Crafty Name

     I always loved the idea of having Mya's name hanging on her wall. If you ever go into those fancy baby boutiques you can buy beautiful wooden letters (with ribbon attached) that you can hang from the wall to create any name you'd like. However, the problem is that I found out that it costs a fortune to buy the letters (and my kids name is short--so I can't imagine someone trying to spell out a long one!). So instead I decided to make my own. 

  Here is how I did it on the cheap:

1) I bought my wooden letters (unpainted) from Michaels craft store for about $4 each. But then I noticed recently at Walmart that they're even cheaper (so buy them at Walmart if you can!). 

2) choose 3 different colours that match your room decor. I chose pink, dark brown and white and bought just little bottles of crafters paint at Dollarama ($1 each!). The white paint that I used was actually left over paint that I had from painting my baseboards in my house, so use whatever you have on hand as well. 

3) I chose to make as much of a pattern as I could with the colours (considering I was only working with 3 letters). I wanted the background colours to be white, pink, white. So I started by painting each letter accordingly, then I just went nuts with decorating however I wanted. Just be creative and add whatever little polka dots, or details that you'd like. 

4) choose whatever colour ribbon you'd like (I picked brown since I had brown in the paint colours and throughout Mya's room-and I also had left over brown ribbon in my craft drawer). Then cut your ribbon to size (making sure that you allow enough ribbon to tie a bow at the top) and use a hot glue gun to glue the ends onto the back of each letter. 

5) space your letters out appropriately on the wall, add nails and hang! It's as easy as that! (And I think I paid maybe $15 total for it--but if I had gotten my letters at Walmart it would have been even cheaper). 

     Here is a pic of what her crib space looked like before she was even born, with the letters over her crib. And although we ended up returning that whole bedding set since although it looked pretty, it was really impractical in terms of safety (SIDS, etc)..we've kept the letters and just continued to add other decor details throughout this past year. I'll post pics later of her updated room.

Good luck!