DIY Baby Shower Ideas and Tutorials

I'm very excited to offer another class through My Creative Classroom this summer!  I've put together many of my favorite ideas and tutorials for the cutest diy baby shower ever.  This 4 week class is full of adorable ideas, whether you're planning a shower for a boy or girl.  We'll make invites, thank you note set, diaper cakes, banner, favors, decor, and more!  My theme for my sample projects is owls, but every project is easily adaptable to your shower colors and theme.  Join me for this fun and project-filled class and prepare a great shower for that next baby in your life!

The classroom is now open for registration (click on the photo above or Here).  Class start date is June 25th.  Remember this class is completely online and can be finished at your own pace.  During the class, help is available through interactive forums and project galleries.  I hope to see you in class this summer!

Summer and Echo Park Layouts

Love to go into Scrapdoodles and see what catches my eye.  I knew I had some summer layouts to do, and Echo Park "Happy Days" collection caught my eye.  I created these two layouts using papers and a few layered chipboard embellishments from this collection.  For my first layout, I started with plain white cardstock.  I cropped a four horizontal photos and backed them with black cardstock, then a strip of patterned paper.  I added the three strips on the right and a few embellishments.  I cut my title with my Cricut (cousins is from "Heritage" and friends is from "Create a Critter").  I thought it needed a little more so I punched out several circles and popped them up with a foam dot.  I love the white on white dimension paired with the bright colors.

I journaled on my computer and then printed it out on cardstock to add to the page.  I normally just write, but I wanted to keep the look relatively neat.

Last summer, H. really started choosing what to wear for herself and it was (and still is) an adventure in creativity.  Here she is with a tutu and camouflage cap that says "lil' Hunter".  Definitely one of a kind!  Again, all the papers are embellishments are from Echo Park.  The title is a cut from "Once Upon a Princess".  I just love how she mixes styles.  Something to learn there.

Summer Activities Bucket

It's hard to believe it's the middle of May already and summer is just around the corner!  Kids will soon be out of school and lots of summer activity lists have been popping all over the web and Pinterest.  I love the idea of having a list of activities to choose from throughout the summer, so even though my little one isn't even in school yet, I'm jumping on the bandwagon.  I picked out these sweet summery papers from Nikki Sivils' "Exit Here" collection - bright and sunny colors, fun patterns.  The sheet of coordinating die cuts are perfect for little projects like my Summer Bucket List.  My LSS, Scrapdoodles, is the perfect place to get inspired.

If you want to make your own, find a suitable bucket (mine was an empty baby formula container) and recover it with paper and embellishments.  I covered two dowel rods with papers and strung a length of twine across to create the banner.  The dowels are stuck in a piece of floral foam inside the container.  Layer on more embellishments and load it with lots of summer activity ideas.  There is no shortage of ideas on the web and/or Pinterest.  Mine are geared toward my young daughter.  Feel free to use mine and add to it with ideas from your kids!

