Kent Heartstrings: A New Spin on a Old Tradition // Prop Staging Photo Birth Announcement

Hello, and Happy Monday to you all! We went off the grid this weekend on our annual family river trip, where we camp, water-ski, play games, eat lots of junk and laugh a lot. There literally is no cell phone reception, so it was especially nice to not have the temptation of "plugging-in"....but its Monday, we are back to the swing of things and now doing tons of laundry and getting plugged back in ;)

I love sending out snail mail! But I never carve out the time to do it routinely, so whenever there is an excuse to send out a cute card I am all over it. Christmas is crazy I send out close to 200+ Christmas cards! So before Charlie man was even born, I was already thinking of what birth announcement I would send out! I was brainstorming on Pinterest and came across an idea that I liked, it involved taking a picture of the baby but including all the birth information using props. LOVED IT!

So let me break down what items you will need to pull this off...

1. A Camera, or even your phone. Whatever you use to take the actual picture make sure you have lots of natural light!....thank you Morgan for taking this picture for me, you are amazing!!

2. Cute outfit for baby, or consider wrapped in a blanket? naked? think about what you want, or maybe do all of them, but think of what your preference would be and do that first in case the babe is not cooperating

3. Backdrop- choosing a white backdrop is really key here since you are going to have so much interest elsewhere. My friend Morgan, who took this photo, brought this comfy, hairy, white blanket from her home (upon my request!) but you could find your own equivalent here.

4. Ruler- you can keep your eyes out for them at thrifts, garage sales and such or my trusty friend amazon has one here.

5. Clock- set the clock to the time the baby was born. I found this one at a garage sale, its broken, so the clock still is set to this same time....its a happy reminder every time I see it =)

6. Calendar Month- I just found a printable calendar I liked with the month I needed. It was important to me that the Month, Year and numbers of the month were big and visible. Circle the date your child was born

7. Blocks- make sure to get enough of the actual letters you want on the blocks. I got lucky and scored a set at the dollar section at Target. You can find a set on amazon too.

8. Something with a flat surface, I used a piece of bark (from our christmas tree) in this picture. This is for adding information later, I added the weight numbers.

9. Add any other props that you like or have sentimental value. I just liked the elephant so in the mix it went.

10. Use a photo editing program to add the weight and height details afterwards (I used picmonkey)

And because I love him....here are some more keepers =) Gah! I cannot believe he will be ONE soon!