New goodies

Last week I won a giveaway on Wendy Vecchi's blog and this stamp set arrived a few days ago.  I love it and can't wait to get some time to give it a workout!  So excited to win something!

I also recently ordered a few new stamps from Unity Stamps, designed by Christy Tomlinson, and they came today!  I love her style and the grunginess of these stamps. They are cling-mounted rubber and will be fun to use in backgrounds and art journaling. I'm going to have to pace myself, but I want the entire line.  She also introduced a paper line at CHA through Pink Paislee which I can't wait to get.

And the LBH received these this week and I've started my collection - 11 markers so far.  There are 37 total so it will be awhile before they are all in my hands...  They are awesome markers and I will be posting more information on them soon. (Next week I'll be introducing the LBH Art Group to them.)

My personal creating time will be limited the next few weeks as we are about to reveal our newest LBH Front Porch Kit next week and I'm busy working on design team projects. Then soon after that we will be having our Spring Open House - lots of projects for that too!

Baby Shower

A great time was had by all at my daughter's baby shower on Saturday. Except for all the rain, everything went well.  My oldest daughter, Kim, and I hosted it with help from another daughter, Dana, and Kelly's good friend, Christina. We used the very nice "community room" at Christina's apartment complex.

We used the island in the lovely kitchen for serving the food.

The "spread" - fleece monkey blanket borrowed from my friend Lynette (thanks!); banner downloaded from Internet

Green chile and cheese "hot pockets" that Dana made and brought from Albuquerque on the plane;  ham and cheese baked sandwiches; cupcakes and punch bowl with "Barrel of Monkeys" hanging on edge

Valentine monkey, plant and extra fruit 

Monkey cupcakes made with vanilla wafers and decorator frosting gel (have you guessed we used a monkey theme?)

Fruit kabobs in ice bucket

Monkey on motorcycle made from diapers, receiving blankets, bibs, bottle and baby socks - tutorial here

Side view

Kelly (in pink) with her best friends from SW Airlines - one came from Montana, one from Phoenix, two moved to Austin recently from Chicago, and Sara - my youngest - on right who also works at SW!

Me and my girls - from left, Sara, Kelly, Dana and Kim

Lots of presents, including diapers

We asked everyone to bring a favorite book to start baby Carl's collection

Kelly's husband's family - from left, sister Megan, mom Hope holding 2-yr old Grace (Rachel's) and sister Rachel holding Megan's 11-mo old Ryan

Sister Brandis (on right) with her two children, Haley and Max

We played Baby Bingo and Christina and Sara won Ring Pops - they got a kick out of sucking on the "pacifiers"

Dana "signing" the family tree - I painted a tree trunk on cardstock and had everyone ink their finger or thumb to add prints for the leaves.  The title says "Baby Carl William, A Special Addition to our Family Tree."  Once it was finished, I put it in a frame and it can be hung in the nursery.

One of her favorite presents - a framed photo of Josh's grandfather (Carl's namesake) as a baby,  circa 1908! 

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse of our special day. 

Handmades for Baby

Last week was crazy as I was finishing up several projects I'd been making for the first grandson and had the deadline of the shower on Saturday to get everything done.

These are burp cloths I made using cloth diapers with strips of cotton fabric sewn down the centers.  They are nice and thick and a good size.  I had no idea it was so hard to find cloth diapers - had to go to several stores to find them!  I also covered a travel-sized Huggies wipes container with some scrapbook paper I had on hand.  This was super easy to do with Mod Podge. The edges were covered with tiny rick rack and then I glued on painted chipboard letters and a button.

This is my favorite project - a very soft little tag blankie.  It's about 8 inches square.  The monkey fabric is soft fleece and the other side (not shown) is a soft, bumpy "minkie" fabric in green.  I used scraps of ribbons I had in the blue and green color families for the tags, making sure to include both shiny satin ones as well as rougher grosgrain ribbons.  I think the baby will love all the textures.

My daughter had chosen this fabric for a nursing cover.  This will provide her with some privacy when nursing in public.  This was really easy as it is essentially a hemmed rectangle with an adjustable strap.  The top edge has a piece of boning encased in the seam so it stands away from the body a bit to allow mother to see the baby.  I used a great tutorial for this on this blog: Diary of a Quilter.

This is a baby blessing ring. I used a choker necklace with a removable post on the end and looped various ribbons over the ring.  The tag says: "A baby is a blessing, sent from above, a gift sent from Heaven for everyone to love.  Place cards and precious mementos of baby on this blessing ring as a special keepsake and reminder of all those who love you." All the cards from the shower were hole-punched and threaded on the ring to keep.

I also made a "Hospital Survival Kit" using a clear "paint" can. I embellished the bottom with strips of patterned paper and rhinestones and used a Cuttlebug alphabet die for the title.  I filled the bucket with items that might come in handy during labor or afterwards and things that might not get packed in the regular suitcase. She has instructions not to open or peek until she gets to the hospital so it will be fun surprise.

