Questions about Birth Announcements (the paper kind!)

[gottaknit]

So are you planning to send out birth announcements to friends and family? Are you having them printed, using the store-bought fill-in-the-blanks kind, or making them yourself? What kind of info are you including on them? Will you emphasize a homebirth if that's what you did? Birth story or web address for it?

I'm thinking of making my own, and thought I'd better get a design worked out now so I can just fill in the particulars (date and name) later. Does anyone have any suggestions on software to use or where to get clip art or templates? I'm so not an artsy mama!

Just curious to hear what everyone else is doing! TIA!

[ashleep]

My cousin owns her own little business that does invitations, announcements, etc, and she'll be doing ours. She works out of her home and makes THE cutest cards I have ever seen . She told me to just send her the info, email any little pictures I might want (like a homebirth logo of some sort), and maybe a picture of the new family. I trust her to decide what format to use, but she doesn't mind if you know what you want.

But if I didn't have my cousin doing them I would probably make them myself. My friend had a good idea for homemade ones. Make it a one sided card and stick a little magnet on the back so they can hang it on their fridge. That way it doesn't just end up in the stack of mail or easily lost like so many things do. Or maybe that just happens at our house...

[Court]

IF we do them this time (we didn't get around to it the first time) I'll probably be using Ofoto.com. That's what we use for all our online photo albums. You can just upload the pic you want to use, pick out the announcement design, and type your own personal message. They put them all together (using a 5X7 size pic) for you and you get them in the mail. That way all I would have to do is address them. I might use the phrase "Born at home" but then again maybe not, just cause I would be mailing it to a lot of different relatives. I would include name, date, and birthweight. I think I would send out links to a birthstory to a limited amt of people, just cause it might be too graphic for some.

I just know I wont have the energy to do anything artsy, so having an online place do it all for me sounds easiest...and the prices are pretty reasonable.

Hmm...

Welcome to our newest family member
Zander Julian
Born gently at home to
Proud parents Courtney and Christopher
And big brother Logan
On October 18, 2004
Weighing 7 lbs. 9 oz

Just musing, but maybe that's too wordy I don't know.

[mirthfulmum]

Like Court, I'm planning to go digital pic. too. But I'll be taking the picture to a local photo place (it's cheaper).

[NWmama]

I'm getting printed announcements.

Last time it took awhile to pick out announcements, get them printed, address the envelopes, make prints of photos, and get them in the mail, so they seemed late by the time they went out at about 4 or 5 weeks.

This time I've already picked them out, including the wording (well, except the name and details LOL), and I'm going to start addressing them soon! I think it's nice to send photos, but if that would delay them I might skip it and send holiday family photos instead.

PS I like the "born at home" wording.

[Lucysmama]

We plan to send out announcements....we did our wedding invites ourselves, and they were really pretty. We just bought vellum paper and printed the info on it, and then laid it over top of homemade herby floral paper, punched a hole in the top, and tied it together with ribbon. It was really easy and cheap.

I think we will do something like that this time, too...

And we are going to put an announcement in the paper that includes the phrase "born at home." (as long as all goes as planned, that is!) People should hear that babies are born gently at home, and people are proud of it!!!!

[Soogie]

I plan on making my own and including a photo of the bean. If our birth goes as we wish, then the announcement will say " Born at home into Daddy's hands" with the picture being of the babe in Damian's hands. I can't express how excited my DH is to be catching the baby. He talks about it all the time and he wants to share that excitement with everyone. He even thinks we should include the birthstory. We'll see.

[bubbles]

I had planned to do them with my ds and never did. I am an art teacher and always put too much pressure on myself to make the perfect thing. Precious little one took a whole lot more attention than average and I could never make them. This time I bought some cute pre-printed ones at Target on clearance. I bought both the girl and boy since they were really cheap. I plan to use those and maybe stick a picture on. Not too creative, but I know I can do them even if I just have my niece fill them in for me. I do plan to put "Born at home" if it all works out. I agree that it is something to be treasured and shared so others know that it is a viable option. Gosh, if I was feeling sassy enough I might put "Breastfed and born at home" lol.
For ideas, the Martha Stewart Baby magazine sometimes has ideas that are really cute. Maybe her website has some? I love the idea of printing on vellum and putting over pretty paper.

[True Blue]

For DS I made them on my pc. We had a program called Picture It! Publishing. I just used the postcard format. I put in a beautiful pic of DS I took with the digital camera, made it oval shape in the program and faded the edges of the photo so it was soft, then typed in the baby info. When we put them in the envelopes, we cut a piece of translucent blue vellum paper with fancy scissors (they are like a buck or two at the store) and put those papers on top of the announcement to fancy it up. Printed up the actual announcement on some thicker cardstock. I love them!! I'll probably do the same thing this time, and definitely include born at home!!

[blessed2bamommie]

good thread! Here's some info from my states hb website, btw. I though about it b/c a lot of us are having hbs.

http://www.nchomebirth.com/birthAnnouncementIdeas.html

There were nice quotes too...I'm not sure if I might use the verse the Lord gave me over this pregnancy or 1 Sam...I asked the Lord to give me this child and he has given me my request....

Right now I might say like...

Join us in rejoicing for the safe arrival of

Mikayla/Arrington.......from the hands of h/h Heavenly Father into the hands of h/h earthly father

into the water at home (not sure where to put this...I've got the wordies too :LOL)


date

weight



HTH! Mil *was* doing printing at home! Wonder if I can get her to do ours....as long as *we* can make the choices.

eta: one wording mentions born in to mw, mamas, daddys hands...I like that too...dh is catching. And I like the pic of baby in daddys hands...I'm trying to think about logistics...of that. We'll be in the tub and noone wants to see dh's hairy gut in the background, :LOL.

Everybody be sure to share your wordings...

And maybe bring our attention to this thread. I just happened to look for this weeks and saw it.

I want a moonpie!

[stanleymama]

We made announcements when we had Collin, but now dh takes the best pics and compiles them together and sends out 2-3 emails. He is very funny/witty and comes up with the funniest comments that everyone enjoys. He usually does the day we get home too so everyone gets to hear about it right away and it seems to cut down the number of phone calls that come in.

I do plan to get all 4 boys pics taken shortly after the little man arrives and send those out at Christmas time, so everyone can have a nice pic of all the boys and it covers giving gifts as well.