Name Blocks

For "do it yourself day", I'm sharing some name blocks I made for my bloggy friend Rebekah. Rebekah's blog was one of the first adoption blogs I came across when we were in the process of praying about pursuing adoption. Her story & relationship with her son's birthmother is absolutely amazing and inspiring...they are both incredible women of God. She is such a beautiful writer, and she ministered to me in more ways than she'll ever know. So when she received her son, I wanted to celebrate with her and sent her a care package. One of the things I included in the package were these name blocks.

Unfortunately I don't have step-by-step pictures of making them, but I'll try to give you the basics, as it's actually really simple and inexpensive!! :)

The actual blocks are cut from a 2 x 4. (which, as it turns out, is not truly 4"....go figure.) I think the board was like $2, and you can get it at Lowe's or Home Depot, where they will also cut it down for you if you ask! :) So I had them cut mine 4 inches wide. (It gives you tons of blocks - I think I got like 32 from the piece I bought, so plenty to use for other projects.)

The next step is to sand them. It just makes them a little easier to paint, and gives a nicer finish. After that, paint them the color of your choice. (In this case, I did brown - more on that later.)

Now for the designs: I just used digital scrapbooking paper & elements to match Ty's room. I originally designed them 4 x 4, but as previously mentioned - the height was not actually 4", but more like 3&5/8ish. But it was easy to re-size and re-print (I used cardstock).

So after that, I just cut them down to size, and used Mod Podge to put the paper on the block. Let it dry, then apply a coat over the top of the paper as well. I also Mod Podged (so not a word but you know what I mean) the entire block to give it a more finished look. And that's it! Very easy, super cheap, but such a fun, personalized gift! Here are a few close-ups of the blocks:

You can go to Rebekah's blog to see how she displayed them in baby Ty's room. (Isn't he a doll?!) And yes, his room is definitely in BLACK not BROWN as my crazy eyes had thought they'd seen in the pictures of his nursery. Oops! :)

I would be glad to share the template I used to create this with anyone who would like it - either leave a comment or email me at sjg_ou@yahoo.com and I'll send it your way. Happy DIY day! :)