A Month of Christmas Crafts: Project 4-Framed 'Birth Announcement'

Happy Monday everybody!  Today's craft is a bit different than the others I've posted: it's digital and it's meant more as a gift than a holiday decoration.  My husband's cousin (so my cousin-in-law?) and his girlfriend had a beautiful baby girl this summer!!  I've seen pictures of the nursery (beautiful) and thought a framed birth announcement would look really cute in her room.  I used the same colors they decorated with, and listed all the standard information you find on a birth announcement: name, birthday, length, weight, and some additional things to make it extra cute.  So on to the announcement:

I purchased a white frame (Target) with an 8" x 10" opening, so that I knew I could print the final announcement on my printer, and not have to send it off to a print shop.  I also liked the white contrast with the really bright and bold colors I used.

Next came the digital part: in PhotoShop Elements 8, I created an 8.25" x 10.25" document, and then added layers of text (Bambi Bold) for each piece of information I wanted to include.  So: Ayralynn is a layer, 7 lbs 5 oz is a layer, etc.  I just rotated the text layer so the horizontal text went 1 way and the vertical text went 90 degrees the other way.  I added a brown border around the text to help make all the text feel more 'contained'.  I also added drop shadows to each layer to give it some depth (8 px, 10 px, 100%).

Then I printed it out in color, added it to the frame and...

Viola!  A customized birth announcement!  I'm not sure if you can do this in another program, like maybe Word, but feel free to leave me a comment if you have any questions, or need some help, if you decide to give it a try.  (And E...if you're reading this...surprise!  And Merry Christmas!)  :-)