1.   SUMMER READING CLUB AT THE LIBRARY

2. POOL NOODLE AND BALLOON GAME

3.  BACKYARD PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT

4. INDOOR SCAVENGER HUNT

5.  ABC SCAVENGER HUNT

6. MAKE FRUIT/JUICE POPSICLES

7.  MAKE ICE CREAM IN A BAGGIE

8.  MAKE YOUR OWN FINGER PAINT AND PAINT

9. MAKE YOUR OWN CHALK PAINT, PAINT OUT ON DRIVEWAY

10.       GIANT BUBBLES

11. DYE PASTA OR RICE and MAKE JEWELRY, PICTURES, ETC.

12.       PAINT ROCKS

13.        MAKE STEPPING STONES (QUICKRETE AND MARBLES OR KIT

14.       MAKE A MOBILE USING OLD UTENSILS

15.        PAINT BY NUMBER

16.       LEAF (OR COINS, ETC) RUBBINGS

17.        FINGERPRINT DRAWINGS (ALA ED EMBERLY)

18.        MAKE PUPPETS AND PUT ON A PUPPET SHOW

19.       MAKE A SUMMER WINDSOCK WITH RIBBON OR CREPE PAPER

20.     CHECK THEATERS FOR FREE SUMMER

21.       GO FISHING

22.     GO CANOEING

23.      BACKYARD CAMPING

24.     SMORES

25.      FAMILY PUZZLES

26.     SPRAY BOTTLE PAINTING OUTSIDE ON WHITE SHEET

27.      PLANT A GARDEN

28.      PULL WEEDS IN GARDEN

29.     MAKE A FORT WITH BLANKETS

30.      HOMEMADE SPRINKLERS (PVC PIPES, BOTTLES, ETC)

31.        MAKE GOOP

32.      MAKE AND/OR FLY KITES

33.      MAKE AND PLAY CARNIVAL STYLE GAMES

34.      PLAY AT A NEW PARK

35.      BARBIE FASHION SHOW, TAKE PICTURES AND MAKE A SCRAPBOOK

36.     BACKYARD ART PARTY, INSPIRED BY PINTEREST

37.      TEA PARTY IN THE GAZEBO

38.      MAKE A FAIRY GARDEN IN PLANT CONTAINERS

39.     TIE DYE SHIRTS

40.     HOPSCOTCH OR 4-SQUARE OUT ON THE DRIVEWAY

41.       SET UP A TREASURE HUNT IN THE BACKYARD

42.     GEO-CACHING

43.      STRAW PAINTING

44.     MAKE PHOTO POPSICLE STICK PUZZLES

45.      BUG COLLECTING

46.     WATCH A MOVIE OUTSIDE

47.      STAR GAZING

48.      LETTERBOXING

49.     READ IN THE GAZEBO OR PLAY FORT OUTSIDE

50.      BIKE RIDING

51.        GO HIKING

52.      LEMONADE STAND

53.      WASH THE CAR

  

Join me for more summer diys at Nap Time for Crafters Link Up Party.

Wedding Celebration

Hannah and I had a fun trip to visit my sister in SC and help her put on a very nice backyard party to celebrate my niece's wedding.  We made banners, luminaries, signs, a card box, set up a fun photo booth area, crafted two hula-hoop chandeliers to hang, and more.  Fun, fun, fun!  I especially loved how the dessert table turned out, but was pretty happy with everything.  It was wonderful to be able to give my niece Kayla and her husband Corey a beautiful evening to celebrate their beautiful love!

 

Fresh Layouts, Design Team Wednesday

I LOVE PRETTY PAPER!  and PINTEREST!  Yes, it is somewhat of an addiction (for both).  I am so inspired by ideas on Pinterest and I do have to stop myself from buying more paper sometimes, especially while in Scrapdoodles :)  This trip to Scrapdoodles, I was able to pick up some beautiful papers from Teresa Collins.  The first selection is from her "Fabrications" line.  This paper almost feels like fabric and it was fun to play with some distressing on the edges.  The colors - especially the blue and yellow - are so cheery and really pop when paired up with the neutrals.  This first layout is a scraplift from a layout I first saw on Pinterest (original source here). 

This next set of layouts is also made with Teresa Collins papers, her "Spring Fling" line.  The colors and patterns are bright and fun.  Again, I was inspired by layouts first seen on Pinterest.  This chevron pattern tutorial was found here.  It was easy to piece together using small 1x3 inch strips.  I sewed and roughed up the edges a bit to add a little dimension.  It adds just the right pop of color while still keeping these cute photos of H. and daddy at the forefront.

As soon as I saw this pleated circle on this layout (original source) I knew I wanted to try it out, too.  It's actually quite easy to do.  The original looks much more perfect than mine, but I'm good with that :)  It's sewn onto the scallop circle to keep it in place.  Then I just layered all kinds of die cuts (all from Teresa Collins' "Spring Fling"), some lace trim (October Afternoon) and a few gems to complete the look.



Cultivating Gratitude / Gratitude Journal Class

My next class, Cultivating Gratitude: A Gratitude Journal and More is now open for registration HERE.

I'm so excited to offer this class through My Creative Classroom.  We'll be making a journal from scratch using an old hardcover book.  I also have several other crafty projects prepared so that you can share everything you're grateful for with others, too.  I hope you can join me!  Class starts March 30th.  Don't forget it's all online, there are no grades, just great ideas and crafty goodness.

K is for Kite Scrapbook Layout

We've been having some windy days in March (imagine that) and Hannah and I decided to attempt kite-flying in the backyard.  It took a few tries, but we got our Cinderella kite high up in the air.  Hannah was all excited about it until the wind started taking her for a ride and she began yelling, "I'm done! I'm done!"  Well this mama was having fun so I kept it going until, alas, the apple tree ate our kite.  Oh, bummer!  At least we can relive the memories in a scrapbook page.

Luckily, I spotted this super cute kite-flying paper from imaginisce (see the line, including the super-cute kite paper on their product page here) at Scrapdoodles last week.  I picked up the coordinating spring border sheet and a pack of stickers to work with.  I've seen a lot of fun strips of ribbons or papers as borders on layouts lately and these papers seemed to fit the bill for that kind of design.  I simply cut up my border sheet and arranged them in varying lengths down the left side of my page.  I was inspired by the kite strings to stitch on my page and haphazardly ran a few wavy lines to secure my strips.  My title cut is from Cricut's Nate's ABCs cartridge.  I created the feel of a windy day by extending the kite-tail down the page by cutting small "ribbons" from paper scraps and sewing them in place along the stitched tail.

Hope you get a little kite-flying in this March.  And watch out for the apple trees!