My Sister is Having a Baby (Part 2) The Shower...Coral, Mint, Gold and Handcrafted With Love

The plan was to keep it simple... but when it comes to things that can be handcrafted, I never have enough time to make all of the things that I want to or am inspired to make. I knew right off the bat that I wanted to make a diaper cake, because I had so much fun making a towel cake for her bridal shower (6 years ago!):

After many hours searching pinterest for inspiration, a plan came together in my head, and this is the diaper cake that I came up with:

I made paper flowers with scrapbook paper, book paper, tissue paper, my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die, my Mother's Day Bouquet Cricut cartridge, and a My Favorite Things Rolled Rose die:

I used the handmade flowers for the centerpieces, along the center of the table runner,  on the mini chalkboards to decorate them...

I made paper pinwheels and glittered rubber duckies, and I sewed the covers to the mason jars that I used to hold the centerpieces. Speaking of sewing, I sewed circle garlands which you can see a glimpse of here:

And here:

I used it over top of the tissue paper tassel garland that I made for my mantle:

I also stitched raindrops together that I had cut out with my Cricut (yes, my same trusty old friend that I have had for over 7 years!), and I hung them from the white balloon "clouds" to shower over the gifts table:

I did not make the cake, I had my mom pick one up from a nearby bakery (trust me, I am much better with paper decor!):

It was key lime flavored with cream cheese frosting, and so yummy! There were some pretty vanilla cupcakes for those who didn't like the key lime.

We played a game of late night diapers-and, yes, I made a coral tutu for the basket, and cut the sign shape from black cardstock, my Cricut, and my Storybook cartridge

I had a station set up for the guests to create headbands (the kids had a blast with this!!):

I had a handful of branches that I spray painted gold for them to hang the finished headbands on.
Instead of a guestbook, I had everyone sign in on cardstock onesies that I diecut with the Cricut Sampler cartridge, and clip them up on bakers' twine with mini clothespins:

We had lots of yummy food:

 chicken salad crossiants, cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, pinwheel sandwiches:

 fruit in chocolate dipped waffle cones with marshmallow cream cheese dip:

The guests brought books in lieu of cards, perfect for my school teacher sister:

I made a corsage for the mama to be:

A wreath out of diapers for the front door:

And some tissue paper poms for the corner of the dining room:

and, believe it or not, I actually got in one of the pictures, too:

So, this is why I haven't been posting much. My summer has been consumed with work and shower craftiness, but I should be back to "regularly scheduled" scrapbook craftiness soon. I am still recuperating!

I am linking up at the Idea Room link party:

And Home Stories A to Z:

A Scrappy Sunday, part # 3 (In Good Company and Glitter Girl Challenges)

And, for my last post of the evening, I have a couple of layouts to share that were inspired by this week's Glitter Girl (using a die-cut machine) and a friend and fellow counterfeiter's challenge, In Good Company (she challenged us to use Jenni Bowlin products-and I had a lot in my September kit!).
My first layout, "1st Day Of School":

See It On 2 Peas

 Supplies used for this layout:Jenni Bowlin patterned paper and stancil sheet, Studio Calico Rolodex patterned paper, Crate Paper journaling spot, Basic Grey Oxford chipboard books and stars, a handmade felt bow paper clip, black foam Thickers, a layered paper flower cut with Mother's Day Bouquet Cricut cart, a stamped and heat embossed kraft journaling spot, and Elle's Studio journaling spot, Studio Calico mini letter stickers, twill ribbon, and a notebook edge punch.

My second layout for these challenges, "Puppy Love":

See It On 2Peas

This page uses yellow and gray, one of my current favorite color combos! The patterned paper is Jenni Bowlin Wren "Lace Curtain", Jillibean soup patterned paper, Studio Calico letter stickers, black foam Thickers, a layered paper flower cut with my Cricut Mother's Day Bouquet cart, handcut vellum feathers inspired by Jenni Bowlin studios, die-cut and punched pinked circles, Crate Paper journaling spot and "Sweet" tab, and Jenni Bowlin quilted Magpie stickers.
That rounds out my creative fun for today! Hopefully, I'll be able to play with my crafty goodies tomorrow, too. Thanks for dropping by my blog!

