Babies and Stuff

Baby Name Banner

It is funny, as we get older we either become a bit more comfortable with stepping out of the box and trying new things, or we have finally tapped into the creative niche we have always longed for.

For me it’s hard to say which happened first. I can say, however, that I have always admired art of all forms and have always had my small artistic abilities. However, non to the extent I am able to pull out today!

I ended up finally getting pregnant again about 2 years ago, and Finally being able to finish my beautiful family. And as most of you pregers know of course is that the biggest and most two important decorating events take place during those 9 long months. Those happen to be an awesomely fun filled baby shower/bash and decorating the baby room. 

Know I know for me as well as a ton of my friends who happen to experience the same feelings and thrills, it is stressful and overwhelming with how much all these super cute and fun decorations are for just these occasions. I did not really have any one to take full charge of organizing and planning my baby bash, but I did have some help so I was not doing everything myself. My wonderful mother had a big hand in helping with template and providing a lot of the materials. 

Finding out the sex is such an amazing point of the pregnancy because you can finally decide on that theme that you have been searching for on Amazon.com, Michaels, and Joann's, and Target and at Walmart even. Don't worry you are not alone. I am so guilty, the day we found out I started searching for themes and colors and such hahah oh, the joys!!

Asking someone to take on this responsibility can be a daunting thing for some of us, while others have no problem asking. However, I am sure you have a friend just dying to get creative! So what could you lose, just ask!! And Get Crafting!!!!

I am right now working on two different baby showers and I am SUPER excited about it too! 

This friends baby shower/bash happens to be a monster themed event and for a baby Boy!!

For this DIY name banner I will give you a full list of where I went and what I used! It was very fun and very easy! The best part about creating monsters, Shape really does not matter!!!

So let’s get started!

Of course first things first, we need a game plan and an idea of what you want to create.

          Things to think about while coming up with your plan,

                   Colors

                   Material Type

                   Ribbons

                   Buttons

                   Scissors

                   Pattern Scissors

                   Glue

                  

And so on…

Now that you have a game plan it’s time to go shopping!!!

In my town we do not have a lot of crafting supply stores, but the ones we do have, have almost everything you would need and or want. I utilize Joann’s and Michaels like it’s no one’s business!

They have so many things to choose from and they tend to keep up with trends and things.

 

So from Joann’s I purchased:

          Scrapbook paper

         Double sided sticky 3D squares (adds height)

          Foam sticky letters

          Buttons

From Michaels I purchased:

          Ribbon

          Colorful googly eyes

          Foam sheets

I also got some monster stickers from Walmart and borrowed the patterned scissors from my mom as well as getting a few more types of textured and colored scrapbook papers.

I created my own Letter template and printed them out on thick cardstock paper. I cut those out and used them to trace with. I ended up cutting some of the letter a bit thicker than they printed just to give the individual letter a bit more body!

Ok, once you have picked the font of your choice or have your stencils ready you can set them aside for the moment.

Alright, grab your first base color of scrapbook paper or foam sheet of your choice (unless you have foam sheet glue, I recommend using scrapbook and or card stock paper), cut around the edges just enough off the edges to give the paper some detail. Remember you want this to be your base layer so it needs to be the biggest, while also remembering on how big your letter is.

Once you have cut the edges off all of the base colors you can set them aside and bring out the next pile of papers.

With these papers you are going to be cutting out your letters. I used the actual letter as my stencil, however, you are welcome to use the actual abstract part of the letter cut out, either way it will work!

Now you can be extra creative and use your pattern scissors to cut the letters out of just a normal pair of scissors. Your choice! As you can see with mine I used the pattern scissors which helped me create ‘hair’ like textures for the letters.

Right On!! You have finished this step and now on to the third piece of paper. This paper is what you are going to background the letter with. So make sure you pick contrasting, vivid, fun and or unique patterns, shapes, colors, textures, and so on to help make that letter POP!

Now again use your pattern scissors or using a ripping look is neat too! Again your Choice!

Ok, now that you are finished with all three layers it is time to assemble them!

Arrange you letter on its background paper as you would like it and then either glue it down or use the 3D stickers to help give some depth. Then take those papers and arrange it so that it is in the direction on the base paper of your choice.

Next you will need some way to hang the banner up. I used ribbon for mine, but you can use twine, yarn, string or whatever is around. I used a patterned whole punch to make my wholes on each top corner.

You are done!!!

At least for a basic and colorful design.

However, with my design I decided to dress up each letter and add a Welcome Baby and an extra monster!

For the eyes of the monsters I used buttons and googly eyes. I used my scrap materials from my letters and backgrounds.

Simple and fun! Just wait for the comments to start flowing when the guests see your creative and amazing Banner!!

Remember, keep crafting!!!