DIY Baby Announcement

Alright so he might be four months old, but better late than never right? I was determined to get out an announcement for Ronan since I'm trying hard to avoid the whole second-baby-doesn't-get-the-same-hoopla effect! After seeing these two super cute DIY baby announcements (1,2) on Pinterest I knew just what I wanted to do for Ronan's debut.

Alright now, would you like to know how I did it? First I used a photo I really liked of him in his diaper on his sheepskin. (I've been taking these monthly, more on that later.) In Photoshop I did a bit of editing and used the rubber stamp and blur tools to carry the sheepskin all the way out to the edges of my 5" x 7" image.

Next, I placed that photo in Illustrator and went to town on the fonts and little details (lines, stars, banners). Note, this whole thing could have been done in Photoshop, but I love me some Illustrator for text editing! If you are new to Illustrator, you will want to learn how to maniplute type: highlight the text, go to the type tab in the menu bar and click create outlines, now you have an object you can mess with easily. Font Squirrel and Dafont are my two favorite places to find fun fonts for projects like these.

After saving at a high resolution, I had them printed at Vista Print on heavy matte paper. I just love how they came out. These announcements were very affordable and extra special because I made them. If you are great at handlettering you could also print the photo, write the text by hand, and scan the whole thing for printing.

Welcome the the world Ronan Sky, you are such a delight!