Rainbow Watercolor Elephant Birthday Card

This week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is Anything Goes, and I wanted to use the elephant from the February 2015 Pinkfresh Studio kit, sans umbrella, on a card. I selectively inked the elephant to exclude the umbrella, and also used a baby wipe to clean off what I couldn't avoid of the umbrella handle, and stamped it repeatedly with Tuxedo Black Memento ink on white cardstock.

I then watercolored the background gray and the elephants themselves in a rainbow of colors, from yellow to orange, red, pink, purple, and finally blue. It turns out that Memento ink is water resistant after it dries, and worked better than I expected with watercoloring.




Since the watercoloring partially obscured the stamped images after they dried, I went back over all the elephants with a black Sharpie pen. I cut the watercolored panel diagonally to split it apart, and stamped the birthday sentiment in between, along with adding some rhinestones and paper piercing.

SUPPLIES:

Paper: Staples 8.5x11 white cardstock
Embellishments: rhinestones from Pinkfresh Studio and Jo-Ann
Stamps: Pinkfresh Studio (elephant), Paper Salon (sentiment)
Tools: Loew-Cornell Dry Pan Watercolor Paint Cakes 24 Colors from Jo-Ann
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Parker's Thank You Cards

For thank you cards I sent for Parker's baby gifts, I made a smaller card (2.5 x 3.5 inches) and went with an elephant theme (I also used an elephant on Parker's monthly photo badges).

I cut the elephant from gray Bazzill cardstock with my Silhouette. I backed the elephant ear with Green Apple Divine Twine, which also gave it some dimension when I adhered it to the card. For the background, I watercolored blue, green, and yellow, then stamped the script in Weathered Wood Distress Ink.




I ended up watercoloring the majority of the cards assembly line-style, meaning first I watercolored blue on all the cards, let them dry, then waterecolored green on all the cards, let dry, and lastly, yellow. That resulted in watercoloring like the card on the left, with more defined strokes of watercolor. The watercoloring on the card on the right is more blended because I did all three colors at the same time, which allowed me to blend more on the paper while all three colors were wet.

SUPPLIES:

Paper: Bazzill Basics Paper (gray and robin's egg cardstock); Fox River Paper Co beige cardstock
Embellishments: Green Apple Divine Twine
Stamps: Hero Arts Manuscript Background
Tools: Loew-Cornell Dry Pan Watercolor Paint Cakes 24 Colors from Jo-Ann; Silhouette Cameo and elephant shape (design #20914);
Ink: Ranger Distress Ink in Weathered Wood

Butterfly Bench Layout

I came across two articles recently that both advocated printing out photographs, since they'll likely outlast the digital versions of those pictures:

The Most Photographed Generation Will Have No Pictures in 10 Years!
Print out digital photos or risk losing them, Google boss warns

If it weren't for my scrapbooking, I think it's very likely that I would not print out very many of the digital pictures that we take. Yes, a big part of the scrapbooking for me is about crafting, but at the end of the day, there is something tangible to show for it that I enjoy looking at, and I hope our kids will too. As it is, I know Evie really likes looking at pictures on our phones and computers.

This picture of me, Greg, and Evie isn't of any special event, but we were on vacation in the Bay area, visiting Greg's aunt. One of the places we visited while there was Annieglass, and in front of it there was this butterfly bench that we thought was unique, so we took a family picture on it.








Given the blue building and butterfly bench, I stuck with blue as the main color, though I added in pink and green accents. I used the Pinkfresh Studio/Wilna Furstenberg stencil several times on the patterned paper with a couple different shades of blue Glimmer Mist. I debated, but ultimately opted not to spray the back of the stencil with something like Easy-Tack before I used Glimmer Mist on it. Next time around, I might try the Easy-Tack on the back to see if I get a cleaner image from the stencil when using it with spray inks.

SUPPLIES:

Paper: Studio Calico Print Shop patterned paper; white and light blue vellum
Embellishments: Pinkfresh Studio (heart sequins, canvas tag, circle die cut washi, "happy" screen printed transparent card, rub-on, wood veneer, enamel frame), Cosmo Cricket Summer Love tag; Basic Grey white alphabet stickers; pink washi tape from Pick Your Plum
Stamps: Pinkfresh Studio clear stamps
Tools: Pinkfresh Studio stencil, brush stroke die
Ink: Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist; Tsukineko VersaMark clear pigment ink; Ranger Distress Ink in Picked Raspberry

Parker at 6 Weeks Old

Parker was six weeks old as of yesterday.

Baby feet! Snoozing during Evie's Chinese school class.

Snoozing during Evie's swim class. Lots of snoozing while we are out, since he, almost without fail, falls asleep in the car.

Wide awake.

