First of all….thank you for your sweet, sweet comments yesterday and the throughout this whole series really. It’s been fun getting ready for this baby with all of you. Congrats to all of you that are expecting as well. I just feel so blessed to be apart of this community of bloggers with you.
Now…Today’s project involves your kids. The ones you already have that is {and if you don’t, you can always include cousins or friends!}.
I want my boys to be excited for this baby to come. A great way to do that is to help them pick out a gift for the baby. But what does a baby really need? …diapers and clothes. Not very interesting to a 3 and 7 year old.
To help my boys feel a bit more involved and to make this process more personal, I had them draw a special picture for this girl which I then turned into a one of kind stenciled onsie.
Now every time she wears it they can see how much she is enjoying their gift and that it was really appreciated. 🙂
Their part is easy. If they are older and depending on their interest they could do more of this process.
I actually posted a project similar to this my first year of blogging here. The process is the same.
Just have them sit down and think about what they want to draw for the baby.
My oldest, Owen even wrote her this cute little “poem.” I don’t know how I feel about being called big, but I didn’t say anything. 🙂 It is really sweet.
I almost took the time to cut out each of the letters so the poem could make it on the onsie but thought better of it. You can of course use heat transfer paper and put the actual image on the onsie. I felt like it might start to look cheesy and I already had all the freezer paper stenciling stuff on hand.
We made sure to hang up the original pictures on the baby’s door so she could see all their hard work and the colors they put into their pictures, as per Owen’s request.
I took their pictures and drew a simplified version onto freezer paper. Then I continued with freezer paper stencil painting. I Am Momma has a great tutorial for it found here and so does MADE found here.
Reid’s was pretty tricky to do. Drawing is not something he likes to do often, so he made quick work of it, “signed” his name in blue and got down. I chose a cluster of his drawing to work with and did the best I could. At the last minute I decided to do an inverted stenciling. It gave a cool affect and I didn’t have to spend an hour placing every little tiny piece I cut out.
Kind of abstract but fun.
Owen decided to make her a boat with her on board. I think it’s adorable.
I added a few lines in the water, following the the top of the water he originally drew as my guideline; so you could tell it’s supposed to be water on the onsie.
I wanted to be apart of the fun so I made one for her as well. I just cut strips of freezer paper, punched out some hearts with a paper punch and painted away.
I used Textile Medium paint for each onsie. This stuff is a dream. You can use any acrylic paint with this medium to make it fabric paint. So the color options become kind of limitless. Pretty awesome.
The boys loved showing off their onsies for the camera.
Reid’s even has a back side since I put the image on the side of the onsie.
This girl is one lucky lady to have these two sweet boys as her brothers. 🙂
So…I would like to know.
Do you have any other ideas for helping your kids get ready for another baby?
Owen was such a patient big brother and not really “too helpful” or interested in picking up Reid when he was small. I have a feeling things might be different this time around. Reid is SUPER interested in babies and helping me all the time. The one doll we own might have to be utilized a little more I think?
I would love any tips if you’ve got them.
Hope your day is splendid!
This is super cute! My daughter isn’t getting a sibling for quite some time, but she we are expecting a baby cousin in the family this summer. We will have to make the new baby some original toddler artwork onesies! Thanks!
{I’d love for you to link up and share if you have a second: http://tutusandteaparties.blogspot.com/search/label/Link%20Party}
That is a super cute idea! If my niece and nephew are around before our baby comes, I will have to have them do this. They would love it!
When my baby sister was born, I was 5 and my brother was 3. When the baby came home from the hospital, we were given some toys for us to have from the baby. My mom even told us that my sister had picked them out! 🙂 We thought that was awesome, and we loved her more for it. It also gave my mom a minute to take care of stuff she needed to do!
those are really cute!! idk how to prepare for more babies, i think all kids are different. id say the best thing to do (which im pretty sure u already do) is to just talk about how things will be when baby sister gets here. they will help take care of her bc thats what big brothers do. i use this one in particular but that boys have to take care of their mommies!! lol cant wait to see her, she will be beautiful!!!
Love this idea. Thanks!
My daughter and I did a very similar thing for her baby brother. We didn’t use her drawings, but I did let her choose from a few different images to use for the freezer paper, and we made a few sets of “matching” shirts for her and baby – my favorite being pink and blue robots. 😀
such a great idea – maybe i will do this w/ my kids!
Ah, that’s so sweet! What a great idea!
This is so cute! We’re expecting #2 any day – and big brother is so excited for her to come. This would be such a fun thing for him to do!
Cute idea!!! I had my kids sing a song and talk to the baby. That way, when the baby was born, they had a special song they could sing to him, and he would turn and look at them! It was so sweet, and it made them feel really important.
I LOVE the idea of involving them in making the onesies. What a sweet idea. Sounds like you’re already doing a great job of preparing them for her arrival.
Cheri
What a sweet idea! I have some fabric crayons that will create the same effect. The kids can draw on regular paper, and the I can flip it upside down and iron it onto a onesie. We have a lot of fun with those crayons!
This is great! I love this idea for involving them in the planning & that little poem is too cute!
How fun! We made onesies at a baby shower one time, but having the siblings get in on it is so awesome!!
That is awesome! The green one looks so hip, like something you’d see in a boutique. Love this idea! I teach elementary art and I’m always trying to think of fun ways to translate kid’s art in to clothing.
so cute! I did almost the exact same thing last week with my girls. We bought the crayons that transfer to fabric so they drew pictures with the crayons and I just ironed them right onto the onesie. My 6 yr old wanted to title her pics and she drew the names backwards. I was pretty impressed. Right now I am having them work on squeaky toys for the baby. Drawing, cutting…pics to be up soon on my blog of everything they are working on. They love making stuff and are so excited to be involved with getting ready for their new brother.
So precious! I love how sweet each one is. The heart one is especially cute!
okay, WHY didn’t you do this series before I had my baby? I l.o.v.e. Love this! I think my boys may be doing it for her first birthday. Love. Did I say that?
Great ideas! Could you possibly post some more about mixing any paint to make it fabric paint? How exactly do you do it? Thanks!
Super cute onesies! What a swwt idea.
My kids love to help with our baby, but they are still really little, so it gets tricky. Ruby is great at fetching things for me (burp cloths, toys, etc), and throwing away diapers. Oscar loves to sit on the couch and hold the baby in the boppy pillow on his lap. He always lets me know when he is done, so I don’t have to sit with him the whole time. It is nice to have a few minutes to get things done.
Good luck! Babies sure are great.
Those are awesome, Delia! Your little ones did a great job. They must be excited. 🙂
When I had my 2nd child, I made my 4 year old daughter “diaper deputy”. She loved having a job to help with the new baby. She was responsible for getting a diaper when I needed it, or a blanket if that was the case. She was a proud big sister!
Lovely pictures and awesome photography. I think they really loved it.
online virtual worlds for kids
This is such a lovely project! She really is so lucky to have such sweet big brothers!
I’m so impressed with your ability to make things “girly” without an overload of pink!
oh so cute! Love the hearts 🙂
I love this idea! My kids made each other t-shirts for Christmas and they treasure them so much!! 🙂
Darling idea!