Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Coral and Mint Birdcage & Flower Design Featured on 'To Entertain'

I'm excited to share some photos with you of a recent baby shower featured on the blog, To Entertain, which featured my birdcage and flower invitations and registry inserts. If you aren't familiar with this blog, you should check it out. They have some lovely ideas for entertaining, from baby showers to a murder mystery dinner party. They feature several small businesses with each event to showcase how various decorations can be used for your special day. 

The ladies at To Entertain recently threw a baby shower with a coral and mint-colored theme, and the birdcage invitations were their favorites. You can see the final printed products below. 

Birdcages, Birds, Chevron - Custom Bridal, Baby Shower, or Bridesmaids Luncheon Invitation - Girl Boy Mint Green Peach Coral - 5 DIY Designs wedding rehearsal dinner

Birdcages, Birds, Chevron - Custom Wedding, Engagement Party, Bridal, Baby Shower Insert - Gift Registry Diaper Raffle Book - Printable, DIY wedding

Birdcages, Birds, Chevron - Custom Bridal, Baby Shower, or Bridesmaids Luncheon Invitation - Girl Boy Mint Green Peach Coral - 5 DIY Designs wedding rehearsal dinner

The baby shower looks like it was a wonderful success. They featured several other lovely shops which you can see below. Here are some photos of the momma-to-be's special day. 

To entertain coral and mint baby shower

I love the mason jars with small flowers along the tables, and the print above is amazing. 

To entertain coral and mint baby shower


To entertain coral and mint baby shower

Rose Push Pins - Flower Push Pins - Push Pins - Girl - Birthday - Wedding - Girl Bedroom - Office - Baby Shower - Home Decor

Rose Push Pins - Flower Push Pins - Push Pins - Girl - Birthday - Wedding - Girl Bedroom - Office - Baby Shower - Home Decor

Cabochon Flower Push Pins and Magnets


mint teal blue coral red pink diaper cake baby shower white flower

mint teal blue coral red pink diaper cake baby shower white flower

Teal and Coral Diaper Cake


circle floral garland mint and coral baby shower decoration

Floral Garland


red pink newborn cheesecloth floral headband baby shower gift

Newborn Cheesecloth Wrap and Floral Headband


For the full post with lots of photos of this beautiful coral and mint baby shower, see the post below on To Entertain




To find my coral and mint birdcage invitations, registry inserts and thank you cards for your baby shower, bridal shower, bridesmaids luncheon, or even wedding, see my shop here.







Monday, May 26, 2014

Scrapbook Monday: Pregnancy Mini Album - Gift for Mother's Day

My apologies for being a bit absent lately. I closed my shop to spend a little more time with family this month, but it is now open. Don't forget to use your coupon code (MEMORIAL25) for 25% off your purchase in my shop. The code expires tonight as 11:59pm.

Today I wanted to share a mini album with you, which I made for my mother for Mother's Day. I had actually completed most of it last year while I was pregnant, and shared it with her at my Baby Shower. I was waiting to add some photos of our new baby once he/she came; however, that took a little longer than expected!  ;)  Almost a year....  but it's finally done, and it's the thought that counts, right?

For the album, I included belly shot photos throughout my pregnancy, our name choices for a boy and girl, ultrasound photos, photos of my parents helping us with the bread-and-board wall treatment in the baby's nursery, photos of me and my siblings the weekend of my baby shower, and of course, photos of the new baby's arrival. I think it is great to cover the entire pregnancy. I also included a photo of the pregnancy test and the photo I used for our pregnancy announcement (more on that soon), which has four sets of "shoes", one being our dog's paws, and scrabble tiles to label them. I mixed a few inspirational ideas I got from Pinterest to come up with this photo - again, I'll share more on that later.

For the mini album, I used the Dear Lizzy 5th and Frolic mini album. I absolutely adore this album, and Elizabeth Kartchner's line. If you don't follow Elizabeth's blog, you really should. She is probably my favorite scrapbooker and designer, and has been for the past few years. I love her lines, and most of this mini album was created using several of her recent lines, including 5th and Frolic.

I started the album when I was pregnant, and since the sex of the baby was a surprise (spoiler alert! it was a girl!!), I wanted to make the colors of the album unisex, while still adding the sweet touches I love. So I opted for a variety of colors, mostly centered on teal, blue, pink and grey. The album comes with the banner on the front cut out, so you can see the first page behind it. I simply added some epoxy dots between the pennants. I love texture, so I added some layers of patterned papers, embellishments, twine, a button, and some chipboard letter stickers.


For the rest of the album, I added lots of patterned papers and small embellishments from Studio Calico, My Minds Eye, American Crafts, and more. Most of the accents were from my monthly Studio Calico kit, which I absolutely adore! If you haven't seen their monthly kits, you should check them out. Previously they would gather supplies from various companies and put them into a coordinating kit, so that you can simply start your pages without having to plan everything out. Now, they offer their own designs in each kit as well, and you can only find these items in the kits. Their products are now my favorites - they fit my style and aesthetic completely. My favorites are their patterned papers, fab-rips (sticker fabric that you can rip into strips), and their wooden veneer accents. You can see a few of the wooden accents on the second page, with the male and female figures.