• Lately, the bedtime schedule has been about 9:00ish down to bed, wake up to feed around 1:00 or 2:00 am, then again around 4:00 or 5:00 am. Not bad, especially if he goes back to sleep after feeding (which doesn't always happen, but more often than not, I think).
• Is increasingly alert and getting better neck control, so he wants to be up looking around instead of laying.
• Seems like he is starting to respond to playing with smiles and talking. He doesn't respond consistently, but at least occasionally when I play with him (versus not at all a month ago).
• Although his umbilical stump fell off a few weeks ago, his belly button is still healing, which is on the longer end of healing. In contrast, Evie's belly button had healed by the time her stump fell off within a couple weeks. I took Parker in to the pediatrician yesterday just to make sure it was still fine; we're going to see if it heals by his 2-month appointment.
• Still jaundiced, but the pediatrician didn't seem too concerned, so I'm not that worried. He also mentioned it sometimes takes longer to go away for babies who are only nursing (no formula).

Similar to Evie, I'll be switching to monthly posts from here on out.

Fresh from Heaven Elephant Baby Card

The February Pinkfresh Studio kit came with this cute elephant stamp, which I wanted to use on a baby card. Coincidentally, this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is animals (Lions and Lambs, oh my!) and The Daily Marker has a 30 day coloring challenge going on.

The stamp comes with hearts and stars above the umbrella, but since I wanted to stamp the hearts and stars as if they were raining down the card, I used a knife to cut apart the hearts and stars part from the elephant and umbrella. (A tiny part of me is like, gasp! for cutting a stamp apart, but it's easy to put it back together for stamping).





Before stamping the hearts and stars raining down, I quickly added some blue watercoloring to the card, except under the umbrella, to give it a bit more of a raining look. The elephant and umbrella were also colored in with watercolors, and rhinestones from the kit were added here and there.

SUPPLIES:

Paper: Paper Source paper bag 8.5 x 11 cardstock; Staples 8.5 x 11 white cardstock
Embellishments: Pinkfresh Studio rhinestones
Stamps: American Crafts sentiment and frame, Pinkfresh Studio elephant
Tools: Loew-Cornell Dry Pan Watercolor Paint Cakes 24 Colors from Jo-Ann; black embossing powder from Jo-Ann
Ink: Ranger Distress Ink in Stormy Sky; Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Parker's Monthly Photos

Similar to Evie's monthly photos, I'm taking monthly photos of Parker until 12 months.

Parker's One Month Photo

This time around with Parker, I'm trying out monthly baby photos with him laying on a blue minky blanket, and photos taken on my phone. This allows me to take photos in the front room of the house, which gets a lot of light during the day.




Similar to Evie's monthly photos, I'm taking monthly photos of Parker until 12 months: Parker's Monthly Photos.

Parker at 5 Weeks Old

Parker was five weeks old as of yesterday.

Nina likes to sit on Greg's lap, with or without Parker, whether or not Parker was there first. Though in this case, she was there first, and Parker came after. With Evie, I don't think she came around at all if Evie was with Greg, so this seems like an improvement in tolerating a baby/child.

Sleeping with the new guy in my life. Ha.

Tummy time


I was waiting for the water in the shower to warm up so that I could give Evie a shower, and had put Parker on the bed. I noticed after I was done showering Evie that she had covered Parker with her blankie and put her Roo next to him. Cute!

• This week has mostly just been routine - eat, sleep, diaper. Some awake time thrown in.
• I'm fan of the cooing that he sometimes does. And his chunky baby thighs.
• I take back what I said about swaddling before. He didn't seem to like it or it didn't work very well at the beginning, but I decided to give swaddling another try this past week, and it did have a positive effect with Parker's sleeping now. Hooray! I'm trying to get him on a sleeping schedule-ish, to the extent that it's possible right now.

Not a Parker observation, but I read this article someone wrote: 20 Things No One EVER Tells You About Giving Birth. Truth. Especially #16, 17, 18, and 19. I didn't experience certain things because I had a C-section both times, but I've had friends mention #10, 13, and 14. Before I had Evie, I'd heard about #10 and 14 from people who already had kids and I was like, WHAT. (Though I ended up not having that experience personally).

Retro Sketches 156 Dream, Wish, Simply Do Congrats Card

Card for this week's retro sketch:





Graduation is still a couple months away, but I'll be using this card as a graduation card.

I cut apart the "dream it, wish it, simply do it" stamp in the February 2015 Pinkfresh Studio kit so that I could line up the three pieces in a straight line, which helped with stamping the background of the card. Black and white plus sign patterned paper is from Studio Calico Print Shop collection. Pinkfresh Studio scribble die was used to cut the Bazzill silver cardstock, and Thickers were used for the "congrats."

SUPPLIES:

Paper: Staples 8.5 x 11 cardstock; Studio Calico Print Shop black and white plus sign patterned paper; Bazzill Basics blue and silver cardstock
Embellishments: Pinkfresh Studio rhinestones; Eyelet Outlet white enamel dot; American Crafts Dear Lizzy Fantastic white foam Thickers
Stamps: Pinkfresh Studio "Dream It, Wish It, Simply Do It" stamp
Tools: Pinkfresh Studio scribble circle die; Fiskars 2" circle punch
Ink: Ranger Distress Ink in Broken China

Heart Sequin Grid Congrats Card

With the heart sequins from the January 2015 Pinkfresh Studio kit, I wanted to make this card with a grid design, throwing in a couple of other kinds of sequins for variety. And also, pink and teal are a go-to color combination recently, it seems.





