Baby 1st Christmas Frame

Wow – we are fast approaching Christmas day and with this in mind we have decided to start our Christmas Sale a little earlier than normal. You can grab some baby’s first Christmas frames, some first chrsitmas dad gifts, gifts for mum and gifts for Grandparents. We will be adding more gifts to this page weekly so be sure to check back soon. And when these first Christmas gifts are gone they are gone!! Stock is already low with 1 and 2 of each item so please do not delay. Also with sale prices from £1.99 (originally priced at £8.50) you are sure to grab a bargain.

Hop over to our baby gift sale page NOW

Now I am experiencing the joys of being pregnant for myself I really wanted to display my little baby’s first photos in my lounge and keep them safe so I set about trying to find new suppliers. Previously when we had the shop the baby first scan frames were so popular and litterally flew off the shelf and now I can see why. But we only had the one design of the baby scan frames and it was quite a simple small one so wanted to be able to offer more variety plus find one I wanted for myself!

The one I have choosen for my own baby scan photo (complete with first scan and second scan) is at http://www.thekeepsakeco.co.uk/babygifts/button-corner-mdf-photo-frame-1st-2nd-scan-first-photo.html. I just can not wait to put the first photo in the frame to complete the set Not long now – only 10 weeks… eek!!

This scan really is beautiful and will go with any colour scheme but we have a few other options to choose from at our Pregnancy Gifts Page.

Have fun and would love for you to share your own baby scan photos with us on our facebook page.. if you do I will give you a 15% discount off a scan frame of your choice as a thankyou – just drop me a mail after you have added your photo!

Kindest regards

Victoria

x

Manchester Keepsakes

Alison trained with my over the internet to learn Fingerprint Jewellery and Artwork jewellery and was a natural and a joy to work with.  With a little one of her own she is enjoying building her own business to give her more time with her Son while helping others cherish these special memories.  Here is what Alison Has to say…

Memories are so precious…how many times has a loved one said “I remember when…” or “I wish I had….”

Lullabies and Laughter Keepsakes gives you the opportunity of capturing that moment in time forever as we specialise in creating silver bespoke jewellery and accessories. Everything we make is created with care and attention as what we make now will remind you of those special moments with your loved ones for years to come.

Lovingly crafted individual impressions of a loved ones fingerprint, a hand, foot or even a paw print or drawing which will be incorporated into a setting of your choice including a bracelet or a bookmark.

As a mother of one I became aware of fingerprint and hand print jewellery when I was about to return to work once my maternity leave was over. For me this was an extremely traumatic time, as I had not been apart form my son Andrew for more than 3 hours since his birth 10 months before.

I wanted to keep a part of him with me at all times, It was then that I fell in love with the idea of being able to take an imprint of Andrew’s fingerprint and it could be turned into a beautiful individual and extremely sentimental piece of jewellery. My only regret is that I was not aware of fingerprint jewellery when my grandparents died as if I had an imprint of their fingerprints it would truly be priceless to me, as I am sure it is the case for anyone who has lost a loved one. 

It was soon after I had discovered Fingerprint Jewellery that I made the decision to undertake a fingerprint course with the Keepsake Company. Since then I have never looked back as soon after I undertook a course in Silver artwork and hand and footprints.

My intension is to make jewellery for others who would like a lasting imprint of their loved ones to keep forever, which is as special to you as my family‘s are to me..

If you live in Manchester or the surrounding area, you can contact Alison via her Manchester listing on the Keepsake Map

Fingerprint Jewellery in Middlesex, Stanmore.

I am really pleased to introduce two fabulous ladies I had the pleasure of training not so long ago. They were so excited and driven and knew from that first meeting that they were going to be amazing at running a Fingerprint Jewellery Business in their local area Stanmore, Middlesex. Here is what they have to say….

Hello, we are Tracy and Carli, and we own Mac’n’Mollie, a young Fingerprint Jewellery business in its first year, offering a truly unique range of fingerprint, handprint and miniature artwork jewellery in pure silver.

