Pink Seashell Scrapbooks

A Baby Shower!

My best friend, Heather, is expecting her first baby, a boy, in October! Her mother and I are throwing her shower at their house in August!

While working on decorating the baby's room, she has been trying to make it more whimsical and vintage versus mainstream boy. It fits with their house, an old Victorian, and style. I wanted to keep the invitations to her style and decided to follow the vintage theme. Over the past few years I've been collecting lots of vintage papers - this year in particular as many companies have been creating with vintage images and style.

Here are a few shots of the final product: 

The process:

I cut chipboard using the Big Top Die for Sizzix/ Cuttlebug by Stampin Up. I then went through my stash of paper and cut that out using the die again. I simply used a glue stick and my brayer to attach the papers. On the back i used matching card stock. For the final steps I printed off the invitation information, used a corner rounder and attached to the back over the card stock. For the fronts of the invitation I used the curly label punch, also from Stampin Up, for the saying "first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage." I embellished each invitation separately using buttons, fibers, stickles and anything else I could find!  

A Christmas Tradition

When I was about 3 years old a tradition started with my parents and their friends around Newburyport. My parents have this group of friends that extends to 30+ people and they truly know how to have fun! I don't know how or why the tradition started - likely they all wanted to do something with the kids and most don't have families around so this started. Christmas Eve we go to the Simkins house - this is a picture of the house in all the glory of the gardens during the summer. At Christmas Richard spares nothing on decorations - wreaths in all the windows in the front of the house with candles, a big tree - it's magical. We get all dressed up and head over for a lovely party, a reading of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and a visit from Santa. Each year one of the kids reads 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and we all gather in the living room to listen. Jason & I were the oldest so we were 2 of the first to read it and now we are getting into the next generation and soon enough James' boys will be able to read.

About 10 years ago my brother, Stratton, took the reigns of dressing asSanta. Now that he has a little boy it's even more fun. (It will be interesting when Theo recognizes his Daddy's voice, but I guess we'll cross that bridge. The benefit is that he calls Strat "bubba' so maybe no one will figure it out!) A few years ago I took over making the invitations for the party. I spend half the year deciding what I want to do and then scramble before Xmas to do it! This year I am actually done early with plenty of time for the invites to get out (really it's just protocol, everyone knows where they are going on Xmas Eve!) I had a lot of fun doing this years invitation - incorporating a few vintage images, a picture of Theo on 'Santa's' lap from last year, some Tim elements (after all it is the 12 tags of Christmas), and of course glitter and fibers.

Here is a look of the front... I designed it in a matchbook sort of way with a little fold at the bottom that I scallop edge with the new Stampin Up scallop edge punch - love this - and inked with a gold cats eye.The patterned paper I used on this was from the Kaiser holiday line - Deck the Halls. I loved the red with the green holly leaves - simple and pretty. I then layered 2 vintage images - one is the words to A Christmas Carol (otherwise known as Twas the  Night Before Christmas and the other of Santa with his sleigh and reindeer. After putting all the images on the front (I did stickles last), I picked a ribbon - I used a different ribbon on each card b/c I have a problem and I just buy ribbon. Therefore I need to use it. I have to say, the American Crafts ribbons were really easy to work with, the bows tie very nicely.

Once the front and ribbon were done I worked on the inside. Because everyone knows where Christmas Eve is, I don't really have to do the whole Where, What, When, Time, etc. Using a label format in Word, I printed off a quick time, place with Simkins & Nichelmann's (their daughter and her husband) using the Richard Murray font - love this font! I think I got it off dafont about 5 years ago. What was very fun about the inside of the card was that I have the 'December' calendar stamp by Tim so I used that and found a little circle to use in circling the 24th. I stamped the calendar with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and the circle with Black Soot Distress Ink. I let them dry for a minute - found out the hard way that they will smudge! While that would dry I cut the time label, inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and distressed the edge a little. The last element of the inside was a sticker from Melissa Frances - again, apparently I have a problem b/c I had several sheets and decided this would be a great way to use them. I put the calendar in with a little fiber around it, inked and distressed then used pop dots to raise it a little.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As mentioned above, the final step was decorating the front with a little stickles- a girls best friend! I used both distress stickles and the good ole glitter stickles!

Here's a look at the products I used: