Another Scrapbook - Allison's Baby Book

First I would like to say thank you for all the great comments on Chris' scrapbook. I will post more pages on this next week. Posting this reminded me of other ongoing scrapbook I have. When I was pregnant with Allison, I decided that I didn't really need to have a traditional baby shower since I was having another girl and kept everything (clothes, baby gear) from my first daughter Aimee. So instead I had a scrapbooking baby shower. My BFF Merrigrace and mom threw it for me. They bought one of the Rock-a-Bye Girl Simply Scrappin' kits one of the 12x12 linen albums, and an extra pack of Whisper White cardstock from Stampin' Up!. Then I pulled out all of my inks, punches, baby stamps, ribbon, etc. and had my friends and family over to create a baby scrapbook for me! Here are some shots from the shower:

Everybody hard at work.

Even Aimee did a page.

More hard work.

The end result.

So, at the end of it all, I have a beautiful scrapbook made with love and all I have to do is add the pictures! How great is that? There is a page for every month as well as a page for the birth and a page to commemorate the shower itself. So today I will share with you everything up to 2 months, since I haven't yet printed out Allison's 3rd and 4th month pictures. (I hope to do that this weekend so I will hopefully be able to post those next week.)

Here is the cover of the album. I ended up embellishing this after the fact. I used the 1 1/4" Pink Pirouette Grosgrain Ribbon, the A from the On Board Simon Upper chipboard (retired), and a chipboard pink heart from American Crafts that I had in my stash. I covered the A with Whisper white craft ink and then sprinkled on some dazzing diamonds.

This is the first page in the album. This page was made by Merrigrace and commemorates the shower. She had the ingenious idea to take everyone's thumb print and make a flower out of it. Aimee's little print is in the middle. She hand drew a stem, which is kind of hard to see in the photo.

This next page is for Allison's birth. Don't I look glamorous? Ladies, this is what you look like after being in labor for 23 hours and then delivering a 9 lb. 11 oz baby! This page was made by my friend and neighbor Diane. I journaled all the vitals on the sticker on the right.

Next we have Allison's one month photo. This page was made by my mom. The feet prints are from the retired Stampin' Up! set "I'm Here".

And lastly, here is the 2 month page. This page was made by my sister Kelly.

I have to say, the Simply Scrappin' kits are awesome. We made this whole book and I still have a bunch of pieces left over that I can use to create more pages. Stay tuned, because next week I will hopefully have the 3rd and 4th month completed pages to share with you.

Chris' Scrapbook

Today I would like to start sharing with you an ongoing project I have. For those that don't know, in addition to his normal 9 to 5 job, my husband is also a freelance sports photographer. (If you are interested, here is a link to his web site). He started up this business a couple of years ago and has been getting published more and more. Yesterday he was at Barnes and Noble picking up a magazine that he knew he had just got a picture published in and picked up another magazine and started flipping through it. Turns out he found 4 of his pictures in that magazine! When he got his first couple of photos published I decided to start him a scrapbook where I would have the actual photograph that he took alongside the published work (baseball card, magazine clipping, etc.). At the time he only had four baseball cards, so I scrapped those and put them in an album and gave them to him for Christmas that year. Since then I have been adding to it as he gets more stuff. So since he got a boatload yesterday (which now makes me way behind on getting all the new stuff scrapped) I thought I should share the pages I have done here. Posting something every week. So, here is what I have for you today:

This page is for the first baseball card he got with one of his photo's on it. On the page, I have the photo that he took and a copy of 2 different baseball cards that were made from it. There were other versions of the card produced (different colors, etc), but the same layout, so I don't have copies of each. In the photo log at the bottom I have journaled the name of the player, where the picture was taken, which game it was taken at, and the date. The photo log stamp is from a retired Stampin' Up! set called Trading Collection. I just attached the cards with photo corners because he would kill me if I damaged the cards by putting adhesive on them! In this album I have been keeping the pages pretty simple. I figure for this type of book, fancy embellishments wouldn't be appropriate (or appreciated by my husband!). So these pages are definitely guy focused.

Thanks for looking! I will post another page next week. Stay tuned!

Allison's First Valentine

Today I wanted to share with you the Valentine card I made for my daughter Allison. She is 4 months old and this is going to be her first Valentines day. I made this little 3 x 3 card to fit in her mailbox.



Ingredients:

• A Happy Heart stamp set
• Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, and Riding Hood Red cardstock
• Close to Cocoa and Riding Hood Red ink
• 1 1/4" circle, 1 3/8" circle, and scallop circle punch
• Pink Gingham ribbon

Two Birthdays Yesterday

Two people I know celebrated birthdays yesterday. Since I was short on time, I pulled two cards out of my stash that I had made a while back. The first was one was for one of the gals at my daughter's daycare. This is the card I sent with her this morning:


Ingredients:

• Upsy Daisy stamp set
• Baja Breze and Whisper White cardstock
• Baja Breeze and Kiwi Kiss Ink
• Baja Breeze Striped Grosgrain Ribbon
• Big Shot & Top Note Die
• Urban Garden Designer Series Paper

The second was for my mother-in-laws husband (he is not my husbands father, but my mother-in-laws new husband, so does that make him my step father-in-law? Who knows....). This card is actually a CASE from one of the older catalogs. It was the only masculine card I had in my stash, so it works! Hope they like them!



Ingredients:

• Dotted background stamp (retired)
• It's Your Birthday stamp set (retired)
• Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turqouise, Certainly Celery, and Whisper White cardstock
• Chocolate Chip Ink
• Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turqouise, Certainly Celery markers
• Tempting Turqouise and Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon
• Soft Subtles brads
  

Sale-A-Bration Starts Today!

