Getting crafty: Baby gift

I wasn't able to attend the baptism of one of my best friend's (Hi, Lauren!) daughter (Hi, Abigail!), but wanted to give her a special, meaningful gift. Lauren is my daughter's Godmother, and I wanted my gift to Abigail to reflect how highly I regard that special relationship. Additionally, I wanted to commemorate the fact that Abigail is, forever and ever, in the eyes of God AND the law, Lauren and J's daughter.

I knew that I wanted to make something that would be very personal, and I started thinking about the different kinds of things I could do with photos. I thought about making a photo mobile for her crib, but she's too old for that now-- too dangerous past around 5 months. Then, I thought about making a photo album, but thought that Lauren and her husband might want to do that sort of thing. Finally, I decided that I wanted to make something that she could play with everyday, and see the people who love her so much.

I thought about decoupaging wooden blocks with family members' photos, but I wasn't 100% sold on the idea. Finally, I decided to make some sort of puzzle, and started looking at the shape-puzzle templates online. When I searched for a Melissa and Doug shape puzzle (I heart Melissa and Doug products!), I came across a website that had nearly the exact project I was imagining, with all of the steps included! (Update: I just fixed the broken link-- sorry!)

Here's MY take on the project!

 

I bought the above puzzle from ChristianBook.com. Not only did they have the best price, but it happened to be on sale for a tiny bit more, and I got free shipping because I had some other (sale!) items that I had already wanted to purchase.

 I glued and then decoupaged the shapes with 5 different patterns of coordinating scrapbooking paper. I thought about painting the rest of the puzzle (white? green? pink?) or writing a message on it (I ended up doing that on the back), but decided to make it really girly and cover it with the paisley paper.

On the back, I wrote the verse that Lauren and J chose for Abigail (my daughter "helpfully" bumped my arm when I was writing. Agh! I had to remind myself that Abigail won't notice and even if she did, she wouldn't care). :-)  The "Look at how many people love you!" was the theme that I was aiming for with whatever project I ended up doing. The hearts were added as an afterthought, because the HUGE Melissa and Doug sticker left that side of the board sticky when I peeled it off. The "Isn't that amazing?" was for my daughter, who, whenever I tell her that God loves her even more than Mommy and Daddy do, says, "Wow! That's a-ma-zing!" Again, I decoupaged the back.
And yes, I edited the photo to remove our names.

What it will look like when Abigail plays with it! I included Godparents, both sides of grandparents, aunt and uncles, Lauren and J, and Baby Abigail in the middle. I traced the photos from the shapes, then cut them out, glued them over the pictures of the shapes (stop sign, bus, etc), and then covered the photos with the matte Mod Podge (what I used for the entire thing).

What I would do differently: I wish I had used an x-acto knife (by the way-- I always have spelled that "exacto" until I just looked it up. Who knew?) and cut on a self-healing cutting mat. I used scissors for the most part and wasn't able to get it as precisely cut as I would have liked. Getting the paper around the knobs was a pain, too. If I could go back in time, I might have purchased the puzzle with the wooden knobs and then tried to remove them and then add them back at the end. Using the Mod Podge on the paper for the "frame" of the puzzle was also challenging-- I don't know if it was the paper or the fact that the glue underneath wasn't completely dry, but the paper "smeared" a bit, in that some of the print came off. I would have let it dry completely before attempting to cover the top, because I think the bottom was still a bit wet, so it moved as I brushed over it, making the paper too fragile to work with just then. Finally, I think that if I did this again I would paint the back of the puzzle white. My paint pens ran a bit because of the wood grain, and that annoyed me at first.

Overall, I love it! Both of my kids played with it to "test it out," and it got 2 thumbs (4 thumbs?) up. And, even more importantly, Lauren and Abigail love it!

So... what do you think?? I can see this being a great baptism, adoption, or 1-year-old gift. You could include family or just 9 different photos of the baby! You could do pets or photos of the baby's favorite toys/foods/places. You could give it as a shower gift, with a sonogram photo in the middle, or an "insert baby photo here" note. So many possibilities. :-)