Welcome to all the KevinandAmanda.com blog readers! Good luck on this week's sign giveaway!
I'm so enjoying reading your comments and hearing about which signs you'd love to have! Remember, each sign is custom made, so the sky is the limit! It can say anything you wish and if you're looking for something even more custom (not on the general order form), just let me know and we'll design something perfect together!
When a little girl requests a butterfly birthday party, I'm happy to oblige. I went the VERY simple route for this one, even though I could have gone crazy with the decorations and crafty projects. There just wasn't time or money for anything too complicated! So here's what we ended up with:
butterfly birthday plates & napkins from Big Lots
white tablecloth with patterned paper butterfly cutouts sprinkled around it
three scrapbook pages featuring newborn Ayla and pictures from this past year
a borrowed cupcake stand
butterfly and flower cupcakes from Sam's Club (we added gummy worms for caterpillars)
Party Favors: butterfly nets, wings & glasses from the Dollar Tree
butterflies made with fabric strips tied in knots (so the kids could throw & catch butterflies in their nets)
Easy! And it all fit into a rubbermaid tub and cooler to bring over to the park. Too bad the butterfly birthday balloon I bought flew away as soon as I opened the car door...guess I didn't have it tied down as well as I thought!
Since I made Paxton a birthday shirt this year, I didn't want Ayla to feel left out. She picked "butterflies" as her party theme, so we took a good old Garanimals t-shirt and turned it into a butterfly party shirt with a reverse applique design and some scrap fabric (actually, I think they were hankerchiefs)!
Glad I could get this smiley picture of her. She was in a silly face mood yesterday:
I finished up this 3-6-9-12 month framed collage this afternoon, displaying Paxton's first year portraits. Rather than matching Ayla's framed collage, I ended up going with a completely different frame style and photo opening layout. I figure...different kid, different project. Separate and unique, but equal. Paxton's pictures were all horizontal anyhow, so it was kind of necessary to do something different. :)
Initially my intent for doing this was to show how much each kid changed over their first year, wearing the same white onsie with a black background (and I tried to include a prop - flower for Ayla and stuffed monkey for Paxton...but that didn't go over well after 3 months!). It's funny how in the end, these portraits actually ended up showing how much they looked the SAME all year! Though Paxton does get a little rounder in each photo! Perhaps if I had to do it over again, I'd choose to dress them differently each time...nah, probably not. I still think it was a good idea even if it didn't turn out quite like I planned. :)
Here's Ayla's, which I did several years ago - the openings are wallet sized w/one 5x7:
And Paxton's - which has four 3 1/2 x 5" openings:
So there we go. Two kids, two frames, two first year collages -- done, and hung.
With all the pictures I take, it's about time I framed a few. :)
I've had this collage frame sitting in my "to do" projects forever, and finally decided that a bathtime baby bathroom collage would be the perfect use for it. So, I printed several bathtime baby photos of both of our kids in black and white, added some patterned paper & Imaginisce "Splash Dance" rub-ons and stickers and viola! A cute little bathroom collage.
While I was working on this project, I flipped the Splash Dance packaging over and was surprised to see a familiar face looking back at me!
One of my April goals was to make baby gifts for 9 babies born in the last couple of months. Finally, they've all been born, and the gifts have been sent! Whew. And now I can show you what I made for them!
DIAPER BAG TAGS --
They’re inexpensive (use your scraps), easy (they can be partially pre-made), and have just the right homemade touch that any new mom will love (ahh…alphabet stickers)! With a decorated design on one side and the baby’s name on the other, diaper bag tags are a perfect way to distinguish one bag from the next at day care and church nurseries.
clear plastic badge holders (available at office-supply stores)
Instructions:
Choose a double-sided patterned paper and cut it to fit inside the pocket for the clear ID badge holder.Mine were 3.5” x 2.5”.
Use a corner rounder to round the edges of each card.
On one side of the card, add a 1.25” x 2.5” strip of cardstock and a circle punch to anchor your themed embellishment of choice.In the two examples above, I used a car sticker for the boy tags and a silk flower and button for the girl tags.
Ink or outline the edges of all the paper elements, making sure to detail both sides of the background card (in different colored inks if you wish!).
Assemble the decorative side of the tag, adding your themed embellishment.
On the opposite side of the tag, adhere a chipboard alphabet monogram and the name of the baby.On the boy tags, I used alphabet stickers to write the name, while on the girl tags, I simply printed the names on white cardstock strips.
Insert the tags into the ID badge holders.
Add a ribbon to the pre-cut hole at the top of the ID badge holder.This can be used to attach the tag to a strap on a diaper bag.A more versatile option (for those who change diaper bags as often as they change purses) would be using a key ring or zipper clip.
While I was at it, I also made some neutral baby-themed tags using the Crate Paper Little Sprouts collection of papers and die cuts, for my “not-finding-out” friends!
This is one of the signs I made a couple of weeks ago...a birthday present for a 12 year old girl, who just got a brand new bedroom:
Side one -- Her first name painted with her middle and last name as patterned paper overlay:
And the "fun" side two - Twilight (ooh, don't we ALL love Twilight?) with a patterned paper overlay:
and my favorite touch...the silver blood drops---oooh, chilling! :)
The cool part about this sign is that it can be hung on the wall and flipped to whatever sign she's "feeling" that day OR you could use the eye hooks to hang it from hooks & chains from the ceiling to enjoy both sides at the same time.
We held a silent auction at church this past weekend to raise money for a mission trip to Honduras and I was shocked and flattered to create quite the bidding war for one of my personalized signs. It turns out three people bid $95 for a personalized sign! Who am I to stand in the way of worthy cause fundraising? Instead of donating one, I just went ahead and donated three signs to the top bidders. I'm happy to help raise money for a great mission.
So, as a result, I've been a painting fool this week getting the auction signs done as well as some regular orders (providing immediate confirmation of the old "give and you shall receive" mantra).
Here are a couple that I can share now...the others will have to wait since I believe they are suprise gifts!:
Since Ayla has a birthday banner, I knew I'd need to make one for Paxton as well and since his birthday is only two weeks away...well it was time to get crackin!
This canvas pennant banner from Maya Road was the perfect product to make it with (especially since his name fit so perfectly on six pennant triangles!)
I painted each triangle either orange or brown with acrylic paint, and then alternated colors to create the background for the banner.
I added his baby photos, chipboard letters to spell his name, and used the Little Sprout collection kit from Crate Paper as well as several zoo stickers from Doodlebug and monkey stickers from Reminisce to decorate each triangle.
Since Paxton's nursery is decorated in zoo animals, and his monthly photos are taken with a stuffed gorilla, I figure it's only natural that his banner have the same theme. I plan to use the banner every year on his birthday -- maybe not for party decorations (because I doubt the zoo theme will keep his interest for much longer), but at least I can use it for family birthday breakfast decorations!
DIsciples Fellowship is doing a silent auction this weekend to raise money for a mission trip to Honduras. Last year, my cards were fought over by several bidders (yay!), so I had to submit another set this year. I used the beautiful Brook Collection from Crate Paper to make a set of 9 cards:
I'll also be donating a custom sign from Signs by Andrea. The weather is great again, wedding season is starting, and it's time to start painting some more signs!
