Baby Announcements

I am a big fan of pomp and ceremony when it comes to the birth of a child. Babies should be celebrated, welcomed, heralded; their births announced from every rooftop with cries of “He’s here! She’s arrived!” When I think of verbally announcing a birth, I think of the old town crier with their proclamations written in elaborate script on rolled up scrolls. So what about a scroll style birth announcement to share your best news ever?

Begin by creating some parchment to act as a backing paper for your actual paper birth announcement. The easiest way is to warm the oven to approx. 200 degrees (grown ups only!). Place two sheets of copy paper on a clean baking sheet and use a sponge to soak with brown vinegar. Sprinkle coffee grounds or ground tea over the vinegar and pop the whole concoction in the oven.

It usually only takes a few minutes for the parchment paper to brown after going in the oven.  Keep a close eye on your home made parchment paper so it doesn’t burn. Let it cool completely before removing from the baking sheet. Repeat this step as many times as you need depending on the size and amount of scrolls you want to use.  Both full copy sheet size and half sheets make cute birth announcement scrolls.

Once you have made parchment paper its time to design the inner section of your birth announcement scroll. A cream colored or marbleized paper will look nice against the framing of the parchment paper. Be sure to design your insert paper so that it includes photographs of the baby as well as the birth statistics. Make things look perfect by using the flyer template from an online printer’s website.

Once you have your inside and outside papers completed glue them together and allow to dry. Roll each scroll and tie with a ribbon the color of your child’s nursery. Hand the finished birth announcement scrolls out at a post birth party or place individual scrolls in cardboard tubes for mailing.

Filed under: birth announcements on August 13th, 2010