Category Archives: baby

First Birthdays!

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In Hawaii, a baby’s first birthday is a BIG deal.  It goes back to plantation days where infant mortality was high and if a child made it till his first birthday, it was likely to survive.  So, there was a big celebration.  Well, that tradition has lived on and is still celebrated today.  So, many of my card customers are looking for first birthday cards.  So!  I made some!

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I LOVE this owl.  Made with the Playful Pals stamp set!  I love how he peeks out from behind the 1!  The nice thing about the photo-polymer stamp sets is that you can kind of ‘shape’ the stamps to be how you want.  So, I was able to add a little more ‘curve’ to the ‘look who’s turning’ to make it perfectly fit the circle punch out.

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And of course, the numbers set is fabulous for these important ‘numbered’ birthdays. So, here’s to the first birthday and the wish for many, many more!

 

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I’m leaving on a (infant friendly) jet plane

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So…  We just got back from our summer mainland extravaganza.  It was exciting.  But,  I was a bit nervous taking the Littles on their 2nd airline flight.  (Their first was only HNL to Maui and they were only 2.5 weeks old… I think they forgot. ) Anyway… I wanted to make a little gifty favor for our seat mates.  Just a little something to break the ice and to get them to think the Littles were more cute than screaming airplane passengers.  So…  Here it is:

I used those awesome chevron printed bags and filled them with Blondie Bites and ear plugs.  Decorated them with one of my favorite sets: Zoo babies…   I wrote a little rhyme and signed them from Zeke and Hannah. 

Fresh baked cookies on a red eye help tremendously.  And there was a group of passengers that sat next to us on our connecting flight as well.   Those poor people…  
Anyway,  the Littles did very well.  Despite some major weather delays.  And I have to mention the wonderful flight attendants on American Airlines.  They were a tremendous help.  They went way above their job description to help us.  Service like that makes traveling so much more bearable.

Change

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Change

I guess they say that the only constant is change.  And, CHANGE IS A COMIN’.  There is a lot of changing going on around here.  Namely that my craft room, right now, looks like this:  (this is super embarrassing)20140213_062519

And, this is where it is going, thanks to my wonderful, hardworking husband. But, it’s not quite finished.  So, I can’t move in  yet…

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And, this is the reason for the HUGE change:

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They are now much bigger than in this picture, but we can’t get one where they BOTH fit in the screen.  Coming Soon.  And, in order to get ready for them, we needed a nursery.  Which means craft room moves…  SOOOO….  today’s post is some Nursery Decor!!  And, you’re getting a sample of an MDS project cause I don’t think I could find a single stamp at this moment…  let alone embellishments and adhesive.  (refer to photo above)

I saw these beautiful, for lack of a better term, tiles, on pinterest.  (OH, pinterest…)  It was an idea for a baby room that had 18 individual blocks with different pictures and geometric prints (these happened to be prints of original artwork).  And, it was super cute.  And, I thought, hummmm… I can do that.  I don’t know if it is my Kansas upbringing, or desire to not spend money (that must not be it, cause I do like to shop) but when I see a craft project I always think:  HUMMMM.  I bet I could make that….  And the challenge was issued…  (Here’s my finished product)

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In order to make my own tiles, I decided to buy some 5×5 stretched artist canvases.  These happened to be the ‘deep ones’.  (I think they are 1.5″ deep–so they will stick off the wall some).  I painted them with brown acrylic paint.  The cheap stuff you buy for 1.29…

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I made 18- 4.5×4.5 images in My Digital Studio (I put 4 on a 12×12 layout).  I decided to have them printed through the Stampin’ Up Print services primarily because I don’t have a color printer.  Also, because I knew the colors would be exact and that I could get it on the ‘heavy’ paper.  I think it cost me a total of $15 to print it all…   I trimmed them out and then grabbed a bottle of the “hum…I think I can make that girl’s best friend”:  MODGE PODGE.  And stuck them down.  I put several layers over the top cause I wanted it to have that ‘depth’ and texture that brushing Modge Podge on has…

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And here are some close ups:

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I had to vary the images because this Dynamic Duo is made up of one boy and one girl.  And to simplify life, they have to share a space for a while.  (Heck, they are sharing a space now, so I figure they wouldn’t mind.  And, their new space will have much more room. And cute stuff on the walls).

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I love the tool in MDS that you can recolor embellishments and paper to match whatever you are doing.  I did that a lot with this project…

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Anyway, my plan is to have 3 rows of 6 tiles on the wall (kind of like the original photo).  I don’t have them up yet, cause there is some prep work to do in the new nursery first.  But, soon…

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this banners and pennant tour (albeit, not much of a banner or pennant here…. but home decor none the less.)

You are off to see what The Maui Stamper, Anne Matasci made.  Click the icon below:blog-tour-pinworthy-next

Tamra Davis    http://www.theCardLadies.com/loving-the-stampin-up-banners/
Connie Diebler http://www.conniestamps.com/2014/02/february-pinworthy-blog-tour.html

 

 

Anne Matasci http://wp.me/pCcBw-1xl
Audra Monk http://thecraftyyogi.blogspot.com/2014/02/garland-banners-and-decorations.html
Maria Pane
Andi Potler  http://www.absolutekreations.com/2014/02/13/remarkable-pinworthy-blog-tour-banners-garlands-pennants-galore

 

Wow for a little one.

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The second swap I was part of for convention was a wow card swap.  And the rule for this is that the card was supposed to wow.  So. That’s a tall order. And…. I had signed up for a children’s card swap that got cancelled…. but I had already cut the paper for the card…  so, I decided to have a wow children’s card.  Smaht, yeah me…. (that is Hawaii speak for “brilliant idea… you go girl”).

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So, this card uses zoo babies stamp set. I had to buy this one cause I was so sad when they retired fox and friends. But… SU! always comes through and replaced it with this cute set. But, looking at the picture… you must be saying… that’s not wow worthy.  Just wait…

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Before we get to the wow, I want to show you some of the details on the front. I was also sad when the tiny key tag punch retired. But never fear… the little bitty labels punch worked perfectly. And I love those safety pins. They are perfect on baby cards.  That is the crumb cake taffeta.  The colors are so saffron, costal cabana (love it) and baked brown sugar.  I embossed the bottom panel with the polka dots. What did we do with ourselves before embossing??

Okay. Now for the wow. And this wow is so easy that anyone can do.

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It’s an easel card!  All you gotta do is make sure something on the inside is bumped up so it can hold the paper back.

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Here’s a view from the side. You cut your card base like normal (5.5x 8.5).  Fold in half.  Then on the front of the card score again at the half way. ( score at 2 1/8).  You will then create the front of the card on another panel and then adhere it to the BOTTOM portion of that scored front.  And it’s that easy.

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You can see how the top of the giraffe is what holds the card hope.   I love the giraffe and rhino.  It was a little mental cutting them out but it goes fast. Do it while watching TV and it breezes by. I did it while watching Isaac dig in the sand.

What is nice about the easel card is that it can be a nice little decoration for the recipient.

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And. I love the toucan. 

Since they are so easy… everyone can make a wow card!

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