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Wow… can you believe it is April 1st already? Here in the US it means that the Winter season is just about over and that Spring is right around the corner. Hopefully, this means an end to the cold weather and snow and the start of all things spr

ingy back to life with color!

You know that old saying “April Showers bring May Flowers”? Well, for me, April Showers bring many baby showers!!! This time of the year my mailbox starts to fill with invitations to baby showers! I don’t know the last time I received a baby shower invitation in the middle of winter?!?

Keeping with Spring feel of new life, The Hybrid Chick will be hosting a Baby Shower Bash the last two weeks in April.

Be sure to stop back daily during the Baby Shower Bash as The Hybrid Chick team will be creating baby shower themed projects featuring the gorgeous designs of The Digichick Designers.

Quirky Twerp’s newest kit in the shop, Welcome Baby Scrapbook kit, immediately put me in the mood to create a baby themed project!

I ADORE the elephant which inspired my project:

My Supply List:

Welcome Baby Scrapbook kit by Quirky Twerp
chipboard letters
thin matte presentation paper
Tombow adhesive tape runner (or adhesive of choice)
Tombow mono aqua liquid glue (or adhesive of choice)
exacto knife
a sanding block
ink for edges
scissors
hole punch
string/ribbon/cording
piece of chipboard (backing from a tablet or cereal box)

The above supply list is a guideline for you – use what you have! Don’t own an adhesive tape runner? Then use mod podge or a glue stick or your favorite white glue.

Ready to get started? Let’s go!

1. Open your program of choice. Choose a paper that you want to use on the letters. All of mine use the same paper but you could use a different paper for each letter.

2. My chipboard letters are about 3 inches so I resized the paper to 4 inch x 4 inch squares. Zoom in so that you are looking at the paper at 100%. Size and resize the papers until the pattern is a size of your liking – one that you think will work on your chipboard letters.

3. Print the squares on thin presentation paper. I always use my printer’s best print option. Cut apart the squares.

4. I didn’t want the gray sides of the chipboard letters showing in my project so I inked the edges of my letters with black Ink. I used Q-tips for the hard to reach spots on the letters – like on the inner edge of the “a”

5. Apply adhesive to the front of each letter and placed one face down on each of the backs of the printed squares of patterned paper.

6. Using an exacto knife, carefully cut around each letter and in the center of the letters.

This is what all of the letters looked like covered with the papers:

My letters are very rough looking from being cut out with the exacto knife, but we’re going to correct that next.

7. Using a sanding block (or a piece of fine grit sandpaper, a flat nail file or metal nail file), sand all the edges of the letters. This will not only remove the excess paper from the edges of the letters but it will also smooth and distress the edges.

tip: always sand in a downward motion. If you sand up and down, you’ll pull the paper up from the letter.

8. Use ink and a small piece of sponge to ink all of the edges of the letters and then set them off to the side to dry.

9. Punch 2 small holes in the top of each letter. You can further embellish the letters by adding bows like I did, you can add flowers, or you can leave the letters as is. These are your letters – embellish them how you want!!!

10. Thread string or ribbon through holes in letters – leave enough string at each end for hanging.

11. Space the letters on the string/ribbon to your liking. I used a piece of transparent tape over the string on the back of the letters to keep letters in place when hanging.

Here’s how I created the elephants holding the string of letters:

Donna (Quirky Twerp) included two larger sized elephants in her kit (one pink and one blue) – they measure approx. 7 inches x 5 inches. PERFECT for larger sized baby shower and/or nursery decorations!!

1. Print one large blue and one large pink elephant. Flip the blue elephant horizontally before printing – you want the elephants “facing each other” to hold the letters.

2. Cut out the elephants. Apply adhesive to the back of your elephants and glue to a piece of chipboard. (I used a piece of old cereal box – you could also use the chipboard from the back of a tablet). The chipboard will help your elephants be stronger and more durable. I used Tombow mono aqua liquid glue for this. It has a dauber tip applicator which is great for covering large areas.

3. Place a thick book or heavy object on top of the elephants so that the edges don’t curl up. Allow to dry.

4. Cut out around the elephants.

5. Wrap ends of the strung letters around the elephants trunks (again, I used a piece of transparent tape to secure the string on the back of the elephants).

This was a very easy project to do! Covering chipboard letters with paper wasn’t as hard I as I thought it would be. The sanding and inking of the edges allowed for some forgiveness of mis-cuts. So give it a try!

I hope you are inspired by my project and I hope to see you back here at the end of the month for more baby themed projects!

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