Write it on Wednesday: Journalling babies

No, that doesn't mean get the babies to do the journalling!

Even if you haven't had babies of your own, you will have had babies in your family, and with luck you'll even have some pictures of yourself when an infant. Babies are very photogenic and photos generally make satisfying pages that everyone enjoys looking at.

So: how to scrap babies?

The cute things they say and do

If you have a baby or young child now - I know it's difficult when you're so busy - but for heaven's sake write down those cute things they say or the funny things they do. You WILL forget them later! I wish I'd been a scrapbooker when my babies were young. Luckily I was keeping a journal, so putting the text together with the photos isn't too hard.

And she toddled for two miles along the beach before we found her...

And write down too those apocryphal stories that you have been told all your life about things you did. There's a story about me when I was about two - the family had got lost on a trip out to the contry and we stopped the car to get out and see where we were. Apparently I got fed up and said "I'll find the way" and set off along the road determinedly, all by myself. They were laughing too much to stop me at first, and then they helpfully got the camera out.

Baby books

If you have a friend or relative about to give birth, a baby book is a lovely gift - not one of those that records weight and height and so on, although that might be part of it, but a themed scrapbook readymade for the mother to slot in the pics and the journalling as she goes along. A big space for hidden journalling may be best, so mum can write as much or as little as she chooses, but doesn't run out of space.

Possible themes for baby books:

• My first year: 12 pages, a pic for each month and plenty of journalling space (a great theme to remind mum)

• Nursery rhyme theme

• Animals theme

• Alphabet theme

• Colours theme: every page a different colour

• Definitions theme: baby, love, cute, motherhood, family, growing up etc.

• Play theme: teddies, bricks, dolls etc.

You could even make a book for the baby itself, with spaces for pictures and names of all the relatives - especially welcome if family are far away and the little one won't see relatives often enough to recognise them otherwise.

More Write it on Wednesday

Free time - what would you do?

In her August blog as Scrapbooker of the Year 2006 for Creating Keepsakes, C D Muckosky suggests that "free time is a state of mind" (check out 30 August) .

She mentions that time in infant class when the teacher would say "it's free time" in other words, it is a time when you can freely choose what you want to do - to play, to experiment, to get dirty if you want, to play with things you wouldn't at any other time - because it is free time.

What if you had free time? What if you had permission to have free time?

What if I were to say to you... "This half day - this morning (or afternoon, or evening) - is free time, and you not only don't have to but MUST NOT think about anything else!"

What would you do with that time?

And it doesn't have to be scrapping - in fact for this exercise I'd like you not to think about scrapping, and to let your imagination go - transport and money are no problem - what would you choose to do? You're not allowed to do nothing, either, no sitting on beaches or going to sleep - assume you are rested and relaxed and raring to DO something - what might it be?

Jot down what you'd like to do: e.g.,

Go out on a bike
Play with paint
Swim in a river
Play guitar
Bake butterfly cakes

See how many things you can think of to take up your free time.

Two possibilities for the LO now:

First LO - find a picture of you - preferably a bit thoughtful - and do a LO entitled "I wish I were...." and make sure the words "Free time" are somewhere on the LO as well as the journalling you just did....

Second LO - go DO one of those things and make sure you get a photo of some kind either of you doing it or (if it's not possible - a picture representing the activity).