Good morning, good afternoon and good evening one and all. Recently, a friend had a baby and I thought about what kind of gifts to buy for her, I searched and scoured the internet but decided I wanted to make something unique. What struck me in this time was the outpouring of heartfelt wishes that appeared on facebook. So many messages, made you feel all warm inside. My Mum mentioned that it was done by card and even telegram when I was born and I realised that all these beautiful sentiments could eventually disappear into the ether of time. What happens if they aren't still there when said baby is grown up?
So that's how I came up with this idea. Based on a five sheets of chipboard/greyboard, which I 'hinged' with gummed brown paper, now if you don't have gummed brown paper really well adhered thin cardstock would do the same thing, make sure that the crease is really worked to ensure the book will fold flat when you concertina it. I have subsequently seen similar to buy in scrapbook shops - you might even have one lurking in your 'when I get round to it - I'm going to alter that' box!
You could easily cover the base in pretty papers, but being the frugal scrapper that I am I tend to paint the base with a combination of the main colour (blue for boys and pink for girls) and a swirl of white mixed in (gives a great effect). I then use pretty papers on top of each sheet to create the base. I then find a font I like on word and print out the words onto plain paper, I then handcut around these letters and lay them on the back of thin chipboard, if you don't have any thin chipboard that you could cut with a craft knife or scissors you could use cereal boxes. Handcut the letters out using either craft knife or scissors and then paint both sides of the lettering. Place the items on the book so they are pleasing to the eye. Place on the book with foam pads, thus providing a bit of dimension and then add appropriate embellishments to the same.
So the book looks like this
Now I know what you're thinking what has this got to do with facebook - good question!
Well on the back of this I put the sentiments I found on facebook. I wrote onto a word document the sentiment expressed on facebook and then added their name afterwards, so the recipient would be able to remember who said what, cut into small mini boxes and adhere to the back of the book. In this instance I matted up the comments to really make them 'pop' and distributed them as evenly as I could on the back.
The item can now be displayed on a shelf as a pretty item for a room, whilst holding all those lovely messages on the reverse.
You can even make a box for it to sit it to keep it safe if you fancy, or use one in your supplies and make the book to fit inside it.
And yes before you ask it looks great in blues too! You can see the difference an alternative font type makes.
So there you have it a versatile baby gift that can be sent from the heart and will be utterly unique. Until next time lovely people.
Virginia
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