Wild Baby Shower Gifts

One of my good friends is expecting a boy at the end of the month and she had an amazing baby shower with a “Where the Wild Things Are” theme. As it so happens, that is also the theme of the new nursery.

I wanted to do something special for her (and the baby!), and I kept going back and forth with ideas and searching on Pinterest, Instagram and Google.  I finally decided to create custom baby blocks, a onesie and a t-shirt for the new little guy.

To begin, I ordered blank wooden blocks from Amazon.  24 blocks for only $15…not too bad!

Then I did a Google search for images of Where the Wild Things Are book (there were many!).  I inserted the images on a Word Document and cropped them all to the same size.  I cropped mine to 1.5″ x 1.5″ since that was the size of the blocks I planned to use.  I made a few extra squares and inserted lines from the story and also included a clip art crown with the baby’s name.

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I printed multiple pages so that there were enough squares to cover each side of the blocks (144 squares in all!).  I used my Swingline Paper Trimmer to cut out each square.

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I then mixed 1 cup of water with 1 cup of Elmer’s glue and found myself a sponge brush.  I sponged the glue mixture onto one face of the block and then placed a paper square on top.  I then sponged more mixture over the paper. I had to make sure to sponge out all of the wrinkles and bubbles so that the paper laid flat on the surface of the block.

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We (my husband helped!) were able to cover 4-5 sides of the block at one time before we had to let them dry in order to do the remaining sides. We put 3 coats on each block, but I think 2 coats would have been enough.  It being my first time doing this, I wanted to make sure that the paper stayed put.

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In between drying times, I worked on the Cricut Design Space and designed the two shirts I made.  Once I had an idea of what I wanted, it didn’t take long to do.

To complete all three gifts took about 2.5 hours when you include drying time and ironing on the vinyl to the shirts. Time well spent and worth it to see the smile when she opened the gifts 🙂

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