Nephew and Niece's Baby Shower

 My sister's oldest son and his wife are expecting their first.

I jumped right up and let them know I wanted to make their shower invitations.  After talking to my sister (who's throwing the shower) her only requirement was to keep them flat for mailing.  "I can do that."

 Here's how the front cover turned out.  LOVE that Wink of Stella - and Stickles!  Their nursery theme is "Under the Sea" - so we're using that for the shower as well.

I used 2 cartridges on this invitation - the 2nd one is a bit of a surprise.... Life's a Beach!  It had all the sea pieces I needed!  I got these out in the mail over a month ago to let Gail get them all written out.

Here's Poopie Investigator!  He was curious - of course - and had to see what was going on.  Thank goodness he's used to my craft work

Bermuda Bay 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$7.00

Many Marvelous Markers

$110.00

Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

$8.00

Gold Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

$8.00

Vellum 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$6.50

Calypso Coral 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$7.00

Daffodil Delight 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$7.00

Sweet Sugarplum 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$8.00

Tempting Turquoise 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$7.00

Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad

$6.50

Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad

$6.50

Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad

$6.50

Tempting Turquoise Classic Stampin' Pad

$6.50

Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad

$6.50

Sweet Sugarplum Classic Stampin' Pad

$6.50

Sponge Daubers

$5.00

White Stampin' Chalk Marker

$3.50

Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

$7.50

New Baby!

So I've decided that working full time teaching severely cuts into my crafting time, and I don't like it one bit!
That said,  I was asked to make 70 invitations to a baby shower for my cousin.

I was so thrilled to hear that they are expecting!  The new baby will be a wonderful addition to the family. :)

My cousin and his wife wanted green and yellow as the main colors, with a brown accent.  After some thought on this,  I went back to a design I've used before for 1 page shower invitations.

I cut the background invitation piece on my Cricut from the New Arrival cartridge, and inked it in a light brown ink to give it some definition.  The top piece is vellum, embossed with the Cuttlebug "baby" folder.
I ran out of time, so just a few of the vellum overlays had some inking to bring up the details on the embossing.

I used the retired Stampin' Up slot punch on the edges to thread the ribbon.  A little adhesive under the ribbon to keep everything together, and a trick I learned;  tie bows upside down.
I turned the cards away from me so I was looking at them upside down, and the bows all turned out right-side up!  Go figure. 

After assembling them, it took me just a few days to write out all the information needed for the shower.

New Baby Card

One of my coworkers just had a baby girl yesterday! I speak to her quite often, and wanted to let her know I wish her the very best with the new baby.






This card measures 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 inches - The outfit is cut out of DCWV paper from the Sweet Stack at 3 3/4 inches. I used a solid dk. pink cardstock to cut the hanger and flower center.



The Love background stamp is a commissioned stamp I had made from Lisa Ehmke (see links to her shop on the right side of this page!) at StampOutOnline for another project. It is inked and stamped on the background with Versamark ink. I also used a Rollagraph heart stamp wheel (Candy Hearts) I bought online with lots of great hearts for 2 rows on the front of the card, and to cover the entire inside of the card. If you look closely, you can see those adorable hearts!



The Congratulations stamp comes from the new Stampin' Up catalog - and their new clear stamp line. It is stamped with Melon Mambo to match the dk. pink on the front shadow pieces.

I also used a white and sparkle pink Glaze pens to highlight the wording.

All the edges of the cardstock inside and out as well as the hanging baby dress is inked with the Brilliance Pearlescent Orchid ink. It gives everything a very pretty glow.



As always, I love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment!!



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Baby Boy Book - It's DONE!!!!!

Each page here except 2 show some cuts from two of my Cricut Cartridges.....
New Arrival, and Tags, Bags, Boxes and More. The tags came in more handy than I could have imagined!
There are also lots of inchies and twinchies running through the book in lots of places! They just work so perfectly sometimes!!!

Each 'month' page includes a facing page with space for a picture to show how much he's growing, and the back of the tag says, "I am 3 months old, and I can..." so my friend can write down all the things he can do and show how much he's changing as he grows.

Here you can also see my "binding solution" - where the book then flips over and turns the other way to make sure all the pages are included.

I used SO many Cricut cuts!!!!! The very first swap I participated in over on the Cricut Messageboard was for a baby book. I joined this because my dear friend was pregnant, and I wanted to improve my skills over the first baby book I'd made just one year ago. BOY was this one better!!!!!

I used the 8x8 DCWV stack Nursery, Boy... matched the papers, and adhered them back to back so the facing pages would match... as you can see from the pages.

Each space for pictures is already corner punched, so all she has to do is crop the pics and slide them into their places!!!!!

I used quite a few of the cuts from my swap group to complete the book... and I also used some for other baby cards and things as well. It's been GREAT!!!!

Now, for the problem solving part. I made a 50 page book.... YES 50 pages, can you believe it!!!!! For anyone that has a Bind It All, we know there aren't any binding wires for a 3 inch thick book!!!!! SO, after thinking about it for a very LONG time.... I came up with quite a solution! (Yes, too many exclamation points. I promise to stop.) :)

I split the book into 3 'sections'. The first and last section are bound normally, and the middle section is bound with smaller wires on the RIGHT. It actually works pretty well. You open the book normally until you get to the middle.... then turn the ENTIRE book to the right, and open those pages the other way.... then at the end, you flip the entire book back over, and then open normally again! **Clear as mud, right? I included some pictures and hope that will help.

I really LOVED making this project. It took an incredible amount of time and work since each page is different - not like so many things I make that are one design and just duplicated many times.

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Baby Shower Cards

This past Tuesday we had a dual baby shower after school for two of our teachers - these were the cards I made them. I did also decorate the inside of the cards as I have recently started to do, but didn't take any photos. (Next time!)

Please enjoy!

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Baby Book Inchies!

So the Inchie thing has me so fascinated, I've been thinking up all kinds of ways to make and use them. I even found a website that has Inchie Stamps! Amazing.


These rubber duckies were cut from the New Arrival Cart at 1 inch, mounted on a light blue 1 1/4 inch square, and matted onto a 1 1/2 inch square of Debbie Mumm Baby Boy CS. I inked both squares, and used Black Diamond, Yellow, Orange Peel, and Waterfall stickles. I also used a Metallic Blue Gelly Roll pen for the four dots in the bottom left corner.


I made 15 of these in all, and I'm going to use 'em on the bath pages for the baby book... should be VERY cute!!!


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Baby Boy Swap

Another first for me... this is my first swap over on the Cricut Messageboard - I've got a dear friend expecting a boy, and this was the perfect opportunity to make something cute, and exchange it for lots of other cute things to use for the baby album I have planned for her!

These are the things I included... I made 10 of each set... and will in turn receive an equal amount of items from the others in the swap.

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