Wednesday, January 1, 2014

How to do a 12-month baby frame

I finally had time to sit down and put together my baby's 12 month frame. My mom gave me this one from Carter's for Christmas: 

But there are lots of cute or gender-specific options. I just googled "baby's first year frame" and got tons of results. I specifically wanted a frame hole for birth but not all first year frames include it so check before ordering.

I had no idea this would be such an undertaking. I knew I couldn't commit to a baby book for my kid but I thought, surely I can manage a picture every month. By month 7 and 8, I remember thinking, "Just turn one already!" The photoshoots aren't as fun when he's rolling around or won't pull his hand out of his mouth but persevere and I promise this will be a million times easier than a baby book that (spoiler) YOU WILL NEVER COMPLETE. But I digress. Here are some tips to help you along your way.

Tips for the monthly photoshoots:

1. Use the same background every time.

2. Photograph the kid with the month number in plain site in each photo but not right next to baby's face. DO NOT rely on your memory to remember which socks or diaper were in the pic. (I have to reorder my 4 and 5 month photos because I thought SURELY I would remember the sock colors for each month. No. You won't.)

3. Don't bother with a stuffed animal to compare growth. You only have room for baby's face, unless you buy a monster-sized frame. I had my kid in the same color cloth diaper every time so if you plan to buy the huge version, consider the same outfit/color scheme each time.

4. Attempt to keep the pictures in the same head/background proportion. Again, the frame holes are small so a close up on baby's face will be too big when you order prints.

Ok! You and your kid made it through your first year together! Celebrate but don't forget to take that 12 month picture. If you already have a frame, the 12 mo hole might be larger so adjust your photography accordingly.

Order your prints and let's get down to business.

My frame came with a plastic frame protector so I cut out a hole to use for tracing onto photos so I could cut them to the appropriate size.

I traced that onto my pictures:

Then I labeled the back of the cut photos like this:

So the back of my frame looks like this: (just in case the tape fails in 5 years and I have to put it back together)


It's a little weird to have a bunch of headless baby pictures.


Here's my frame so far. I need I reorder a 4 and 5 month picture and find a birth picture where is fat baby face fits in the frame hole.