Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day!

I realize it's pretty late for a post pertaining to the entire day, but I had to get this up here before tomorrow! Oh, and I had a really busy day with my valentines. :) I have a new one this year! Joey and I had a great time while Scott was at work. We played a ton, had snacks together, and then we went shopping at Target. We got some birthday presents for him (I told him to act surprised), and we got some valentine presents for Scott. After that, we went to Party City to look for party things for his birthday party. Did you know they have nothing for a monster theme? I don't understand it. They didn't even have licensed monsters or scary monsters. No monsters at all! What kind of place is this?!

Anyway, I did make some valentines this year. We don't normally do the Valentine's Day thing because we're anti-Hallmark-holiday people, but everything really is much more fun with kidlets. So I had to make some valentines to send out with the ones Joey colored on! We picked out some Spongebob valentines because we like Spongebob, and Joey does, too, believe it or not. He'll sit and actually watch it. Hurray for bright colors!

I will be the first to admit, my cards were made kind of last-minute because Valentine's Day really snuck up on me. I do really like some of them, though. Others you probably won't be seeing again. In any case, happy valentine's day, they're awesome.
In case you can't tell, I love taking pictures of my cards all stacked up. They look so awesome in a huge pile! It's like when you think about swimming in a huge pile of jellybeans or zebra cakes or something. So then I had to take a picture of mine with the spongebob cards Joey colored on. You know, though, it just occurred to me that I should have taken a picture of his colorings. That would have been much cooler. Damn. Maybe next time.

For now, everyone have a happy, happy day. Know you're loved!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Baby Shower #1

This must be the time to have babies because we know 7 families having babies! It's ridiculous. I feel like I'm missing out on something. I'm not ready to go there again, though. I love my Joey, but I remember that experience like it was yesterday.

In any case, I finally got around to blocking out some address and other sensitive info to protect the innocent, blah, blah, blah, and now I get to show you the pictures! For my baby momma sister-in-law, I made the invitations for her baby shower. She has the good fortune of having a pretty cool nickname (Jenny Bee) so I had a great time making the bee the center of the theme. I love bees myself so I definitely had the materials for this one! I made it nice and neutral because gender is unknown (but not for long!). Yellow and grey is one of my personal favorite color palettes. :) As you can see, there's a super adorable bee as the feature element, but that's not any ordinary bee... It's a bee stamp that originally came holding a flower. I masked the flower out and added the umbrella. I know, I know, pretty cool, huh? ;)

I also used glitter! Those who know me will be saying what?! Rayna used glitter?! I know, it's the herpes of craft supplies. It gets on everything, and you'll find it a week later in your underwear. I think I used it pretty well, though. I just put a bit on the edge of the wings to contribute to some translucence. I had a ton of fun doing some watercoloring (one of my new favorite things to do), and I added the cool little embellishment on the bottom. I cut out the envelope with my cricut, curled some wire and cut out the little green flower with my cricut also. I thought the green was a nice little pop of color. It's only in the second picture, but the envelope was for the little heart that has the registry information. I love that part. :) Ooh, I also printed the envelopes so the typeface would match the invitations. It's the little things that really make a project!

In addition to the invites, though, I always have to make something. Especially for family! I usually have a formula: clothing, toy, blanket. I had to deviate this time, though because I just didn't have the time. We still just moved into our house so we're kind of overloaded with all sorts of house stuff. It's slowly getting better, but, I swear, it never ends. Anyway, I did make the toy because I saw this bird and decided they had to have it! I've also been wanting to make this hat for a while. So that's what I ended up doing.

The bird came from a book I got for Christmas called Knitwit. I LOVE it. It's got all sorts of weird critters in it, and I can't wait to make myself something! Of course, there are some things I'd like to make for Joey, too. I want to make him the alien pirate. :) I did end up changing the eyes for the bird because I liked my way better. :) I very often change a pattern to suit my own style. I think it came out much better! It was really fun to knit, though and took very little time. I also changed up the pattern for the hat because they had you knitting just a square bag, which is cute, but the flour sack version is cuter. So I had to improvise a little bit, but I think it turned out well in the end. :) That one came from Closely Knit, which is one of my favorites. I've got a long list of things to make from that book. I'm actually in the process of making something from that book right now! I'm making a sweater vest for Joey for his birthday, but that's another blog post...To top all that off, I made her Thank You notes. No, this was not a preemptive move. I made sure to tell her I was not expecting one back. :) And, to be absolutely clear, she asked for them. So there. They don't match the bee theme, but I also have a soft spot for elephants (check out my shop ;)) so I couldn't pass up this pattern. I used a new technique on these cards that I couldn't believe I had never tried before. I colored the images with chalk and then set it with a fixative. It took no time at all, and it looks great! I might be using these thank yous for myself also. ;)
I'm working on a TON of stuff so keep an eye out! I'll try to keep up with everything! Happy Crafting!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Like a MoFo!

I have been crafting like crazy, and, honestly, it's been nice being busy making stuff. I've finished up a load of stuff that I need to be getting on here soon, but, for now, I'm going to stick with the easy stuff. :) I've been making a lot of cards, which is awesome! I had been in papercrafting purgatory for a while unable to make anything due to our transitory existence in that creepy hotel. No, not The Shining creepy, but when you've lived in the same hotel for 5 months, nothing seems normal anymore. We're slowly getting back to that normal state. Slowly. I had a ton of thank yous to send due to Christmas, wedding anniversary and my birthday so I had some fun making some of my own. :)


I love the bird thank you card. I was able to do some quick japanese stab stitch on that one to add a little extra oomph. Mostly, I was just experimenting, but I had a great time. I was amazed Joey even let me work for a little while! On that note, I need to do some maintenance on my shop. It's been such a long time since I was able to sit down and do some work for my little stationery shop. :) I miss it! So, watch for these! There are also some other new things I'd like to add to the shop, but my little Joey will be 1 in a week and a half! Wow, I can't believe that... yikes.

In any case, we're having a party!!! I'm planning the whole thing and trying to come up with some clever ideas for decorations and favors and such. I already finished the invitations and got them out, and they're adorable, of course. Our theme is monsters. Now I have to make a banner, some cupcake toppers and get some favors together. I can't wait! I love parties. :) And this one's mine! Well, watch for more. I'll try to keep things updated. :)

Oops, forgot one. This one was super fun to make because I used 4 different stamps (from the same set so it would still look cohesive) to make this pattern. Making paper is one of my favorite things to do, and this is really something new for me. I make my own patterned paper all the time using a single stamp, but I've never piece something together. I had to take a picture of it so I would remember just how I pieced them together for this one. :) I love how it turned out! I also love putting a little something extra on the envelope. When you get an envelope like that, you know there's something awesome inside. :)