Smash Pregnancy Journal Part 1

So this project is going to span over multiple posts since it's such a big project.  I kept track of my whole pregnancy in a Smash Journal. I am actually a little behind since I had a bunch of complications in my third trimester and that occupied my time so I'm still working on completing my journal! Anyway, I wanted to share some of my pages from the beginning of my journal.

The front cover - I added the "It's a Girl" after we found out!

Three positive tests must be right, right?

A page dedicated to the first trimester.

My hubby's Alma Mater :)

20 Weeks! Half way point!

Those are a few pages from my journal. Be sure to check back as I'll be posting more soon!

A Secret Santa Gift Swap

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your families. My husband and I enjoyed our first holiday with our little one.  She enjoyed her day and got loads of gifts.

Natalie playing in her dinosaur ball pit from Santa.

So I wanted to share a gift and card that I made for a Secret Santa exchange that we did in my online Mommy group.  We all were due at the same time and started the group as a pregnancy group and now that all our babies have arrived it's a mommy group. So we decided to do a little Christmas exchange for the babies.  It was so much fun and everyone loved their gifts.

I decided to make a fleece baby blanket for my person and a handmade card of course. I got some great fabric on sale at Joann's and this is how it turned out:

Cute elephants on the front, Pink on the back

For the card I used some DCWV Christmas Stack paper.  The candy canes and Merry Christmas embellies are from Anna Griffin and the Snowman is a dollar bin find. I used Glitter letters to add the babies name to the card to personalize it a little.  Here it is:

Merry Christmas!

I distressed the edges of the patterned paper to give the card some more depth. Here's a closeup shot of the details.

The other items I put in my box were a baby rattle, a set of three cute onesies and some nice organic body lotion for Mom. I figured it would be nice for Mommy to get something relaxing!

It felt really great to get some crafting done.  I'm going to try to take a little a couple hours each week for me to relax and create something. So I will be back soon! I hope you all had a great time making your Christmas crafts this year!

Hello Baby!

Yep, I'm still alive.  I know it's been a long time.  I've neglected my blog.  But I had good reasons!  After a really complicated pregnancy and a hard delivery, she's finally here.

I'm a cutie!

Natalie Quinn arrived on Oct 26 weighing in at 5 pounds 4 ounces.  She is absolutely perfect in every way.  It has, however, taken some time to get used to her schedule.  I am hoping to get back into creating things soon, but for right now I'm loving on my greatest creation of all - this sweet baby girl.

But I wanted to wish you all a happy holiday!  I know you're all creating wonderful things and I can't wait to catch up with everyone soon!

A Place For Postcards

It's been a while since I've posted, but with my pregnancy keeping me busy and now we are buying a house too - things have been just a bit crazy!  Today I have a really cool project to share with you using my favorite paper line - Graphic 45.  This is a step by step so be prepared for lots of pictures!

I collect postcards from everywhere we go and my husband always brings me postcards back when he goes on a work trip, but I had no good place to store these.  Well, when I was cruising the local thrift store I spotted this worn out recipe box and I thought it would work perfectly as a postcard box!  So here's what I did:

First step was to pick out all the supplies I wanted to use.  Granted, not all of them got used, but at least I had them close at hand.  I went with the Steampunk Debutante line for this project, I just love the images!
 

Here's the recipe box before I started working on it.  It had some loose hinges so I tightened those down.  I didn't worry about prepping it in anyway except for wiping it down with a damp cloth.

First step - paint!  I used some brown Acrylic paint from Dick Blick.  I love this stuff.  It goes on smoothly and doesn't take a ton of time to dry.  I put on two coats for full coverage.

 After two coats of paint, this is what I had.  Looking good so far!

Then it was time to start adding all the paper accents.  I cut up what I wanted and attached everything with Glossy Accents, my glue of choice. 

Another view from the top of the box.  Looking pretty good so far.

Before I attached any 3D embellishments, this box needed to be mod podged. I used the brush strokes variety because that's what I had on hand and I kind like the way it looks dried.

I added some little plastic bumpers to the inside of the box.  The lid isn't quite level and this helped even things out.

The final step was to go back and glue on all my little 3D accent pieces and voila!  Finished box!

 Here's a view from the back of the box.

 A side view.

 A view from the top.

And here it is with the postcards tucked inside.   I absolutely love it.  It's such a fun place to store my postcards and pull out to show friends.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my project!  Hopefully once we get into the new house, I can try to post more actively.  Keep scrappin' ladies and have a great day!

We're Expecting!

So I have been away for a few months.  But I have a really good reason!  Not long after my last post, I found out that I'm pregnant!  We are expecting our first child on Nov. 10, 2012.  I've been so busy (and so sick) that I haven't been able to craft or post anything.  Luckily I am feeling a ton better now at 17 weeks.  I'm hoping to be able to start posting some projects.  And I'll even post some photos of the pregnancy journal/smash book I'm working on!

4 Months Pregnant!  Woo Hoo!

This week I will be posting a new project I created using one of my favs - Graphic 45.  You don't want to miss it!  I will also be trying to post more regularly, but I'm sure all you mommies know that I might not always be able to! I will do my best!  As always, Happy Scrappin' Ladies!

Feeling Hot Hot Hot!

So my Husband and Father-In-Law both LOVE spicy foods.  They're always sharing recipes and things they have found that are super spicy.  So my Husband had a package of hot sauces and spicy mustard he wanted to send to his Dad and of course, I thought it needed a card!

This amazing paper is by We-R-Memory Keepers, the line is called Fiesta.  I've had this since Cinco de Mayo last year and I've been waiting to use it!  The red in the border and on the peppers is flocked, so that adds a ton of character to the card.  I used pop dots on the little chihuahua and I added some little copper gems to the background paper.  

This turned out super fun!  Now, I don't think I would be trying any of the spicy things sent with the card, but I'm sure that my Father-In-Law enjoyed them!

That's it for me today.  I am looking forward to working on some card challenges this weekend.  What are you working on? Any special projects?  I hope everyone has an awesome crafty weekend!

Happy New Year - I know, I am really really late!

So I have been away for quite some time.  So last year, when I disappeared, my dream came true and I finally got a job working from home.  And let me tell you, I could not be happier about it!  But I had some trouble finding time for crafting and that was mostly because I need to turn my craft work space into my office space.  Who else works from home? Have you found a balance between your work and your crafting and blogging?  That's my goal for this year.

So as a welcome back, I'm going to share a card that I made to welcome a baby into the world! One of my bosses was blessed with a beautiful baby boy in January.  This is the card that I made for him and his wife.

The base of the card is craft paper and then I used some colorful scraps and a few pieces of ribbon behind the white cardstock.  I stamped the Welcome message onto some bazzil cardstock, which have I mentioned I love bazzil cardstock?  It has totally spoiled me, I can never go back to cheap cardstock.  And then the highlight of the card is those cute little animals!  They are Ki Puffies which I found at Michael's.  They have several different packs of these and they are all adorable.

The inside of the card is stamped with a Tim Holtz stamp which reads "it's the little things that make life big".  And I have to stay, I just recently purchased several Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous sets and they are great!  They stamp beautifully and I love all the quotes.

 In fact, here's a picture of my recent purchase of stamps:

The four sets of stamp I got are great.  And the little zippered mouth creature is a gift card holder by Basic Grey!  I think he costs like three bucks, so I couldn't pass it up.

So that's it for today.  It feels good to be back!  I hope to talk to you all soon and until next time - Happy Scrapin!