The frame for the boys

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, 4 generations, I made a frame for Pressley and the men in her life. Here it is. See the previous post for the details on it.

4 generations!

Okay, so are you completely tired of me talking about this shower? I'm sure you are. The shower was today. And it was FABULOUS. She got so much stuff. Most of the class pitched in for a group gift (which I ended getting a gift card to Babies R Us). She wanted a pack-n-play for her house but one of the moms gave her a gently used one, which she was happy to receive. I gave her a glider rocking chair and ottoman last week. I had 2 and I am done with one of them. That way she can rock her sweet granddaughter. Anyway, the kids were SO funny about the shower. They had a blast! Many of the families got individual gifts as well as contributing to the group gift so it was extra special! Anyway, one of the moms told the kids (16 4 and 5 year olds!) that at adult baby showers, it is customary to OOH and AAH after every gift is open. Boy, do they catch on quickly! HA!

So, I have two more presents to share with you that I made. Yes, I know, I went CRAZY for this shower. BUT it is SO much fun! One is a wall hanging that celebrates the four generations of ladies in this family. It is made out of chipboard coasters and uses the Paisley Designer Paper from the SU! Spring Mini. Fabulous colors! The sayings under each picture spot are "me", "me and my mom", "me and my grandma", "me and my great grandma". I did the writing on the vellum on the computer and printed it out. I tied all four coasters together with grosgrain ribbon. And used the pewter hodgepodge kit to put hangers at the top.

Well, I couldn't very well leave out the men, could I? I made a picture frame to sit on a desk or table for the pictures with dad and grandpa. I used the same paper but the more manly, stripes. These coasters are put together using little hinges I got from Starlitstudio's ebay store. She is the greatest, btw. She's a Splitcoast regular and I'd like to call her a friend! Okay, well, the camera is in the car. I'll upload the picture tomorrow.

Standard baby shower gift works everytime!

So, again, personalized stuff... important to me. You know, I had a very small but very busy embroidery business right before I found SU! I got burned out with all the orders I had to do on Christmas Eve and decided only to just do it for myself. Anyway, I started that business by word of mouth and made lots and lots of personalized stuff for myself and others. It was fun. I still have the sewing machine but I don't do it much... that would be time *away* from stamping! LOL! Anyway, here's my standard gift for baby showers. I like to give 10-25 very simple white cards with the child's name on it and footprints from the SU! retired set, Cuddles and Tickles to use as thank yous or whatever. Every new mom seems to love having them - don't have to go to the store to buy some thank yous or don't really have time to make their own! I completely get that. So, while they're not very detailed, they are very functional! And do you know how many of these I've received back in the mail? How FUN! The card has the baby's name and footprints and the envelopes have the footprints and "tickled pink" from Amuse stamps (love their fonts on their words!)

My dear, sweet, FABULOUSLY TALENTED, upline (and friend), Jenn Balcer, is notorious for picking up frames here and there on clearance, stashing them for a long time (so long that no one will ever be able to duplicate her work because they can't find the frames! - believe I know!). Anyway, then she pulls one out, decorates it all fancy and stuff and then gives it away - Hey Jenn, how come you haven't sent me one, yet? :P

Anyway, I went through a phase (or should I say craze) a while back where I was searching high and low for a great deal on frames. Now, in my craft room rehaul... I am finding them all :(. OOPS. Thanks Jenn. Now, I am the one pulling them out of *my* stash to make something clever.

First, here is the original frame. Found at Target last fall for $3.98, I think. It's a 8x10 white metal frame that is kinda shadow-box like (it has a bit of depth to it... not much but it's nice). The picture opening is 4x6. AND the back had a protective covering over it so it wouldn't get scratched. Pretty good for $4, right? The mat was very summer-y.

I showed it to my husband before I "fixed" it and said "take a look at this". He said nothing. I think he thought I did this to the mat. Jenn probably likes the colors! But they're not me. You probably know that by now.

Did I mention that I got two of them? As I do stuff for this baby shower, I realize that I keep leaving people out. The great grandmother (the original Pressley) will be there. I thought it would be nice to give her something, too. So, I made her one as well.