Hi everyone. I wanted to let you all know about Stampin’ Up!s Sale-A-Bration promotion, which start TODAY! Our Sale-A-Bration promotion gives reason for everyone to celebrate! Click on the image on the right to download a copy of the catalog.

Customers: Receive a free Sale-A-Bration product for every $50 purchase.

Hostesses: Receive a free Sale-A-Bration product with a $300 or more workshop, in addition to the normal hostess benefits.

Recruits: Choose any retail stamp set (a value up to $47.95) from the current catalog when signing up during the promotion. Plus, get 15% off the regular $199 price of the Starter Kit--that's $335 worth of products for only $169!

I would really like to get some workshops on my calendar, so it you would like the chance to host a workshop for you and your friends, now is the perfect time! You will have the chance to earn free stamps, in addition to Stampin’ Up!s generous hostess benefits. Please let me know if you are interested in holding a workshop!

Let me know if you have any questions about this promotion! Hurry – Sale-A-Bration ends on March 31st. Feel free to contact me anytime to place an order or book a workshop. Don’t forget, you can shop online via my website at anytime. Plus, if you place your order via my website from February 1 - April 30 you will receive a FREE copy of the Spring/Summer Idea Book and Catalog – a $9.95 value!

Cupcake!

Hi all. Today I thought I would share with you a very cute project one of my customers made for me. It is a little cupcake ornament. Isn't stinkin' cute?


She made it out of the retired Ginger Blossom paper, Groovy Guava stitched ribbon, and circle punches. She actually gave this to me at Christmas time and I had it on my tree. I couldn't bear to pack it away with all the other Christmas stuff so I kept it out. These would make cute little party decorations or favors, don't you think?

My Stampin' Space

Today I thought I would share with you my stampin' space. I have an armoire by Hobby Hideaway which is just awesome. You can check out their website to see all the cool things they have to offer. There is even a picture of mine on the Customer Showcase page. My one claim to fame! Ha ha! One day I hope to have my own craft room , but until then this does the job! Here is a shot of it all closed up. You can see that when it is closed you can't tell what lurks inside!

Here is what it looks like when it is open. The doors in the side cabinets also open up for more storage. I have to admit that this picture was taken a while ago when it was nice and clean and organized. It doesn't quite look this pristine anymore, but I can still get everything in there and shut the doors! :)

I would love to get some additional pieces to match this for more storage. Maybe a credenza or free standing cabinet that can offer additional storage. Now that I am an SU! demo, I have a lot more stuff that needs somewhere to live!

My First Award

Today Alison, over at I Give My Crafts Away, gave me this award! Thanks so much Alison! To receive the award, I have to list 5 addictions of mine. So, here we go.

1. Stamps (of course!)
2. Disneyland (I love anything and everything about it)
3. Peeps (thank goodness they come out more than just at Easter!)
4. LOL Cats (I can't get enough of these guys! See ICanHasCheezeburger.com to share in the LOLZ).
5. Little Big Planet for PS3 (love this game! We are actually working on building an LOL Cat level :) Anybody else play this game?)

I would now like to pass this award to 5 bloggers, whose blogs I love to browse.

1. Merrigrace - http://stampinupwithmg.blogspot.com/
2. Joanne - http://sleepyinseattlestamps.blogspot.com/
3. Jan - http://stampspaperscissors.typepad.com/stamps_paper_scissors/
4. Jill - http://jill031070.blogspot.com/
5. Karen - http://www.seasidecrafts.com/

So, you five can copy the blog award image to your own blogs and then list your five addictions and share the love with 5 of your favorite bloggers!

Allison's Mailbox

One of the things I did this past weekend was make my daughter Allison a Valentine's mailbox. I had created one of these for my older daughter, husband, and myself a couple of years ago, but now that we have Allison, she needed one too. When Valentine's day rolls around I will fill everyone's mailbox with a card and some Valentines goodies!

Ingredients:

• Mailbox (Oriental Trading)
• Cricut & Cursive 101 Cartridge
• Love You Much Stamp Set
• Candy Lane Designer Series Paper
• Riding Hood Red and Pink Pirouette Cardstock
• Riding Hood Red Classic Ink
• Pretty in Pink and Whisper White Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon
• Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain Ribbon
• Heart to Heart Punch
• Scallop Circle Punch
• Scallop Edge Punch

Cards from Kim's Workshop

Hi all. I wanted to share with you the cards/project we did at Kim's workshop on Sunday (check out her blog for other cute projects). I think these turned out really cute! Kim is my friend and downline and I had a lot of fun at her workshop. It is great to get out of the house without the kids and do some crafting! :)



Ingredients:

• Pocket Silhouettes stamp set
• Close to Cocoa, Pink Pirouette, and Very Vanilla cardstock
• Candy Lane Designer Series Paper
• Close to Cocoa classic ink
• Close to Cocoa craft ink
• Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder
• Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon

Ingredients:

• Love you Much Stamp set
• Candy Lane Designer Series Paper
• Riding Hood Red, Close to Cocoa, and Very Vanilla cardstock
• Close to Cocoa and Riding Hood Red Classic Ink
• Blender Pens
• Heart to Heart Punch
• Scallop Circle Punch
• Mat Pack
  

Ingredients:

• Flight of the Butterfly Stamp Set
• Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip, and Very Vanilla cardstock
• Chocolate Chip and Regal Rose Classic Ink
• Candy Lane Designer Series Paper
• Scallop Edge Punch
• Stampin’ Up Birds & Blooms Sizzlits Set
• Big Shot Die Cutting Machine
• Vintage Brads

In other news, I got my first order from the new catalog yesterday! I can't wait to start using it all! I am hoping to spend some time this weekend with all my new stuff! :)