A friend of mine passed away and these are two cards I made up for the mom and the grandma. I tried to make the tones really soft and peaceful. I love the butterfly card.

Baby Shower Season!

Well, I don't know about you all, but it seems a lot of my friends are having babies. And seeing how I think babies are the cutest things ever and parties are so fun to throw... I've thrown 2 babies showers in 2 weeks. They were a lot of work, but they turned out so fun. Luckily I got some good people to co-throw the showers with! But I totally forgot to take pictures of the actual parties, so here are just the two invitations and one of the games we played.

This first invitation was made almost completely by my Cricut. I love that thing. It makes crafting so easy. Granted it takes out a lot of the originality of it all, but it sure does cut the time in half! I just put the little sign in the trunk of the elephant to hold. I just used my scraps for this too. The green was left over from two years ago X-mas cards and the grey is some scraps I found from another project. I just found bits of blue ribbon and tied them into a knot. So easy,... and well that was nice because I had only a few hours to make them before they needed to be delivered!

This invitation was actually for the first baby shower. As you can see, I just backed paper onto more paper--onto more paper. Added a wrap around piece, tied it with a ribbon and then added a little Martha Stewart picture on the top part. I LOVED those little stickers. As soon as I saw them in Wal-mart, I bought a few packs because I knew I had to do something with them. Well this was it.

This is just a little baby cut-out from the cricut. I added a little blue diaper on and we had ourselves a game. It is, "Pin the baby to the Momma!" You blindfold the shower guests and spin them around and you have them try to tape the baby to the momma. Whoever gets closest to the bellybutton wins! It was pretty fun to play and everyone gets a kick out of it.

This is Evie helping me make the little babies. She is such the little crafter lately. She loves to glue things with glue sticks and color on paper(and her lion). Something makes me think she's got the crafting gene in her!

Step 1: Invitations

Party Planning Step-by-step
For my parents 25th Weddning Anniversary, I threw a surprise party for them! I was so excited of course for all of the wonderful crafty things I would be able to craft! I had so much fun making the signs and the invitations. I wanted everything to be perfect and it was...the party was a hit, not to mention that my siblings and I surprised my parents with a trip to Hawaii. You're probably wondering why that would be relevant to a craft blog...but there is and you'll see why in just a little bit!

Step 1: Invitations

When planning a party, each detail is important....from the votive candles, to the lemons in the water, to the lighting. And it all starts with the invitations. I wanted to show our guests that this party was going to be special and very nice...we started calling it a reception because that's pretty much what it was! Here are the invitations. I make 70. I played around for a long time before I came up with this idea. I really wanted to be in love with what I was creating and sometimes that can take a while. Now 70 invitations this details might seem like it took forever. There is a secret I used when combining all of the pieces together. SPRAY ADHESIVE. You can buy it at Walmart for 8 bucks. It's called Super 77 - Multipurpose Adhesive.

I was able to get three invitations per 12 x 12 paper. So they were 4 x 12 inches.I used five different prints for the paper because it was fun to see the different colors! The inside...There was a lot of information, so the three sections worked out perfectly. The first was to explain the party, the second the party info, and the third was the RSVP.
Inclosed in the invitation was this insert. I really wanted to include family and friends that were not local. This seemed like a perfect way to do that. You can find the book here.

I love this "handmade" stamp. It seemed like the perfect way to complete these little pieces of art!

Yet another baby gift.  But this one is for my good friend, my old college roommate Chels.  She is about to have a baby and I am so excited for her!  So I finally got around to making her one of these, I hope she likes it.  I love the material, it's a yellow and gray Amy Butler fabric.  It is so cute I want to go buy more and make something for me with it!
Here is the changing pad, all rolled up and tied to fit in a diaper bag.

Here is the nursing cover, made with a little inside pocket as well.

Here is the changing pad all laid out on the outside so you can see. It is the fabric and two strips of canvas for the outer edges. The inside fabric is the waterproof flannel material, it's GREAT!

And of course, another little matching card.  

Top 10 Reasons Why I Love My Daddy

Alright, so here is Paul's Father's Day present. It's a top ten count down book of why Evie loves her Daddy. It is a 6x6 album, made from cardstock. I first picked my pictures for each reason, put them together with the page & picked a picture or two, then made a space for the number & last I made the textbox the size I needed to fit. Then I sanded & distressed the pictures & wording. I used BasicGray chipboard letters & numbers which I covered in different green Bazzill to match the paper. I sanded & distressed each of them. Then I zig-zagged the writing and straight stitched the number squares in a pretty green thread. Then I made him a matching card to go in the last page, which I made into a pocket, so he can always keep the card together. Then I backed the pages with each other and stitched around edges to make it more sturdy. And last, I tied on some brown colors of hemp and "man-ribbon" on the rings. I love how the brown & green colors all went together so well!

Album cover

Dedication & Reason 10

#9 & 8

#7 & 6

#5 & 4

#3 & 2

#1 & pocket page

Father's Day card

Album back

Just made a few more cards. I have been doing some other crafts, but haven't taken any pictures yet, so more to come later I guess. Some of the crafts have already been made, shipped & received... so I missed the boat on that one. Sorry, guys. I'll get better at this I promise.


This is just a simple card I made for my husband's friend. His brother had passed away, so I just did a simple little sentiment card.


