Bootie Tags for Baby Smiley!

My son's girl friend needed some baby gift tags for the birth of her great-niece and asked me if I could help out and make a few tags, possibly with baby booties on them.  I knew I had a baby shoe die, but hadn't used it before, but said I'd see what I could do.  Take a peek below at the finished product. . .Katrina LOVED them!  If you are interested in the creative mojo story, it follows below the "Ingredients" lists.

Ingredients:
For each tag:
White Tag base:  Stampin' Up DSP cardboard back sheet:  2" x 4-1/4."  Stampin' Up Scallop Tag Topper. Stampin' Up Christmas Stocking Thinlet die (modified stocking + bow).

Booties - top row from the left:

--Bootie #1:  Stampin' Up products: Pink Pirouette cardstock; Shimmer White cardstock.  Martha Stewart Heart Loops Border punch (cuff + tag bottom).  Stampin' Up 1/8" Pink Pirouette satin ribbon.

--Bootie #2:  Bo Bunny Double Dot Passion Fruit. Stampin' Up Shimmer White.  Stampin' Up Perfect Dot Embossing folder (cuff).  Simon Says Scallop Stitches die (cuff).  Stampin' Up Curvy Corner punch (tag bottom). 1/4" Strawberry Slush silver edge ribbon.

Booties: bottom row from the left:
--Bootie #3:  Stampin' Up Melon Mambo cardstock; Shimmer White cardstock.  Simon Says Scallop Stitched die (stocking edge...no cuff).  Stampin' Up Happy Heart Embossing folder (fussy cut two hearts from embossed cardstock).  Martha Stewart Heart Loops Border punch (tag bottom). 1/8" Offray hot pink grosgrain ribbon.
--Bootie #4:  Stampin' Up Rose Red cardstock; Shimmer White cardstock.  Stampin' Up Fancy Dot Embossing Folder (cuff).  Martha Stewart Swirling Lace Punch Around the Page Border (tag bottom).  1/8" Offray pink grosgrain ribbon (Copic colored).
--Bootie #5: Stampin' Up cardstocks: Pretty in Pink; Shimmer White cardstock (pattern edges); Pink Pirouette cardstock (bows).  Recollections Itsy Bitsy Ditsy Cherry Pie (cuff + toes).  Simon Says Scallop Stitches dies (cuff + toe edges).  Stampin' Up Open Scallop border punch (tag bottom).  Stash: Pink & White Baker's twine, doubled.

The Creative Bootie Story

When I took a look at the die, it just didn't strike me as what you want for a newborn, plus it was a bit fussy with lots of little parts to die-cut and put together.  I wanted it to be more like a little knit booties, and I wanted it to be simpler, as I'm still not up to too much cardmaking and die cutting after the knee surgery.  

I had been looking at some of newly published SCS challenges recently, particular the "Featured Stamper" and I remember a Christmas stocking card.  From that, an idea came to mind to use my Christmas stocking die that I purchased last year, but never got a chance to use it, and to cut down the length of the stocking!  It would be perfect for modifying and using as baby botties.  

It worked really well with a bit of ingenuity for the bootie cuffs and using different papers to achieve different looks.  This idea worked splendidly, but it didn't end up making it any quicker or easier, as I got carried away.  I added different colors of pink cardstock for each set of bootie tags, plus some Bo Bunny Pink Passion Double Dot, and a mini pink flower print.  I also added some different trims, dies, and embossing, and border punching.  I have to say, Katrina LOVED them...take a peek below:

Miss Callie's First Birthday!

My granddaughter is having her first birthday!  Oh, how exciting and so much fun to make her a one-year old birthday card!  I've been busy making ice-cream cakes for the birthday party event, so have left myself little time to get her birthday card finished!  I did start on it because I wanted to try a technique that I've been eyeing for more than a year called Faux Tile Sponging, which is similar to Delft Tiling, except you don't stamp a pattern on the tiles to get a similar look to Delft pottery.  The two techniques are similar in that you do make a diagonal grid scored background on both and sponge ink onto scored grid by using a mask over your score lines and sponging color onto the edges of your tiles. 

