Tag Blankets

I wanted to make something for my little girl that was bright and colorful with different textures. Taggy toys and blankets have become very popular lately because babies really love them! I was at my friends house in Florida a few months ago and it came to my attention that his daughter REALLY loves cleaning care instructions that are tacked on to stuffed animals and blankets. Well, I decided to make a homemade one for my baby, but just not as big. Just something small she can carry around with her that won't make her hot.

Front (I LOVE this pattern. I may have to go buy more.)

Back Fabric

I found some ribbon i really liked AND it was on sale! Beverly's always has some good stuff.

After spending FOREVER trying to remember how to place my bobbin back inside the sewing machine I was ready to sew. Then, my thread kept getting stuck. I started this at about 11 thinking I would be done at 12. No. I stayed up till 3 trying to get the stupid thing to work. Eventually I figured it out. You don't know how proud I was of myself.

Today, I gave it to my baby, and she looked at it, played with the ribbons for all of two seconds and shoved it right in her mouth. Now it's sitting out to dry....gross.

My cousin is having a baby so I decided to make her one, too. This time, it didn't take me nearly as long to get it done. Even with my baby awake.

Michael's Crop "Night"

I signed up for Michael's crop night (which was really in the afternoon) a few weeks back and the day finally came! I had been looking foward to this day FOREVER! I left baby at home with daddy (but still thought about her every second I was away from her). I packed my suitcase, and loaded it in the car along with the rest of my stuff. 

It was really brigth outside.

At first I felt silly walking thorugh michaels with ALL that stuff, but didn't regret it! I used most of what I brought. Once I got there, I was so scatter brained! I forgot to bring my actual scrapbooks, I forgot to bring my craft idea book, and my headphones (I am listening to an audio book).I'll bring it all next time...

I was working on my baby's scrapbook

Belly Page

It was a blast! There were only three of us, so all the machines were available to us whenever we wanted them. Speaking of machines, I fell in love with the Cricut! I knew I would like it, but I didn't know it would be this awesome!! We used the imagine, but I am thinking about getting the expression Anniversary Edition. 

I watched a tutorial on youtube that shows you can use imagine cartrdges in the expression machine, and it looked way cool to me! If you are interested, check it out here!!

Anyways, had a good time with it, cut out some ducky's, a few sea horses, palm trees, and of course awesome letters. 

After a while, it was time to pack up and go! It took me a while to figure out how I was going to put all my junk BACK into the bag...

As I was packing up, I was told there was a prize giveaway! Woo Hoo! Who doesn't like free stuff?! I got first pick, and chose the bag with the prettiest paper. This is what I got:

Decorative clothespins and a canvas pen and pencil

One thing I like to do with gift bags is turn them into pages for my scrapbook. The ones we got for the baby shower were so darn cute that I just didn't want to throw them away. The Result...

The green and blue ones are not from bags

Awful Birthday Cake

So my husbands birthday was this past month. I made the WORST birthday cake in the entire world. I wanted to do an ice cream cake since my husband isn't a big fan of just cake on it's own. Well, I realize my mistake. The whole process is supposed to take about 2 days to complete. However, having a baby and no time to do anything ever, I decided I wanted to do it all in one morning. 

Love these but they are NOT mine (and I wish they were):

Look how perfect these layers are!!

I fell in love with this one when I saw it

I had to laugh at this one. Me younger sister would LOVE this!

Maybe I'll take that cake decorating class they offer at Michaels. My friend took all of the classes and she makes wonderful cakes!! 

This is my catastrophe

I like confetti cake and so does my hubs, so this was the mix I used. Makes fun cupcakes too! I was disappointed, however, that they changed the sprinkles. They used to have great sprinkles!! matched perfectly with the inside of the cakes. Now they are pastel and longish. 

 I went to a few grocery stores to find strawberry ice cream, but nobody had any! I don't know if they sold out, or what! So, I decided to make my own strawberry ice cream!! I went to the farmers market and got a BUNCH of FRESH strawberry's a couple days before.

If I had to say one good thing about moving to CA, it's the fruit! (except their watermelon)

I had some left over ice cream from when my friend wanted some pie. So I scooped it ALL out and put it inot a bowl. Sliced the strawberries into many pieces and stirred till the ice cream was pinkish. It was pretty yummy! I thought everything was going so well at this point!

Yum! My husband loved this!

Oh, I forgot, while I was mixing the cake was baking in the oven. Once I finished mixing the ice cream, i put it in my 8x8 baking dish, covered it with foil and stuck it in the freezer to harden. I did the same with the cake.

My mistake was that I didn't let it cool long enough!!! The cake broke into sooo many little pieces!!

My husband HATES icing. I'm not a big fan, either, but I had to make the stuff stick back together somehow! Talk about a HUGE mess! Well, once, I demolished the cake, I somehow got ice cream shoved inside. I added food coloring to my icing, decorated, threw on some sprinkles ( I was really VERY upset about this) and pecans and threw it back in the freezer. What a nightmare. It finally cooled down. The ice cream no longer dripping out of all the cracks. 

The final product (I'm a little embarrassed to be sharing this)

With Candles Lit

UGGGG-LYYYYY

 

My baby shower cake was pretty awesome though, but that's prob because I didn't make it.

Thank You Cards

I finally got around to sending thank you notes to our Air Force friends that gave Scarlett gifts from when she was born. If only I had the time to send the cards to people who came to the baby showers I had back home. I hope I get them out soon. It will almost be a year! It took me about a year to get my wedding thank you cards out! I am SO AWFUL at thank you cards!! 

Any ways, it's nothing spectacular, but they were personal. What I Used:

Fancy Scrapbook Paper

Vellum

Non-Toxic Ink (Black and Green)

Diaper Pin / Safety Pin OR Stapler

Flowery Stamp

Glitter Glue

Foot Print Hole Punch

And A Sleeping Baby 

(but only had her that way for a little while)

Sleeping Baby

So, I first cut out the paper into 8 pieces, then cut the vellum in pieces just a tad smaller in width but, in length, about half the size to the pink paper.

I somehow managed to rub ink on my baby's hand while she wriggled around in my arms and got the black ink all over herself. There were a few paper casualties.... Eventually the hand prints made it onto the paper and which I then covered with vellum once dry. I did not have diaper pins, so I used staples instead.

I stamped the page with my flower stamp and added some foot print punches. After, I wrote thank you with the glitter glue and did a squiggly border on top.

I used the backside for my "letter". Put them in an envelope and sent them off to work with my husband.

The people who got them said they liked them very much! I am so proud of myself for getting these done.