This is a birthday card I made for my mother-in-law. It turned out pretty cute. I have since made a few more cards for my relief society birthdays and revamped the card a bit. I'll show those later.

Crayon Roll

So I have seen these crayon rolls for a while now, I just haven't had a reason to make one... until now! My little niece is turning two! I think this will be just perfect for her. I used a couple of different patterns, but mostly one from

http://skiptomylou.wordpress.com/2007/04/25/on-a-roll

I was in a hurry to make and send this off, so you get to see it without crayons. I know, pretty disappointing. But I'm making a few more because this one was so easy! I used a cute bright animal flannel on the back, a lilac flannel for the inside and a terrycloth chenille for the pocket(which I lined before hand. I used a pink grossgrain ribbon across the pocket and a separate pink ribbon for the tie.
And of course, I made a matching card. I love how it ties on the side just like the crayon roll does. I put patches of the animal flannel on the front and the back with a zig-zag stitch. Then stitched the ribbon across the front and back. Threw on some little stickers, stitched an inside to write on and it's done!

Just another birthday card

This is just another birthday card I've done for our Relief Society. I really do love being the secretary, it gives me so many opportunities create things! This is just rub-on wording on top of layers of different colored cardstock and stitched together. I added "glossy accents" to the wording to add a 3-D look. Then added a little ribbon bow and it's done!

Mother's Day Card

Here is my first attempt to sew on paper. I was just so inspired by Leslie and her beautiful creations! So here it...I made several of this card, for the grandma's and sister-in-laws. The "happy Mother's Day" and the circle of dots are fonts that I printed and the "m" is obviously a stamp. Thanks Leslie for showing me a new way to create! You rock!

Mother's Day Gift

I took Nicki's idea from the can filled with memories and ran with it. I turned it into a mason jar filled with 42 reasons why my brothers & sisters and I love our mother. One reason for every year she's been our mother. The reasons in the jar are just simple phrases. I'm still working on the book where each brother and sister will have our own page with a pull-out page listing our reasons and stories and memories.

I made a little label on the jar saying, "How do we love thee? Let us count the ways..."

I added ribbon around the jar, then used rub-ons to add my brothers and sisters names all around it.

I made a new top for the jar from two papers stitched together. Says, "42 reasons why we love our mother!"

And these are the tags that went in the jar. They are just strips of paper distressed and tabs made of paper or ribbon stitched on the end. That just makes them easier to pull out of the jar.

Nursing Cover

I had a baby shower this weekend to go to, so I decided to make her a nursing cover and a sling (pouch) but I'll show that later on. This is the nursing cover, a.k.a. "the hooter hider." It is so simple to make and is just a life-saver sometimes.

This is just two pieces of material 25" x 33", a 12" piece of plastic boning, a 6" x 6" pocket and then 20" strap for neck. You sew the pocket on to back side.

Make the casing for the strip, turn it inside out and sew it on to the right side of the front fabric piece.

Then sew the two big pieces right sides together, make sure the strap edges are in the middle and not stuck in the edge somewhere. Sew the bottom three edges, leaving a space to pull it all all through in.

Then with the top edges, fold them over about a 1". Slide the boning through the hole. Find the exact middle. And then stitch the edges of the boning in place & stitch along the very edge of the boning all long the top to secure it in place.

Turn it inside out through the hole. Then top stitch all around the cover and Voila... you're done! I know... the directions are probably confusing. I didn't take pictures as I made it... and I should have. If any of you have any questions, just ask... I'll try to explain better. But really it didn't take me more than an hour to make.

Here is the front of the cover. Remember, you can do the neck strap different ways. You can just tie it together, use velcro, use D-rings... whatever you come up with. This is just the easiest for me. You just slip it on and off.


Here is the back of the cover, I made it out of corduroy.


Here is the little pocket I put in the inside of the cover. You can put a cloth for wiping the baby's face, spills, put binkies, keys, toys, whatever you need to here. A lot of people make this pocket out of terry cloth, so it is a towel in itself. I just wanted to match the pocket with the front... so I didn't do that.


And of course, here is the matching card. I covered it completely in fabric and stitched around the edges. (I used a manila folder for my base.) Then I added a rub on, "Love at first sight" --pretty applicable for having a baby, right? Then a final bow stitched for for the finishing touch.

I guess I like to make matching cards...

Yes, I have a bad habit of spending my time making elaborate cards for people who hopefully don't just throw them right away. Most of the time I like to make them match the gift or whatever the occasion might be. Unfortunately, I hardly take pictures of the cards that I make, so here are a few of the only ones I have pictures of.

This is just a birthday card for a girl in my Relief Society. I'm the RS Secretary so I get lots of chances to make cute cards for all the girls in the ward.

This is the card I made to match the...

...diaper changing pad to match the...

...burp cloths and the gift bag for a complete set!

This is just a card made for a baby gift. I made the flowers to match the little flowers on the dress.

I love it when my family has birthdays. It is the easiest excuse to pick a project to do. I did this little purse for my niece, Brynne. She is such a little girl, I knew she would love to carry around this super cute purse with her. I decided to make a card to match out of the left-over fabric that I used for the purse, a strip of gross-grain ribbon, and a chenille heart to finish it.