C is for Creighton

My friend had her baby shower this last week. The shower was after the baby was born because they weren’t finding out the gender of the baby. I don’t think I could do that…I don’t have that kind of patience!

Because the baby shower was after Creighton was born, it meant I could give her a really personal gift. She babysat for me all summer and I wanted to give her a really great gift but, I knew I was on a budget so, I was going to have to use my ingenuity and skills to give her the type of gift she deserved but, without a lot out of my checkbook.

When I got home from Hobby Lobby I knew I had to go another direction (I wanted to do a chevron grey/white sign with the baby’s name on it but, his name has 9 letters and I came home from Hobby Lobby with $37 of stuff) By the time I got home, I knew the supplies had to go back, it was just too expensive. I went to my studio and started looking through my vintage frames. I found this beauty and instantly knew I could do his name sign inside of it to replicate the old alphabet flash cards. I was really short on time because I worked at the hospital that morning and the shower was at 7:30….yep, that’s 4.5 hours to get a baby shower gift done.

Here nursery wasn’t done, so I went with a pretty neutral color scheme so it could go with most color palette’s. I painted the frame glossy white.I took the original mirror from the middle and painted it grey. I would use the mirror as the backer for the original artwork.

I found FREE images online and chose a simple chevron for the background and an airplane (because the dad’s a pilot) and a crocodile to go with the letter “C”.

This was my design for the inside of the glossy white frame replica of a vintage alphabet flash card

I  mod podged the paper (I actually used my husband nice resume paper so it would be on really nice quality paper, Thanks Babe!) to the original mirror and mod podged the top to give it a protective coating. I had to prop my hairdryer up to dry the mod podge so I could make it to the baby shower on time.

It turned out awesome! As I was at the party, I noticed something…I had forgotten to attach a way to hang it on the wall..Oops! So, the next day I drove back to her house to pick it up to finish it. Ha Ha…good thing we live down the road from each other. I also wanted to put another coat of paint on it because I noticed one of the edges didn’t get sprayed as well as I like. I know, I know…I can be a little bit of a perfectionist. She was cool with letting me finish it….because it still looked great for the baby shower! I attached a wall hanger to the back.

The baby gift was perfect for her and she loved it! It’s the best feeling ever, when someone loves what you put your heart and soul into making perfect, JUST for them!

I used a vintage frame that I had picked up for cheap a while ago, it was chunky and beautiful…used white paint I had in the garage, used a little Photoshop to create the artwork reminiscent of an alphabet flash card and the only thing I kept from my Hobby Lobby purchase was the modpodge  (cause I was out but, I did used my 40% off coupon…so I returned everything else and kept the $4 modpodge bottle). So, I created a custom baby shower gift with items I had on hand for a special lady and precious baby boy for $4. Perfect!