Christmas Panorama

This month's Monday2Create evening focused on a Christmas Panorama.   My friend Tina over at The Crazy Stamp Lady had featured a Christmas Frame gift box she did last year for Christmas gifts.  One of the options was a panorama of the Nativity.  We decided to make this the project for this month's group and liked the idea of doing it using blue papers.  I popped over to Jo Ann's for some blue papers, various shades, and I picked up a silver pigment stamp pad.  I have many blue and silver Christmas decorations so this project was made to blend with the rest of my decorations.

We chose three shades of blues, the outside piece stayed a 12 x 12 paper, the mat for the panorama was cut to 10 x 10, and then the third piece of paper was cut into 3 x 3 squares and then stamped with the images for our picture.  Frames with scripture, the Nativity scene and wishes for Peace on Earth, and the rest of the elements of the Nativity, shepherds, wise men, Bethlehem, the Star.  I chose to ink my stamps with silver pigment ink by Colorbox, and then added Embossing Tinsel with silver in it and embossed each frame.  I added a silver jewel to the middle of the star over Bethlehem.  Once I completed stamping and embossing all of the frames I added pop dots to the back and centered the frames, three in each row and column to reveal the Christmas story.  Once it was completed, we added some shimmer mist to the entire project.  I had picked up a white shadow box frame at Jo Ann's and framed the completed project.

It's a little hard to see the glitter and sparkle but it is there.  I love the colors and the simplicity.  Until next time, Imagine, Create, Enjoy.

Baby Gift Shadow Box

When my children were born, I saved some of those things of importance that reminded me of their birth, their hospital wrist bands, their hospital pictures, their hospital crib cards, etc.  Recently I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought what a great way to display your child's collectibles.  Well my babies are grown men now and one of them is expecting his first child, a son.  I figured this would be a great gift for him at the baby shower.  I had my hubby find the storage tub with baby memorabilia in it and found my boy's things.  For this project I used his hospital going home outfit, the ankle ID band he wore, his first picture at the hospital, his crib card, the measuring tape that measured his length, and a ceramic plate my best friend from high school made when my boys were born.  It had their vital statistics on it and a cute little poem about boys.

I happened into Jo Ann's during one of their Moonlight Madness sales and got a 16 x 20 shadow box frame in basic black.  I took off the back and covered the insert paper with blue scrapbook paper for the background of the shadowbox. It also complemented the outfit he wore home.  I attached the outfit on the right side of the background and I used fasteners to hold them in place on the board so it wouldn't slip down board.  Along the top the case I put the measuring tape and with his length circled on the tape.  In the upper left I put his going home from the hospital picture here.  I cropped it an oval and added a blue and white set of mats under the picture to make it more visible.  Below his picture I put his crib card from his hospital bassinet. I also mounted it on coordinating mats as well.  Between the picture and the outfit I put his hospital ID band.  Finally, in the lower left corner of the box I set the ceramic plate my best friend made.

After getting it all mounted in the frame, I didn't have any room for his first shoes, so I had to come up with a different idea for those.  I was describing to my friend Judith what I'd made and about my dilemma about the shoes.  She gave me the solution which you see here.  I tied the shoe strings of the baby shoes in bows and then ran a 3/8" blue grosgrain ribbon with brown edging through the lace.  One for each shoe and one longer than the other so they would hang at different lengths.  I knotted the ends of the ribbons for each shoe and knotted those two together.  The back of the frame had two eyelets.  I picked up another role of blue ribbon like the one I used on the diaper cake.  I cut two pieces of ribbon the same length.  I knotted one end around the eyelet on the back of each side of the frame and brought them together at the top of the frame tying the first part of the bow and then looping the ribbons with the shoes through the knot and draped them in the middle and tied the bow.


And here is the finished project.  I hope my son likes it, maybe he will hang it in his son's room.  What a special treat it was to make for him.  I'm sure he will be a great Daddy!


Congrats to Nathan and Tiffany!

Until the next time, Imagine, Create, Enjoy.

Diaper Cakes!

I am becoming a grandma again...my middle son is expecting his first child at the end of January 2013.  We are excited and for the baby shower I decided to make a diaper cake.  I've seen various types and shapes of diaper cakes on Pinterest, but decided I would start with one of the easier designs in a traditional cake style. So after checking out a couple of You Tube videos on the basics, I gathered my supplies and got started.

This particular idea used diapers rolled up into sausages and rubber banded in the middle.  Since I was going to build a three tier cake I found three round pans/bowls in graduated sizes in my kitchen to use to help me hold the banded diapers in place until I could put the final large rubber band around the entire group of diapers.  For the first two layers I used newborn sized diapers.  The first layer is 7" in diameter the second layer is 9" in diameter.  I used about 1 1/2 packages of newborn diapers for the first two layers.

Once I completed a layer I added ribbon around the perimeter of the cake and covered over the rubber band with the ribbon.  I chose blues and browns using some ribbons from my stash...they are expecting a boy!  For the third layer of the cake I used the next larger size of baby diapers, and again finished it off with a ribbon around the center.  The diameter of the third layer is 12" inches and I used the entire package of diapers and supplemented in the middle of this layer with some of the newborn sized diapers.

Once I had all three layers completed and tied with ribbon I added some accents to complete it.  After a quick trip to Wal-Mart I found some small blue clothespins and small colored plastic baby rattles.  With the layers stacked on top of each other I distributed the baby rattles around all three tiers of the cake.  On the top of the cake I added a circle cut from scrapbook paper and mounted on the top a pair of baby shoes with monkey's on them.  Monkeys seem to be the theme for the layette and shower!  Around the second layer of the cake I took two sets of baby socks and pinned them with the clothespins around the top of the ribbon on that layer.  For the final layer I added some baby spoons tucked in behind the ribbon and a couple of pacifier's.  The cake will be set on a cake board like an actual cake.

This was a fun project to make, made even more special because it is my grandchild!  My future daughter-in-law was wondering if I've figured out how to mail one yet!  Hmmmmm...I'll have to work on that!

Until next time...Imagine, Create, and Enjoy!