Invitation 0001 (Baby Shower)

My husband and I were asked to be godparents for his best friend’s baby.  We were both members of the wedding party and my husband and I of course agreed to be the godparents.

I started looking at baby shower invitation ideas.  I was inspired by die cut version of this invitation on Etsy.com. I created the template from scratch.  It was A LOT of work!  Would I do it again?  Probably not. Instead, I’d try to find someone with the die cut at a crop night.

MATERIALS:

• Cardstock
• Scalloped edge scissors
• Scalloped edged square punch
• Ribbon
• X-acto Knife

Dry Erase Picture Frame Board

I have recently become addicted to Pinterest!  I have seen fancier examples of this project.  I had my 10 year old niece every other week during the summer.  I also tutored a kid for 3 hours in the morning.  

I created this schedule board to keep my niece busy.  I was gone in the morning before she woke up, so I wrote in a chore and an activity for her to do on her own.  When I came back for lunch, we did activities together.  The first week we worked on a lot of paper crafts.  The following week we worked on projects in the kitchen.

I used Microsoft Word to create the schedule template.  I chose a 8″ x 10″ random frame I had laying around.  I printed out the template on 8.5″ x 11″ paper from my scrap bin and trimmed it to size. 

Baby Card 0001

This card was made to accompany  Diaper Cake 001 that I made for a friend.  I used the theme colors of grey and purple.  I had left over silk flowers from decorations for the diaper cake and incorporated them as well. 

MATERIALS:

• Decorative edge punch
• Flower punch
• Round corner punch
• Silk flowers
• Foam letter stickers
• Brad

Upcycled Decorated Cans

I was working on organizing the home and my hands were itching to craft something.  More importantly I wanted to upcycle something practical.  I had saved some cans and wanted to organize the makeup in my bathroom.  

I used some decorative paper that matched the color scheme of my bathroom and contact paper.  Next time, I would find an alternative to the contact paper because it didn’t stick to the paper well.  I had to add adhesive to the paper and contact paper.  

I had a separate container for my makeup brushes, mascara, lipgloss and eyeliners. I was pleased with the final result of my efforts.  

Holiday Card 2011

I had a pack of left over holiday patterned papers from the previous year.  I don’t remember where I came across the wreath design, but I did remember to draft it in my journal.  I did purchase color coordinated rhinestones, but this year was way too hectic and they didn’t make on the final product.

MATERIALS:

• 1″ scalloped edge circle punch
• 4 different holiday patterned paper
• 1/2″ wired gold ribbon
• Stamps and ink
• Clear embossing powder
• Embossing heat gun

Sympathy Card 0001

My husband asked me to create a sympathy card for someone at his school and this was what I came up with.  I chose neutral colors and some graphics.  

MATERIALS:

• Cardstock
• Scalloped edge scissors
• Journal tag punch 
• Small flower punch
• Small brad 

Diaper Cake 001

A good friend of mine was having a baby shower and I volunteered to make her a diaper cake. I spent about 15 minutes searching online for ideas.  There were two main styles, individually rolled diapers or continuously wrapped.  I liked the wrapped styles because it resembled a real cake better.  I saw many whimsical styles and designs, but I wanted to create a diaper cake that looked more like a real cake.  I stuck with her theme of elephants, grey and purple. 

MATERIALS:

• One case (168) – Size 2 Swaddlers Diapers
• Plastic party platter
• Wrapping paper cardboard tube
• Curling ribbon
• Ribbon of various widths: 1″, 2″, 3.5″ and 4″
• Safety pins 
• Silk flowers
• Various baby products

Updated Ribbon Storage

I used to live in a small 2 bedroom apartment.  The spare room was shared with my husband as the office/guest room/hobby room. In the past year, we moved into a small house with 3 bedrooms.  Now I’m lucky enough to have my very own office/craft room!  

In the apartment, I didn’t have much space to store my materials.  I had half of a closet and a few shelves.  I created a compact and flexible way to organize all of my ribbon.  

Since I have my very own room to craft in, my inventory of supplies and materials have increased.  I took the same concept that I started with and expanded it to my growing collection of ribbon.  

In the initial concept, I had standard 1/4″ dowels cut in half and spray painted white. In the new design, I started with whole 1/4″ dowels. But as I kept adding rolls of ribbon, the center started to sag.  So I upgraded to 1/2″ dowels.  Some spools weren’t large enough to fit, so I cut slits into the center hole.  This also kept the spool from unwinding so quickly. 

MATERIALS:

• 4   1/2″ wooden dowels
• 2  yards chain
• 2  ceiling hooks

Paper Scraps

Remember the time that you had that really cute patterned paper you bought for one project and later wanted to punch out just a 1″ circle from it?  I used to run into that A LOT!  I don’t like punching out small shapes from a gigantic 12 x2 sheet.  

I organize all of my scraps into two expanding files.  I’ve seen this method before.  But what I love about mine, is that it has two sizes in each expanding file.  There are 12 tabs with a total of 14 slots.  Half of the slots can fit up to  8.5″ x 11″ and the other slots can hold up to 4.5″ x 11″.  I purchased these expanding files several years ago from Target and they were the Up and Up brand.  I think the cost of each one was about $5.  

Each expanding file  is color coordinated for easy retrieval.  I also have a bin to collect paper scraps when I’m working on projects.  Then when I have time, I file the scraps into my expanding files.

Thank You Card 0001

Cute and simple thank you card with a bow. 

MATERIALS:

• Circle punch
• Ribbon
• Stamp
• Embossing powder
• Embossing heat gun