Baby Shower Gift Ideas

I have mentioned this before, but I have several friends who are expecting.  These are fairly close friends, who we see weekly or multi times a week.  So, when one of them had a shower fast approaching I started thinking what I should get them.  It is hard because I wanted to do something personal.  Clothes are cute and I know there are many other items that people need, but I didn’t want to give them clothes which they will probably have more than enough or items they need but are not very personal.  I wanted to make something.  I can be crafty, but I am also horrible at sewing.  I thought and thought.  I got on Pinterest and Google.  Ideas everywhere, but nothing I was in love with. 

I am also planning a baby shower for one of these friends and while looking for shower ideas I found a gift idea.  Blocks.  Handmade wooden blocks.  Thank you Martha Stewart.  I found the idea on her website, but changed it up a little and decided to make it with the baby’s name. 

Supplies:

• Paint
• Paper
• Wooden Blocks
• ModPodge

I painted the blocks but only the edges, and I planned to cover them with the paper but parts might be exposed. To save on time and paint I just did the edges.I have a paper cutter so cutting these down to size was easy.  I got the paper at Hobby Lobby and picked 6 different colors to go on the 6 sides.  I used Mod Podge and attached the paper to the blocks.  I also used a card (like a credit card) to get out all bubbles.  I then added three more layers of Mod Podge to the top. Close up picture.I then hand painted the name.  I picked 6 different fonts 3 capitalized and 3 lower case and painted the name 6 times.  I found the fonts online and then actually traced them on the blocks before painting.  I am not artistic enough to hand do them without tracing.  I had to paint a few coats to make them look perfect. Here is the first font after one coat.Here is a close up.Here are all but one font.  I guess I didn’t take a picture of the last font, which was the most detailed and hardest, but my favorite.Here is the final product.

I will tell you about project number 2 tomorrow.  This next project was a lot EASY then the blocks.  The blocks took a lot of time to do but I think they ended up looking GREAT!  BTW all the products I used are not dangerous to babies.  These could be played with, chewed on, or used for decorations they would not be harmful at all.