Baby Gifts

My sweet friend Susie is having a baby soon! Here name is Lauren and everyone is very excited for her to come :) We had a baby shower yesterday, so I made some hand made handicrafts as part of her gift.

First, is the baby shower card. It's very simple & sweet. I love my new Jenni Bowlin birdie punch and this was the first time I used it. I cut 4 little birds and glued a highlighting color to the back of each to give them a bit more dimension. I also pop-dotted them off the card. It helped balance the dimension of the Thickers.

And then as a gift, I used an embroidery hoop as a frame for my decoration. It was so hard to find a wood one, let me tell you! I wanted an oval but had to settle for a circle.

I dug into my stock of the original American Crafts Dear Lizzy line and had to purchase nothing but the hoop for this project. That line is perfect for a little girls room & luckily Lauren's colors are pink with touches of green. 

The pink polka dot base is some of the fabulous fabric paper. I hand stitched her name with green embroidery floss and decorated with some chipboard shapes, felt flowers, glitter buttons, crochet flowers, badges, brads, ribbons! Galore!

Ok Lauren, now hurry up and get here! But don't pop out before 11 July. Your Mommy promised!

cheers & besos,

E&K Engaged

And another two bite the dust! :) Lookie who got engaged, sweet Eric and lovely Kim. 

After a very romantic moonlight horse drawn carriage ride in Brackenridge, CO Eric proposed to Kim. She said yes and they sent us all this photo to share their exciting news. It was 1030 at night (so Kim)!!

I saved the photo and ran it through Instagram with a few different filters & printed it both 4x4 and 3x3.

While I was at Susie's this weekend. I put this together while she worked on one for baby Lauren's room. I played with shipping tags, envelopes, labels, fun mini bags & clothespins and of course some embellishments. It's something for their brand new to them home. 

I wish them both every happiness! Love you two :)

cheers & besos,

No. 143-NoLa Spot

First off, just wanted to say thank you so much for all of the love!

I was overwhelmed with the response from the blog hop!

Happy to see some of you all will be back :)

Also, I'm working on a giveaway so check back soon for that :D

It's been awhile since I've done a No. 143 post so I thought it was time. Slowly but surely my little apartment is coming together! And more posts of this kind will be sure to follow.

Just a recap, No. 143 is my apartment and sometimes I share photos of how I incorporate my love of scrapbooking and photos into home decor.

Like for example, [Exhibit A]

This is my New Orleans wall. It's right across from my bed and I wake up and look at it every morning :)

MT purchased this painting while we were in New Orleans in May. We liked it because of the red background (his favorite color) and because he played the trumpet in high school and I played the saxophone in middle school. Plus, it's a travel memento and who doesn't like those!

The "Jamie" twist are the shadow boxes (which are now discontinued from IKEA so if you want some GO GET THEM!!)

I documented the whole trip via iPhone with my Instagram app. Which doesn't make for excellent images, but does make for a fun photo effects. Printing them at the 6x6 size was not recommended and the images themselves are a bit blurry and grainy,

but,

I do not care!

From this far away, they look just fine to me :)

I added some ephemera from the trip, beads we scooped up on Bourbon Street and the plastic grenades we got when we purchased a Hand Grenade (lethal alcoholic beverage).

And know I have a perfect 3-dimensional scrapbook on my wall!

xxbesos

Paper Posies

Sisters

I recently came across this photo of my Grandma and her sisters. I loved that they were all wearing solid tops. It left me a lot of room to play with color and was the launching point of this layout, which btw is 100% a scraplift from the lovely Aphra Dee's Party Girls layout. I loved the colors she used, the multiple patterned papers, and of course those gorgeous posies! It also didn't hurt that it's a relatively simple layout to replicate (once you make all those flowers!). I had to make 4! One for Nana and each of her sisters. I'm so happy with the result! Below is a tutorial on how to make those lovely posies.

Supplies

Patterned paper, flowers, brads, border punches, 2 1/2 in. cardstock circle, 1 1/2 in. cardstock circle, adhesive, paper piercer, scissors, distressing ink (optional)

1. Use border punch to create a decorative border along one edge of a 12x12 sheet of patterned paper (not pictured)
2. Cut strip down to 3/4 in. x 12 in. (not pictured)
3. Use distress ink to tone down white side of patterned paper (optional, not pictured)
4. Using an adhesive dispenser, apply adhesive down the length of the patterned paper strip
5. Adhere one end of the patterned paper strip to 2 1/2 in. cardstock circle
6. Begin folding strip in as you turn the circle in your hand (I typically fold about a thumbs length in)
7. Continue around the entire circle
8. Use border punch to create a decorative border along the 11 in edge of an 8 1/2 x 11 in. sheet of patterned paper (not pictured)
9. Cut strip down to 3/4 in x 11 in. (not pictured)
10. Use distress ink to tone down white side of patterned paper (optional, not pictured)
11. Using an adhesive dispenser, apply adhesive down the length of the patterned paper strip
12. Adhere one end of the patterned paper stripe to the 2 1/2 in. cardstock circle, inside the first patterned paper folds

1. Begin folding strip in as you turn the circle in your hand (I typically fold about a thumbs length in)
2. Continue around the entire circle
3. Pierce cardstock in the center of the circle
4. Load 2 flowers onto brad, thread through paper and spread brad prongs

1. Use border punch to create a decorative border along one edge of a 12x12 sheet of patterned paper (not pictured)
2. Cut strip down to 3/4 in. x 12 in. (not pictured)
3. Use distress ink to tone down white side of patterned paper (optional, not pictured)
4. Using an adhesive dispenser, apply adhesive down the length of the patterned paper strip
5. Adhere one end of the patterned paper strip to 2 1/2 in. cardstock circle
6. Begin folding strip in as you turn the circle in your hand (I typically fold about a thumbs length in)
7. Continue around the entire circle
8. Adhere scallop circle to the center
9. Pierce paper in center of the circle
10. Finish with brad

I made a few extra. The first 2 people to post replies (include your e-mail) will receive either one or the other of these cute paper posies.

xxbesos

j.leija