DIY Baby Monthly Milestone Numbers
The first year of a baby’s life is full of so many special moments. New moms are always looking for simple and creative ways to document these little changes and monthly milestone numbers are all the rage. My boys are teenagers and I wish I was this clever (or able to think clearly) during their first year. Sure, I have yearly birthday photos with giant numbers (I’m looking at you, Picture People) but can I put my hands on monthly newborn photos?
This past Christmas, I was part of a creative gift swap where our instructions were to “Create, gather, paint, construct, shop for a thoughtful and inspiring gift personalized for your swap mate.” Since my swap mate is expecting her second child and I noticed in her Instagram feed she did monthly photos of her first child, I knew what must be done.
If you have a Cricut or other cutting machine (or a fabulous die-cut machine at your local craft store), you can create your own monthly milestone numbers to gift like I did! With so many beautiful papers out there, it was hard for me to narrow down the theme. I came across this beautiful constellation paper and of course “I Love You To The Moon And Back” immediately popped into my head. I die-cut both chipboard and the paper, 6″ shapes, and adhered together.
But as pretty as this paper is, it needed a little more pizzazz. And this, my dear readers, is when I learned about DIY gold foiling. I know, you all are so clever and have been doing this for years. Apparently, you can use it on fabric too, with a variety of adhesives! I wanted to add a few foil details to really make our numbers pop. Plus, who doesn’t love to play with shiny foil?
What You’ll Need:
Night Sky from One Canoe Two Creekside paper line
Deco Foil gold transfer sheet (find at any craft store or get online here)
gold baker’s twine
Sakura quickie glue pen
- Using your glue pen, ‘color’ in the areas on your paper you want to foil. With this particular adhesive, to attach the gold foil, it needs to be tacky. When the glue is wet it is light blue, so I waited about a minute or so, until it was almost clear.
2. Lay the foil over the tacky areas and gently press (do not rub!!) down several times. Lift the transfer paper and the gold should be adhering to the tacky glue. If you missed a spot, just reapply a new area of gold and repeat the process.
I added a few more details like tying on baker’s twine and moon stickers. I finished it all by wrapping a papier-mâché box in the same paper and printing our saying on vellum.
It is a great gift idea and if you know the baby’s nursery theme, you can coordinate the colors! I can’t wait to see these monthly milestone numbers in use…if she shares on social media, I will share a link.
I am now addicted to gold foiling stuff. Valentine’s Day is coming up so you know it will be covering another project or two.
Need more ideas to celebrate a new baby? How about hosting a baby shower? If you don’t live near the mama-to-be, host a virtual baby shower!
UPDATE
My swapmate had her baby…check out my numbers in action…too sweet!