We’ve been friends for 12years, and in this time we always talked about leaving the stresses of our jobs (Retail management and Visual merchandising), and doing something from home. After we had our children, Mollie 13, McKenzie 4, and Rylee 3, we knew that we really didn’t want to return to full-time employment, so we tentatively started to talk about ideas for a business. Quite by chance we stumbled across a fantastic opportunity to learn how to create pure silver keepsakes with Victoria at The Keepsake Company, and we fell in love with the idea immediately. So we got ourselves booked on the fingerprint jewellery course and truly haven’t looked back since.

After our excellent training, we started slowly, making pieces for friends and family, then we held a launch party and introduced Mac’n’Mollie fingerprint jewellery officially.

Since then we really haven’t looked back. We have regular customers returning for new pieces, have appeared in Vogue, and we’ve even made a piece for a lady as far afield as Australia.

So, if you are looking for a beautifully made, truly unique, fingerprint, handprint or miniature artwork keepsake, please feel free to contact us, all details can be found via our Stanmore listing at TheKeepsakeMap including a link to our own website, or join us on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/macnmollie1 for regularly updated photographs of all of our newest pieces.

Hope to hear from you soon

Tracy and Carli x

Well… does it count if it is a gift for yourself? I decided that I deserved a treat for no real reason other than the fact I am being kicked inside out already! So I thought a pregnancy chime necklace would be a nice pregnancy gift for me and the baby so it can sooth him and I get a beautiful piece of jewellery to wear. I love the soft pretty noise it makes as I move and hope the baby does too.

I went to see my best friend over the weekend and I happened to get one of these pregnancy chiming necklaces for her for her Birthday as she was Pregnant (her little baby is celebrating his First Birthday soon so we are talking 15 months ago!) and her baby was now mesmerized by my necklace.. I wonder if he recogised the sound from his mum wearing it while he was in the tummy or whether it was just bright and shiny…

Either way I really do love this silver necklace and think it makes the perfect Pregnancy Gift for all those reasons. Other Pregnancy gifts which I would have loved (and may still treat myself too ) would be a aby record book which allows the mum to capture some pre-birth memories or a frame to display those first scan photos. Of course some nice non-alcoholic wine would be very welcome too!

So whether you are looking for a pregnancy gift for a mum-to-be’s birthday, you have been invited to a baby shower and need a baby shower gift or you just want to spoil a special friend or loved one then there really are lots of ways to show you care about the mum and baby!

From a considerably-larger-than-I-was-2-weeks-ago Mum-to-be

Victoria

x

You know before I had my scan I was CONVINCED I was having twins, although a daunting feeling it just felt right, plus there was a history of twins in both families.  But alas when the scan day arrived there was only the one perfect little baby waving at us.  I am more than happy with this but I do still look at ladies with twins and wonder what it must be like? It must be so hard to juggle both babies when you are on your own and the expense of twice the nappies, equipment etc etc all in one hit must be a challenge but I bet the parents would never change it for the world. I would love to hear from you if you are a twin mummy and let me know what the reality is!

With twins in mind I plan to launch a whole range of twin gifts including frames, keepsake kits etc to firstly make getting a keepsake with twins more affordable and secondly to give a unique twist to things. I know when I did the baby shows I had many a twin mummy come to the stand and ask for some special deal as they had to buy two so this is what I am going to do! Do you have any ideas of some Twin keepsakes I can add to the store?  I would love to hear your suggestions below!

Here is the Twin Gifts department at the moment – a little sad looking perhaps but keep your eyes peeled!! I have started our twin range with a lovely gift box which you can customize with boy/girl, boy/boy or girl/girl.

form a ”one baby mummy to be”,

Victoria

x

I came across this term yesterday and thought it was interesting. Baby Art seems to be another way to explain what it is we do here at The Keepsake Co. Turning a baby memory into a piece of art – I mean that is what we do isn’t it?

I guess this is why I love keepsakes so much as you can take something that could potentially look like any other persons keepsake and really make it your own. You could turn your lifecastings into art by framing them in a creative way. I have seen people backing their frames with samples of wall paper or fabric. I have seem people painting the castings in bright and wonderful colours. But it is not limited to baby castings, you could hang your baby impressions in a unique way to make a piece of art for the baby’s nursery.

Then we have our baby canvases. Obviously you can get them printed professionally with a baby photo or a collage but you can also buy a blank canvas and take bay hand prints and footprints in decorative ways. Why not involve the whole family? I have even seen people turning baby handprints into animals – how arty is that!

