Baby Announcements

As your child gets older, often around their first birthday you may decide to make an impression of their hand and foot prints. These days many hospitals offer clay impressions of your new baby’s hands and feet. Traditionally, these came in ink on the back of the hospital birth certificates. So what about taking this idea and placing it on the baby birth announcement?

Getting the foot or hand print of a newborn baby is probably going to be the hardest part of following through on this idea. From experience I suggest ink rather than clay and tempura paint rather than ink and a sleeping baby rather than an awake baby. Aaah memories.

The easiest way to make the image of your child’s handprint crisp and clear is to use white paint on a dark paper background. Black and white works best but can come across as a bit harsh. A selection of primary colors and white work well. Yellow handprints on blue backgrounds stand out very well. Play around with construction paper and your sleeping child’s hand until you get just the look you want.

Can I also suggest wet wipes close to hand as sleeping babies with paint on their hands have a tendency to jerk around unexpectedly? You want to wipe paint off your baby’s hand not your rug or crib bumper pad.

Once you have the image you can either scan it into the computer (which will give you the clearest image) or take a digital photograph of your baby artwork.  Be sure to check the size of the image file in advance of uploading to the online printer’s website.

To complete these truly personal baby birth announcement cards place the hand or footprint image in the place reserved for a photograph in the template. Choose a complimentary background or frame design and don’t forget about including the baby birth statistics. This is one baby birth announcement your friends and family members will enjoy for years to come.

Filed under: birth announcements on May 21st, 2010