The great grandma one is Pretty in Pink and Chocolate Chip. The Grandma one is Celery and Apricot. I am really pleased how these turned out.

Good thing I had to follow in Jenn's footsteps. Oh, and my stamp room has 3 fewer frames (includes the name frame) now! Baby steps...

Remember my Colin Cowie entry?

I sold one of those boxes of cards to one of the preschool teachers today. She loved her b'day present so much that she wanted to give it to someone else! How cool is that? That made me smile today.

Very little advice

I was trying to come up with a catchy title for this book I made for the baby shower. I ended up with "advice from little people" but it really should be called "little advice" since they really isn't any advice in there! I asked all the parents to ask their kids 3 questions for our soon-to-be-grandma teacher: 1) What is a good name for the baby? 2) What is the greatest thing about grandparents? 3) What should you do when the baby cries? Talk about funny answers! Anyway, I decided to put all the answers in a book and give it to her. Well, of course, I had to "make" the book. I used SU's new 5x5 chipboard book in the Spring Mini. I think I'll have to stock up on these. I know I'm going to use them for the end of school teacher gifts! Anyway, I decorated it using the new hole punch that is also in the Spring Mini (to get the paper exactly on the cover). I covered both front and back of both covers with the new SU! Petals & Paisleys Designer Paper. I need more of that, too! On the first page, I stamped "find joy in the little things" - it seems SO appropriate. The big flower on the front makes me SO happy. I got that at Target, I think. I love the way this little book turned out!

Grandma baby shower

The grandma baby shower for my son's preschool teacher is this week. I've been working on some of her gifts. Here's a little background information. Ms. Jo Anne (the teacher) has three grown boys. Her first grandbaby will be a GIRL. She'll be here in a few weeks. Ms. Jo Anne is so thrilled! Ms. Jo Anne's mother is here visiting from Minnesota and her name is Pressley. How cool and hip is that for a name. Ms. Pressley visited the classroom last week and leave it to MY son to ask her how old she is. She's a young 84 years old! Well, this first grandbaby will be named Pressley. Isn't that fabulous? I especially love the fact that she (the baby) is being named after someone that is still living. That is such the tribute. And well, I think the name is pretty fun, too.

As many of you know, my name is not all that common here in the states. And it's spelled a little differently than the common way to spell it back in India. My spelling is "Geeta" and the more common is "Gita". Anyway, being born here and growing up in Canada and Texas, LOTS of people had trouble saying and spelling my name. So, when we had kids, we had some simple rules about picking names - they had to be pretty unique, one syllable, easy to pronounce, and easy to spell. We pretty much stuck with that for both boys. Anyway, after all of this blabbing, what's the point? Names. Names are very important to me. I always try to give a personalized gift whenever there is an unusual name. You don't know how many turnstyle things with personalized name items I've turned (like license plates, keychains, pencils, etc. - you know what I mean) at every amusement park, craft store, etc. looking for my name (this was when I was little, of course). You know how many I found? Zero. One time in Mexico, my dad got me a personalized ring that they carved right there. I still have it. Problem is it's made out of brass and turns my finger green. Ew!. While at Disney, I got my oldest boy one (passing the tradition down) but his is sterling silver... no green for him.

So, back to the name thing... I think people like to see their name on stuff. I made Pressley (her middle name is going to be Ava btw, I think that's cool too) a name frame for her room (at her parents house - so not such a great gift for the grandma... but I'm working on that, too). Her room is primary colors (can you believe that? It's a GIRL and they're using primary colors! She should be decked out in PURPLE! Sheesh! Of course, this is from a mom of TWO boys and everything we have is Primary Colors. Maybe that's why my stamp room is Purple!). The "primary" primary color is Yellow. I went with Summer Sun and not Yo Yo Yellow because Yo Yo is just plain awful (IMHO). Can you imagine looking at Yo Yo for any extended length of time. I didn't want to blind the child. Summer Sun, Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Whisper White CS, Doodle This stamp set (love this.), Warm Words, Amazing to Zany, and Headline Alphabet. And then some embellishments.

I hope they all like it. To me, it's fun to get stuff with my name on it. What do you think? Do you have an unusual name?

