DIY Baby Door Announcements!

This time of year typically slows down for me with less trips and beach days I find myself at home working on my hobbies... D.I.Y- Crafts!

One of my favorite craft projects to make is baby door-hangers! This year definitely has seemed like the year of the babies. With many friends having babies this year I was able to experiment a little bit with the cute door-hangers.

The idea is to remember the door-hanger and bring it to the hospital whenever you go into labor. Make room to add the size, weight, date and time that the baby has arrived. When family and friends come to visit you they will know which door to enter. Also, with being so tired after giving birth you do not have to repeat how large the baby is they can just look at the door!!

The first one I made was earlier this year for my friend Stephanie. I had an idea of how I wanted to create it, but I just needed to figure out the execution. The first thing I do whenever I start any project is do some research. I typically start with Etsy or Pinterest to see how other people have created them. I then think long and hard on how I want to make mine look, and what supplies I need. After I figure out an idea of what I want to do I grab a picture of the baby's nursery or talk to the mom to find out favorite colors, etc! I then head to my favorite store Hobby Lobby.

Stephanie was decorating Madison's room in mainly pink, green and brown. She found a really cute crib set, and I used that as the inspiration. While walking through Hobby Lobby I was trying to figure out how I was going to execute her door-hanger. I decided wrapping fabric around canvas and placing it in a painted frame was the easiest way to go. I secured the canvas together by using a fun ribbon. The top canvas was 11x14, I purchased large wooden letters with the initials MBW and painted them the same color as the frame. Along the sides of the frames I also painted a butterfly and flower and placed pictures of Michael, Stephanie, and Madison inside. On the smaller 8x10 canvas I used stick on letters for the birth announcement! Here is the finished project.

The next one I made was for my sister Lauren who was expecting my nephew Jeremiah! When Lauren chose the name Jeremiah my mom immediately thought of the song "Jeremiah was a bullfrog." Well that started the frog buying :). It is an extremely cute theme especially for LO's. With Lauren's being the second one I made, I was kind of learning which adhesives work the best (hot glue is not the best). I bought wood glue this time because I had some challenges with Stephanie's letters staying on the frame. Another challenge was having to ship Lauren's. I was very very pregnant at the time and not able to attend her shower. When using the wood glue take the stickers off of the back of the wood pieces that way it should stay better (lesson learned). I still used the hot glue on the wood to fabric and found that regular Elmer's glue is better!

Here is Jeremiah's! I decided to go with other reptile's too. Something about the lizard climbing up the side of the frame is adorable :).

The last one I have made is for my friend Mindi and Baby Everett! Mindi was using the colors grey, light-blue, and a tiny bit of orange (love love this color scheme together). She had the bedding made and used a light-blue chevron print. Hobby Lobby happened to have a grey chevron print (how perfect). I didn't have the exact color's Mindi had used, but I tried my best to eyeball it with a picture of her bedding. When I went down the wood isle the zebra, and giraffe caught my eye. The zebra had grey in it and the stripes reminded me of the repetition of the chevron. The giraffe looked similar to the orange ribbon I had just picked up ;). It was starting to come together!

Finished product.

These door-hangers can be made anyway really! You can use your imagination and really come up with some great ideas! My friend Tara made one for me and Tristan. Tristan's nursery is decorated with a nautical theme. Tara used that and made an adorable door-hanger for us! Everyone at our hospital loved it. It also drew attention to how large my baby was! Stranger's wanted to see this huge almost 10 pounder :). We definitely had the cutest door down the hospital hallway ;).