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Nursery Letters

Mom Life

Baby Girl Sprinkle

Posted on October 3, 2017

Today I’m sharing the details of a baby sprinkle I threw for my college roomie!

Ashley had baby girl, Greta, about 4 weeks ago. At the end of August we celebrated by sprinkling her with love (and baby girl supplies). She has the most beautiful color scheme for the nursery. Lots of pinks and corals with mint green and gold accents, love it! I followed the same color scheme for the sprinkle. It was so pretty that I wanted to leave the party decor up in our house all year round. Walking into the room with those bright beautiful colors made me happy! I didn’t leave it up permanently but I did leave it up for a couple of weeks. 🙂

Prepping for baby Greta’s sprinkle was my nap time therapy for several weeks. My first project was the paper wheels on the wall. These cost me nothing to make because I already had the supplies (paper and hot glue gun). These are great party decor because they are inexpensive, beautiful, festive, and can fill large spaces! I saved some for future use (maybe a baby girl nursery one day?!) and used some of them in our guest room over the bed.

I read a lot of tutorials on these and found most of them to be over complicated. It’s actually quite simple. I’ll do another blog post on a simple way to make these.

We had 10 ladies at the sprinkle. Planning a party for such a small crowd was so fun! I was able to pay more attention to details, and make it feel more like a family dinner, and less like a huge buffet. And it didn’t break the bank when I wanted to buy mason jars for the drinks or gold (plastic) silverware for the place settings.

Speaking of place settings, check these out. Isn’t it so pretty?! Uh! I really didn’t want to eat at this table. I just wanted to look at it and take pictures of all the pretty things. My sister-in-law and I bought the gold chargers and the sparkly table runners on OfferUp from someone’s wedding decor. We used them for her baby shower and now for Ashley’s sprinkle.

Target had a gold section of party decor, including plastic silverware that is gold! The napkins came from there too. I happened to walk into Bath & Body Works during their semi-annual sale and got the hand lotion favors for $1.25 each!

If you follow my blog or my Facebook page you know that I am always making nursery letters for my friends! So here are Greta’s! If you want to know how to make them you can see the step by step instructions here. OR if you want me to make them for you just hit me up! I enjoy blessing other Mommas with this personalized detail for their baby’s nursery. I have two more I’m doing over the next few weeks. I’ll share the finished products on social media!

I have a confession to make…when I plan a party I spend almost all of my effort on decorations and dessert because that’s what I like most…decorations and dessert. The menu is usually a major after thought. I kept joking with Jordan that I was so distracted by all the shiny decorations that I was going to forget to put out food.

The dessert table had strawberry shortcake cupcakes, brownie bites with icing, and a layered white cake. Bare with me on my chalkboard handwriting (haha), it’s not my forte but I’ve been improving a bit. The strawberry shortcake cupcakes were amazing…truly amazing! My friend Karissa made them for the party, she is so talented. I couldn’t figure out how she got them to look so perfect and taste delicious. I made the brownie bites. They looked really cute but were kind of hard to get out of the wrapper, so….they were more of a decoration. The cake was from the Oakmont Bakery…need I say more? You know it was delicious.

These girls are my original crew. My first group of true friends. We go way back, about 15 years to be exact. It is crazy to even type that. Mo (on the far left) was my freshman roommate at Duquesne University. We were randomly paired and have stuck together since! We added the two beautiful blondes (Ashley & Holly) to our crew a few years later. We all ended up living together for 2 years in apartment #1217. And now we will forever refers to ourselves as, “1217”. We have each gone through many seasons of life since we first met in college, and I am thankful that through it all our friendships have lasted.

Jordan and I often chat about how special this crew of four is because honestly, we couldn’t be more different. But we complement each other and provide each other with fresh perspectives on life. We understand each other and leave room for us all to be uniquely us and be loved for it. No matter how different we all might be, we choose to support and love each other and that’s what has made this last for 15 years. <3

By the way, my dress is from Rent the Runway. I am a big fan of using them for all special occasions. You can read more about why I love Rent the Runway here. If you are interested in using them for an upcoming event please contact me. I can send you links for a percentage off or $30 off!

It was such a special day. I am thankful to Ashley for allowing me the honor of hosting this special event and to my husband (and friend Nick) for moving all of the furniture out of our front room so I could convert it to a party room!

Our Home

DIY Nursery Letters

Posted on April 18, 2017

I love the idea of personalizing my babies room by putting their name on the wall! After ALL of the effort that goes into picking the name it should be on display as a reward for the hours of googling and bargaining that took place! 🙂

These DIY Nursery Letters are easy and inexpensive to make. Making your own nursery letters is half the price of ordering custom letters or buying them at the store. The other great thing about these DIY Nursery Letters is you can customize them to match your child’s room and your decorating style.

The most fun part is picking out the scrapbook paper for the DIY Nursery Letters! I like mixing and matching the prints and colors. I’ve bought A LOT of scrapbook paper over the years (I love to scrapbook!) and the best selection of scrapbook paper is at Hobby Lobby. Trust me, I’ve shopped for scrapbook paper at all the places and Hobby Lobby wins every time!

The Paper Mache Letters are pretty common and can be found at any of the major craft stores. I buy the 8″ letters which are typically $2.99 each. Michael’s and JoAnn Fabric always have coupons so no need to pay full price! Both retailers have a coupon page that you should check before making any purchases. See current Michael’s coupons HERE and JoAnn Fabric coupons HERE. The scrapbook paper ranges from $0.50-$1.50 based on the type you buy. I bought my x-acto knife a while ago and I have mod podge, craft paint, and foam brushes in my craft supplies. The cost of each DIY Nursery Letter ranges from $3.50-$5.00 depending on the paper you choose and coupons. Purchasing these on Etsy will cost double that.

FIY – this project will work with the regular scrapbook paper and the the thick sparkly specialty paper.

Supplies Needed:

Scrapbook Paper
Paper Mache Letters
Craft Paint
(2) Foam Brushes
X-Acto Knife
Mod Podge

Step 1: Lay the letter on top of the paper and trace the paper mache letter with the x-acto knife. Make sure your x-acto knife is sharp. This will lead to a much easier, quicker, and cleaner cut. Repeat this step for each letter.

Step 2: Lay the paper letters on top of the paper mache letters to clean up the edges. When I cut out the letters by tracing the paper mache letters with the x-acto knife it is never perfect. I then use my x-acto knife and scissors to make sure it is going to fit well on the letters. Look for parts that hang over too far, need to be straightened, or cleaned up.

Step 3: Set aside the paper letters and get ready to paint the paper mache letters. Foam brushes work the best for applying the paint. Paint brushes tend to be streaky. The letters will absorb the paint so I recommend two coats, sometimes three coats, to get nice even coverage. Paint into the middle of the letters to ensure no bare spots will show when you mod podge the paper cut outs to the letters.

Step 4: To attach the paper to the letters you are going to use the mod podge. Get a clean foam brush out and use it to mod podge the letters and then quickly attach the paper letters. Once the paper letters are on then mod podge on top of the paper too. This will seal it and give a glossy finish.

These DIY Nursery Letters are light weight and therefore safe to hang over the babies crib. I use command strips to attach these to the wall which is simple and effective.

I loved doing these letters for baby Quinn! You can’t see it in the picture but almost every letter is sparkly. Maybe one day I’ll get to make pink sparkly letters for my house. 🙂

Here are some pictures of other DIY Nursery Letters I’ve made!