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??

DIY Baby Mobile

Quick, easy, and inexpensive…three of my favorite words when it comes to crafts!  This mobile is great because it hits on all three of those, plus it’s completely personalize-able to fit any nursery’s colors and theme.  I came up with this idea after trying to find a mobile for my daughter's owl themed nursery that didn't cost $50 or more.  Can you believe how much mobiles cost!  Seriously!  This one will run you under ten bucks for all the materials.

Materials:

-One dowel, cut into two 10 inch pieces.  My dowel is about 4/16ths of an inch in diameter.

-Waxed paper or other surface protector

-Craft paint (acrylic).  I used Plaid #410 Lavender for this one.

-A small paint brush for applying glue for glitter

-Hot glue gun

-Scissors

-A metal split ring (like the kind that you put keys on).  Mine is a 24 mm silver one.

-Heavy, clear filament or fishing line.

-10 pre-painted wooden cut outs.  Get 5 different designs, and get two of each kind.  Look for ones that are painted nicely, as the paint job quality really varies on these!  Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and Wal-mart all have a pretty good selection.  

-Optional: glitter, glue, googly eyes, large beads to put on the end of the dowels

Directions:

    1.       Cut dowels to length and sand the ends of the dowels to make smooth. Plug in your glue gun to heat up.

    2.       Remove the price tags from the backs of all the wood cut outs (otherwise they show in places).

    3.       Lay down wax paper.  Paint the dowels a color that coordinates with the wood cut outs you are using.  I held one end down with one finger and rolled it while painting, then painted where I had held it down last.  Let dry completely

    4.       Cut a six inch piece of line.

    5.       Cross the two sticks to make a plus sign, measuring to make sure you have them crossed exactly in the middle.  Put a pencil dot on each one where they should cross, then glue the sticks together with hot glue. Tie the 6 inch piece of line around the crossing point, getting it stuck in the still-warm glue.  Reinforce the joint between the sticks by putting more hot glue on all sides.

    6.       Tie a knot in the line so it forms a loop at the top.  String the split ring onto the loop. 

    7.       Cut a 16 inch piece of line.  Run a line of glue down the center of the back of one of the wooden cut outs, then lay the end of the line in the glue.

    8.       Apply more glue to the back of the wood cut out, then lay the matching wood cut onto it, creating a sandwich with the line inside of it.

    9.       Repeat Steps 6 and 7 again for the other 4 designs.  But make the line 20 inches, 24 inches, 12 inches, and 8 inches long.  NOTE: if the two wood cut outs don’t match up when sandwiched together because the design is not symmetrical, be very careful about where you put the glue so it doesn’t show.

   10.   Tie the 24 inch one to any one of the four stick ends just using a knot.  On the next stick, put the 20 inch one, then on the next put the 16 inch one, then on the last stick put the 12 inch one.  Don’t worry that the mobile is not balanced yet.  Put the 8 inch one in the center.

   11.   To balance it, scoot the knot for the heavier ones toward the center, and scoot the knots for the smaller/lighter ones toward the edge.  Once it is perfectly balanced, put a drop of hot glue on each string, attaching it to the stick in the right spot.  Cut off the tails from the knots.

   12.   Decorate the cut outs with glitter, googly eyes, gems, or whatever decorations you want to add.  I used the same purple glitter on each one to tie the pieces all together, then added other glitter colors as accents.

   13.   Tie a 24 inch piece of line to the split ring.  Determine where you want to hang the mobile, then tie a knot in the end of the line at the correct length, then hang from the ceiling with a push pin. All done!  Cute, huh!!!