Handmade Birth Announcements

New mothers love showing off their babies, and this usually begins with a birth announcement. If you’re looking for an opportunity to flex your creative skills and save money, handmade birth announcements are a great alternative to run-of-the-mill announcements.

A professional design is easy to achieve at home. Use colored craft paper for the border, and glue card stock to the middle. If you’re feeling ambitious, write the details in cursive. You can also print out the information from your home computer, giving your announcements a simple, elegant appeal.  Add a small ribbon, or use a calligraphy pen for embellishments if you want to add some flair.

If you want to create fun birth announcements, your options are endless. Look through scrap booking supplies and card stock to find your favorite designs, or buy pre-made announcements to dress up. Trace patterns with stencils, or use sponge paint or stamps to frame your announcement. If you do not want to buy items for painting or stamps, then use colored paper to cut out your own designs.

Expectant and new mothers have enough stress, and birth announcements can be low key but still unique. Use thick colored paper to trace and cut out an item. Onesies, pacifiers, rocking horses, and anything newborn-related is perfect. If you have a theme for your baby's room like baseball, then cut out a bat or make a baseball diamond. The cut outs become festive announcements that are special and eye-catching.

Turn an invitation into a keepsake by making it special. Magnets, coasters, water bottles, buttons, key chains, and more can show off your newborn. While these items can be personalized in a store, kits exist containing many of these items. If you pride yourself on standing out and having the best ideas, these birth announcements are functional and impressive.

You may already have items at home that can be transformed into hassle free announcements. Cut and decorate unused folders, or make over the whole folder so recipients can store baby pictures in it. Newspapers can be edited by cutting together parts to make a new headline that announces a baby, and magazine covers can be altered to look like your baby is on the front cover. Only one design is needed and can be scanned and printed. With these inexpensive household items, you can create memorable, one-of-a-kind announcements. 

These ideas work for any skill level and time limit. Plus, these birth announcements will amaze others and are a keepsake for your newest family member.

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body."
 
-Elizabeth Stone

Tips for Feeding Baby

Special Delivery: Sending Birth Announcements

You’ve waited nine months for your little bundle of joy to arrive, and now that your baby’s here, you want to shout it from the rooftop. However, sending birth announcements is probably a more efficient way of sharing your good news. When should they be sent, and to whom? Fortunately, new parents are given some leeway when it comes to getting their baby’s birth announcements into the hands of adoring family and friends.

Even the experts disagree about the proper timeframe for birth announcements. In Etiquette for Dummies, Sue Fox notes that a “joyous phone call made by the new father or proud grandparents” immediately after the birth and informal e-mail announcements can suffice in the short term. However, printed announcements should follow as soon as possible, preferably “before the baby is three months old.”

Etiquette expert Letitia Baldridge, a syndicated columnist and author of 15 books on the subject, agrees that, “In a perfect world, birth announcements would be sent out almost immediately.” She concedes, however, that, “a perfect world rarely happens.” And that is doubly true for new parents. If weeks and months pass by in a blur of midnight feedings and stinky diapers, people will understand. Baldridge says birth announcements should be in the mail by the time the baby is six months old. “You don't want the baby growing up and getting married before you announce its birth,” she warns. Parents who do wait a little longer to get the announcements out might consider adding a special note about the baby’s first months or including a more recent photo of their child to make the announcement as up-to-date as possible.

If the three-to-six-month birth announcement window seems daunting, try to prepare ahead of time. Before the baby is even born, decide whether you want to purchase or make the announcements, choose a design or buy necessary craft supplies, and even pre-address the envelopes and add attractive stamps. When your baby is born, you just need to drop in a cute photo and add some vital stats and, voilà! You and your baby are ready to drop them in the mailbox.

Compiling a birth announcement mailing list in advance makes sending the announcements easier, but who should receive an announcement? Here, the experts are pretty much unanimous: send one to everyone! Close friends and family are a must, but many new parents include long-lost school chums and business associates on their mailing lists as well. What better way is there to get back in touch or reach out to colleagues than by sharing such joyous news? Sue Fox cautions, “You can tell the whole world about your new baby if you wish, but remember to address envelopes to out-of-town grandparents, aunts, and uncles first…”

If you wonder whether you should include someone on your mailing list, go ahead and send them an announcement. It’s always best to err on the side of fewer hurt feelings in the long run, and there really can’t be too many people celebrating the birth of your child. Perhaps Miss Manners says it best when she advises parents to “announce the birth to anyone you think will be interested. Or perhaps to anyone you think will be not just interested, but pleased."