DIY // Newborn Tutu

I have been thinking of ideas for our baby's newborn pictures. My husband wants some pictures where our baby is laying on his military uniform. Here's two examples:

(found this picture on Pinterest)

(found this picture on Pinterest)

My husband is in the military. I was in the military. Our baby is going to grow up with my husband being in the military. I think that getting some military newborn pictures with the baby is really appropriate because she is, after all, a military brat lol. I really like the theme. The colors are so vibrant. I thought that by having some military newborn pictures for our baby to see in the future, it will teach her to be proud of her daddy for serving our country.

Another theme that I really like is when the baby is wearing a headband and a tutu skirt. It looks so adorable! Here's an example:

(found this picture on Pinterest)

I bought a headband from our local Baby Exchange. I love the color and the fact that it has those rhinestones. I also liked it since it's a bow, and not those typical flowers a lot of people use. 

Once I found and purchased a headband I really liked, I headed over to Joann's Fabric and Craft Store, and bought some yellow and white tulle. I knew I had some white and yellow ribbons at home, so I did not buy extra ones. Check out the pictures I took while working through this project :)

I really like the final product. I added a yellow bow with white polka dots. It's so cute. This project is so easy to make, and I cannot wait for our little girl to wear it. Our newborn pictures are going to be so adorable! :)

P.S. If you own any of the pictures I got from Pinterest, and would like to be properly credited, please let me know. I apologize in advance as there was no website linked to the pictures when I found them.

DIY // Nursery Closet Dividers

My husband and I are getting ready for this baby. It turns out we are having her sooner than the due date which was September 4th. Since she is in the breech position, and stubborn to stay there might I add, the doctors scheduled us for cesarean section on August 29th! Five more days to go! Oh my goodness! I am super excited to see this baby. That, and I just can't wait to not be pregnant anymore hahaha. It is going to be great to not worry about pregnancy clothes. I am also looking forward to moving around faster. I am so tired of moving so cautiously and slowly because I feel like I am going to injure myself if I move fast. I can't wait to go back to working out and losing this weight I have gained throughout the pregnancy! (I am not going to say how much weight I have gained but it's definitely more than I thought I would.)

So, to not further delay why I am really posting today, I made some closet dividers for the nursery. I was originally going to just purchase some that looks like this online:

 

...but I didn't really like the round design very much, so I made some rectangle ones.

Material I've used are:

-cardboard box (I used the box that the baby bottle drying rack came in.)

-mod podge

-hot glue

-colorful cardstock paper

I cut six rectangles measuring 9 inches by 3.5 inches from the drying rack cardboard box. Then I cut out a 2.5 inch circle from each rectangle. I also cut a slit, as you can see in the picture above, to fit the dividers over the closet bar. It would be so much easier if you have a tool that has a set measurement, like maybe a Cricut or one of Martha Stewart round cutter, because it's a pain to cut everything by hand with scissors, especially the circles! Plus, it should save you time doing this project as well. I had to use whatever I had, in this case scissors, since I did not have any of those cool tools :(

I bought these pretty cardstock paper from Michael's. I like it because it came in multiple colors and each color has the same pattern in it. I thought of just picking out different patterns/colors from their cardstock wall but each sheet would have cost me at least $0.50, and that's the cheap ones. Buying the pack instead of each sheet has saved me money because the pack came with 25 sheets, and it cost me only $3.99. I still have a lot of sheets left for future projects since I only needed 6 sheets for this specific project :)

I applied some mod podge on the cardstock paper and rectangle cutouts to stick them together. Then, I put a heavy book on top for weight so that the divider will not curl while drying.

Then I printed out some labels. I used 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12, 12-18, and 18-24 months.

I know the dividers may be somewhat plain under the circles, but I have not decided what to put on them so I will update the post once I decided what to do. If you have any suggestions, or if you find this post helpful, please feel free to make a comment as I would love to hear from you. Thanks :)

Wedding Picture Project

After procrastinating and debating what to put our wedding pictures on, I finally decided on something. At first I was thinking of ordering some pictures and putting them in picture frames, then I thought of ordering some canvas prints, but I didn't want to spend so much money. You all know how expensive canvas gets! 

Thanks to Pinterest for giving me the idea of putting pictures on wood! We had some left over plywood at home that are 3/4 inch thick so I went to Home Depot and got them cut by 8 inch x 8 inch. 

 I sanded down each sides of the plywood then I spray painted the wood black. On the picture, the wood pieces look like I used dark red paint but it might just be the reflection on the cabinet I put them on. That and the black paint I used is the shiny kind.

 

After painting them, I applied mod podge to one of the side of the wood block. I also applied mod podge on the back of the pictures before sticking them together. Make sure that the pictures are not hanging over the side of the wood blocks because, in my experience, the sanding process made my 8" x 8" block a little smaller. So if this happens to you, just trim the pictures with a blade.

I bought a 14-pack wall hangers that you can screw on the wood. They look like these:

 I used two wall hangers for each wooden block, but one would probably suffice.

 As a finishing touch and for preservation, I applied 3 coats of mod podge on top of the pictures, letting each layer dry before applying the next one, of course. Two coats would have probably been enough. Here's my final product :)

You might have noticed that the top picture is about twice as big as the other six. I wanted to have a bigger picture of us so I made a bigger wood block that measures 12 inch x 18 inch and placed the picture in the same manner as I did the smaller ones.

This project has saved me a lot of money than if I had ordered each picture to be on canvas! It's super cheap and easy to do. I recommend this project :)