Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Baby Shower -- Getting Crafty

Thanks to soon-to-be-momma-herself Erin (seriously, the cutest preggers!) , I learned how to make these great memory boards as a personal shower gift for my sweet pregnant friends. 

It's SUPER easy and a nice way to share some love for a little bambino's room. If you don't know the nursery colors, just ask and do your best to match.  I do have to say that they seem a bit more fitting for a girl's room, but nurseries are a place where a baby can be a baby, so let those baby boys have them too!

I made one for W's room after but honestly, it does look a bit girly. I think it's just the fabric. We didn't find out the gender, and it's now time to really "boy" it up a bit. I think I'll hang onto our board in hopes of adding some girly colors for a feminine nursery one day.
I actually took the play-by-play photos for W's board and not the gift. Oh, and be sure to check out Erin's original post before your get your crafty on.

I introduce your crafting cast of characters:


-a canvas
-batting
-fabric
-ribbons
-buttons (or craft stickers)
-staple gun
-hot glue gun

Here's how it works:

1. Cut batting and fabric big enough to wrap and staple around canvas.

2. Wrap the batting around the canvas, pull tight and staple...the more the better. Get after it! (In fact, just go crazy with the staple gun, especially at night with your own child sleeping soundly in his bed. It'll get him used to the loud noises anyway. Who am I kidding. I must have been sipping some wine to have made so much noise!)

3.  Then wrap and staple the fabric the same way. Fold corners a bit like covering a book as we did as kids!  Cut away excess fabric and batting.
Then your board will look like this:


4. (This part was tricky for me as I only had stips of pre-cut ribbon but having a spool, you can simply measure and cut. ) Decide how far apart you want your ribbon, measure with a ruler and cut ribbon pieces appropriately to wrap around and staple to back.  (Sorry no pics)

5. After you've done one row of ribbon at even parallels, measure ribbon to go opposite direction and follow same Step 4. Be sure to pull ribbon tight and staple to back.

6. Hot glue buttons or stickers where ribbons cross.

Here's where I jump projects and show you the froggy stickers I chose for my friend Sara's baby boy. When I think of Sara, I think of her frog love. I had to go there!


 And here's her completed board. Sweet girl sent me pics of it up in the nursery, but I don't have them to post.  I love giving a gift that's different in the sense that it's got some personal touches. Of course, grab a thing or two off the registry to be safe. You know how we women get about our registries; we pick that @#$@ for a reason!


I haven't hung The Sheriff's yet or take a picture of the finished product. I didn't add buttons or stickers as I couldn't find what I wanted. It doesn't scream "Sheriff"so I might just reserve it for baby #2's room. (Nope, not an announcement Mom.)

8 comments:

Momma StJ said...

sooo cute! Stop being so darn crafty, I'm getting jealous

Meg O. said...

How adorable! Hand made gifts are so thoughtful and sweet - I'm sure she will LOVE it!

Erin said...

Love this! I made something similar a long time ago. Not too complicated and looks great! Way to be crafty :)

Nicole said...

Love it! Very cute idea!

the workaholic momma said...

SSSOO cute and I have some extra canvas laying around so I will def have to try this out!! Thanks so much for sharing - this is SO much cuter than a cork board:)

Natalie said...

That is such an awesome idea! I really need to do this b/c I have several friends having babies soon!

Erin+Josh said...

Yay memory boards! Love those little duckies , you did a great job!

The Femats said...

Love it! And so true about the registries!! lol