Baby Shower Card

Rachel asked me to make a card for a baby shower based on the invitation that she received below.

She said they knew that it is a boy so I went with some printed papers in blue and green stripes and plaids for the mountains.  The bear is several layers of a die from a Hampton Arts Christmas set stamped with a sentiment from SU's Cuddles and Kisses.  The "trees" are a Martha Stewart punch.

Here is her "little bear" watching one of his new faves "The Jungle Book" with his snack.

August Cards

I had a few sympathy cards to make this month that I was going to post and then I remembered that there was a new baby card that I hadn't finished.  I saw this sketch from The Paper Players and knew if I dug around in my stash I could find some patterned paper that would work with this cute Crafter's Companion Popcorn the Bear image I had been planning to color.  

Thanks to LeAnne for a great sketch this week.

I used my Derwent Inktense Pencils to color the image.  I stamped "little one"  from an SU set and used a circle die to cut it out.  Then I added some dimensionals to pop it up.  

The sympathy cards were very simple and I made a couple of this first one to have on hand.  Unfortunately, family friends lost two members of their family this month so I quickly put together another one below.  

Be sure to stop over at the Paper Players to see all the other PP505 Sketch Challenge entries.  

New Baby, New Grandparents

Our neighbor's daughter just had her first baby and made them grandparents for the first time.  They had a beautiful baby girl.  Just a couple of cards to congratulate the parents and new grandparents.

Catching Up on Posting Some Cards

I saw this scrapbook paper and loved how the colors worked together and when I needed a couple of birthday cards recently, I got to use it.  

This card was for my son and daughter-in-law's 7th anniversary.

And then, there were two baby boys born recently.  I made two of each of these cards so we could send one to the parents and one to the grandparents.  

Summer Cards

Rachel needed a girl baby card and luckily I made two of these because our daughter-in-law's cousin had a baby girl too and I wanted to congratulate the first-time grandparents.  

Just fooling around with some $1 stickers from Mike's. A lama mandala inspired by my friend Lauren who has a way with stickers and with mandala's too.  I think I might have to add a little bit of pen doodling before making this into a card, but it's a nice start.

Some no line coloring for a Thank You note for friends. 

I used Arteza gouache to color this.

Some more no line coloring/painting for these two anniversary cards.

It's been a slow card-making summer for me.  I have a lot of catching up to do with my Christmas cards - yikes!

Baby Shower

Last Saturday we had a small baby shower for our daughter Rachel who is expecting her first child in late April.  It had a children's book theme and all the guests were asked to "bring a book instead of a card" if they wished.  We know they're having a boy and I was thrilled to find the "It's A Boy" garden flag pictured on the front of the gift table a few days before the shower. 

 

 

You can see through the windows that we had a little snow that morning.  Just enough so that HWNSNBP had to get out the snowblower to clear the driveway. 

 

The menu was based on food suggested by children's books.  I made the Very Hungry Caterpillar out of tissue paper and hung it from the cabinets where the buffet began.  Pictured here right to left:  Taco Salad (Dragons Love Tacos), Hummus and Carrots in Flower Pots (Peter Rabbit), Cheese and Crackers (The Stinky Cheese Man).

 

Right to left:  (starting at the crockpot) Sweet and Sour Meatballs (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs), Spinach and Ham Quiches (Green Eggs and Ham), Chicken Salad (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom), and Fruit Salad (The Very Hungry Caterpillar).

 

For our Desserts (again right to left):  Black and White Cookies [Rachel's Favorite] (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie), Blueberry Crumble in Jelly Jars [she's been craving blueberries] (Blueberries for Sal), and Cupcakes (combination If You Give a Cat a Cupcake and the book Cupcake).

 

We had Goldfish Crackers (Rainbow Fish).

 

And Candy Kisses (The Kissing Hand /Little Blue Truck).

 

Here are the parents-to-be.  They are so happy and grateful.

 

We played one game at the beginning -  Children's Book Emoji Pictionary.  And then after eating and gifts I had a little project for everyone to take part in.  I printed out 4x6 ABC cards that had the letter of the alphabet, a space for a drawing, and the lines for writing the word that went with the picture.  At the bottom was room to put the name of the person who did that page.  Since it was a small group, some of us did multiple pages to get the whole alphabet.  There was a cover page and a backing page.  All pages went into a little 4x6 photo book and we completee "Baby's First ABC Book".

 

I made these little bears out of washcloths, rubber bands, and ribbon and everyone went home with one of them and a chocolate bar with "HE" highlighted.

 

 

I posted the invites a while ago and I had a bunch of the little animals already colored and die cut so I used them to make Thank You notes for them to use.  Kept them very simple.

 

This little guy was supposed to help his aunt with package unwrapping but he and his mom have had a run of illnesses (including emergency gall bladder surgery for mom) the last couple of weeks and they couldn't come.  We missed them both but understand.  (He's blowing the germs out of his house!)

Baby Shower Invites

I've been up to my eyeballs in baby blue animals for the past week or so.  And I definitely should have stuck with the KISS method on these, but once I get an idea stuck in my head it's hard to let go, especially if you stock up on all the things that you think you're going to need for that idea to come to fruition.  In this case, stamps and dies from Lawn Fawn and Mama Elephant, saved Bashful Blue paper from Stampin' Up as well as the blue ink and watercolor pencil for stamping and coloring.  I've forgotten the source of the sea mist (gray) paper, but was very glad to find it in my stash.  

I stamped, die cut, and colored all the animals first.

And used them on this wiper card.

Did I mention there are two showers?  Yes, one small one here in our home in NJ and another bigger one in Delaware where they live.  Something new to me - a Coed Shower, with a display table for the gifts as opposed to wrapping, and a Diaper Raffle. 

The Diaper Raffle ticket is on the back of the card insert on this one.  Guests have a choice whether to participate or not by bringing a package of diapers of any size with their ticket and there will be a prize for the name that's pulled on the shower day. 

I have a handful of each of the animals leftover and if I don't need some last-minute invites for additional guests, I'm toying with the idea of using them on Thank You notes - very KISS thank you notes!

Baby Shower

On Valentine's Day we had a baby shower for my daughter-in-law.  It was a brunch held at her mother's house.  Her mom and sisters made a delicious variety of brunch foods, Rachel brought specialty desserts, and my role was to make the favors - definitely in my wheelhouse.  

Oh, and it also had a book theme.  So looking back on some of the things that I have done in the past, these little punched babies reading books was where I was headed again.  (Can you tell what she's having?)  

I did some searching and found a pattern for a little box that looked like a book here.  Luckily I had a bunch of this scrapbook paper that was perfect.  

Here is the book closed.

And then opened.  I added a two-page spread inside the cover that had a pictures of Michelle and Chris as babies on each side along with their birth dates and labeled "My Mom" and "My Dad" and then across the bottom of the two pages "Thank you for coming."

The box opens and inside 6 Hershey's nuggets fit perfectly.

  

I used the babies on magnetic bookmarks that I made from matching blue and green card stock and repurposed magnets.  I tied a thin grosgrain ribbon around each book box first and then slipped the magnetic bookmark over the ribbon.  Everyone seemed pleased with them.  

The food was delicious, and she was so overwhelmed by all the wonderful gifts that she received. Her mom made her a beautiful quilt (not the one in the picture), my mother had knitted them a baby afghan, and one of Michelle's friends crocheted a beautiful afghan with a sailboat motif.  They have a nautical theme in the baby's room.  This is the card that I made for them which I cased from here. 

She's feeling and looking great and has about 9 weeks to go now.  The excitement is building!