Birth Announcements

[mommabear]

Did anyone make their own?
Seen any really unique ones?
I am looking for ideas.
Thanks

[katydid1971]

I bought this great kit from target and made DS's announcements and would do it again. They were cute and not too expensive.
Sarah

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_1/602-4452961-7656648?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B000EWJLEK

[CiderLogan]

Erica/Say it with Snapshots (mommy_someday on this board) makes really, really cute custom announcements at a reasonable price that incorporate the baby's photo. See the birthday invite she made for my DD based on the plate/napkin design I chose:
http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=37&topic_id=409857&mesg_id=409857&listing_type=search

They are so, so cute, and she's super-nice as well as talented.

Jenny
~~~~~
Mommy to two beautiful girls,
ages 1 and almost 4

[SAHMIL]

My husband is a graphic designer and made our own. We put our son's picture on front and then we put all the details on the back. he made it really cute. He does do this as a side job. Contact me off the board.

[shilo]

i made my own based on invitations i've made many a time. i wouldn't call these 'unique', but they always turn out very professional looking and i get lots of compliments on them. start early as these are fairly labor intensive. i probably wouldn't have this much time the next time around with DS and a newborn on my hands, altho, you can have the pieces all prepped and ready to go and just add the photo. you can now buy kit's like this everywhere, i see them all the time at places like office depot, and there are some cute pink/blue ones online, but you don't get to pick your own colors, patterns, etc. i picked up my materials at a scrapbooking/stationary store and picked a beautiful card stock, vellum and ribbon that i just loved.

they turn out something like this kit one:
http://www.westportstyle.com/baby-stationary/17176.asp

materials - card stock, vellum (pick something fairly stiff/heavy, but that you can still see the photo thru - take any black and white photo with you to test), ribbon (see *** in step 6 below), photo
tools - paper cutter, hole punch, exacto knife, ruler

step one: pick out your cardstock. i used standard 8.5 x 11 and cut it down to a 5.5 inch width (so 8.5 x 5.5) with a paper cutter.

step two: use the exacto and ruler/straight edge to cut a slit about 1.5 inches down from the top - the slit will be 5 inches across and should be centered on the page. then leave 1 inch down and cut another 5 inch slit across. you now have the band portion for the photo and vellum to slip behind and secure to (it's the polka-dotted part of the example).

step three: cut your vellum. it should be cut so that it is 1/2 inch smaller in both dimensions than the card stock (so in my case 8x5). this gives you a 1/4 inch border on all four sides.

step four: would need to wait until baby is born obviously to be able to print details. print your text on the vellum. i use a word processing program, choose the custom paper size in page set up (5x8 in mine) and then run it thru an ink jet printer.

step five: assembly to determine hole punch placement. the vellum goes under the band created in step 2 and then get centered on the stock so that there is a 1/4 inch border all the way around. then the photo gets slipped in under the vellum/on top of the card stock. the top of the photo should be approximately at the top of the band so that it doesn't show above the band, only below. once the assembly is complete, you have to figure out where center in the band is to punch the holes for the bow tie. you have to punch thru all three layers at the same spot so that when you tie the bow, it holds them in place. i used a push pin to mark all of the layers and then disassembled it so i could punch them each individually. once you've done this for the first one it's much easier as you can use the punched pieces as templates for the rest of your pieces.

step six: once everything is punched, you put each one together and tie with a bow. ***you'll have to decide if you want a bow or a knot (usually depends on ribbon width you pick) to determine how much ribbon you need to buy. i usually do length of my practice tie in the store plus 1 inch, times the number of invites/annoucements i'm making. i usually end up with a fair bit left over, but always wind up needing a little more than i planned in the store based on the practice tie - so better to buy a little extra with the extra inch for each one.

finding envelopes to match can be a little challenging. i had to get mine online - i think it was called an A-9 for the size i did IIRC. so i'd search for your envelopes before you commit to a specific size or shape you want (square envelopes are particularly hard to find and require extra postage IME).

if you want to make these really unique, you can get creative with the shape. the most complex i've every done were circles for an invite, using a scrapbooking circle cutter for the cuts. they were gorgeous, but a real PITA!

hth, lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[mommabear]

thanks for the ideas:)

[fattytuna]

I use graphic software to make my own birth announcements and holiday cards based on designs from:

http://www.hellolittleone.com
http://www.inababycarriage.com
http://www.2peas1pod.com/gallery/index.htm

I make them 3x5, 4x6 or 4x8 in size. Then just take them to Costco and have them printed out as regular matte photos. Michael's sell 4x6 blank note cards in white or ecru, onto which I can glue the 3x5 photo. Or sometimes I just use the 4x6's and send them along with regular thank you notes. The 4x8's I order from Winkflash (they come with envelopes).

[teddy]

Not meaning to hijack but am wondering what graphic software you use, Katherine? thanks :)

Indicentally, I ordered announcements for #3 from photoaffections.com. Easy and reasonable and, of course, cute!

[fattytuna]

I use a software called Paint Shop Pro. I have version 9 which was a JASC product. Then Corel bought them and it's now at version 11: http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1155872554948.

I also have Photoshop but I find PSP enough for what I need to do.

[teddy]

Neat! Thanks :)

[JoyNChrist]

I designed my own, and several people have since asked me to design announcements and invitations for them. It's not really a side job or anything - I do maybe two things a month, but you're free to contact me via PM if you're interested.

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n164/JoyNChrist/BA1.jpg

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n164/JoyNChrist/BA3.jpg