I’ve had a lot of emails and comments asking to show how I made the name sign for the nursery, so today I’ll share how I did it and maybe others will want to experiment with their own baby’s names or just words, I think I’m going to make one for the kitchen next

This project took me a long time because I made it the first month after Peanut was born, at that point I could only try to do something while he was sleeping, but crafting was not a priority when you are sleep deprived and with a messy house =] The good part, I got to REALLY enjoy having a few minutes here and there to relax and play with cardboard!

So here is the list of all the materials I use to make it, in my case I already had all of it so the cost of this cute little project was $0 YAY!

• Oversized cardboard box
• Illustrator
• Printer
• X-acto knives
• Cutting mat
• Wire
• Pliers
• Hot glue gun
• Paper glue tape
• Paint

The first thing I did was to measure the box I was going to use to make the sign, I was lucky to receive the giraffe in Peanut’s nursery that week, so I had the perfect large size box to use. If you plan to purchase one, you should check the Home Depot or any shipping supply store.

After I knew the exact size of the usable area of the box, I drew a rectangle on Illustrator with that measurements, then I started playing with the words. I knew I wanted to try to merge the “E” from his first and middle name, so I made 3 different options.

Ken was on a fire assignment that week, so I texted him the options I made and he agreed that the first option was the best.

After that I merged the shapes of the letters (pathfinder tool) so I could have one solid area and make it “print friendly” I set up my file so I could print the super big shape in 12 different pages, after printing I taped them together (I was feeling kind of lazy so I didn’t use my normal way to enlarge graphics)

Below you can see the box I used and the printed version of my sign, next I cut the front and back of the box (I used two layer of cardboard to make the sign thicker) and taped my template on top.

Since I was all about saving time that day, I didn’t mark the pieces of cardboard and cut them separately (like I would recommend if you can’t handle the X-acto well) I just re-taped the template each time it was a little loose, I started by cutting all of the edges, just a rectangular shape, and tape again in all the areas my sign touched the external lines. After that I started with the inside details very carefully.

Once I had my sign all cut out, I measured 3 inches down and made the marks to add wire (only to the back piece) so the sign could hang easily. I poked the wire through the cardboard and twisted it on the other side, to reinforce I added some hot glue in between the wire and cardboard (on the inside side, not the side facing out)

Once I made the hanging pieces I hot glue both cardboard pieces together, I used a lot of glue, but since I recommend to use paper tape for the edges, the hot glue is mostly just to keep them together on the center.

I cut my paper tape in half lengthwise to have thiner stripes and glue them to the edge of my sign, this part was kind of a pain, because I wasn’t planning on covering the letters after this, so the tape had to have a clean finish. After I did all of the edges I punched some circles and glue them randomly to add a little bit of texture, the edges were so noticeable! So the texture helped making the sign more like one piece.

Once I had my sign all ready I used the same paint from the wall I was going to hang it, so it would match, I though about using the contrasting color, but I love how it’s still contrasting just with the shape and thickness.

The final sign is actually super light, but just in case our crib is not flushed with the wall now (it was for the pictures) and I know that its placed high enough so that our little Conner will not try to hand from it once he’s older and starts doing that kind of things!

I hope you experiment with cardboard now! I know I’ve mentioned a lot of times, but it’s one of my favorites materials ever, so many possibilities =]

ps. the font I used is Impact with some width edits on Illustrator.

I hope you have a lovely day!
XOXO