Baby Dear Baby Shower

 

I had so much fun putting this baby shower together. Baby Dear was my favorite book as a little girl. I especially loved its beautiful illustrations. I still have a thing for Little Golden Books today (I collect them, even).  I'd been looking for an excuse for years to throw a Golden Book themed party and this little girl baby shower was a perfect chance to do it! 

 

I tried to have a bit of a vintage feel to the shower, since the book was written in the 1960s.  In a moment of serendipity, right as I decided to have the shower feel a bit vintage, my mom called and asked if I wanted a stork decoration.  She was cleaning out some storage and thought I might like it.  Yes!  This cute little stork, while not from the 1960s, was used at my baby shower--the one where I was the baby!  It may be from the 1980s rather than the 1960s, but it definitely gave the vibe I was going for. 

 

 I used some sweet girly fabric to make a pennant banner. 

 

 

I think my favorite part of the decor, though, was this Baby Dear banner:

 

I scanned in illustrations from the book, found a similar font to the one used on the cover, and worked some Photoshop (Elements) magic.  I printed the resulting images out onto cardstock and cut them out.  I attached the letters to baby pink ribbon and hung it in my living room.  I think it's adorable, if I do say so myself. 

 

 

 

(Well, really, my favorite part were the invitations, but I already wrote about those...)  :)

 

 

 

I scattered some Little Golden Books around the party area, especially ones that were illustrated by Eloise Wilkin (the illustrator of Baby Dear).  Her little baby cheeks and pudgy fingers are so cute. 

 

 

 

Add in some doilies and yummy food and you've got a fun vintage Golden Book party!

 

  

 

 

 

I made cupcake toppers with some pink scrapbook paper and these 1-inch Pretty Vintage Little Girl Circles from Free Pretty Things. 

 

 

 

It was really nice to have an opportunity, in this house full of boys, to enjoy such girlishness!  It was such a fun baby shower!

 

Blog Card Holder

As I was preparing to go to the Colorado Bloggers Meet-Up last weekend, I decided I wanted some blog cards to have available if anyone asked what my blog was. Being a firmly entrenched DIYer, I didn't buy them (didn't have time, anyways!), I made them!  I put my blog logo at the top, typed up my URL and email address, printed them out myself, and cut them out.  Easy Peasy.

Now, though, I needed somewhere to put them.  I didn't want them loose in my purse; they'd get all wrinkled.  I've never had business cards or anything before, so I don't have a holder for them.  I've seen cute ones you can sew, and I thought of doing that.  But, this was the night before the meet-up and I just didn't have time (or, really, the inclination to pull out my stash and try to find the fabric I wanted).

I thought about using an Altoids tin and looked in my drawer where I thought I had one stashed.  When I looked, I saw a package of gum and inspiration struck.  

It would make a totally cute card holder.  It was just the right size, too.  Perfect.  

I covered it with pieces of scrapbook paper I had laying around.  I love this measuring tape paper.  This was the perfect time to use it, too, for my crafty/sewing blog blog-cards.  

I mod-podged the paper onto the gum package, doing a few coats to make it more durable.  

And before you knew it, I had a super-cute, functional blog card holder.  Love it!

 

 

Halloween Card

This is the card I made for my September card group.  I was feeling like making something simple.  I'd seen a couple items of pin-punch art on pinterest, and thought this would be a simple way of making a quick Halloween card.  

I just printed out "Boo" in a font I liked, laid my card and the template I made on top of some left over cork board I had laying around and punched an outline around the letters with a push-pin.  

My inspiration was a ghost--all white and says "boo!" right?  :)  

Card Club: June

For this month's card, I made an orange popsicle card!  I got the idea from a card I'd seen many, many years ago.  I used some craft sticks I had laying around for the popsicle stick, and a scalloped punch for the bite out of the popsicle.  The white paper inside makes it look like it's a creamsicle; yum!  :)

I don't stamp, so I just found a cute font for my summery message and printed it on my cardstock (it took a little bit of measuring to get it in the right spot).  I think it's a cute, summery card!

Card Club

A few friends and I have a card club. When I started going, I really didn't know how to make cards.  But I went anyway, for the fun of it. I learned as I went along, and I think I'm getting better. These are the cards I made for last night's meeting:

 

I made them from the Flower Card pattern/tutorial at mmmcrafts.  Some day I'l get good enough at this card-making thing to come up with my own designs.  :)

I had fun picking the fabrics out of my fabric scraps.  I like the blue and red ones, and the green and red ones a lot. 

But, I think this one, in purple, is my favorite:

It got given away in our card swap last night.  I think I might need to make another one for myself.  :) 

Linking to these great link parties!

I Heart Naptime

Red and Aqua Baby Shower

I threw this red and aqua baby shower for a friend's baby boy.   Here's the invitation I designed and made: I made Martha Stewart's Tissue Paper Pom-Poms.

I made a cute pennant banner with some coordinating scrapbook paper and ric-rac.

I made sugar cookies with glace icing, cupcakes, and cheese and tomato tarts. There also were Haribo raspberries, swedish fish, and lemonade.

A jar of notes for the mom-to-be:

I put together a couple of games, but we didn't end up playing them because we were having more fun talking, and there were just a few of us anyway.

But, I'd planned a baby shower bingo game and the game where you try to remember what baby items were on a tray. Here are pictures of the game set up, mostly for my own reference.

I was okay not playing the games...I much prefer chatting at baby showers. :)  It was a lot of fun to host this baby shower and I had a lot of fun with the decorations and food!

Ghost Treat-bag Tutorial

So, I read a lot of craft blogs, and they have lots of tutorials. I really enjoy tutorials; a lot of the things I make come from free online tutorials. I make a lot of stuff, but since most of it isn't my creation, I've never done a tutorial. But, I just came up with my own little craft, of my own design, so I thought I'd post a tutorial.

I wanted to make ghost treat bags for the girls I visit teach, but I couldn't find white lunch sacks anywhere. I know they used to have them; I've bought them before. But, I couldn't find any. I was set on my idea, though, so I made my own little white treat bags out of printer paper. Here's how to do it:

1.  (Which apparently I labeled as #3 in the picture, with step 3 labeled as #1.  Oops.)  Start with a sheet of printer or copy paper.

2.  Fold in half like a book.

3.  (incorrectly labeled as #1)  Tape together on the right side.

4.  Fold in the the right side about 1 inch. 
5.  Fold in the left side about one inch.
6.  Both long sides are folded in.

7.  Open the folds and fold one of the creases in the opposite direction to make the flat side of your bag (see 8).  Repeat on the other side until you have a rectangle (see 9).

10.  Flatten out again.
11. Tape bottom closed.
12.  Fold bottom in about 1 inch.  Unfold.  Refold one of the creases in the opposite direction as done in steps 8&9.
13.  Flatten out the bottom of your bag.  There will be a triangle on each side.

 

14.  Fold in both triangles.

15.  Tape triangles down.

16.  You should have a small rectangular bag.

17.  Flatten the top of your bag, with the sides tucked in.
18. Cut a rounded top.
19.  Open up the bag.
20.  Add googly eyes.

Fill with treats and enjoy the cuteness!