DIY gift for a toddler

I don’t know about you, but I always seem to struggle to find a nice present for a kids first birthday. I don’t particularly like the bright plastic toys for these little ones and most toys aren’t suitable for babies. Since most babies don’t talk by the time they turn one they can’t tell us what they really want for their birthday. Honestly, that first birthday is more the parents’ birthday than the kids…

After my little girl turned one I have the perfect gift. She got a beautiful sketchbook with her own name on it. Naturally I stole this idea and give away this sketchbook any chance I get J! This is how I make the personalized sketchbooks;

Buy any sketchbook with blank pages and look in your drawers for fabric, ribbons and other nice stuff to sew on. Cut the fabric at the size of the cover of your book. Then write the child’s name on a piece of paper making sure the letters all connect. Cut the paper, turn the name around and transfer to some nice fabric. Cut the name and sew it on your cover fabric.

Add any other things you like on the fabric. I used some ironing pieces and flowers cut from fabric, but you can use anything you like. Then put double sided tape on your book cover and glue the fabric on the front.

Your present is ready! You might also like to add a ribbon or a button on the side of the book, whatever you like.

 

I also had a brand name on the back of the book and I wanted to hide that. I cut a smaller flower from fabric and glued that on the back, using double sided tape.

I wanted something extra for this gift so I took some felt and sewed a little envelope to hold some pencils I bought. Looks cute right? The little girl that got this present was very happy with the small envelope, taking the pencils out and putting them back in was her favorite activity J.

 

personalized felt garland

I’m always looking for ways to decorate my little girls room but most of the times the decorations you can buy in shops are way over my budget. I also like the personalized stuff. Today I made my girl a felt garland with her name. Easy to make and a great result. Here’s how I made it;

First I printed her name, cut the letters and transferred them to felt (I turned them so you don’t end up with felt with marks).

 

I then cut all of the letters and sewed them together. For this garland I combined her name with stars. Hearts would have been nice too but I already made her a felt heart garland in somewhat of the same manner. So I also cut some stars (just cut as many as you like, the more you cut, the longer your garland obviously will be) and sewed them together as well.

I then sewed a ribbon on the back of the whole garland, just to make it a little stronger and prevent the letters from pulling apart.

Voila, your personalized garland is ready to hang! I think this would also make a nice gift for a newborn or any birthday. Especially since you can combine the name with any figure you want and any color you want.

 

Notes on a wall

I stumbled upon some nice clips with a hole in them and immediately thought they would make a great inspiration board.

I just nailed the clips on a wall and filled them with nice notes. I'll be able to change them easily according to my mood or wishes at that moment.

Inspiration labels

For my new work space I just made these inspirational labels. Simply print, cut (I cut of the top as well) and hang. Looks nice and inspires me!

Want these? just email me and I'll send them to you!