Before I figured out what cute focal point I wanted to use or planned my layout design, I visited the Splitcoaststamper challenges forum to see what inspiration I might find.  I planned to use the Alphabet Challenge, Round 8, Letter Y for yellow, but when mojo arrived from the Inspiration Challenge, I decided to go with Letter G for giraffe!  I found the foundation for my layout by visiting the Featured Stamper's gallery of Bronwyn Eastley.  I did modified Bronwyn's original layout quite a bit to make it fit my baby theme for my card!   Take a look below at granddaughter Callie's birthday card, plus the inside design with Grandma's created verse.  I'm thinking she will like it, especially when she's around four to five years old!

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up cardstock:  Very Vanilla, Lemon-Lime Twist.  Stampin' Up Ink: Daffodil Yellow, Lemon-Lime Twist.  Precious Moments Coloring Pages digital image.  Copic Markers.  Wink of Stella-Clear.  Die: unknown/ gift.  Ribbon: stash.  Stampin' Up Pearls.  Technique: Faux Tile Sponging.  Size: 4-3/4" x 6".

A Grandbaby on the Way!

I'M THRILLED!  THIS CARD IS NAMED A

SPLITCOASTSTAMPERS FAVORITE OF THE

WEEK ENDING - JANUARY 29, 2017!!

I am going to be a Grandma. . .hallelujah, yippee!  My youngest son and his wife are expecting at the end of February, and we are celebrating this new little person, who is on her way, with a baby shower!  The theme for room decorations are woodland animals, and the shower invitation arrived with a darling little white, Arctic baby fox wearing a pompom-laden, knit snow hat.  My creative juices immediately began to whirl and groan, as they were so not use to being accessed.

I have not been to my craft table since the night before Christmas Eve. . .I was just too sick to care. . ., and this went on for four weeks and three days without any noticeable improvement.   Finally, on the 31st day, halfway through the day, I noticed my constant coughing was considerably better, my nose was not running continually, and my sinuses were a little less plugged.  By the end of the day, I was pretty sure I was really on the mend.  It took three days, and I was quickly back to normal with an abundance of energy!  Thank the Lord!

For my card, my original intent was to use the Stampin' Up Foxy Friends stamps and punch set, but after a bit of searching through my digital images, I found a cute little fox that I thought would be perfect sitting on the left lower side of my shaker circle.  Yes...I wanted to make a shaker card.  Once I made my mind up about those two things, my card flew together.  I was able to use several new dies that I had recently acquired, which lend themselves to a woodsy, fox theme.

I finished my little woodland fox card, and then completed the decor and verse for my card interior.  Take a peek below...I'm pretty pleased with the way Ginger's card turned out!  I think she'll love it!

Ingredients:  Stampin” Up products:  Cardstock—Shimmery White – cardbase; Daffodil Yellow; Soft Sky.  Stamps—Weather Together (raindrops); Foxy Friends (tree stump); Baby Bear (sentiment).  Ink--Sahara Sand; Old Olive (mixed).  Punch—Scallop Edge (retired-inside design), Curvy Corners (retired-inside design).  Embossing Powder—White.  Other:  October Afternoon pattern paper—Hide and Seek (floral.  Digital image:  Pixel Paper Prints—Woodland Animals (fox).  Dies—Impression Obsession—Three Trees Background; Reverse Confetti—Edgers Confetti Cuts (scalloped "V"); Cottage Cuts—Stitched Wide Circle Frame, Pierced Ovals; My Favorite Things—Stitched Circle Scallop Frame; Spellbinders—Scalloped Petite Ovals.  Stash:  1/8” Daffodil Yellow Satins ribbon.  Sequins—misc. colors.  Size:  4-3/4" x 6."

Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice!

I have another grand-niece, and her name is Farrah.  She is my sixth little niece and my sister's sixth granddaughter!  This little one belongs to my sister's youngest boy (of four children), and she is his second daughter!  Are you confused or what???

For this baby girl, I wanted to use my Cottage Cutz baby clothes dies, which I purchased at least two years ago and have never used them.  I cased a card by Jeannie Donnelly where she used the clothing dies in the "inchies" format, and I thought it was just too cute.  I really liked the inchies idea, but changed mine just a bit.  I used the bib from the Fancy Baby Border, scalloped squares for my inchies, and made them smaller in diameter.  I decided to simplify my sentiment frame, and not added  flowers, making my card less fussy.   

One thing I did find was that to accommodate the clothing dies, you had to use a square at least 1-3/4 inches in diameter, thus my card ended up 6-1/2 inches square.  Because of the amount of room around the clothing, I believe the card that I cased had to have been made with a 2-inch postage-edged square die, which would make that card a minimum of 7-1/2 inches square.  I decided that was just TOO big...my 6-1/2 inches is already pretty darn big!  

