Frames

I just love making these frames. I've shown the one I made for Baby Hannah. Thought I'd share a couple more. The first one is one I made for Ruthi. It hangs in the hall, just outside her room.



This is one I made for another friend of mine for her baby boy.


I wish I had taken another picture of this one. The colors seem off - the flash washed it out a bit, and I think the blue paper behind it is throwing it off a bit too.

These are wooden frames purchased at Michael's. I painted the edges with acrylic paints, and adhered the paper to the front with spray adhesive. I sanded the paper around the edges to remove the excess. The letters are also from Michael's. I painted them and then used the a pencil eraser to paint the dots. The little wooden accents came from Michael's as well, and I hand painted them. The train was a bit of a challenge for me, because I'm not an artistic painter. I snapped a picture with my cell phone of the example in the store, and used it as a guide.
I stamped the letters in the name with foam stamps and the same acrylic paints. Added some ribbon, and the little jewels for Ruthi's, and done!
These are so much fun, and very inexpensive to make, as the frames are only $1, I think the letters were $1, and the little wooden flower and train are each 25 cents. They can be hung, but also come with a little dowel that goes in the back so they can sit on a shelf or dresser.

I originally saw the idea for these online somewhere, but can't for the life of me remember where!

Tag Books

Last summer I had the opportunity to meet some of the wonderful ladies from Paper Petal Memories at a little weekend retreat. We each brought a project for everyone to do. Karen had these adorable tag books and we could choose a boy or girl theme. She had everything cut out and ready for us - what an awesome project! I chose the girl one and completed it while we were there. As soon as I got home, I added the pictures. Since there were a few extras, she was kind enough to let me have a boy kit too. So almost a year later, I finally pulled it out and completed it too. I chose to use pictures of CJ from when he was younger to kind of go along with the one I made for Ruthi.

This is the front of the one for Ruthi.


And this the back.


Front of CJ's.


And the back!

Silly

I used a sketch for this layout. At Paper Petal Memories, we have weekly sketch challenges. I'd like to say I do them all, but I don't. But I do them when I can. When I saw this one, I knew exactly which picture I wanted to use and what title I wanted as well. I took this picture of the kids during a "Christmas photo shoot" as I was trying to get pictures for Christmas cards and gifts for the grandparents. I love how they are both making the same silly face. I don't often do a 12x12 layout with only one picture, but I thought this one was a keeper and deserved its own page.

This is the sketch used for the layout. It originally came from ScrapRoom Blueprints.

The papers are by Provo Craft, flowers by Heidi Swapp, button by Favorite Findings. The ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon. The chipboard letters are from TLC and Cloud 9, and are covered with patterned paper.

Birthday Wishes

Hopefully by Monday I'll get pictures taken and uploaded of my latest projects. Until then, I thought I'd share a couple more things I've done recently.
This is a birthday card I made. I tried the 'kissing' technique, but I need more practice with it. You can kind of see the pattern in the flower, but I need to work on it to get it to show up more. This was the first time I tried it, and though it's ok, I will keep practicing. It might help if I had some more patterned stamps, I don't really think I have the *perfect* one to make the technique work.
The stamps are from Stampin Up. The ribbon is from Michael's, and the little jewel in the center is from the craft dept. at Wal-Mart.

Easter Bunny

Thought I'd share this cute LO I did of Ruthi on her first Easter. I did it a while back, and it is really simple, but I just think it is so cute. The cute paper-pieced bunny was made by Pam - an online friend of mine. I literally put this together in just a few minutes since the bunny was already made. I added letter sticker letters and some fibers to the little tag, and voila! Easy peasy!

The Wedding Cake

I'm finally getting around to posting the picture of the wedding cake I made for my friend Penny. She got married the day before Easter. I wasn't feeling well, with all the allergy crud, but I pulled it off and was pretty happy with it. The florist made the floral arrangement for the top - I don't do flowers! All I had to do was set them on top.

Baby Cards

OK, so I think I'm FINALLY recovered from exhaustion and not feeling well, and beginning to feel somewhat normal again. (Long couple of weeks for me!) I'm actually trying to work on some things again. But until I've created something new, I'll post some more stuff I've already done.

Here are a couple baby cards I made. I made these for a swap at Paper Petal Memories. Funny thing was, I TOTALLY forgot I had joined this particular swap - STILL don't know how I did that! I received a message from the hostess asking if I had mailed mine (they were due the next day) and I was so embarrassed! So that night I got busy - I had to make 5 of each one. I was very glad I had not joined any other groups! I got them done and in the mail the next day - priority of course, and they ended up only being a couple days late. *Phew!* For having to decide on a card and then create it - multiple times - at a very quick pace - I was very pleased with the way they came out. I just went for the same design in both pink and blue to save time.
The footprint stamps are Inkadinkado, and I stamped them with acrylic paint. The 'sweet baby' stamp is from the $1 bin and Michael's. The little square that is stamped on is raised. The ribbons probably came from Michael's, that is a Prima flower, with a brad, and the little onsie brad on the blue card is from Eyelet Outlet.

Lingerie Shower Goodies

I posted the invitations I made for my girlfriend's lingerie shower earlier this month, and finally had the shower this weekend. Now that it's over, I can post the things I made for her.
I made a 'honeymoon' paint can filled with goodies for them to take with them. I included 3 frappucino bottles - one with homemade bath salts, one with bath gel and the third with peanut M&M's (her favorite), and two candles, all with the same papers/ribbons I used on the can. I also included some other non-altered things in the can.
I loved the rose patterned paper - not sure who makes it. The solid paper is from The Paper Company and is actually Metallic Jewel Bronze and is much prettier in person. It looks quite bland in the picture. All the ribbons are from Michael's.


I also made this candle for them. I found a great tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers and couldn't believe how easy this was! I messed up the first time, but quickly learned how to get it just right so I started on a new candle. I really love the way it turned out. I cut out a place in the top to insert a tealight so they can actually use the candle, and just replace the tealight. That idea came from Splitcoast as well.

I made these cute little favors for the guest. It is a bag of homemade bath salts. I made the topper using MSWord and just stapled them to the bags.






And this is the cake. It was very yummy if I do say so myself. It was chocolate with cream cheese and raspberry filling. The idea for decorating it came from Family Circle magazine - Sept. 1998 issue. I had this put aside knowing one day I wanted to make it. The chocolate wraps were a bit of a pain to make, and didn't turn out completely perfect, but it worked. I don't think I'll ever do it again due to the fits it gave me! But everyone liked it, and it did taste good!