You remember “the baby album promise,” right? We swore when our children were born that we would record every little thing about our baby’s development. Failing our memory, we’d have photographs to help us remember every month and milestone. We even got one of those photo albums to help us keep track of it all.

Then comes reality. Busy schedules, busy baby … time marches on. So our best laid plans to record every little detail on that photo album go astray. All the updates  we promised to our families, friends, and ourselves fall by the by.

Jennifer and Scott Mills have been there, too. In addition to parenting two young children, they are entrepreneurs. Their Belly Banter stickers were created with one purpose in mind: encouraging families to keep up with documenting your child’s special moments!

Jennifer is here to tell more of the Belly Banter story.

Belly Banter stickers inspire Baby Album Creativity

MCA: Hi Jennifer! Can you share what the motivation was for creating Belly Banter stickers?
Jennifer: Our goal with Belly Banter Growth & Milestone stickers was to create a product that was fun, simple, and affordable. We live four hours away from our families, and when we were pregnant with the first grandchild, the request for updates and photos of my growing belly was overwhelming. When our daughter was born, the picture requests multiplied exponentially!

It was difficult to be so far away and try to keep that family closeness and keep them up-to-date with our daughter’s changes and growth. I had every  intention to complete every page of her baby book … but then our second child was born.

Two years later, the baby album sat empty. We thought there has to be an easier way to document and share the moments and memories. Thus, Belly Banter was born!

MCA: I think a lot of families have faced the same challenge of trying to go back in time to create the baby album that has everything about their child. What was your biggest challenge with creating Belly Banter stickers, and how did you overcome it?
Jennifer: Our biggest challenge in the beginning was to get people to understand what Belly Banter was all about. We got a lot of raised eyebrows and “Oh, they’re just stickers?” comments. Yes, they are stickers – but it is really about what you can create with the Belly Banter stickers that makes it fabulous!

With the trend of the DIY and Pinterest types, it has really helped people tap into their creativity in a very simple way to make it their own special keepsake. Now the Belly Banter sticker collection has expanded to 6 sets: mom-to-be, baby unisex, baby girl, baby boy, holidays, and milestones.

MCA: What a nice, simple way to encourage creativity! Has the response from those who’ve used the Belly Banter stickers been what you hoped for?
Jennifer: The response had been overwhelming. Again, we created Belly Banter as a simple product to capture growth and moments during pregnancy and through baby’s first years. It was supposed to be just that: peel the sticker, apply, snap that picture, done!

Our customers have really taken it to the next level with their creativity. Belly Banter stickers are bring used for sharing via social media, scrapbooking, pregnancy journals, baby books, photo cards, and keepsakes. It is really the busy parents’ solution to their baby book. It has been so much fun seeing it all develop!

MCA: We’re glad you’re getting good reactions! What do you consider Belly Banter’s most important contribution to families?
Jennifer: Our most important contribution for this product is that we wanted to keep it easy, fun and affordable. It is as simple as peel, stick, capture, remember!

We know how busy new parents and experienced parents are, and there never seem to be enough hours to schedule the newborn-3-6-9 and 1 year pictures, share pictures with friends and family – let alone work on the baby book! Belly Banter makes it easy to share and create those keepsakes. Capturing moments and memories one sticker at a time!

MCA: If developing Belly Banter has changed your life in any way, could you share that with our readers?
Jennifer: Belly Banter serves a daily reality check that it is the little things that count.

On a weekly basis, we receive emails or posts from our customers about how Belly Banter is such a fun product, the prefect one-size-fits-all gift. It is fun and simple, and we get to see all of their creations!

Belly Banter is a great keepsake that has a DIY twist to it, so it is very personal to the customers we have using it.

We also have a lot of military parents who are big supporters of Belly Banter as their families are long distance due to the call of duty. It is really touching to see their creations as well.

MCA: Looking ahead six months to a year, what’s next for Belly Banter?
Jennifer: Belly Banter is a big focus for SlickSugar, so we will continue to reach out to our customers and creative types to see and share their creations with our community under our campaign: Get Creative with Belly Banter.

There will be a lot of buzz, collaborations and, contests around the event. We are very excited!

SlickSugar also has a fun apparel collection (newborn-size 6) that we are continuing to grow. As a company, we bounce around new ideas daily and we have some new products in development. So stay tuned!

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The Alumni Spotlight is a periodic feature on the official Mom’s Choice Awards® blog. It is part of our ongoing effort to “shine the spotlight” on you and your award-winning, family-friendly products, services, and media.