When Ondria sent this next opportunity to me, it could not have come at a more perfect time. I was in the middle of 1st birthday party planning and favoriting all kinds of adorable ideas for C's Rainbow party on Etsy. Ondria had been in contact with this company in the fall, but was unable to work with them at the time but knew what a perfect match they would be for us, she was ever so right.

Etsy was full of ideas that I wanted to use in our party, but one I knew I had to have was a chalk poster with all kinds of fun information about Baby C. Just as usual with Etsy, there were a million to pick from, all different sizes, designs, and of course pricing. I was almost overwhelmed with all the different shops, so how lucky to have Ondria send over an Etsy shop that was even called Custom Chalk Posters!!

Custom Chalk Posters is an Etsy shop that opened in early 2012. Shop owner Michelle is a self described creator, designer, and lover of all things crafty and unique. After teaching herself photoshop in high school, she has continued to work and learn more and more designing skills. Michelle has a Pinterest addiction which she uses for ideas for her own creations and really enjoys creating for all of her customers. Custom Chalk Posters are just that, customized signs on a digital file, ready to print, that are perfect for birthdays, announcements, and more. Michelle will collect information about your child or whomever and create a one of a kind sign using a custom theme or color. Custom Chalk Posters does have premade designs, but would love to hear your ideas to customize a poster special for you day too, just ask!

When I got all my information from Ondria, I immediately reached out to Custom Chalk Posters to see if they would still be interested in working with us. I totally had my fingers crossed that the answer would be yes and when I heard back from Michelle, I was pretty thrilled to say the least. Michelle and I emailed back and forth with some ideas and it was almost like she had read my mind. She already had a rainbow themed poster put together and asked if it would work---OF COURSE, it was better than anything I could have ever thought of myself. Michelle has amazing talent and is so very kind, what a positive experience I already had to this point. If you browse the Custom Chalk Poster shop, you will see that they have had over 1,600 sales and a 5 star rating from 170 reviews.

Michelle sent me all of the information she would need to complete the file for me. This included the following questions (these can be swapped out for other things as well):

-Custom color scheme/theme for poster:
-Child's Name:
-Age:
-Weight:
-Length:
-What they say (words):
-Favorite books (OR shows OR songs - you can pick 2 as long as the lists aren't too long):
-Favorite foods:
-Amount of teeth:
-8-10 things they LOVE:
For the bottom section:
-Nicknames from mommy and daddy and/or any special message for the birthday child!
-*Latest date you need your file by*:

I did drag my feet getting her the information because I wanted to get my husbands opinions in too. This was about a week of time, Michelle was in contact with me to make sure everything was still moving forward, I appreciated this checking in as a poke to get myself in gear. I apologize again to you Michelle! A few days later I sent off my answers and Michelle got to work, within another week I had a file in my inbox, ready to go.

Custom Chalk Posters works with digital files, so while nothing showed up in my physical mailbox, this file showed up in my email inbox.

Michelle sent me the file to double check and it was absolutely perfect. She also sent me all the information I would need to have the file printed and poster mounted for display at C's party.

Michelle let me know that she sent a 17x21, high resolution file, that should be sent to a printer.  She let me know that the actual text in the file was smaller and had added a bit of extra to help the printer with cropping, she said that all printers will be different and to let them know about the adjustments she had made. I was not completely sure how to do that, but Michelle made sure I had all the help I needed. She also recommend where to go for printing and included links to use. This was a really huge help, one I greatly appreciated.

I easily followed the directions she gave me and sent my file off to be printed at Staples. This was a 16x20 photo enlargement and was ready the next day for pickup. Staples printed the file like a poster and it was about $15 with tax. There are other printing options as well.

I picked up a poster size frame at our local Meijer for about $7, making the total around $22. Custom Chalk Posters charges $ for the file, making this project around $. For an amazing quality keepsake, this is such a great price. Some other ones I found on Etsy were upwards of $50-70 total.

Here is the finished product, mounted in the poster frame. I was so excited to get it up and display for our party.

We displayed our poster right in front of the fireplace in our living room, the main party room. C was in front of the sign while she opened presents and was in full view for all of us to see.

I can't tell you how many compliments we got on the customized poster from Custom Chalk Posters. I think everyone who was at the party picked it up and read all about our incredible Baby C. They all were impressed on how much information could be on there and the quality in which it was done. I was highly impressed myself, but I think our party guests were even more-so. My husband really was pleased with the result and was happy that I let him have some of the input too, he felt like he got to be a part of something that C will have for a long time to come. We also took our poster to C's first birthday photo shoot, I don't have a copy of them yet, but will make sure to post them when I do, our photographer loved it and made sure it was a part of many different shots.

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