Andrea's blog

For a bridal shower recently, I made this monogrammed name plaque for the bride & groom:

The last name was kind of tricky to add.  I had to cut out a negative stencil of the cursive word.  It worked out pretty well though in the end.  It was a big hit at the shower, and it looks like I might have a few people interested in buying custom signs from me! 

It's been a long process, several coats of paint, and a lot of debate about colors and furniture, but finally we have Ayla's room "finished".  I hesitate to say that because I think I still would like to add some more things to the walls and the shelves by the dresser, but for now, it's done.  Mostly because the bedframe is painted and set up! Yay! 

Here is my mock-up picture:

And the finished room (which I did not stick as closely to as I did in the nursery, as you can see):

In case you missed it the first time around, here's a link to close-ups of the canvases I made for above her bed.

We haven't painted the dresser yet...and I'm not sure if we will anytime soon or not.  I kind of like the wood now...

And finally, here are some detail pictures of around the room. 

The last picture at the bottom is Ayla's version of the wall canvases...she did a good job, didn't she? After she made it, she asked if we could hang it in her new room.  How could I say no?

Our church is having a silent auction to raise money for a mission trip to Honduras this summer.  So I decided to offer a set of handmade cards.  I made 4 of each of these cards using the Fleuriste line (leftover from my grandmother's memoirs album) from Cosmo Cricket.

Hey all you scrapbookers out there...I need your help. 

Ben & I have just launched our new web site  Scraptagious.com (go check it out!).  Scraptagious highlights the people and products that scrapbookers are buzzing about on blogs, in videos, and at websites and puts them all in one place.

So, I know which blogs and sites *I* like to read, but I'm curious...

What are YOUR favorite scrapbook-related blogs?

Post your favorites in the comments section with a link please! (You'll need an account for my blog to comment...but I'll approve you as soon as I'm able). Can't wait to see everyone's favorites.

Oh, and did I mention?  You should go check out Scraptagious.com. 

And don't forget to vote for your favorite links so you can "Spread something good."

See you there...

Wal-Mart finally had that table lamp in stock today, so I was able to finish off the nursery and take some pictures! It's as done as it's gonna be until we plop a baby in there! 

Here's what my mock-up idea started as:

And here's the finished room:

After trying to hang the paper lanterns, not liking the cord hanging from the ceiling, and then eventually ripping it, Ben made the genious suggestion that we use a ficus tree (that we had in our livingroom) in that empty corner.  WAY perfect.  He's a better decorator than me...no doubt about that...I just have to make a few mistakes before he's willing to help me correct them!

Here's where I'll be spending many middle-of-the-night feedings.  Thank you to Rachel for helping me make the rocking chair cushion and to Janel & Linda for the adorable monkey & gorilla!  

The crib (still sporting the fabulous gender-neutral bedding made by Betsy)
...and the animal wall canvases I made:

The rug was $15 at World Market.  I would have looked harder for a plain dark brown rug, but I couldn't beat the price, and after a week of dealing with washing everything in Ayla's room 50 times when she had the flu, I decided a $15 orange rug was a smarter choice than anything more expensive!

The changing table...now outfitted with a contoured changing pad (thank you Patricia) and stuffed with tons of blankets, socks, diapers, hats, bibs, wipes, and burp cloths:

And the last corner of the room...still a little bare, but I imagine it'll get filled with toys before too long.  The giant ruler has recorded my height, my brother's height, and Ayla's height at different ages throughout the past 30 years.  I LOVE that I get to have it hanging in our kids' rooms too!

And finally, some detail pics of the decorations and all the little baby clothes...just waiting for a baby:

Thanks everyone for all your help and advice on putting this room together.  I'm very happy with how it turned out! 

Lisa tagged me in a random photo blog game, and the picture that resulted was interesting, so I decided to do it. 

Here's how it works:  Pick the 6th folder in your pictures files on your computer and then choose the 6th photo in the folder and blog about it. 

Unfortunately there were only three photos in my 6th folder, so I went with the 6th picture in the 7th folder...because does it REALLY matter? 

Here's what I came up with:

Grave Digger....the monster truck.

