More Butterflies!

My son Kyle's baby shower was held at his in-laws home out in Courtland on a Saturday afternoon.  The weather in March in Northern California (similar to most areas of the country) can range from cold, wet, rainy and 30 degrees to warm, sunny, dry and 75 degrees.  Lucky for us we got the warm, sunny, dry, close to 75 degree weather!  We were thrilled as we had decided to have the shower outside.  The in-laws home in Courtland sits on a large piece of property and there is a long driveway with shade trees and ample space in front of the garage area so we decided to utilize that area.  We rented round tables, tablecloths and even a EZ-Up cover.

Since the other decorations were leaning in more of a pink/brown theme, we carried that through to the rest of the decorations.  Chocolate brown table cloths, pink burlap chevron runners on the tables with strips of pink mesh in differing shades running down the middle.  Since we have tons of calla lilies in our yard, I volunteered to bring vases full of the lilies for table centerpieces.  Dana's sister Taylor worked some magic with bows on the vases and adding accents to the tables.  I followed through with the butterfly theme by cutting some more of the butterflies I had previously cut for the wands but in a  pearl pink instead of a glittery pink.  I cut them out of an old file folder and then covered with the pearl looking paper.  I had some leftover paper from my large rosette's on the other project as well and used my Tim Holtz rosette die to make some smaller rosettes.  I picked up some floral wire stems and attached them to the back of the butterfly with hot glue and a small round paper circle to cover up the end of the wire.

Back to the front of the butterfly.  I took the small rosette and hot glued it to the front of the butterfly.  Then I used some more of the pretty pink jeweled brads from the last project and added that on top of the rosette. When I cut the calla lilies for the centerpieces, I popped a couple of those butterflies in each of the vases to carry the theme through.

Imagine, Create, and Enjoy!

Butterfly Fairy Wands!

My late friend Jayne was a wonderfully creative person who was inspired by the most unusual things and made some really beautiful and unique paper pieces. One of the things she had made was a decorative item for her niece's baby shower, shown here.  It is a butterfly fairy wand!  She had a butterfly die she used to create the base for the wand using some chipboard which she then covered in scrapbook paper on both sides.  Once she did that she cut some rosettes with the Tim Holtz rosette die. This die has two sizes of rosettes, pre-scored so all you do is cut with your Sizzix or Vagabond and then crease and glue together.  The die even has a circle to cover your glued spot in the middle of the rosette.  She put one rosette on each side of the butterfly.  Before she affixed the larger of the rosettes, she painted the stick a silver color and then wrapped it in some ribbon we found in the dollar bin on one of our craft shopping lunches.  She also backed the larger rosette with some of the ribbon and added some ribbon tendrils.

I loved the idea and have used it as inspiration to create my own set of fairy wands for Laila Olivia's baby shower.  The butterfly die I have is a little different in that it is more solid with only a couple of cut outs on each wing.  I decided to go with a (what else) heavy, pink glitter card stock for my butterflies. Liking Jayne's original idea of rosettes I did a reverse to her design and made the rosettes larger than the butterfly by using my Cricut and the Ribbons and Rosettes cartridge and cut these large rosettes with a small heart border. I then cut the smaller rosettes with the Tim Holtz die and used the smaller one on the front of the butterfly.

For the wand portion I used pre-cut dowels in 12 inch lengths you can purchase at any craft store.  I then painted them in a pearly white paint I had leftover from my "Grandkids" project.  I then grabbed a number of different rolls of ribbon from my stash...mostly pinks and browns, some I had also picked up to match the polka dot theme we had going on the cake ribbon and started cutting different lengths.  I hot glued 5 of these differing lengths to a small 3" strip of ribbon and set aside.  Once the paint on the wands was dry I wrapped each wand from top to bottom in a variety of ribbon allowing some of the pearly paint to show through.  


Next I hot glued the ribbon band to the back of the butterfly and then hot glued the wand on the back as well.  Once dry, I hot glued this piece to the large rosette and let them set.  I had picked up some brads, a variety pack of approximately 3/4" size in two shades of pink.  I took the brads and snipped off the prongs on the back with my wire cutters and then hot glued the brad to the top of the small finished rosette.  The brad became the center of each rosette.  Finally I hot glued the rosettes on to the front of the butterflies.


Here is a close up of my finished "Fairy Wands."  I made enough to use as part of the decorations at the shower and once the shower was over my daughter-in-law kept some for Laila's nursery and the rest were given to their nieces who attended the shower.  I'm very proud of my little creation!  They were fun to make and share at the shower.

Go on, Imagine, Create, Enjoy!

Diaper Cake -- Round Two!

When I made my first diaper cake last year, an order was placed for the future from my then daughter-in-law to be, for a diaper cake whenever they decided to have a baby!  In fact she asked how I was going to be able to ship it out to them in Indiana!  Well, we didn't have to ship one out to them because they came to California to visit us before little Laila Olivia is born.  Dana, like many of us, loves to peruse Pinterest for ideas.  She had found this idea for a diaper cake and I set about trying my best to recreate it.

Here is a shot of the finished cake.  I changed the idea shown above in the following ways.  I chose to use some hot pink sparkly mesh ribbon as the base on each of the layers and then added the corresponding leopard print or brown and white polka dots ribbons.  I hot glued them on to the mesh and then wrapped that around each layer hot gluing it in the back to give it a finished look.  For the layers I used different sizes of diapers. For the top layer I used newborn diapers, for the middle layer I used size 2 diapers and for the bottom layer I used size 4.  I used the leftover newborn diapers in the center of the bottom layer to finish it out.  I took cake boards and cut circles out of some butterfly scrapbook papers from Susan Winget and KandCompany and covered the boards with that.

