Want to try making my own birth announcements...

[TLC1994]

Does anyone know of any birth announcement kits that are out there? I've seen wedding invitation kits that would probably work - they include card stock, vellum paper, ribbon and envelopes - but I'd like to find something in pink since it's for a little girl. I suppose I could go with white or ivory and just purchase different ribbon in pink just to change it. The other alternative is to buy my own card stock, vellum, etc. at a craft store or scrapbooking store and make cut them to size and put them together from scratch. I just don't know how the cost compares.

If anyone has any suggestions or good ideas, please let me know. We used Naptime Productions for baby #1's announcements and just loved them, however this time around we just can't afford to pay that kind of money.

Thanks so much!

[quikeye]

Hi, we made ds' announcements ourselves... It was around the time I tried to get into scrapbooking (didn't take) but I used a bunch of scrapping ideas to do it. Basically, I made a mini-collage picture od ds (he was already 2 months old by the time I sent them, so I did pics @ birth, 3 weeks, 6 weeks & 2 months I think), had it printed in bulk @ locally (had to do a bunch of "test pics" since I couldn't get the centering right from photoshop onto an actual pic--) and mounted the pics on blank, bulk cards that were meant to have a photo on the front of them.

I mounted the photos w/ the photo double-sided tape that came w/ the cards, and also used eyelets to "attach" the pic at all 4 corners on the front.

For the inside, I bought some vellum paper (the style I liked was 12 x 12, so I had to cut an inch off of each to fit into my printer, but my inkjet worked just fine), and was able to get 4 "announcement" sheets printed per page. I then mounted them inside the card (at the very top) with more mounting tape, and then used another word eyelet to "attach" the vellum to the inside.

I think we sent about 40, but had enough for 50... Here's the breakdown (off the top of my head)... The cards were actually not expensive-- they were "Strathmore photo mount cards" & I bought them for about $15/50 from http://www.danielsmith.com (the cheapest shipped I found; didn't have a local craft store & the art store only sold them in packs of 10 for about $7/each!) My photos were about .20 each, so about $10. The vellum was about $1/sheet, but that's b/c I got stuck on a certain print I *had* to have-- I saw other vellum much less expensive-- I think I bought 11 sheets-- so $11. The scrapbooking stuff (eyelets, word mounts) were a little expensive-- I didn't have to use the word mounts & it would have been much less I think (and would have taken a lot less time pounding 6 eyelets into each card x 40 cards!!) I think I spent maybe $20-25 on that? Have no idea now, b/c I went a little crazy buying the scrap stuff thinking I'd use it later. :)

I think my whole "inexpensive" project cost me about $1/card for about 50 cards... but I did go overboard & wanted *everything* (photo, vellum, eyelets...) If I did it again I'd get a better deal on photos and just do the photo & the card, with maybe a plain paper or more simple vellum inside. I think that without the scrapping/vellum I could have cut the cost in half...

I'm going to try & take some pics of the card, so it makes a little more sense :)

ETA: I actually didn't care much for the embossed "border" on the strathmore cards... a little too "much" for me (I would have prefered them plain). I did try to watercolor them but I'm not very good @ stuff like that :) Good luck! I had fun with mine but the eyelets took forever (had to do it when ds was asleep... and pounding with even a tiny hammer is pretty loud to a newborn! :)

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/16610.jpg
http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/16611.jpg
http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/16612.jpg

[NYSarah]

I've just finished working out my own birth announcements (handmade paper, custom cut; photos; vellum overlays; snowflake brads as fasteners because she's due in winter and we live in the NE) and a couple of resources I have bookmarked:

http://www.formal-invitations.com/welcome.html
wedding invitations but lots of options, including some pinks and florals that would be perfect for a baby girl.

http://handmade-paper.us/
the place I used for most of my materials, they will custom cut any of the handmade papers on the site to 5x7 or whatever you need.

http://www.impressrubberstamps.com/
great source for brads, eyelets etc

http://www.polkadotdesign.com/
a huge selection of completely designed announcements you print and then put together yourself. Some really nice stuff here, especially in the vellum overlay section (IMHO). Seems expensive, but it's easy to run up the cost per card doing them yourself if you're not careful.

I priced the options I was looking at very carefully to make sure I was including *all* my supplies and I think my cards are going to come in around 90 cents each (including envelopes, not including postage). Actually, they'd have been cheaper but DH fell for a paper that was twice as much as the cheaper alternative I was considering!!

Also, anything you find, google to make sure it isn't cheaper elsewhere. The snowflake brads I bought from impress I later found cheaper on another site -- but I cut my envelope cost in half by doing a little extra looking.

Good luck!

[Jen841]

I made the "You are a Star" from this http://www.impressrubberstamps.com/miva/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=ideas_using_punches

People here helped me with a poem to put in it.

I admit, I bought nothing from Impress, I bought locally:
I bought yellow cardstock (a ream) $12? (I needed a 1/2 sheet per card)- Office Supply store
Envelopes from Walmart (invitation) $3 a box (25? in a box)
Bought a star punch $3-5? - Michaels?
Bought a texture background $3-5 - Stamp store in Chicago
Roll of foam tape- Office Supply store
Yellow ink pad - Michaels- perfectly matched the color of the paper
White cardstock ream

For the picture, I used wallet size pictures (9 for $1.99 at Costco)

Inside I put the picture on the left with a glue dot on the back (picture corners were my originally plan, but I wanted these out right away, so I used the dots)- Under the picture I stamped his name (a local place made a stamp for $7 of his name)
On the right I put my poem "We wished upon a star, and our dream came true..."(glued it in on white cardstock)-9 per sheet run off at Office Max (cardstock does not show glue lines)
On the back I put a stamp of a diaper pin with a star on it and my "Handstamped by Jen AKA Mom" stamp.

We sent around 100 (lots of family!!!!).

They were all sent within 3 days of Jude coming home b/c I made most of them before he was born (the outsides.)

I made extra "shells" I used as Thank You's, and under the star I stamped his name to make his first personalized stationery.

All supplies I have used for other projects, so in my eyes my cost was FREE.

They were not all "perfect", but personally made items in my eyes don't need to be perfect, that is what gives them charm.

A papercutter (a gift) made this all easy, but you can always use what they have at Kinkos, an office, Office Max,...

I love projects you can mass produce!