Lovely Layers mini cards

It's been awhile since I've been able to place a PTI order, and on a whim last month,  I added Lovely Layers and the square dies at the last second. And I'm so glad I did! It's been so much fun playing with them, and I've seen the coolest things made with them too. When I was experimenting with them, it seemed like they would make a nice mini card set. So I made several in many colors. The cards are 3-1/4" square.

For the first one, I used the negative diecut of the leaves to frame the flower.

I also made a softer, more feminine version.

The small sentiment is from the Mixed Messages set. So many of those mini sentiments fit perfectly in the flower's center and it's very simple to switch out the sentiment, if you need it for a different occasion. I embossed the entire  base of the card (front and back) using the Simple Stripes IP (love!), which adds a nice texture. Then I matted the inside with a piece of white cardstock, to keep from writing on the texture.

This one is similar to the first, but matted with a different square.

And the last one has a diecut similar to the first one, but I embossed the background with the woodgrain IP.

I added dimension to the leaves using the rock 'n roll technique, graduating to a darker color as I got to the end of the leaves. It helps to make the leaves pop and glow a bit more!

If you know any tips to line up the stamps with the diecut, I'd love to hear it! I had such a hard time lining these up. Here's a couple of tips I learned when using Lovely Layers: if you stamp on the diecuts, mat them from behind with the same color paper. If your stamping isn't exactly centered on the diecut, it somewhat helps to disguise it (for example: white on white). Also, I learned this tip and it makes a huge difference: stamp in versamark ink first, then ink up your stamp. The stickiness helps to hold the ink better so you don't get gaps in your coverage.

I'm entering this set of 4 cards into A Passion for Papertrey's Anything Goes challenge! It's been awhile since I played their challenge, and it's fun to be participating again!

Also, here are some updated photos of Alexander taken today. He's almost 10 months old now. He's got two teeth on the bottom and is getting four new teeth on top. He loves to jump in his jumper and has started to stand on his own too!

Then a few minutes after I took the pictures, I looked over at him and he had passed out in his jumper.

The first time he's done that, haha! Guess he jumped so much he wore himself out. :)

Thanks for taking a look and have a very sunny summer day! :)

A Few More Baby Pics

As promised, here are a few more baby photos of Alexander! These were taken over the last few weeks. He will be 6 months old on March 17th (which happens to be St. Patrick's Day too). Can't believe how fast he's growing!

He's a very happy baby! Giggling with him is one of my favorite things to do.

And here's Alexander with Mr. Moose. They are best buds!! (And I did not even pose him. He actually holds his moose this way. ;)

And here's another one taken a month ago while going for a walk. It was a bit chilly that day and so we bundled him up in a hoodie.

He's starting to sit up now too! And yesterday he sat up unassisted for the first time, while playing on his blanket. Nothing melts a mama's heart faster than her baby smiling! :)

And here's one last one with mom, grandma and baby. He's waving hello!

Thanks for stopping by and as always, have a very happy and sunny day!

Sweet Love

Hi everyone. I can't apologize enough for the delay in new posts and especially new crafty things. Truth is that there is a lot going on! Aside from the baby, we are also in the process of moving to a new city. So it's been very busy.

Even though it's been harder to find time to craft, and especially hard to be creative, I'm still trying to at least get the important things made. Like a Valentine's Day card for my hubby! Which is what I'm sharing with you today. It is super simple, but that is how it goes when you are crafting with a 5 month old. At least for me anyway! ;) Hope it's okay that I'm sharing this with you in March, but maybe we can refer to it as a love card, not just a Valentine's card?

I used the A Muse Studio stamp set, Sweet Love. It is one of my favorites and has the cutest sentiments and sweet treat images. They can be used year round too!

And here's the inside. The sentiment says, "You make life sweet!" Which also happens to be true. :)

And I realized it's been awhile since I shared an updated photo of baby Alexander. Thought it might be fitting to post this picture of him eating sweet potatoes on a post titled, Sweet Love!

He's 5 months old now and just starting on solids! I'll be back soon to post some more baby photos. Hope you don't mind. :)

I've not forgotten about the international giveaway I promised to do. It will be up within the next few days! Hope you are all having a wonderful start to your year. It is beautiful and sunny here today, and I wish the same for all of you. Have a sunshine-filled day!

Double the Love Card

I have a simple baby card to share with you today! This card is for a friend of mine who's having twin girls. I just went to her baby shower yesterday. We've known each other since we were babies (our parents are friends) and now we both have babies! :)

I made this card using a sketch from the Clean and Simple card classes. This is from the 1st day, but I signed up for the class later so am playing some catch up! So glad I signed up, it has been wonderful and I love all the lessons!!

I diecut out the onesies and heart from MFT's notches dies and then inserted different colored diecut shapes. The sentiment is from PTI's Bitty Baby Blessings. I used the Cuttlebug folder Swiss Dots to add some dimension, but used the reserve side of the embossing, because I liked that it was more subtle. To finish it off I added a pink shell sheer polka dot ribbon from A Muse Studio. The sentiment inside says, "Sometimes it's the smallish things that take up the most room in our hearts."

