Pregnancy Mini Album

Good Morning!

Today I want to show a project I worked on for quite a while last year.  (The end of last year.)  If you've read my previous posts, you know that it takes me a very, VERY long time to craft because of my limited eyesight and my illness.  Well, my little brother and his wife (my awesome sister-in-law) are expecting their first baby in two months!! (wow...it's less than two months...where does the time go!?)  I wanted her to be able to document her pregnancy, so I made her a Pregnancy Mini Album!!
It is not technically "mini."  The finished size is roughly  8.5" x 12"     Also, there will be lots of pictures in this post, and they are not great pictures.  I took them as I was running out the door to give this book to my sister-in-law.  (I had forgotten to take pictures of it once it was completed!!)  So I ended up taking these all in 30 seconds....and...well...you can tell! haha.

Here is the cover and unopened, standing, view:

 I made the book to represent a woman's pregnant belly as it grows over the pregnancy.  (I told Liz that I had to make the month 1 page with a little belly bump otherwise the book didn't look right...and to not be offended because she soooo does NOT have a belly!!! Haha.)
Here are the month 1 pages:

I made a lot of tags and pull-outs, for plenty of room for journaling and photos.  This is an important time to document!! :)

Month Two:

Month Three:

Month Four:

 I love that page!!  The pickles and ice cream cone tags to write down her cravings!  The pickle has journaling spots on the back, and the ice cream flips to the side (via the brad on top) and there are lines for journaling under the ice cream!  There were fun!

Month FIVE:

Month SIX:

That photo mat behind the tree pulls out, and on the back are lines for journaling.

 Month Seven:

Month eight:

I really like this crib that I made into a pocket for tags!!

 Month Nine:

On this last page, I made tags that have room for all the details of the baby and birth, like weight, length, time, name, etc.  And room for a pic of the newborn! :)  I am so happy with how this book turned out.  I tried to make most of the tags interchangeable.  That way, if the shower wasn't held in the month I had the tag in, she could put it in a pocket of the month it actually was.  Same with doc visits and other tags.  I hope my sister in law likes it, and fills it up with good memories and fun pictures!

Thanks for stopping by!!  




"Don't glue anything I wouldn't glue!!"
             

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone!!

Did you have fun hunting those Easter eggs today?!  :)  I hope that everyone is having a lovely Easter!

I just wanted to share a few quick Easter projects that I've made over thepast couple days.  Nothing too special, just some quick and easy packaging mostly.

Here are a few of the gift bags that I decorated for the kiddos in my family:  

 Like those carrots?  :)  They are the same boxes that I make all of my cakes with, just cut very, very smaller!  (4.5")  I filled them with Hershey Kisses, surprisingly it fit about 5 of them!  Here's a better picture of the carrots:

  I ran them through my Cuttlebug with the ...whatever the 'branches' folder is called. (they really need to print the name of the folders ON the folders!)  I wanted them to have that look that actual carrots do!  And the leaves are manipulated versions of the leaf on the Doodlecharms Cricut cart. That was the closest I could make to an actual carrot leaf/stem.  :)

I also made some pillow boxes to hold gift cards:

  That IS a bunny head!!  My brother said, "Lori, I know you can't see .... but that Mickey Mouse head looks funny!"  I said, "That's because the 'mickey' is actually a BUNNY!!  Dork!"  Lol.  He must have forgot what holiday we were celebrating!  Haha.

Since we all know that gable boxes are my absolute favorite type of box, I had to make something Easter-ish with one!!

 I saw something similar to this on the Cricut MB the other day, and had to make one for myself!!  The nose/mouth is from the bunny on the Create A Critter cricut cart, but I free handed the eyes and whiskers, (and you can OBVIOUSLY TELL!!! lol)  The Gable Box is from the Elmo's Party Cart, and it's funny because I have cut that box out so many times, but I have always manipulated it some how. I have never cut the actual Elmo one!  Ha.  Here's the box before folding:

I also made a couple "Beside-the-Phone Notes" to give a gifts to a couple friends of mine:

(I don't understand why the Post-it notes came out PINK in this picture?!?!  They were a dark purple!!  Dang camera/lighting!!)
And here's the other one:

And with the notes attached:

And that's it for my projects, but I have to share a couple things my mom made recently!!  I've mentioned that one of my nephews is a Chargers fanatic.... so she made him PJ bottoms:

Awesome, right?  My brother requested a pair of 49ers PJ pants now! haha.  My mom also made a tissue box cover.  I have a John Deere Couch tissue box cover, and my nephew loved it and wanted one.  So my mom made him a Chargers Chair!!

I love how it turned out!!  One thing that I really wish I would have inherited from my mom is her sewing skills!!  I was able to do basic sewing before I went blind, but nothing ever like her!!  And now, I can't see to sew at all.  But that's ok, because I have my mom to do it!!! :) 

That's all for today.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!!!

-Lori

Beer Battered Cake

Hi Crafty Pals!

My older brother, Scott had a birthday last week, so it was his turn to get a paper cake!   My brothers are all generally hard to shop for, because since we are all adults now... we just buy whatever we want for ourselves.  So, giving cash makes my paper cakes a lot easier to fill!  A couple years ago for Christmas, I gave Scott a Beertender, he liked it so much that he decided he wanted a full-sized keg one.  (A Kegerator.)  So for his birthday, I wanted to get it filled with whatever favorite beer he wanted, but it's not like I could just go grab his keg, and take it to the store to have it filled.  Not without him knowing anyway.  So instead I gave him cash, so that he could do it himself.  

My brother is a fun-loving guy.  He is always laughing and joking, and teased me merciless when we were kids!!  So, of course I had to give him birthday money all in ones!!  Yep.. eighty, one-dollar bills!!  (Actually, one ended up being a Silver Certificate.  How funny is that!?  The bank accidentally slipped it in with the ones.)  I rolled each one up in a bit of a hurry, not that I would have noticed that one was a Silver Certificate anyway...not with my eyesight!  I packed eight, rolled up $1.00 bills into each cake piece.    Here is a picture of the finished cake:

Please ignore my messy desk in the background!  (Of course there is a diet coke can in there too.  It's like playing "Where's Waldo" with my pictures...I think each one contains a can of diet coke! LOL.) 

The cake boxes were cut at 9" from the Tags, Bags, Boxes, And More Cricut Cartridge.  I glued silver bottle caps on the back/ends of each piece...and inside the bottle caps is a '30' (for his age.) 

The cake was placed on a metal bottle cap sign that said.... um.... I can't exactly remember what it said! LOL.  It was something like, "Cold Beer Always On Tap!"  I thought it made a unique cake pan/holder for my paper cake!! :)  The topper is a 'keg' cut out of silver metallic paper.  (It is actually the barrel cut from one of the Paper Doll cartridges, along with some Gypsy Magic!   (I don't remember if it was Paper Doll Dress Up, or Everyday Paper Dolls...but I can look if anyone needs to know.)     

(I can not figure out what that reflection on the 'keg' could be of!??! Haha!)  Anyway, Thanks for looking at my project!!   I think I am off the hook with paper cakes until July now!!  (I am probably forgetting someone though!) 

Have a great, crafty day!! :)