The Miracle of Birth :: It's A BOY!!!

Welcome Baby Gabriel!

No words can express how blessed I feel by being able to capture my newest nephews birth story.

My little sister did wonderful & was surrounded by all 4 of her sisters, our mom, and her husband.

Love you Sis. Congratulations!

Success :: Surprise Baby Shower

This past Sunday three of my sisters, my mom, & I "broke into" my little sisters house while she was at church. We threw her a small lunch/shower with just us girls & her family. It was so nice to sit and chat and enjoy the afternoon. I loved the fact that we were able to focus on her two kids as they prepare for a new baby. 

You will may recognize many of the decorations were made from a mix of Crate Paper's Little Bo Peep & Little Boy Blue collections. Perfect since we needed to do a gender neutral theme.

The kids had so much fun and just giggled & giggled as they played the "who will baby look like" game. It was so simple to make! I simply printed 4 5x7s; one of each of the family members, cut them horizontally and the kids then mixed & matched the pieces to create a "new family member". LOL!

Their next activity was coloring their own t shirts with fabric markers. I used my Silhouette to create a stencil and traced the "best big brother/sister" outlines for them to fill in. They will look so cute in these at the hospital!

The adults made onesies by ironing on fabric pieces I cut ahead of time with my Silhouette.

By clicking here ----> BABY SHOWER & you will be able to see all of my posts leading up to the shower. I am so glad we were able to pull this off as a surprise. I think they really enjoyed the day!

Cutting Fabric :: Silhouette

I found a cute plain shirt at Target on the clearance rack & decided it needed to be jazzed up a bit. 

Cutting fabric with the Silhouette really is simple. The most important thing to remember is have a new blade & a new mat. 

Using No Sew Heat Bond, iron onto the back side of your fabric. Let cool & peel off the backing.

Position sticky side down on your Silhouette mat & cut using the indicated blade settings shown in the SIL program.

Peel the negative cuts from the mat just as you would with cutting paper.

Note: You will want a designated blade for cutting fabric. They do sell a blue fabric blade, but come to find out, it is the exact same blade as the normal one just in blue so you know that difference. Same price as well. So, rather than having my LSS order in a special "fabric blade" I was able to just purchase "regular" blade they already had in stock. I just marked the packaging so I would remember which was which. 

This weekend we are having a SURPRISE BABY SHOWER for my youngest sis and we will be decorating onesies with fabric cuts made by my Silhouette. It's going to be such a fun activity and gift for the baby!

Let me know if you have cut fabric with your Silhouette and if you have any suggests or ideas to add!

Shower Prep :: Baby Shower Planning Cont.

 If you'll remember from THIS POST, I am working on putting together a surprise baby shower for my sister. Last night I created this little 4x4 book for her to take to the hospital. A place where her visitors can sign and leave a little message for the baby. 

Using a pile of circles punched from scraps and my sewing machine I created an adorable & free decoration to use at the shower.

Supplies used : 

Crate Paper, Studio Calico, Dear Lizzy, Freckled Fawn washi tape, Elle's Studio stamps, Jenni Bowlin ink

More Baby Shower ideas coming soon!

Planning a Surprise Baby Shower :: Shhhh...

I am in the works of planning a surprise baby shower for my sis. (No worries, she doesn't read my blog. I'm not even sure she knows I have a blog. LOL!)

My mission, is to create a fun, personal shower for her & her family along with my other 3 sisters & my Mom. She is the type of person who appreciates the little things rather than something off a gift registry.  My goal is to keep it under $100. including gifts, activities, decorations, & food. It's going to be a challenge, but I am up for it!

I have started out by making a few things to include in her gift basket. Because I was able to use items I already had in my scrapbooking stash & I had an instore credit to my LSS to use towards adhesive I am still at $0.00 out of pocket. 

I used some goodies from American Crafts, Crate Paper, & Bella Blvd to create this small notebook full of Bible verses...

I also put together 20 Thank you cards with envelopes. When I was pregnant with Ella I made my thank yous beforehand and I was SO glad I did. That way I could stay ontop of sending them out. 

I have lots of other ideas I have been "pinning" and writing in my journal. I'll keep you all updated & will be sure to include pictures of the shower in mid March. 

Have a great weekend!