Baby Name Wall Art

I made this for my cousin as a baby shower gift. It took a little bit for time, and not a whole lot of money. I spent about $20 at Roberts Craft to get all of the supplies, but I have leftovers of everything. (I did find out afterwards that the paint I got for $2 on sale, was regularly only $1 at Wal-Mart)

I found out what colors she was doing her nursery in, and double (and triple) checked with her on the spelling she was using for her babies name.

1- Lightly sand everything. The wooden letters that I got just had a couple rough edges and I just wanted to smooth it all out before I painted.

2- Paint everything. I painted the dowel and all of the letters (front and back) white. It took about 30 minutes for everything to dry and then I painted everything a second time.

3- Once the second coat of paint was dry I started deciding how I wanted everything to look. At first I just laid out all the letters and started placing things on them without gluing anything down. All of the ribbons are just wrapped around the back and glued down. I didn’t want to worry about cutting them the right length. The flowers on the “O”, “I” and “E” are just paper scrapbooking flower. The little buttons and the “O”, both “A’s”, the “I” and both “E’s” are actually brads, but on the “E” and both “A’s” I bent the metal pieces back and forth until they broke off. For the “K” I took a piece of ribbon about 3 inches long and folded it over and the little buttons on top of it were buttons I had left over from something else (I don’t even know what) and they are just glued down. To paint the strips on the “L” I used painters tape to make the lines (there was no way I could have free handed that!). On the “E” I actually hand sewed the brads to the ribbon so that they looked like real buttons. The flower on the “M” I made out of ribbon and to hold it together I sewed the button to it. And on the last “A” I tied the ribbon around the small part, tied a lose knot so that it could be smashed down with then I glued the brad to it, and then I just left the ends long and glued them to the back.

4- After I had decided on how I wanted it to look I started gluing. YIKES! I hate that part… it’s so final and I don’t want to mess it up! I just used hot glue for everything.

5- Once the letters were all decorated and glued. I placed the ribbon on the letters. I did the ribbon at different lengths so that it wouldn’t hang straight.

6- After I had all of the letters on the dowel, I glued the bows on the ends. I made the bows out of wired ribbon. I then did a little touch up paint. I found that nails were leaving little black marks on the dowel, so using thumb tacks worked much better. (And they are so much more user friendly than nails!)

I was very proud of it all turned out. It did take a little bit of time, but I just worked on the about an hour a night for about 3 nights. My cousin also said that she loved it, so all of my hard work was appreciated! I haven’t seen it in the nursery yet, but I will try to get a picture of it when I do. Little Oaklie isn’t here yet, she is due to arrive in about a month, so I will let you know what she says about it when she sees it too!