Hilarious, I know.  I didn't even take the photo. Back in January, Ben took Zach and my nephews to a monster truck show, and Grave Digger is the feature event of the loud testosterone-filled program.   So I credit Ben with this fabulous documentation of their encounter with the monster...

So friends, if you're so inclined....I tag Janel, Alison, Patricia, Betsy, Elizabeth, and Renee.  Let's see what you got!

Inspired by these adorable t-shirts made by Amy Tangerine, I made these for Ayla & Baby Boy:

It really wasn't too hard...but I can't guarantee their launder-ability. :) I'll wait until after the photos are taken before I wash them! 

The steps:

1. Pick a simple block font and cursive print to make your t-shirt saying. 
2. Print it on computer paper.
3. Choose a t-shirt to alter and a contrasting color fabric for the block letters.
4. Use straight pins to pin the saying to the front of the shirt where you want it to be, layering the contrasting fabric BEHIND the front of the t-shirt.  (contrast fabric, then t-shirt, then printed paper on top).
5. Hand-stitch with a backstitch around the outline of the letters, including any center sections (as in B, R and O).
6. When you've finished stitching, gently tear away the paper (GENTLY).  You should see an outline of the letters you just stitched on the t-shirt.
7. Inside each letter, carefully separate the t-shirt from the contrasting fabric so that you can cut a small hole in the t-shirt fabric.  Do NOT cut through the contrasting fabric or the stitching.
8. Trim carefully around the inside of the stitched outline to reveal the contrasting fabric underneath.
9. Turn the t-shirt inside out and trim away any excess contrasting fabric.
10. When the block letters are finished, pin the cursive word above the block letters on the front of the t-shirt.  Use several pins to be sure it stays put.
11. Hand-stitch with a backstitch along the cursive font. 
12. When you've finished stitching the font, gently tear away the paper and you're finished!

Tip: 

• Use a light gray font on the paper and a contrasting thread color so that you can easily see where you've stitched.

I need some practice still, but I like how they turned out.  And I like the price.  I had everything on hand except the t-shirt for Ayla and brown thread.  Total cost: $4.50.  When compared with the prices you'd pay in a store...likely $30 each or more...

I put these thank you cards together this afternoon for my upcoming baby shower...

...love how they sort of "match" the new nursery decor...which will look something like this Photoshopped mock-up:

Inspired by the Imaginisce Twitterpated paper line, I just finished up the wall canvases to hang over Ayla's bed in her new "big girl" bedroom.  I'm so thrilled with how they turned out:

I painted the sky and landscape background (using the light blue wall color of her room for the sky and the green paint color that we originally were going to use, and then painted over because it was too dark).

Then I added grass and hill details with acrylic paints.  That took a couple of tries...but with Ben's suggestions, I like the final result.  The good thing about paint...you can paint over it if it doesn't look good! 

I decided not to paint a border or frame on this set of canvases because I wanted them to just kind of pop out of the wall.  I'm liking the resulting effect.

Once the backgrounds were painted, I added the paper pieced trees, birds, butterfly & bee.  I had a great time picking out patterned papers from all different paper lines to make the right color scheme and piece together all the elements. 

After everything was glued together and glued down and covered in Mod Podge, I added button eyes to the birds, brad eyes to the bee, and some black string antennae for the butterfly & bee.  

Here are some close-ups of the critters:

Hope Ayla likes 'em! :)

I spent this weekend painting, cutting, gluing and piecing...to make these for the new baby boy's nursery:

which were shamelessly "inspired" and lifted by these prints from Babies R Us:

I used 16" x 20" canvases, scraps of various patterned papers and just went to town paper piecing them all together.  Since I had pictures to work from, I was able to free-hand the various shapes pretty well.  Once all the animals were put together, I used my sewing machine to stitch a border around the outline of each animal.  Then I painted the backgrounds of the canvases and taped off borders to make the brown border around each canvas.  Finally, I used mod-podge to put them all together and protect them. 

Here are close-ups of each:

This was a fun project and I love the textured finish...much better than buying prints I think....but thenit did take two full days of work to finish them!