I am quite pleased with the outcome of my LARGE card, and I think little Farrah and her parents will like it as well.  Take a look below at the inside and outside of my little baby card.

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up cardstock: Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Pretty in Pink.  Recollections: Glitter paper (iridescent). Patterns:  K&Co.-Susan Wright Spring Blossom Stack; DCWV Preppy Princess Stack;  Recollections-Southern Hospitality/ Southern Belle; Paper Pizazz/ Soft Tints Yellow/Pink Gingham; Recollections-Dots, Stripes & Plaids stack; Prima-Divine Collection/ Epigram; SU-Love Blossoms Stack (bib).  Stampin' Up Ink:  Pretty-in-Pink, Melon Mambo.  Dies: Spellbinders Nested Scallop Squares (1-3/4" dia.); Memory Box-Typewriter Upper Alphabet; Cottage Cutz-Baby Girls' Clothes/ Fancy Baby Border.  EK Punch: Scalloped Corners-Large.  Size: 6-1/2" square.  

Welcome To the Family Baby Boy Reese!

My nephew and his wife added an addition to their family back in September, 2015. . .a little baby boy!  As I've confessed, I failed to get a lot of my birthday cards made and delivered from early last summer forward.  Welcoming baby Reese was another one of my delivery failures!  But, I fully intended to let Adam and Danielle know how pleased I was that they have now become four!

To meet my self-imposed deadline of not later than the end of January for those cards that were especially important to do, even if late, I chose to case another card design by my Stampin' Up upline, Liz Thayer.  This little baby card was one Liz presented at the May 2014 IN-OUT Event.  I tweaked or added the following:

• I use a different paper but part of the same collection - Lullaby (retired 2015).
• I added another layer by making a new Kraft card base.
• I added a layered sentiment and popped it up rather than stamp directly onto the card front.  
• I used the new Washi punch introduced this year and modified it a bit to use on both layers.
• I used Wink of Stella on my rubber ducky.  Note: I used a bit of Gold, but I recommended using only the clear.

When I finished my tweaked version of Liz's card, it certainly retained the full flavor of the original design with just a few changes and additions that I think enhance the original without taking away from it.

As is traditional for me, I always decorate the interior with a complimentary design taken from the card front and then add my only little verse, which I use my computer to accomplish rather than stamping.  I've always like poetry and writing, so this just makes my cards more me, and puts on the final touch that I like.

Recipe:  Stampin" Up products:  Cardstocks-Coastal Cabana, Hello Honey, Kraft.  Paper-Lullaby dsp (retired 2015).  SU Ink: Coastal Cabana, Hello Honey.  Stamps: Something for Baby.  Dies: Baby's First.  Punch:  Washi.  Thick Baker's Twine: Coastal Cabana.  Rhinestone.  EK punch: Medium Scalloped Corner.  Computer-made sentiment/ verse. (Size: 4-1/2" x 5-3/4").  (Thank you to Liz Thayer for original card design).

Welcome to My Newest Great Niece!

My little niece, Adelyn, was born at the very end of September, and I fully planned to get a card made and sent off with a gift right away, because I so love making baby cards!  Somehow, here it is in the middle of January and I'm just finishing her card now!  Yikes. . .what happened???

Some months back (imagine that), I decided I wanted to make a baby card with a little giraffe on it.  First, I was going to use Stampin' Up's Zoo Babies, but then I saw a card on Pinterest with a cute little digital image giraffe that was paper pieced.  I tried to find that giraffe, but the card was made about four years ago, and the company was no longer in business.  Just the other day, I did a Google search for giraffe black and white illustrations, and that search found me many cute giraffes to choose from.  I love, love this little girl giraffe that I chose, and when I found the papers that I ended up using, I knew just what I would do with my coloring for this cute little creature!  I'm pretty please with the end result, and I hope my niece enjoys her baby's little card as well.  I'm going shopping tomorrow for a gift card to tuck inside for something that's just right for Baby Girl Adelyn.