Found my stampin' mojo...

It's good to be stamping again. I have a ton of projects to do this week so hopefully I update the blog again. Last week, I had a hard time getting started after vacation. I felt like I lost my "stampin' mojo"( as my friend, Michelle, would say!)

The last hostess club for this round was Friday night. As usual, we did 3 cards and learned 3 new techniques: Rock n Roll, No-tie bow (not Taebo, Lori! :P), Bleach.

Here are the cards:

Rock n Roll uses the SU! Wild About You set, Weathered Background, Lavendar Lace CS, Apricot Appeal CS, Certainly Celery CS, Whisper White CS, and Apricot grosgrain ribbon. Isn't that lion cute? I think I'm really starting to like Apricot - it's a shock to me since I've never been a yellow person!

No-tie bow uses the SU! Spring Garden set, Cool Carribean CS,
Marigold Morning (starting to love this color too - and it's going away soon :( ), Whisper White, Sponge, 1/8" hole punch, and Mustard grosgrain. How can you go wrong with Spring Garden? The tulips are always so pretty no matter what color you do them in! My friend, Michelle, sent me a card last week with this set. It's somewhat similar but not the same and she did hers in Gable Green and Regal Rose. Very pretty.

And finally, the bleach card. Now, most of you know that I don't "dress" up much. You know it's that previous life as an engineer - jeans or shorts and t-shirts (like college!) but I do try to look half-way decent for my workshops. But Friday night, I wore my "paint the house, clean the closets, stay - at - home - and - don't - let - anyone - see - me" t-shirt for the workshop. WHY? Well, because I am a bleach magnet! I can get bleach on me just by looking at the Clorox bottle. Seriously! Practically every brand new shirt I got would immediately get bleach on it. Mind you, I don't even use bleach when doing laundry so how does it happen??? Anyway, I just knew that I'd get it on me so I wore the old shirt. So, this card uses the SU! set Polka Dots and Paisley (from the Spring Mini), the Paisley background, Happy Everything, Tempting Turquoise CS, Taken with Teal CS, Cameo Coral CS (I never use this color!), Certainly Celery CS, the same color markers, Basic Black, and the new file folder punch. The bleach is on the turquoise CS.

So, I'm back at it. I think I found my mojo again...

Score!

You never know what you'll find...

Remember that wedding I had to go to the night before Disney? At the reception, there were little thank you gifts (yummy pralines) wrapped in tissue paper with a ribbon and this cool charm hanging from them. I was more excited about the charm then I was about the pralines! Everyone at the table gave me theirs! Now, I need to make something cool with them. You just never know what you'll find. Keep your eyes open!

Vacation is over....

Hey everyone! Did you think I got lost?

It was Spring Break here last week and my family and I went to Disney World! Yes, we did take our 1 year old and the 4 1/2 year old with us. We really wanted to take our oldest son before he leaves that "he's in awe of everything" stage. I think he'll always love Disney but *we* wanted to experience his reaction at this age. Some say he won't remember it. He might not but he does have an awesome memory. Anyway, our 1 year-old (weird to say that he's one!), was an absolute angel. He didn't nap hardly at all. Maybe a 10 minute nap all day and then we yanked him out of the stroller onto the next ride, movie, attraction. He never cried about it at all. He just went with the flow. I don't know why I am surprised about that. He's done that pretty much all his life. My husband that he was substituting food for sleep. It worked pretty well. Disney was AWESOME, as Disney always is. But more importantly, my family had quality family time. It was absolutely perfect and I wish it didn't have to end. Everyday we commented on how truly blessed we are to have such a loving, sweet family.

So, to answer your question... no, I'm not lost. Just didn't want to stop vacationing. My husband gets his 2 month sabbatical this summer. I can't wait for that. This weekend, we will celebrate the 18th anniversary of our first date (mind you, we knew each other a bit longer than that). Our 10 year wedding anniversary is in May. And of all that time, we haven't been apart that much. We lived in different cities for 3 years while we were dating but we saw each other every weekend for 3 years except TWO. We've done EVERYTHING together - undergraduate, graduate school, work together, taken fun classes like ceramics and ballroom dancing and now we have 2 very sweet boys. My life is complete.

