands faster!

My projects for Fall 2013 and Winter/Spring 2014 included:

Casey book 2013
Manning book 2012/2013 book
Knutsen 2013
Olsen 2013

If you don't want to wait for a blog book opening here are a couple other options for books I can design at any time in addition to these other types of projects.

Alphabitty Moments Books - A fun twist on an alphabet book completely customized to your child! - A popular version is the one I make using all types of photos (great photobooks for Instagram users!) A 62 page book is only $100 for a limited time!

Baby Books & beyond - beyond the 1st year! Check out this post on my personal blog about  how I monthly updates with photos for my daughters 2nd year baby book.

Is your child's baby book collecting dust?

Forget the old fashioned baby books. Now you can share your child's milestones and memories with family & friends via your blog AND archive content for their baby book at the same time. Thanks to Blurb's new widget you can preview a baby book example right here in post. Get inspired today!

Finnegan's Awake: by M. Manning

Baby Book Sample

From the positive pregnancy test to the candle on the first birthday cake, your blog entries can be turned into a precious keepsake of your child's first year and beyond.


Click on the image for a closer look. You can also preview the first 15 pages of the book in my bookstore


It's looking like I will have six people on the waiting list for 2010 so if you are considering having me turn your blog into a book, it's not too early to contact me for a quote.