Baby Month Markers

Thought I'd give a try at making some of the baby month markers I've been seeing lately. I noticed that there are some placed directly on Onesies with HTV (heat transfer vinyl) and some made as stickers. The HTV ones are darling, but I wanted a little more color, and the parents of the new baby I made these for are pretty tall (both basketball players), so I didn't want to estimate the size of the baby to the size of the Onesies. I felt that the stickers could be used just that one time. So, I decided to make them out of heavy card stock, since I felt that they could be used again for another baby girl. I designed them myself using digi paper from different paper packs from Jessica Sprague. I made a total of 13 for the kit, adding in a newborn one with the family last name. And, I knew it was a girl, so made it in pinks. I printed all of the markers on white card stock, and cut a second group in pink A/C card stock, then used my Xyron to apply adhesive to join the two layers so that the cards were more sturdy.

The box pattern came from SVG Cuts Camp Firefly. It's the bottom layer of the Smore, and I took the chocolate drips off the edge of the box top. I enlarged it just a bit to accommodate the 4" scalloped circle. I then designed a little label for the top with all 13 of the cards.  On the inside bottom of the box, I made a small scalloped circle which personalized the gift.

I'm so pleased with how it turned out. I've added a few photos of a couple of babies with the markers, and I'll add additional ones as they are available.

This is baby Kraker in her newborn photo. So tiny and so precious.

This is baby Mamelli in her one-month photo! Hope you enjoy the project. It was definitely a fun one, and I love how it turned out.

Here's cute baby Claire Mamelli in her 2-month photo. They grow and change so fast!

Claire at 3 months...growing so big.

Claire at 6 months! So sweet.

Also made these items with G45 Mother Goose paper. I inserted Onesies with booties in the center into the cupcake box. The cupcake box pattern and the bag pattern are from SVG Cuts' 3D Numbers Party SVG Kit.

A New Baby - A New Joy!

Print-2-Cut Fun!

I have a new favorite process to use when paper crafting. It's called print-2-cut, and I've sort of become obsessed with it. I buy a lot of Jessica Sprague digital paper, as well as the element packs, which are made so that people can do digital scrapbooking. But, I've learned that I can cut out the individual elements, and make cards and other items with them.
The first one I'll show is a Christmas item, then I'll be all done with the Christmas theme for the year. I make a chex mix each year, and I usually put it into Chinese food containers that I get at the restaurant warehouse store. However, they were out of the size I wanted this year, so I ended up getting these soup containers. I made the circle label for the top and put peoples names on most of them, and Merry Christmas on the rest. Also cut the label that goes around the side, and put our name in the hanging ornament. These elements came from Carte Bella's Christmas Day Element Pack #1.

Next, I did a fun p2c with some elements from Basic Grey's PB&J element pack. I put them on 1/8" dowels and inserted into the cake. It turned out kind of fun! I'm posting a photo of the elements on the mat as well.

This is a card that I put together quickly with paper from Echo Parks Victoria Gardens element pack. I've been using this paper pack a lot lately. Did the p2c for the lantern light and the oval on the front, and popped out the oval with pop dots.

The next is one of my faves. I used the scrapbook paper from Basic Grey's What's Up paper pack. The paper was sky on the top 2/3s and little village houses at the bottom. I used the top part for one card, and the remainder of the bottom for a second card. I have this all set up and saved now, so it will be a quick card to make whenever I need one. I can add the wording before I print it out to personalize the sentiment. The other great thing about printing digi paper is that you can print on both sides of the paper, and make the inside of your cards look good.

I cut out two cards worth of the elements at one time, since the one piece of paper makes two cards.

And, here's a little thank you card I made. This paper was from a couple of digi paper kits by Basic Grey and, I think, Cosmo Cricket. Of course, it can be changed out for a birthday or another occasion as well.

If you're interested in print-2-cut, you can go to youtube and there are quite a few tutorials that will walk you through it for the different cutting machines. It's done by making a cut line (vector) around the edges your image, printing it out with registration marks, and then cutting them so that your cutter will recognize your registration marks/cutting lines.  Most of the people that I know who do this use the Sizzix Eclips or the Silhouette Cameo. I used the Sizzix Eclips myself. Hope you enjoyed them.

Happy New Year, and Many Crafty Days to Come

Wrapping up the Holidays 2013

The year is over, and we're all getting ready ease on down that 2014 road.  Just thought I'd share a few of the projects I did for Christmas, 2013.

This is the Christmas card I sent. It was a free pattern from Bird's Cards. She is the most generous crafter out there, freely sharing some really amazing files. Easy to make, and very simply pretty. It's an easel card, which I love because so much of the time I'm having to lean photo cards against something. Of course, I made the mistake of sending them out without any instructions, explanations or photo of how to stand it up, so I'm sure most of the people I sent them to had no idea what they were to do with it. Yup, this was a lesson learned. Oh well!

I made some Christmas ornaments this year. My favorite was one for my dear friend's new baby girl. I glittered the inside using a mixture of Modge Podge and water as the adhesive. Then I cut vinyl for the name and baby footprints for the front.

And, here are a few more I made the great nieces and nephews. One other one is glittered, but the rest are made with a floating image in side. They are made with vinyl on clear acetate that was rolled up and placed inside, and then unrolled. I put the names on the outside.

Next I did a vinyl project from SVG Cuts. They do 99.9% paper patterns, but they just wanted to make a vinyl collection to change things up. This pattern came from SVG Cuts' Christmas Gifts Vinyl SVG Collection. My husband pieced together a couple pieces of scrap wood for me, then I sanded the edges. I first painted it white, and then sprayed on chalkboard paint. I then sanded the edges to make it look a bit distressed. After it completely dried, I applied the vinyl. I gave it away at our Bunco Christmas party, and it set upon the recipient's mantel as shown in the photo below.

The next projects were a couple of firsts for me. Made my daughter and son-in-law sweatshirts with a greyhound on them. They adopted Annie, a brindle greyhound this year. I cut the pattern from freezer paper, and ironed it on the sweatshirts, then used fabric paint for the images.

Then I used HTV (heat transfer vinyl) for the first time ever. Made this shirt for my hubs, who builds ukuleles.

I've made this box before, and posted the photos in a past blog posting, but just thought I'd drop in the photo of this one-piece box from SVG Cuts. These are so fast and easy, and are the perfect size for so many things. It comes from the Christmas Open House SVG Kit. It can be made with a solid front, or with an opening that you put in clear acetate for see-through top (like I did in the previous postings).

This next gift was not a paper craft at all, but I still wanted to share it. I do some graphic design, and make some posters for children's theaters. This was a poster I had made for a show. When my great-niece played the part of young Alice in her elementary school's production of Alice in Wonderland, I made this poster for her to remember it by. I luckily had retained the old poster file with the layers, so I was able to take out all of the children, and put my great-niece into the Alice spot, and then fill in the others with actual Disney character photos. She was so proud of this...and I was a bit proud also. I love the way it turned out.

And, one last little project. This is a small box with some note cards (box is 3-1/8" square) that was made with the We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board. Saw a great youtube tutorial on how to make a box with this tool. Quick and easy! The ribbon ties in the back to hold the box closed.

Well, that's it for now! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

So long, 2013!