Sentiment was heat embossed in white to make it pop more against the kraft cardstock, and white opaque spray ink added to the edges.

SUPPLIES:

Paper: Paper Source paper bag solid cardstock
Embellishments: Pinkfresh Studio heart sequins; Teresa Collins Nine & Co sequins
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Congrats All Ways
Tools: white embossing powder from Jo-Ann
Ink: Studio Calico White Mister Huey spray ink

Parker at 4 Weeks Old

Parker was four weeks old as of yesterday.

Almost drifting off to sleep during tummy time.

Yawn. Just before this, he started laughing after falling asleep in my arms. I'm not a huge emoji person, but if I were . . . heart eyes emoji here.

Care for a spot of tea?

Yes, I will gladly take a view of baby feet while on a stroll in the neighborhood.

• He's slowly getting better neck control and keeping his pacifier in. Still a ways to go, but better.
• Sometimes his lower lip quivers, we're not sure why, but I think it's funny.
• Though he still sleeps a lot, it's not as much as the first couple of weeks. He is a bit more awake during the day now (partly with some encouragement on our part to be more awake during the day than at night).
• At the beginning, I was sleeping in the same room as Parker in the middle of the night because he was up so much. It's stabilized some that I don't need to do that anymore. He still gets up every 2-3 hours to nurse, but will generally go back to sleep, which means I can go back to sleep in our room. Some nights, it's easier than others to get him to go back to sleep after night feedings though. In those cases, I think to myself, Gah. GO TO SLEEP, BABY. It makes me think of this book, but to be fair, we feel that way with Evie's bedtime some nights too.
• I found this out earlier than now, but he doesn't like to get swaddled and gets angry (which makes him more awake and interferes with him actually going to sleep). Evie, in contrast, slept better when swaddled.
• No issues with nursing for the past couple of weeks - just took a bit of getting used to on his part. Although, I am a bit concerned that I should've started pumping before this week to get a stockpile going before going back to work . . . :/

Altered Composition Book

After a guest design stint last year for Whisker Graphics (Clever Cards and Envelopes | Bitty Bag Mini Albums | Colored Tag Art), I got an email a couple of weeks ago asking about joining the design team (!), so here we are with my first project, an altered composition book.

I remember in middle school/high school, I would see people covering their textbooks with paper bags, and this project is reminiscent of that. I picked up a 5" x 7" composition book that was $0.98 on clearance in the office supplies section of Target. Using a couple of Whisker Graphics Middy Bitty Bag, I re-covered the composition book and embellished it.

INSTRUCTIONS:

(from left to right, top to bottom)
1-2. Deconstruct two Middy Bitty Bags at the bottoms and the sides.
3-4. Trim the deconstructed bags down to size, using the composition book as reference, to end up with two pieces per bag, four pieces total (two larger pieces and two smaller pieces). The larger pieces will be used for the front and back covers while the larger pieces will be used for the inside of the front and back covers.
5. For the smaller pieces that will go on the inside, round the corners.
6. Since the smaller pieces that go on the inside won't completely cover the inside cover, line the edges of the inside cover with washi tape, then adhere the smaller pieces with the rounded corners. I used both Scrappy Tape and Tombow Mono liquid glue to adhere cover pieces and would recommend the glue over the tape, though both work fine.



(from left to right, top to bottom)
7-8. Using an embroidery stencil kit, stitch "note" onto a large colored tag. For the twine, which is normally four strands, I stripped away one strand and embroidered with three strands to make it less bulky. Trim down the tag on both sides, including the punched hole.
9. Round two of the corners on the stitched large colored tag. Adhere the larger pieces of the Middy Bitty Bags to the front and back covers. Add washi tape to the spine to cover the black composition book binding.
10-11. Embellish the front cover of the composition book. In addition to the stitched large colored tag, I added a blue Sweet Sticky Label cut in half, enamel dots, washi tape, and sequins.
12. Add a couple of heart-shaped sequins. Cut the "take" using Silhouette Cameo and adhere.

See this project on the Whisker Graphics blog here: Bitty Bag Book Wrap

SUPPLIES:

Paper: Whisker Graphics Middy Bitty Bag (I used metallic silver chevron, but any of the designs would work for this); Whisker Graphics Large Colored Tag in pink; Bazzill Basics Paper marshmallow cardstock
Embellishments: Whisker Graphics Navy Solid Divine Twine; Whisker Graphics Blue Sweet Sticky Labels; Eyelet Outlet enamel dots; PInkfresh Studio heart sequins, Pinkfresh Studio ombre and glitter washi tape; My Mind's Eye washi tape; mt washi tape
Tools: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper; Silhouette Cameo; American Crafts Amy Tangerine Plus One Embroidery Stencil Kit; Scrappy Tape from Scrapbook Pal; Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue; Glue Dots