#1. Customised photo albums
9 baby keepsakes to cherish your child and the one among is Photo albums are the most common item to keep memories.
You can find specialized and personalized photo albums these days.
You can always buy one but I feel ,making one yourself will add to the ‘x’ factor and make it even more enjoyable.
You can have sections for a note. Write down the date, place and a few lines about when the pic was taken.
You can also stick a few related items from the time when the pic was taken if you have.
For example, travel (checklist when travelling with baby) tickets if you went on vacation during the time of taking the pic, or the food bill if you have visited a restaurant on that day, the birthday(checklist for planning a birthday party) invite if the pic was taken during a birthday, small cuttings of the gift wraps on the birthday etc.
Anything that an album can accommodate to create a memory can be stuck to the side of the pic to make the photo even more nostalgic and who knows maybe one of these activities will be their favourite childhood memory in future.
#2. Old clothes linen
Save a few of those clothes your baby outgrows but are still in good condition. I am sure you will have plenty of them. You can wait for a year or two and accumulate such clothing.
Once you have a good number of them, you can use them to cut and stitch anything for the bed. You can sew a bed cover, a blanket, or pillow covers. If you do not have the time or are not inclined to stitch, get them to any local tailor who can easily do this for you.
This way, you will preserve your kid’s baby clothes for a long time, and this is a great feeling. Besides being environmentally friendly, this recycling of old baby clothes will also save you a lot of wastage and some money.
If designed and planned well, they can look pretty and feel comfortable too. So get those discarded yet fine clothes and put them to some good use.
A tip: We all have that beautiful girl’s birthday dress in laces, frills, bows, flowers, sequin patches, etc.
I have permanently removed these and kept them safe. You can use them differently at different places for various occasions.
For example, some of my girl’s dress bows and flowers now go in her hairbands and clips with a little bit of glue at the back or a few stitches.
I sometimes use the sequin patches or beads or laces on table runners, mats, and kids go as you like dresses, etc.
#3. Handprints and footprints preservation
You can preserve handprints and footprints of your baby/kid (Infant, toddler, preschooler, schooler or teen) in plaster of paris or POP solution for years and take an awe later.. how tiny they looked once. If you make one every five years and frame them, it will turn out to be a sweet childhood memory keepsake…
There are POP kits available in the market. It is a good idea to buy these kits as you will get instructions to use them properly. They are made of non toxic materials usually and to keep your baby safe from that.
Make a wall in kids room having a pic and the hand n footprints marking every year. Try doing this every birthday and after 10 years you can just relook at them together and see how your little one has grown over these years.
#4. Fridge magnets with hair accessories or toy parts
The hair accessories of your little girl have many cute parts. So are the toys. The clips, hair bands, or toys that are no longer in use have many small tiny pieces that you can hold together with a magnet and stick in your fridge.
Kids are often attached to their belongings, and this is a great way to preserve these.
Years later, they will cherish seeing their favorite one on the fridge door.
#5. Photo mugs or lampshades
You can print some favorite pics of your baby on a mug or a lampshade and have it for keepsakes.
This way, you will always have them in front of you and cherish the growing years of your darling!!
You can have a corner with a few mugs/lampshades, which preserves your memories with the ever-growing baby.
You can make it a custom to have a new mug with some photos of the year gone by. When your kid becomes an adult, these mugs/lampshades will be a prized possession.
#6. Memory box
A memory box is framed with some depth covered with clear glass, just like a picture frame.
Inside the frame, you can have some baby items of your kid and hang them on the wall.
Have her first set of clothes, her muffins, her booties, her hospital tag, the first book of vaccination, 1st bottle, etc., depending on the size of the frame you choose.
This is an excellent memory keepsake, and if appropriately planned, its bound to mesmerize you after years.
#7. First baby bottle
The first bottle of your baby is a good keepsake memory. Imagine how nice your grown-up kid will feel to see the first bottle that she used to have her first feed!!
You can decorate the bottle with laces and sequins and use it to make a piggy bank. You don’t need to cut open the bottle from anywhere. You can insert the coin or money just by opening the bottle cover!
Another excellent way of using the feeding bottle is by keeping some nick snacks like pins or hair clips. Write down something quirky like her name and birthday with glitters on the bottle.
#8. Books cover collage
I know many may not like tearing up a book’s cover.
But if you have ancient books of grown-up kids which you would like to discard, especially their childhood favorites and classics that they loved to read, get hold of that cover before you discard them or give them up for resale.
Alternatively, you can take pictures of their book’s covers and frame them all together or make a collage!
Make a storybook wall in the house and cherish it! The kid will bring back memories of the times when she read those books.