When Allison was pregnant with Lincoln, her sweet friend Brandy gifted her with a personal letter from Wesley to the little man.  There were tears galore and the letter permanently hangs in Lincoln’s room and is a constant reminder of the beautiful emotion that exists when two people start to become a family.

Fast forward a year or so and Allison’s BFF Shaileen was pregnant with O’Ren, she did the same with for her. I’m sure there was an emotional repeat of Allison’s shower as this is such a sweet idea that would bring any hormonal preggo to tears.

Well, as someone who always takes a good idea and Vanessa-izes it, I thought I would do the same for some soon-to-be mamas in my life, but in a different way…enter today’s blog the DIY Letter to New Baby from Family Member on Canvas.

Supplies:

  • Cooperative family member (preferably the baby daddy, but a sibling would be cute, too.) FREE
  • Canvas (I’ve been going with a 12 x 12 canvas because they seem to be the perfect size and they’re affordable) $7.99-$9.99
  • Scrapbook paper $0.49-$0.69/sheet (I bought a big book so it was $19.99 BUT I only used four sheets)
  • Mod Podge $3.99-$6.99 depending on the size (It was FREE for me because I had some)
  • Paintbrush $3.99 and up for a pack of multiple (It was FREE for me because we paint on a weekly basis in this house)
  • Letter from cooperative family member FREE
  • Matches or lighter stick. FREE (If you don’t have a lighter stick go to a restaurant and grab some free matches, Zaxs in Austin has matches galore…Olive and June, too!)
  • My total: $10.75 and 1 hour of craft time
Steps:
  1. Once your supplies are lined up, grab the scrapbook paper and tear it up into assorted sized pieces.
  2. Grab the canvas and start to lay the pieces of scrapbook paper out.  You want to make sure that the colors are evenly dipursed.
  3. Grab your mod podge and your paintbrush and start gluing each piece down.  You can apply generous amounts of mod podge because it dries clear.  Don’t be alarmed if it looks really glossy because, like I said above, it’ll dry clear.
  4. Leave that to dry for forty-five minutes to an hour.  I let mine dry overnight just because I was doing a few other things.
  5. Print the letter on regular computer paper.
  6. Grab the lighter and letter and go outside <I do not recommend you do this step around kids or outside over grass>.  I couldn’t take photos of this step, but what I did was light a small piece of the paper on fire and then blow it out immediately.  This process took approximately ten minutes.
  7. Place the letter and start mod podging.  Same thing as above, you can apply generously because it will dry clear.
  8. Let your masterpiece dry and voila!

Here’s a bigger picture of the final product.

Even though she loved it and so did everyone else I showed it to, I would do a few things differently another time around.  I would paint the canvas before I start–this will avoid the edges being stark white and not in the color scheme.  I would also take the time to find a better font for the letter–something girlier.

What do you think?

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