A very sweet idea...for any kind of shower

I'll bet you've been to a baby shower, or a bridal shower, where the hostess provides little slips of paper, or perhaps a little notebook, and asks you to write a piece of advice for the mother-to-be or the bride.

The new mommy or the bride leaves her shower with a handful of little slips of paper. Or a little notebook.

I gave Krissy a baby shower a month before Cameron was born and I really wanted all the guests to write a piece of advice for her, but I wanted it to be something she'd really treasure, not a handful of little slips of paper she'd read and toss.

I'm a scrapbooker and I have so many scrapbooking supplies (neatly organized, of course, LOL) that it occurred to me a memory book would be perfect. So when I gave Krissy her shower before Cameron was born, it was as simple as could be to set it up.

I didn't realize how much this little book meant to her until she told me her sister-in-law was giving her a shower for our new baby girl and she asked if I would please, please set up the memory book table again so she'd have a special book from Avery's shower too. She didn't want to suggest it to her sister-in-law because Angela's not a scrapbooker and would have had to buy everything and that could get costly. But for me? No problem. I've been known to get a little over the top with my hobbies so I knew I had the basic things we'd need on hand. :-)

So I told Krissy, not to worry - I think I can do that. :-)

Let me show you how simple this is.





Krissy and I went to Hobby Lobby and she chose a very sweet pink gingham scrapbook album. It measures six by six inches. You don't want a big twelve by twelve inch album - time is a factor in this endeavor so it's best to keep it small and simple.

About four times a year Hobby Lobby puts all scrapbooking albums on sale for half price and we walked into that sale the day we shopped there. So we got this $10 album for $5.





I looked through the things I have on hand and put together some simple things the guests could work with. We did buy some additional stickers, but guess what? All stickers at Hobby Lobby were 50% off too!

We also went through my paper stash and bought a few other baby girl themed designs and colors and I cut all those down to six inches by six inches so they'd fit right into the sleeves in the album.





We made sure there were several choices of alphabet letters. People really like to write things with letter stickers. We bought a couple but I had several in my supplies too.





I provided several of my edgers, a variety of pens, tweezers for removing little stickers from their pages, photo safe glue and a few pieces of scrap paper just in case anyone wanted to get fancy...and they did...with borders!





Then we bought a few very adorable packages of baby themed stickers. I tell you, it's like when you find yourself coloring a page in your child's coloring book, when no one's looking. Grown women love stickers! LOL





I brought one of my portable craft tables and a couple of chairs to the shower and this is how we set it up. Very simple memory book station.





The evening before the shower, I made the opening page. I glued the shower invitation to the inside cover because it's a keepsake and I made a very simple "Welcome Avery" cover page. The idea was to let all the guests know they didn't have to be scrapbooking gurus to make a page for Krissy and Avery's book. Angela sent out Precious Moments invitations, so I used sweet Precious Moments stickers on the title page.





There were sixteen guests at Krissy's baby shower yesterday. Here are a few samples of the adorable but simple pages, with their sweet messages, they made for the memory book.





I'd already made my page. It took me ten minutes. I really wanted to make everyone comfortable and I wanted them to know all that mattered was the thoughts they wanted to express, not the level of scrapbooking expertise. It worked. It worked really well as a matter of fact.





The girl on the left is Alicia. She and Krissy were college roommates and are best friends forever. The girl on the left is Elisa, another friend. Obviously these two are enjoying making their pages. Alicia did a "butterfly kisses" thing and got so excited, we all had to search our purses for a tube of lipstick that matched her page because she wanted to put a "kiss" on it. The thought she put into her page is absolutely precious to Krissy.

There are so many things about this that are great, I don't know where to start, but here are a few.

Krissy will treasure this forever and someday when Avery's old enough, she will too. This will be handed down to her as a very precious keepsake someday.

If you don't have basic scrapbooking supplies on hand, I'll bet you know someone who does. I can't imagine a friend not being willing to loan you some edgers and maybe even willing to give you some paper and such. I would. In a heartbeat. And if you don't know someone like that, you know what? A sweet book, some paper, a pen and some stickers works fine too. People like to be creative and they especially like to feel like it's not a competion for best in show. Actually, the simpler, the better.

Throughout the shower, the guests will meander over to the table and sit there for a few minutes and make a page. The table itself is intriguing. So much fun creative stuff! It doesn't detract from the shower - it enhances it because people really enjoy doing this.

And the best thing of all? Grandmothers and aunts and special friends who couldn't attend the shower can contribute to the book too. After the shower I gave before Cameron was born, Krissy and I sent the background pages, a few stickers and a note saying how much we wished they could have been there to several of her favorite friends and relatives. We enclosed the correct sized, stamped envelope (so they wouldn't fold the page) and every single one of them returned their page. So really, the fun continued long after the shower and Krissy has a wonderful memory book from Cameron's shower. And she'll have the same thing from Avery's shower.

You know, this works for baby showers, bridal showers, special anniversary parties, special birthdays...any special event you want to have a keepsake like this from.

It's just a very simple way to make a truly meaningful keepsake from an event that is very special to someone you love.