For my belly shots, I used blocks I purchased on Etsy, which have different number combinations, along with "weeks", "months", "years", etc. You can find them from MontanaVintageGreens. One disclaimer, however, the numbers and letters on the blocks are not painted - they are stickers. I assumed they were painted, and was a little disappointed to find they were stickers - I probably could have made them myself if I'd known they were just stickers. Also, over time, the edges of some of them peeled up, so the blocks stuck together. Overall, I'd recommend making some yourself, but the link will hopefully provide some ideas for you.



The wooden pointer above is also from Studio Calico. Most of the papers used are from the Dear Lizzy collections.



The banner above is from the Dear Lizzy collection as well. One of my favorite items, it is a page full of one long banner stitched with thread, and you can cut it to any length you'd like. One technique I love is to add your title or an accent directly to your photo. It adds an unexpected touch, and draws your eye to the photo. See above with the "little one" title and the heart accent. 


The male and female fox above are from - you guessed it! - Dear Lizzy. I cut each in half, then added some wash tape and some strips of patterned paper. The letters are chipboard and foam thickets from American Crafts. 


I think the next page is my favorite of the album. It has the 20 week ultrasound photos. I love how the colors turned out, and the little pocket included with the album. I wrapped some twine around the photo on the left, and for the pocket, I re-sized three of the ultrasound photos to fit inside the pocket, and used wash tape folded over on itself (with a notch cut in the center) to make little flags on the edges. This way you can easily pull out the additional photos to see them. Love the end result. 




Oddly enough, the 3D photo of Addie looks just like her! Go figure  ;)


The photos below show the nursery wall treatment coming together thanks to my parents! I'll show some before and after photos of the nursery soon!


An easy way to add visual interest to a photo is to wrap some ribbon around and tie a bow or not. I use a little bit of adhesive beneath the two ends to keep them in place.




A lot of the embellishments these days are three-dimensional, which I love, but sometimes they make an album too thick. A good way to reduce the thickness of your album is to use only patterned paper on some of the pages. With a few different designs, you can add a lot of visual interest.


Again, I'll share more about the nursery in an upcoming post, but I took my belly shot photos in the nursery every few weeks so you could also see how the nursery design was progressing. In the photo above you can see the crib with the crib sheets, and the book cubbies on the wall. Below you can see the Queen Anne style dresser I am using as a changing table, and some of the wall art on the wall. 


And of course....the arrival of our little angel, Adelaide. A few photos from her first day of life.






The photo below was right before we took our little one home. Our last photo in the hospital.  :)


I decided to finish the album with a photo of me and my daughter - a fitting ending to an album for my mother, of her daughter's first child. The circle of life continues....


One day....not anytime soon....hopefully Addie will have a family of her own. 

Hope you enjoyed peeking inside this mini album! More to come soon!



Sunday, May 25, 2014

Memorial Day SALE - Save 25% on Everything in my Shop

Hope you're having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! As you may have noticed, my shop has been closed the past month in order to spend some time with my family and take a break, but it is now OPEN! And in honor of the holiday, I'm offering 25% off your entire purchase from my shop - even clearance items! So hurry and purchase your favorite invitation, altered picture frame, necklace, or mini album. Use the following coupon code during your purchase: MEMORIAL25.

**Please be sure to include the coupon code during checkout. Beneath the payment options (Paypal or Credit Card) you'll see a link in blue that reads "Apply shop coupon code". Click on that, and include the coupon code in the resulting box.

Happy Memorial Day!

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Mother's Day with my Little Angel

I hope all of you mothers out there had a wonderful Mother's Day. I know I'm a little late in saying this, but I'm just now getting around to posting photos from our special day. For my first Mother's Day, all I wanted was to spend time with my lovely daughter and husband, and a picnic sounded perfect. It was our first family picnic, and we loved it. It was gorgeous outside, and we were able to pick up some takeout at one of our favorite restaurants downtown and walk to the park. We used the quilt my grandmother made me years ago for my graduation, which I always keep on hand for family outings. 



Addie wore her polka dot dress (the collar reminds me of the Queen of Hearts), and she had an amazing time. So much for her to look at, and she loved crawling around on the blanket. I only wish she could have run around in the grass...one day soon though. 



She's been saying "mama" a lot lately, but she said it many times during that picnic, and I'd like to think she was trying to say "Happy Mama's Day". It's these little moments that we need to remember...that we need to strive to have more often. 


I dare say it was the perfect day, capped off with some Oreo ice-cream from the local shop downtown. What more could a mama ask for?


Hope you all had an amazing day with your families as well! Pretty soon it will be father's day!!

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Addie's First Easter

These photos are long overdue. I meant to post them a few weeks ago...but life happens.  ;)  This was Addie's first Easter, so I had to get her her own Easter basket and some eggs. I didn't fill them with anything because she's too young for candy, and let's face it, anything that small is a choking hazard at this age. Besides, I had a feeling she would be more enthralled with the eggs themselves, and boy was I right. She held on to her purple egg the entire day. In Lowes...she had her egg. At lunch...she had her egg. I think that is by far the cheapest toy I've ever gotten her...probably about 9 cents.






Headband from BabyBloomzBoutique.


Here she is with her daddy. Someone at work asked me if she's always this happy, because she always seems to be smiling in my photos. I told him only when Justin is standing behind me. She won't smile like that for me, but any time Justin is around she grins from ear to ear. She's definitely a Daddy's Girl already.  ;)



Hope you had a lovely Easter as well, and are enjoying this weekend to the fullest!