DIY Baby Door Hanger (Not Your Traditional Wreath)

Here's a fun little DIY that evolved from yet another Pinterest-inspired project. One of my dear friends recently had a little boy, and for her shower I was in charge of the decor-- including the door hanger. Originally, I had thought we'd do a wreath. But that quickly changed after I started playing around.

I was at Hobby Lobby looking for ideas and came across a pretty white shadowbox (it was also 50% off at the time) which came with beautiful pearl pushpins.  I loved the idea of mama being able to customize it, change it out, and display whatever she wanted... because we all know that babies grow fast and there's a lot we want to showcase about them!

Since baby boy wasn't born yet, I asked my friend for his sonogram picture. That would be the top portion of the box until he was born, then she could switch it out to his newborn picture. The bottom portion would be for "info," in this case his full name.*

*There are several places you'll see what looks like blanks under baby Maddox's name; I blurred it out for the sake of this post.

What you need:

1. 8.5" x 11" (approximately) shadowbox with pretty pushpins included

2. 5" x 7" picture

3. Fabric to customize backing

4. Hot glue 

5. Any embellishments you want to include-- for me, it was a "frame" made out of cardstock, and cardstock cut 6" x 8"

6. Scrapbook paper

7. Modge Podge (optional)

8. Home printer (optional)

Making the door hanger:

1. The first step was to customize the blank background. I chose a gender-neutral green chevron on printed duck. This is a permanent feature of the shadowbox, so make sure whatever fabric you choose doesn't overpower the items you'll be pinning onto the Styrofoam backing. Hot glue this to the backing.

2.  You can make this as simple or as fancy as you want. For example, I added a "frame" to serve as a border for the cardstock. To make the cardstock more durable, I used Modge Podge on it.

3.  Now it's time to create what you'll be pinning onto the background. For the purposes of the shower, I did a "welcome" sign. I gave my friend a few other things for her to use once the baby arrived: a "baby stats" page, a baby sleeping sign, and a welcome to baby's room sign (the last two interchangeable in the frame. This is a little hard to describe... check the pictures, they should explain it better than I'm doing!

I liked the idea of mom being able to change out the signs with ease, depending on what was going on at the moment.

Here's the final result. I put it next to a lamp for size reference.

I hope it gives you some inspiration on getting creative with door hangings!