Card inside greetings:

Recipe:  Stampin' Up cardstocks: Whisper White (base), Daffodil Yellow, Pretty-in-Pink (ret.).  K&Co.: Susan Wright Spring Blossom Specialty Pad.  Spellbinders die: Romantic Rectangles. Giraffe Digital image: Thingkid.com Coloring Page.  Copic markers.  Elmer's Craft Bond Spray Adhesive.  Stampin' Up Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.  WRMK Corner Deco Chomper.  Stash: organdy scallop ribbon/ yellow glitter heart button.  Ribbon tonal color change with Copic RV-11.  Handmade Fishtail Flags with computer-sentiment - Tempus Sans ITC 14 Bold.  (Inside: WRMK Corner Deco Chomper.  EK Medium Scallop Corner punch.)   Size: 6" x 5-1/2."

Welcome Little One...& a Shabby Tea Room Challenge!

One of my daughter's long-time, best friends had her first baby recently...it's a boy!  She was eight days overdue, and they were considering inducing her if she didn't get busy over that week-end on her own.  Guess what, it seemed the baby heard the ultimatum, and a trip to the hospital began at the crack of dawn that Monday morning, and it was apparent this new little person was on his way!  This coincided nicely with a challenge at the Shabby Tea Room #206, so I decided to play along.  Here is the inspiration photo for the challenge.

For information regarding the Shabby Tea Room Challenge #206 and to see my entry, click on the link below: http://theshabbytearoom.blogspot.com/2014/02/week-206-baby-shower-party.html 

I volunteered to make a baby card for my daughter to send welcoming this little guy into the world.  I've so enjoyed making the sunburst rays background card for my niece's birthday last month, and I just had to make one more and with the machine stitching added on this one.  I found a cute little colored digital image online, which I dropped into PaintShop Pro to clean it up and reshade here and there.  I then began looking for blue and green papers to compliment his room colors.  After my search was underway, I remembered that I had bought a DCWV stack full of little boy papers, and guess what...the whole pad was in blues and greens!  I was stoked and ready to begin.  I've just finished and my daughter rejuvenated her long unused poetry talents for the inside verse.  We hope Sarah likes her little guy's welcoming card shown below.

Recipe:  Papers: Recollections-Cape Cod pack-periwinkle/base; Frances Meyer-Baby Boy; DCWV-Baby Boy Stack. Spellbinders Scallop Rectangles LG, Classic Rectangles SM.  Stampin'Up punch: Modern Label. EK punch: Fancy Corners. Stash: 5/8" Baby Blue Satin ribbon, 3/4" White Crochet Lace. Vintage online digital color image.  Computer-made sentiment (Font: Christine).  Machine stitching.

Happy Birthday Little One!

Two great nieces, who are sisters, share January birthdays.  I was starting to think about Paisley's first birthday coming up at the end of the month,when I came across this cute little vintage baby girl image.  It inspired me to do a very girly vintage card in pinks...a color I don't seem to have used a lot in making cards, so I was excited to get started.  

After trying out a sunburst ray background card a few weeks ago and enjoying its effect and how easy it was to do, I was anxious to try it again but with sewing stitches.  I really thought this would be a very cute idea with this little girl image.  So, the hunt was on for papers in pink to fit the image.  I got a little carried away and used six different papers for my rays, plus another for a background mat as well.  I got out my sewing machine and added the machine stitching down the rays and zigzags to finish off the outer perimeter.  I think it really adds to the finished look of the card, and I am please with the results.

For the image framing and the sentiment background, I reinforced the cardstock weight by adhering the pink cardstock to a cream cardstock using an adhesive spray glue.  I used Spellbinders Lattice die to cut out the frame.  After cutting the lattice frame out, I sprayed the front surface with adhesive spray. While it was still "wet," I sprinkled it with fine iridescent white glitter with pink sparkles and tapped off the excess. A friend told me how she used adhesive spray to create the snow falling glitter on her Christmas cards. "The cheapest brand works great," she said.  And, it does work great and is very easy to do!

Below is the finished front and inside of Paisley's little birthday card with papers and embellishments to coordinate.  I hope Paisley likes her little "Can Can Cherub!"

Recipe:  Paper: Darice Kraft-base, BoBunny-Vicki B./ Perky-mat, Scrapbook Walls/ Rosey Bouquet, DCWV: Le Tres Chic Stack, Authentique: Cherish Two, Crate Paper: Farmhouse/ Handpicked, Anna Griffin: AG1467, DCWV: Garden Tea Party Stack, Authentique: Cherish One. Darice Pink cs.  Spellbinder Dies: Lattice; Rectangles SM. Stampin'Up punch: Modern Labels. Offray crochet lace. Stash: Satin-sheer 1" ribbon. Computer-made sentiment: Christine font. Homemade crochet flower.