This is the embellished top of the can.

I'll share some of the shower decorations and photos tomorrow.

It's Another Boy!

What a great day this has been. Found out this afternoon that our second grandbaby is going to be a boy also! The littles will be 3 months apart so they will be so cute together.  Needless to say, everyone is super excited!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you all have a very sweet day! My hubby is out of town this week so I celebrated with some girlfriends at a movie. 

Enjoy this vintage valentine and eat chocolate!

Girls' Day Out

Yesterday was a special day - three of my best friends and I got together for a brunch and all-day girltime.  We've all known each other for about ten years - Julie, Cathy and I were neighborhood friends and I met Debbie at a Stampin Up party.  We've been best friends ever since.  In the past 18 months, Cathy and Debbie moved across town (about 45 minutes - a world! away) and we've had a hard time getting together. So we resolved for the new year to make it a priority to plan days together more often.

Little did I know that they planned a "First Time Grandmother" Shower for me.  I arrived to find our table covered with a blue tablecloth (we're having a boy) sprinkled with cute safari-themed confetti and covered with presents and some yummy "Nothing Bundt Cake" individual cakes at our places.  I was totally surprised and overwhelmed! I received darling gifts from each of them and they were generous to include gifts for my daughter too, which I opened and then wrapped back up to give to her next week at her shower!

Divided printer's tray from Julie - waiting for baby's photos and embellishments

Onesies from Debbie - I'm partial to these...

Five Little Monkeys book along with the little monkeys from Cathy - adorable

Beautiful canvas made by Debbie for the baby's photo

Another monkey from Cathy

Cards and decorations

Can you tell that the theme of the baby's room is safari/monkeys?

A million thanks to my dear, dear friends. Love you three!

Trends spotted at CHA

What are the new trends for 2012?  Here are some of my ideas, based on what we saw at the CHA show.

Washi Tape was everywhere. Every vendor seemed to have their own version. 

Vintage Icons were big - old rotary phone, typewriter images and cameras were in stamp lines, paper lines, dies and embellishments.

New Tim Holtz Alterations Dies

Baker's Twine now comes in just about every color of the rainbow and many vendors have it. Saw it on many samples.

Flowers are still hot, made from fabric, paper, zippers, organza, lace, ribbon, felt, coffee filters.

Prima layout

Maya Road

Stencils are making a comeback, especially with all the color mists on the market. (My favs were from The Crafter's Workshop.)

Dina Wakley stenciling demo

Chevron patterns on paper designs as well as made with paper piecing on layouts. Also stencils and
stamps.

layout

Amy Tangerine booth

cards

Banners and flags were popular on layouts as well as decorations for booths.

Still hot:

Dies of every shape and size. The big buzz was for the E-clips die-cutting machine and the Tim Holtz cartridges that match some of his stamp sets.  We saw a demo and these cut even the most intricate images!

Tim Holtz e-clips cartridges

Color mists.  The newest ones are the Dylusions Sprays from Ranger - very concentrated and intense hues.  Tattered Angels also had three new formulations.


And, I think the newest trend is Mixed Media.  Fabric, paint, paper,  color sprays, inks, and metal are all being combined and I was surprised to see so many scrapbook layouts incorporating these.

Christy Tomlinson's new paper line with Pink Paislee - love it!

Have you noticed any of these trends yet?

More CHA

I'm still going through the more than 600 photos I took last week at CHA! Today I'll be sharing just random shots of displays, new products and samples.

Gorgeous tree with paper butterflies and lots of clear globes and bling

Closeup

Cute tree display for findings

Another tree - all paper

closeup

Cute tree for nursery - was checking out for my daughter who wants a tree decal for the nursery wall

Recessed glass-top table with display of embellished bottle caps and Scrabble letters - love the rustic finish!

Had to visit the Ice Resin booth to see my blogging friend, Kristen Robinson, and her new book

Gorgeous mixed media fairy in the Ice Resin booth

Pretty new travel line from Studio Calico

Love, love, love Margie Romney-Aslett's new line for Bazzill

Great wall display at Cosmo Cricket - we saw suitcase "shelves" everywhere

Beautiful paper flowers - remember Elaine's Christmas ornament?

A new zipper flower design - Maya Road

"Talking Tag" from Sizzix - somehow you record the story of  how you made a project (a quilt for example) and then sew this to the item. When scanned by a smart phone, the tag tells the story. Wouldn't you just love to have had this on one of your grandmother's old quilts?

New large magnetic mat for die-cutting machines - thin metal dies won't move when cutting (Lifestyle Crafts).  A little birdie told me these will be coming to the LBH.

 And, finally, because I was drawn to all things baby during the show:

Still more to come...