The little leopard print slippers I had found at Wal-Mart before I'd seen the cake idea, so they matched perfectly with the ribbon I was able to find at Hobby Lobby. I set those on the sides of the bottom layer.  In addition to the leopard slippers I also found a pair of pink sparkly shoes to set on top along with the pink butterfly headband shown here.  The original idea had a big bow on the top but I liked the idea of the shoes instead.  Can never have to much bling as far as I'm concerned.


I picked the scroll alphabet letter L for the front and thought briefly of painting it a different color but stuck with the white.  I tied it on to the second layer ribbon with a matching piece of thin ribbon threaded through the mesh.  Additionally, I found some soft baby spoons, some baby washcloths, some hair barrettes, some little girls socks, and a couple of pacifiers with little flowers on the buttons. All in different hues of pink!


It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.  I thoroughly enjoyed all of the things I made for the shower, but I do think this cake turned out even better than what I had anticipated.  Of course any chance to buy pink girly things I'm totally on board with cuz there need to be more girls in my family!  Current count is 6 grand kids, 5 boys and 1 girl, so the upcoming birth of Laila is greatly anticipated!  Grandma and Grandpa need some more girls to spoil!

More fun projects to come, including how I dressed up the little hearts on top of the diaper cake shown here in this last picture.  Imagine, Create, Enjoy!

Bridal Shower Card

Spring, early summer...the time for Mother's Day, Father's Day, weddings, graduations, babies....it seems like we are experiencing all of them this year.  Last weekend went to my first bridal shower this year.  I wanted to do something special for the card and use my Cricut machine.  I have the Tie the Knot cartridge so figured I could come up with a pretty cute shower card.  Opened up my Cricut Create software and got to work.  The bride to be was registered at two places...Target and Fredrick's of Hollywood!  New, first time bride so this was going to be fun!!!

I decided to go with the lingerie theme for the card and chose the corset for my card.  I chose the outline image and copied it and then flipped it and melded the two pieces together.  That was my card base.  Then I did the layers.  The card is cut to about 5" high.  If you want exact measurements, send me an email!  I had found a You Tube video using this image so I just modified it for the layers and created all of it in a cut file.  The bride's colors are purple and green.  I chose a deep purple for the card base and then a sparkly blue for one layer and finally a piece of scrap from what's left of my Susan Winget Botanical paper pad and cut the overlay.  It is a combination of purples, greens and other floral colors.  I had to play with the corset top layer some to get the exact image size down, but the finished product was definitely worth it. 

After assembling all the pieces together, I added three pearls to the button holes on the front and then added some bling along the top edge of each leg.  The shimmery layer of light blue paper and the little bit of bling made it pop nicely. 

For the inside of the card I used the exact same layer but cut it out of a lighter lavender card stock and layered it on top so I could stamp the sentiment.  I inked up the edges with some purple ink and added the sentiment.  The sentiment says: True love stories never have endings.  Great sentiment for a new bride.  I also added a little stamped duo of hearts on the top right and a little bling on the curly Q at the bottom. 

Turned out quite nicely and the bride was tickled with it too!  That's probably the greatest feeling as a crafter is to have one's work appreciated by the recipient! 

I decided to make a gift tag to match the card.  The Tie the Knot cartridge is set up with a whole tab devoted to tags and they mirror the larger projects.  I could have done a corset tag but decided on the lips cutout.  I cut the tag in the dark purple to match the card base and then layered different colors of purple and even chose a sparkly paper to make the lips look glossy!  This cartridge also has a lovely swirly letter alphabet, so I cut a "T" the bride's new last name and placed it on the bottom of the tag.  I inked up the edges with purple ink and put a grommet in the whole and laced it up with some glittery ribbon.  Sorry the pic is a little blurry.

Thanks for stopping by today...hope you enjoyed today's offering.  I love hearing your comments, so please leave one.  Until next time, Imagine, Create, Enjoy.

New Baby Card

I recently attended a baby shower for a friend and former co-worker.  She is expecting her first child, and she knows it is going to be a boy.  I wanted to make the card for the gift but struggled with what/how to make it.  I was flipping through my Cricut books looking for an idea and came across this idea.  It uses the Graphically Speaking Cricut cartridge and actually turned out quite nicely.  Sometimes it's hard to know how to pull some of the different elements together into a nice card, at least I struggle with this.  The idea was in the front of the book, the sample they give in every book and I just went with it.  I had recently purchased some "boy" papers for a project, K&Company's Hopscotch Boy 12 x 12 pad, and pulled one of them for the background paper, a mixture of blues, ivory, and greens. The plain card stock I pulled from my stash, a pretty sky blue, a light olive green and an ivory color. I used an olive ribbon I had on hand as well.  I then followed the directions from the cartridge booklet almost to the letter.  I used my Xyron to add adhesive to the frame and to the baby stroller and the word precious.  Love that Xyron!

The only difference in my design was my selection of the word for the front of the card.  The example showed the jumbled word innocent and I chose the word precious.  It turned out really precious!  I then added an appropriate stamped sentiment inside.  Since it was for a boy, I resisted the urge to add some bling.  Here it is.  It is definitely a card design I would repeat.  In fact I can see some very dainty girl cards in pinks, purples, maybe some yellows!  Until next time!

Imagine, Create, Enjoy.