A Scrappy Sunday, Part #2

The second layout that I made and am sharing today is based on the September 16th sketch from The Studio Challenges:

Here is my layout, "Spinning":

See It On 2Peas

Supplies used: Jillibean Soup Homemade 6 Bean Soup patterned paper. a handmade paper flower, washi tape, black foam Thickers, border punched strips, a stamped journaling spot on kraft, a Graphic 45 chipboard button tied with twine, a printed, layered spinner that I made last year and never used, a handmade felt bow paper clip, and some die cut doilies.

 



 

December Daily Counterfeit Kit

I really love the idea of doing a December Daily album, but, with 4 kids and a limited scrapbooking budget, I felt that I would be able to make a great "Counterfeit Kit" from the supplies I already had on hand. There are so many great Christmas kits out there that it was HARD to narrow it down to just one kit to copy-so I picked 2! The kits I chose to draw inspiration from were : The hot kit this season from Studio Calico: http://www.studiocalico.com/kits/add_ons/486, and a fantastic kit from last season, from A Kiss On The Chic: http://www.akissonthechic.com/DecemberKits.aspx. I drew inspiration from both kits to come up with a Christmas kit that I just love!I have plenty of supplies to make my December Daily-plus plenty of other goodies to use on layouts and cards.

Supplies in my kit:
Papers:
Making Memories 12x12 Postage Stripe Noel, We R Memory Keepers White Christmas Snow Flurry,  3 papers from the Jenni Bowlin Red and Black paper stack, the craem swirled paper is from a Christmas paper stack from the Paper Studio, and the green and silver small damask prints are from the DCWV Lemon Flower stacks, the gray chevron paper is  a free digi paper that I got on a Jessica Sprague blog hop, and printed on watercolor paper, Making Memories 12x12 Green Snowflake Noel, Music Note Brown Noel,  The Girls Paperie Tinsel&Twig 12x12 Snowfall, Holly Berry Floral, and Christmas Carol Stripe,  and a Candy Cane Stripe paper from a Martha Stewart Christas paper stack I got on clearance at Wal Mart a couple of years ago.

Album:
I am using a green Smash book from K&Co, that I won as a blog candy a few months ago.

Embellishments:
chicken wire die cut from silver cardstock, assortment  of christmas paper scraps, printable journaling spots and vintage graphics, which I mostly printed on watercolor paper for a luxurious feel, Making Memories red Shimmer Stickers alphas, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type green letters, Making Memories Scrapbook Basics shimmer alpha stickers,  a couple of Making Memories Noel embellishments, Paper Studio crochet flowers in white (I may mist these or use as is...we'll see as the inspiration strikes), Petaloo Holiday Dazzlers snowmen (I won these from a Petaloo blog hop-they are so cute!),  Elle's Studio Crazy Numbers 0-9, The Girl's Paperie Paper Girl Chipboard alphabet, red  and green baker's twine, a couple of Maya Rd vintage pins, JHB wood buttons (one of the few things I purchased for this kit, got them at Hancock Fabrics), a few Jenni Bowlin Vintage Christmas chipboard buttons,a couple of tiny die cut envelopes, 2 kraft medallions that I cut with my Cricut  and Mother's Day Bouquet at the same size as the ones in the Studio Calico kit- 1 3/4 inches, a few handmade flowers, some Christmas tags from We R Memory Keepers, and some random felt, acrylic, and chipboard bits from my Christmas stash.

Stamps:
Hampton Arts Postscript Calendar, Hampton Art Joyous Holiday, We R Memory Keepers White Christmas Holly Jolly, Studio G i.cling Doily Stamp

Some of my favorite elements in my kit are the chevron paper ,there is a link for a free chevron pattern here, the "chicken wire" die cut (which I cut with silver Wasua cardstock, my Cricut and SCAL), and my tiny die cut envelopes (cut from Echo Park For The Record digipaper with my Cricut and SCAL), and the awesome free printables from Creativity Prompt, Just Something I Made, Pink Paislee here, here and here , the Graphics Fairy, ormolu. I needed an album to stuff this all into-what better than that new green Smash book I haven't used yet?! I will also be using a mix of photography prompts from http://captureyour365.com/2010/12/25-december-daily-photo-ideas/ , and http://rebeccacooper.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-photo-traditions.html.

