DIY Baby's First Birthday Mini Book

Adbullah (pronounced: Ub-dul-luh) turned one yesterday!

Meet my littlest cousin and his chubby cheeks:

I took this photo of him when he was 2 months old.

He looks so different now. His hair have gotten a bit curly and his cheeks a little less chubby. I still love him more than anything else though!

The family & I were invited to his first birthday party yesterday. It was awesome! All the family kids loved to see how big he's gotten since we've last seen him. They also wanted to (quoting 6 yr old Jana) "test" how he can now stand and walk on his own!

Yes, we did buy him a fancy first birthday gift (an inflatable play castle) but I just couldn't resist making him a little something for this special milestone.

And this is how I ended up making this:

A handmade mini book with a total of 20 blank pages to be personalized by each family member for baby Abdullah to look at when he's older.

Think drawings, doodles, birthday wishes, mini photographs..the possibilities truly are endless!

And the cover turned out so cute! I took this photo of him when he was just a few hours old. 

His birth was the perfect excuse to practice baby photography, ha!

To make this mini book I cut 10 sheets of watercolor paper of about 10"x6" and folded them so I had a total of 20 pages.

Then I cut two pieces of heavy cardstock for the cover and assembled the book in a way similar to this one, (but I tweaked it a bit because my cover was too thick for the stapler)

After that I started brainstorming how my layout should be. I kept it simple and added a few embellishments.

And glued a long piece of ribbon to wrap the book closed.

Voila!

Here's one last picture with some baby stuff. Because anything would look cute with crocheted baby booties!

This little book is now full of sweet words and special birthday wishes for the big boy. I would have loved to show you what everyone wrote inside, but I know that your Arabic language is just as good as my Chinese! lol

Have an extravagant day!