Two baby showers for members in our church—both for boys—so two different kinds of decorations needed. For one I made four different kinds of safari animals, and a friend created diaper cakes for the table centerpieces with the animals around. Wow! I was planning to just put a few safari animals in the middle of the three tables with paper decorations under, but my friend outdid herself and decorated the diaper cakes. The tables looked simple but fabulous!
One month later, another baby shower, also for a boy. Browsing through pictures of baby shower decorations, I saw a balloon with a simple giraffe picture—a mother "pregnant" with her baby. Just the simplicity of it I loved, and since I'm a scroll sawer, I thought the mother-baby design would look great in wood, so whip-sketched it and found a piece of 3/4" pine to cut it out in. With a foot in height giraffe, I needed the 3/4" wood for the giraffe to stand alone properly.
After cutting it out, sanded it down to make a smooth finish in case the baby eventually plays with it, and then painted it with non-toxic water colors. Was a bit worried about the colors running so gave it a light quick spray of gloss, which should lock the colors in case of water spills. Not much but still I don't think a baby should put the giraffe in his mouth. A caution on painting this, however. I ever so slightly painted the inside of the giraffes where they meet and then allowed the giraffes to dry in the sun. After I painted that area with one light coat of very watery color just to stain the area, the giraffes didn't slide as smoothly apart and back together. Just a caution if you intend to make one of these cute creatures too.
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| Collage of the safari animals and the polka-dotted giraffe. |