I love these classes and it is not too late to sign up! The lessons will always be available to read and the gallery and store discounts are still available for another week. Thanks for stopping by. Remember, there is still time to enter my giveaway HERE. Have a sunny day!

Happy New Year from our family to yours! :)

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year! Here is the holiday card we sent out this year. May you have a great year ahead!!

Edited to Add:

MY TOP PROJECTS OF 2011

Last year I posted my top cards of the year, so thought I'd do something similar again this year. You can see my top picks from last year HERE. I didn't make as much as I'd hoped this year, especially after having the baby, but I still wanted to share them with you. :) So here are some of my top projects of 2011 in no particular order. A lot of the insides are decorated too. If you click on the links, it will take you to the post!

The Mother's Day card I made for my mom. I included a picture of my sonogram inside!

The original post is HERE.

Last years's Valentine's Day card for my hubby. The inside says "...is my favorite thing to do!"

The original post is HERE.

Another card for my hubby. The original post is HERE.

 This was a blog hop card. It was fun making the Tiny Tags into a thought bubble!

The original post is HERE.

A gift set for my Aunt using PTI patterned papers. The original post is HERE.

The Lunchbox Note die, my favorite die! It was fun playing with the Postmarks set in a more CAS way.

The original post is HERE.

Another lunchbox note card using the "Est. 1776" stamp set. I decorated the inside and back of the card too. 

The original post is HERE.

I made this mini card for a friend using the Mat Stack 3 die and Floral Fusion 1. 

It was also fun finding ways to use the seed packet die too!

The original post is HERE.

I made these invitations for my baby shower. The original post is HERE.

This is the card I made shortly after I found out I was pregnant! :)

It was early spring and I liked the symbolism of renewal.

The original post is HERE.

Thanks very much for checking out my top projects for 2011. I'm very sorry for the delay in getting this posted, but thanks for stopping by! I really appreciate you reading my blog. Creativity has been a bit harder to come by with a little one in the house now, but I will try to have more crafty things up soon. :) Have a sunny day!

Baby's First Thanksgiving

Hi, hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week! My sister just sent me these pictures that she took of us at our Thanksgiving gathering last Thursday so thought I'd share. Hope you don't mind more baby pictures! ;)

And here are some black and white ones that she snapped of Alexander too!

He is now 10 weeks old and is such a joy! Thanks so much for stopping by! I really appreciate you reading my blog. I'm hoping to post a bit more in the new year, and also to post some crafty things soon, especially with the holidays coming up. I'm going to catch up on commenting on blogs too! Have a wonderful, sunny day!

Our Little Pumpkin!

Happy Halloween, everyone! :) Just wanted to update real quick to share a picture of our little pumpkin with you!!

No trick or treating this year, since he just turned 6 weeks old, but we will have our own little Halloween celebration at home. Hope you all have a very safe and fun Halloween!! :)

Introducing Baby Alexander! :)

Our sweet baby boy is here! Alexander William was born September 17th (on his due date!) at 5:12pm. He weighs 7 pounds, 9 ounces. The delivery went very well! I was admitted to the hospital at 11am and delivered him at 5pm.

Here are a few photos from his first days.

Here I'm holding Alexander after the delivery.

In the hospital room, father and son together.

Our sweet baby boy sleeping...

Checking out of the hospital.

And here is Alexander later back home.

We love our son and are very excited to be new parents! :)

Baby Shower Favors and Highlights

Yesterday I shared with you the baby shower invites I made HERE. Today I thought I'd show you the favors and some highlights. The baby shower was a lot of fun and it was nice spending time with everyone! :)

I made several favor boxes to hand out to the guests.

I used the PTI Favor it 4 box and diecut more of the Martha Stewart Baby boy patterned paper (seen in yesterday's invites post) for the base and then added some PTI cardstock for the handles. 

I love PTI's favor boxes and own them all and love them all!! They work so well and add such a great touch. Patterned paper works great with these boxes, and it helps to dress them up quickly if you need to make several! :)

To go inside the favor boxes, I stamped some address labels with baby theme images from the PTI Limitless Labels set and PTI Bitty Baby Blessings set and attached them to some chocolate candies. I was able to fit up to 6 chocolate nuggets in each box. The labels were stamped with A Muse inks: Sky, Papaya and Ocean.

We had a lot of fun at the shower and played a few baby games too, including guessing how big my baby belly is. Everyone kept guessing larger than it was for some reason. Only my grandma guessed smaller (thanks Grandma!).

My mom (in the purple) checked to make sure people measured their guesses correctly.

My niece Alexa kept jumping into my lap throughout the baby shower to hug her future cousin. :)

I also made some cupcake toppers to go onto the cupcakes.

I stamped the circle with Papertrey Ink's Tag-Its #2 stamp set (my favorite Tag It's set) using A Muse Papaya ink. The elephant is from PTI Tiny Treats: Birthday and the sentiment is from PTI Bitty Baby Blessings. I punched it out with an EK Success circle punch and scalloped circle punch and then scor-taped it to a lollipop stick from Michaels.

The cupcakes were a big hit...especially with Alexa who ran straight to them! She has a sweet tooth just like her mom and her aunt!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Hope you're having a wonderful and sunshine-filled day!