Baby Stats Sign Tutorial

I'm an Auntie again, and this time it's a girl!

Little Sarah-Anne was born yesterday morning to my husband's sister, giving us our first niece, and my daughter her first female cousin to play with.  Needless to say, everyone is thrilled. They didn't find out what they were having, so cheers and shouts erupted in the waiting room when the doctor said it was a girl.

I decided to make a sign that could be hung up in her room, and I decided to put her birth statistics on it so they'll always be handy for reference. Baby's room is being decorated in pink and purple, with butterflies and dragonflies, so I went with those for my inspiration.  I used materials I had on hand so I didn't have to drive anywhere (it was a blustery, rainy day).  This was all my own idea and it came out super cute, don't you think?

Here's what you'll need to know if you want to make a cute sign too!

Supplies:

• Three 12 inch long by 4 inch wide wooden boards
• Drill and a small drill bit
• Computer and color printer
• Paper cutter
• Awl
• 5 different coordinating scrapbook papers, 12 x 12 size
• Glitter in colors that coordinate with the scrapbook papers
• 2 large and 2 small paper butterflies (make your own from thick scrapbook paper, or buy some cute ones.  My pink ones are from K&Company, and I cut the purple one out myself using a pink one as the pattern)
• Elmer’s glue
• Hot glue gun and a glue stick
• 40 inches of skinny white ribbon (1/8^th inch wide) -- cut into 4 pieces of 10 inches long each
• 1 16 inch piece of ¼ inch wide ribbon in a coordinating color
• Modge Podge, or homemade modgepodge (1/2 elmer’s glue, ½ water)
• Sponge brush
• Lighter or aim ‘n flame

Steps:

1. Drill the holes in the the corners of the boards. Figure out which board you want to use for the top, middle, and bottom boards of the sign.  Mark 1 cm in (1 cm from the top and 1 cm from the side) on all four corners of the middle board with a pencil (so the middle board ends up with a hole in each corner). Mark just the bottom two corners of the top board.  Mark just the top two corners of the bottom board.  Now drill all 8 of the holes. Try not to drill a hole in your carpet like, ahem, someone I know.

 

2. Prepare the worded papers.  Print out the baby’s first name onto one of the sheets of scrapbook paper, making sure the words themselves are no longer than 9.5 inches long and 2.75 inches tall so that paper can be cut down to 10.25 inches by 3.25 inches tall.  Now use your paper cutter to cut around the letters, making them nicely centered, and making them all 10.25 x 3.25. I used Photoshop to make the words, but I think you could just use Word.  For the font, I used "Birch std." 

 

3. Make and glue on the base papers. Cut three pieces of scrapbook paper the exact same size as the wooden boards, using your paper cutter. Glue them to the boards with a thin layer of modge podge using the sponge brush. Be sure to carefully flatten out any air bubbles that form, or your sign will look lumpy.  I HATE AIR BUBBLES...Can someone please tell me how to avoid them in the first place!!!???

4. Glue the word papers on top of that. DO NOT GET ANY GLUE OR MODGE PODGE ON THE FRONT— it will smear your beautiful printed letters! Put a thin layer of modge podge on the back of the 3 papers with the words on them, and glue them on top of the other layer of papers you just glued.

5. Make the holes in the papers. Use the awl to poke a tiny hole in the paper where it lines up with the drilled holes, going from the front to the back, then flip back over to the front and use the awl to poke all the way through.

6. String the three boards together.  Going from the back to the front, thread a 10 inch piece of the thin ribbon through one of the holes.  Thread the other side of the ribbon from the back to the front of the matching hole.  Tie a bow, leaving a little space between the boards.  Cut the ribbon ends at an angle and melt them with the lighter to prevent fraying.   Repeat with the other 3 sets of holes.

7. Hot glue the wider ribbon onto the back of the top board.  Glue a dedication quote onto the back now too, if desired. It’ll be hard to do that later once the butterflies are attached.

  

8. Glitter up the butterflies as desired, using Elmer’s glue and coordinating colors of glitter.  I found the pink ones about two weeks ago in a package of assorted paper cutouts in the scrapbooking section of Hobby Lobby for $5.99.

 

9. Bend the butterflies so that their wings are 3-D and the body stays flat.  Hot glue the butterflies onto your sign, being careful not to cover up any words.

TA Da! You've got yourself a personalized baby stats sign to give away as a gift!

Whatcha think??