Themed milestone backgrounds
7 designs
Seven character and interest backdrops. These are the mats that stop being about the month and start being about who your baby is turning into, which is why almost nobody uses them before six months and almost everybody uses at least one by twelve. They are also the ones most often matched to a party, because a first birthday usually has a theme whether you planned one or not.
Every themes background in Little
Princess
Soft pinks with a crown motif. Ships as a pair with Prince and suits a party mat more than a quiet month.
Prince
Blues and gold with the same crown treatment. The counterpart to Princess.
Superhero
Comic-panel colour and bold shapes. High contrast, so it holds up when printed small.
Dinosaur
Friendly dinos in flat green and mustard. The most requested first-birthday theme.
Cars
Little vehicles on a simple road. Clear at any size and a favourite once pointing starts.
Construction
Diggers and dumpers in yellow and orange. For the month the digger outside became the highlight of every day.
Jungle
Dense leaves and warm greens. The most flexible theme, festive without tying you to a character.
Matching a theme to a first birthday
If the party has a theme, the twelve-month mat should use it, and the easiest way to get a good result is to make the mat before the party rather than after. That way the mat can go on the invitation, on a Lock Screen widget for the week leading up, and into the collage afterwards, all from one photo. Dinosaur, Construction and Cars are the most common first-birthday themes, and all three are graphic enough to still read when the mat is printed small on an invite.
Themes for the months in between
The other use is marking a phase rather than an event. The month your baby became obsessed with the digger outside the window, or the month everything had to be a roar. Those are real memories and they fade fast, which is exactly what a milestone mat is for. Jungle is the most flexible of the seven, busy enough to feel like an occasion but not tied to a specific character, so it works when there is no obvious theme but a plain colour feels too quiet.
Questions about themes backgrounds
- Are the themed backgrounds gendered?
- Princess and Prince ship as a pair, and the other five are not gendered at all. Nothing in Little restricts which background you can use for which baby.
- Can I use the same theme for several months?
- Yes. If you do, vary how tightly the photo is cropped so the mats read as a series rather than as the same mat twice.
- Do themed backgrounds work for a half birthday?
- They do, and six months is roughly where they start suiting your baby rather than just amusing the adults.
Make a mat with these
Little is free to download and free to keep using. Add your baby, pick a background, and put this month on your Home Screen. Everything stays on your iPhone.