If baby hands and feet were not your ‘thing’ then you could always get a personalized piece of art commissioned for the little baby – something they can cherish for ever and know they were loved more than words can say when they were little!

Baby art can take so many forms really – what will you create to celebrate your baby?  I need to start designing mine and will share with you when I have done it. I would love for you to share your versions of baby art on the comments below!

Warmest wishes,

Victoria

There are so many options available to you when casting your baby’s hands and feet. You can cast them together, holding your hand, framed with siblings in a box frame or left alone and stored in a beautiful keepsake box.

You can leave them natural or finish them in a large array of colours and finishes. You can even upgrade them to solid bronze or silver for a very swish keepsake!

Here are some of our favorite baby casting kit images. Hover over each image for a little description of each photo.

I will post more soon, but hope something here inspires you when creating your baby casting

Victoria

x

These instructions are not meant as a replacement for our full baby casting kit instructions which come in the kits. These tips are here to give you other ideas on how to capture your little one’s casting if you struggle with the normal method (casting bag) which we cover in detail in the kits. I would not recommend following these baby casting techniques if you have not read the full instructions first.

Casting Bag

Mix the alginate 150grms to 300mls of cold tap water. Spoon mixture into the bag and then secure the bag around the base of the ankle (lower the foot into the bag as far as possible without touching the bottom). Use the bag to manipulate material around foot until set. You can see the material through the see-through bag so you can tell if there are any holes and can quickly try and get rid of them by manipulating the materials. When set it will simply slip off the foot.  The material in this technique will be like a paste so you can just move it around with your fingers through the bag to ensure you cover everything.

Casting Bag

Mix the alginate 150grms to 500mls of cold tap water until it is a smooth consistency (don’t worry about lumps too much – it is more important to move to the next stage). Spoon mixture into the bag , you wont be able to fit it all in to the bag so just spoon in as much as you can leaving about a 5cm deep gap at the top of the bag.  Lower the foot into the bag as far as possible without touching the bottom and secure the top of the bag securely around the base of the ankle (if there is someone else that can secure the bag around the ankle then this leaves both of your hands free to take the casting). Use the bag to create a firm ball of material between your cupped hands and then try and keep the foot within the middle of the ball you have created. If a toe peaks to the service move the ball between your hands around with the foot so you can see no skin thought it. It will then just slip off the foot when set.  The material in this technique will be in a runny consistency so please ensure the bag is tightly secured around the ankle as it will leak out and make a mess.  Doing this gives you more material to work with and takes longer to set.  You could use room temperature water with this consistency to make it set a bit quicker and to make it more comfortable for the baby.

Casting Container

Select a container that fits the foot into it with room around the sides, top and bottom but not too big as it will eat up all your material. It should be able to fit in about 600-700 mls of water I would say. Mix alginate 150 grams to 500mls of cold tap water. Pour into container and then lower in the foot. Tap the container to release any air bubbles trapped under the foot. Ensure the foot is covered in alginate within the container without touching the sides. Wait for it to set and then slip the foot out. Doing this gives you more material to work with and takes slightly longer to set.  You could use room temperature water with this consistency to make it set a bit quicker and to make it more comfortable for the baby.

Casting Cloth

Mix alginate 150grms to 300mls of cold water and then spread over a JCloth in the middle. Make it so it is at least 1.5-2 cm deep on the cloth. Press babies hand/foot in middle of alginate and then collect JCloth up around foot/hand so the alginate is covering the foot all around. Secure excess cloth around ankle. Squeeze and manipulate the cloth around the foot to ensure the material squidges into all the crevices. Wait for it to set and then slip the foot out.

I am sure there are more baby casting techniques, so if you have any you would like to suggest (or have any tips) please do get in touch!!

Have fun life casting!

Victoria

x

PS: to purchase one of our baby casting kits which includes our full detailed instructions please visit our baby casting kit section.

There are also lots of different styles to choose from including wooden baby photo albums, fabric designs and of course a few different personalised albums to choose from.

Albums may not be the first thing parents think of buying when they have a new arrival (I mean how much stuff is there to buy!) so a baby photo album really does make the perfect baby gift.