baby boy card

My husband's cousin just gave birth to a precious little guy about a week ago and this is the card that I made to congratulate her and her husband. The cut is from New Arrival. You can either weld 2 together to make a card or, if you don't have access to Design Studio, you can cut 4 blackout shapes. 2 will be for the front and back-then you will need to glue some strips of paper to those pieces to act as a hinge for the card. My hinges are where the bow is tied and at the wheel. The other 2 blackout cuts are glued to the inside of the card. They serve 2 purposes. The first is to hide the hinges. The second is to make the card sturdier.
After the card is assembled, it's time to decorate the front. You'll need to cut out another baby buggy-this time without the blackout feature selected. Your last cut will be the baby buggy with the shift on. For finishing touches, I added a string of pearls, a bow, some skittles on the wheels, and the heart above the buggy, attached with a small gauged wire that was shaped by wrapping it around a pencil.
Thanks for looking!

Congratulations on your New Arrival

Well, it's been awhile since I posted any of the projects that I've been working on lately. This is a card that I created for the most recent Chirper Challenge. We were to use a sketch, the word 'New' and a paper flower (instructions found here on the Hallmark Ladybug site). The papers are from various companies--I can't remember specifically. I used the Martha Stewart border punch "scallop dots" for the border along the bottom of the card. The brad in the middle of the flower says "baby" on it and it's from a baby scrapbooking kit I got from Deja Views--it's the Sharon Ann collection.

Here's the inside of the card, which reads, "Congratulations on your new arrival." The 'new arrival' words are cut from the New Arrival Cricut cartridge. It was a cut that I might not otherwise have used, so I am thankful for the challenges that give me an excuse to think outside my little box. The rest of the sentiment is in my own handwriting.
Here's a close-up of the flower and the cute little brad:
Thanks for looking!

The Bad Foot

It's been awhile since I posted a scrapbook page for my family album. These pictures are almost a decade old, but they all depict a silly family tradition: doing the "bad foot" as a goodbye greeting. Thanks, Dad, for getting this started ::eyes roll::.
The journaling is done on the individual circles on the right side of the page. Yes, this took some planning to get exactly the right number of circles and the right number of words to fill the entire space. It's not something I'll do on every future scrapbook page. ;) The circles had to be smaller than 1" (the smallest setting on the Cricut), so I had to find a way to work around that. See my previous post for how I did it, using Walk In My Garden.
The circle outlines (around my Dad's foot on the picture and as one journaling circle) are from Graphically Speaking, as were the layers for the flower on the lefthand page. The title is cut from Mickey Font at 1 1/2". The feet are from New Arrival at 2".
Here's a closer look at the first page:
and the second:
and a detailed look at the flower, which I put dimensionals between the larger and smaller layers. For the very top layer, I shadowed the center and some areas of each petal to make it more realistic. I also scored each petal and folded it up a bit to give it some shape like a real flower. The ribbon is from American Crafts.
Here's a look at the journaling. There are a few flowers thrown in there to mimic the patterned paper in the center.
Thanks for looking!

*Edited to add journaling:
"It started when Chuck's kids were small. Hannah & Adam were leaving one day and Dad started hopping on one foot saying he had a 'Bad Foot,' trying to make them laugh. From that time forward, whenever a visit came to an end, the family had to gather outside to do the 'Bad Foot.' Neighbors gave us strange looks, but family traditions are quick to be born, and Hannah & Adam insisted on our hopping. Soon, our neighbors even joined in on this silly Staley family tradition."

Baby's First Year Scrapbook in Explosion Box

I had a lot of fun making this explosion box (and the pop-up card to match it.) It is actually a 'Baby's First Year' scrapbook for a friend. I made the box from directions from this site, and then I modified it. I made photo corners out of cardstock so that 3x3 photos can slip into place. I then made journaling tags to fit behind where the pictures belong (see photo below). I decorated each tag by inking the edges and adding a die-cut to each one as well as a journaling theme. They were all cut with the Cricut--most from New Arrival and a couple from Zooballoo. I stapled some ribbon to the ends so they can be pulled out a little easier.

This picture shows the tag behind the picture square:

...and here are the tags I made. If you are interested in doing a similar project and are wanting ideas for journaling themes, I used things like 'Favorite Memories (or Milestones) from my 1st month (2nd month, etc.). I also made tags for first holidays and tags for "Daddy and Me" and "Mommy and Me." There were 20 tags in all, which made for a basic "Baby's First Year" mini-scrapbook.
Thanks for looking!

Oh Baby

This is one of my favorite pictures of Scott and Jonah when Jonah was a baby. The shocked look on Scott's face betrayed our status of amateur parents at the time! I think he was probably asking me what he should do when the baby starts to cry. The journaling, which basically expresses my awe that we all survived those early days, is hidden on a tag behind the picture.
The 'OhBaby' is from Zooballoo. The babies across the bottom and the safety pins are from New Arrival. The bookplate behind the title and the paper clip on top are from Fabulous Finds. The tip of the journaling tag and the inside of the heart are embossed with the Cuttlebug Tiny Bubbles folder.

Thanks for looking!

bath time

I let Jonah help me with this one, by putting his handprints all over the journaling. He had a blast getting dirty and 'helping Mommy.' The journaling is a poem that says,
"Playing in the tub is fun
it's what we like to do!
We dunk our toys one by one
and splash our Mommy, too!
Then Mommy leans in the tub,
'It's time to wash your hair!'
Mommy has to scrub and scrub
but we don't really care.
Getting clean is fun for us
but we fight it every time...
After all, we're little boys;
we kinda like our grime!"
(author unknown)
I mounted the poem and one picture on some paper that I embossed with the tiny bubbles Cuttlebug folder. I inked the edges of the journaling and the mat to add to the 'grime' that needed a good scrubbing in the bathtub. My boys play hard, and they are dirty and stinky by day's end.
The ducks, tub, and 'bath time' are cut from New Arrival and the wave at the bottom is cut with Zooballoo. Paper is from DCWV. I stickled the bubbles in 'bath time.'

Thanks for looking!

Sweet Pea

Last week I went through a stack of old pictures. I found these ones taken from my niece's first Halloween, 7 years ago. Yes, I'm more than a little behind. I don't scrapbook chronologically (obviously)...just whatever comes to me at the time. I used the New Arrival for the pea in the pod and for the title. The scallop behind the square is from Storybook. The green strip behind the title is embossed with Swiss Dots.

Thanks for looking!

Play Time

Well since I posted Jonah playing with the train yesterday, I thought I'd post Noah's layout playing with the same train today. I used Design Cuts With a View (DCWV) paper from the Nana's kids pack. The design came from Pages by Design. The train engine is from Mickey and Friends, and the monkey and elephant are from New Arrival. I'm not sure if it shows up well enough to tell, but the animals are similar to the animals on the background paper riding on the train. The elephant's head and the monkey's mouth are mounted on dimensionals to make them stand out just a little bit. "Play time" is done with Thickers, which are chunky stickers. I put buttons on the wheels of the train.

A closer view:

Thanks for looking! Happy Friday!

Welcome Baby Card

Here's a baby card I recently made. It is a surprise pop up card. It lays flat and when you pull the ribbon, the carriage pops up and reveals the sentiment below. The baby carriage is from New Arrival. The stamped sentiment, more visible in real life, says, "Thank heaven for little girls"
Here it is opened up:

Thanks for looking!