I have some awesome December Daily albums, kits, and ideas pinned to my December Daily Christmas Album Inspiration Board, if my kit didn't suit you, have a peek and make one the way you like it!!

Bubble Beauty

Just a Quick share of the page I made for this week's Sketch Inspiration sketch.

The sketch:

Here is my layout:

I will probably add some journaling in the near future, but for now, it is what it is...

All supplies used were from my September Counterfeit Kit ,with the exception of the black Thickers, which came from my August Counterfeit Kit.

Supplies used: patterned cardstock is The Girls Paperie Paper Girl "Green Brocade", I diecut the label shape with my Cricut and SCAL from the cream Co'oredinations Woodgrain Embossed Cardstock, and inked it with a petal shaped Martha Stewart leaf colored ink pad, then added the American Crafts Thickers (I had to get a little creative with the green fabric ones, since I didn't have an "L"-could you tell?), I also used peach and green hand-dyed shabby seam binding, a peach handmade flower ( I made it with the Cricut Mother's Day Bouquet cart), and a green ZVA pearl flourish.

My favorite part about this layout is definantly the photos, since I am really working on improving my photography skills, and I feel like these are some of my more successful attempts.

Family...

I love my family more than anything else!And I rarely get to scrap photos that I am in, so it was so much fun to scrap this one of my brother,sisters, and me. I was inspired by a couple of challenges for this page: A sketch (#172) from Creative Scrappers, and the challenge from The Paper Variety to "make a monochromatic creation using your favorite color"- my favorite color is blue of all shades (aqua, navy, sea blue, periwinkle (my wedding colors were periwinkle and white), teal, sky....I could go on and on...

This is the way I do monochromatic-a few different shades of the color I am using, mixed in and tempered with a good bit of neutrals (kraft, cream, and black in this case):

Supplies used for this layout:

Lily Bee Designs This&That "Milk Bottle" patterned cardstock,Lily Bee This&That banner stickers, ZVA cream pearl flourish, handmade blue houndstooth (made with Lindsay's Stamp Stuff Uptown Houndstooth digi paper) flower, a sky blue glittered cardstock punchout border from Colorbok's Flea Market Punchout pad, American Crafts puffy black Thickers, scraps of cream shimmer and kraft cardstock, pale aqua pearls from the wedding section at Hobby Lobby, and an ANCIENT quote from one of those DCWV vellum quote stacks (this was one of my earlier scrapbooking obsessions-I loved those stacks-not that I used them much ;-p  ). I mounted the quote on another scrap of the cream shimmer cardstock and inked the edges with Tim Holtz Sapphire Distress Ink, and attached it with pop dots to make it stand out.

Handmade Flower Mini Tutorial:

Here is a closer look at my handmade flower:

For this flower, I first printed out this paper from my Counterfeit digi kit:

I printed it out on 8 1/2 by 11 white cardstock first, then I cut out the 6 pt flower on the Mother's Day Bouquet Cricut Cartridge (last flower on the right, third row down) in several different sizes, starting at 2 3/4, and then stepping down a quarter inch at a time, with the exception of the last one, which is 1/2 to 3/4 smaller than the previous layer. I misted each layer of petals with Sea Glass and Turquoise Glimmer Mist, and then dried with my heat embossing tool. I scrunched and shaped the petals with my fingers (another idea would be to use an icepick or pencil), then glued them on top of one another, offsetting the petals, with my trusty hot glue gun. I put Crystal Stickles on a paintbrush and dabbed it on the edges of the petals and left the flowers alone to dry over night. I really do have to say, this is such a fun way to use those digi papers that you are hoarding!! Try it out-you can even flip the paper over and print on the other side for your own double sided paper!