Okay, sorry for all the sappiness... but I truly am blessed and very happy with my life.

As for stamping, yes, I am back at it. Last night, I made 24 of those baby shower invites that I was working on before Spring Break. You can see the picture in the previous post.

Oh and my room organization... well, it's a bit on hold. I gotta get some time to finish that!

MIA!

Okay, so I've gone missing for a while, haven't I?

Sickness had plagued our household starting last Thursday until yesterday (Wed). ALL three boys in this house were sick. YUCK! What else... oh yea, nephew had a birthday (turned 6!), husband had a birthday (turned ??), and my dear, sweet baby boy turned ONE yesterday. Between the sickness, birthdays, and trying to get ready for Spring Break, I, as you know, decided to *start* organizing my stamp room. So, that's where I've been. Oh, yea, and we got a new dishwasher! YAY! That's just a happy thing for me to think about. Yes, it's quiet but it *actually* cleans the dishes! What an accomplishment! Did I mention that I went to Target EVERY day this week?

Many of you have asked to see my stamp room. Well, it's not done yet and I don't want to reveal a half-done project! So, when I get to it (it might still be awhile! :(), I'll post the pictures. It's amazing how much stuff I have. Sheesh. Interestingly enough, I found in one of my craft boxes from when back when, my 1st embossing kit. My dad got it for me when I was in college, I think. Who knew I'd like card-making/stamping so many years later. I guess maybe he did. But then he did know me incredibly well. He's the reason I became an engineer. He thought I'd like it.

Anyway, so tonight, I started to organize yet a bit more (it takes forever to organize if you can only do it in 10-15 min increments!). Then I thought I'd take a break and stamp a bit. I have a ton to stamp and I really should get started.

I am throwing my son's preschool teacher a baby shower after Spring Break. Well, not a baby shower for her. She's not pregnant. Her son's wife is. She'll be a grandma for the first time. So, we're giving her a grandma shower... from the kids. I have so much to do! First the invitations! Problem *was* that I was obsessing way to much about it. I couldn't decide on what set to use... first problem... then what colors and what layout. I did come up with something and I made a prototype tonight. The great thing is that after I did it I moved on to the next card and it sat for a while. When I picked it up again, I really liked it. I hope she likes it too!

We're going to a wedding on Saturday and I need a card. So, I started to use the Doodle That set. OOH, I love it! I started with white craft on black. LOVE IT. Then I decided I didn't like it for a wedding card. So, I made a generic card. Not thrilled with the result but it's okay.

Finally, the wedding card. I wanted SIMPLE and elegant. Nothing is more elegant than black and white. Well, I think weddings should have color, too... not just black and white. So, I threw in some red. Very simple and no frills. No ribbon, nothing. Inside greeting is also in white and says "Congratulations .... Wishing two wonderful people one wonderful life."

So, I may have been MIA and I may still be, who knows? What's that saying? Can't wait until vacation is over so I can rest?

My hands hurt!

It's all Jenn's fault (see Jenn Balcer's blog link to the right). She "updated" her stamp room. I've been thinking about organizing mine. She just made me think about it more.

You may remember that we closed in my open game room last year (when I was pregnant! - uh, no "we" didn't do it - we hired someone) and I got cabinets and a desktop and lots of drawers built, too.

Here's the sad part... my baby will turn one this next week. Know what that means? That means my stamp room is one also! AND I haven't unpacked half the boxes of junk, er craft stuff, etc. yet. There are boxes and boxes of stuff lining up two of the four walls. The room is just a disaster. And that doesn't make me feel very happy about it.

So, Jenn... on on of her walls, she has this cube system (3 drawers, 4 drawers, glass doors, etc.) that looks pretty nice. They are from Target. Wednesday night after the boys went to bed, I went to Target to check them out. I came home with 12 cubes (4 different styles). Well, here it is Friday night, and I, myself, put together 12 cubes!

So, my hands hurt from holding the heavy drill/screwdriver thing. But they look sharp. No, they're not in place yet - that would require moving those previously mentioned boxes first! ACK!.

I'm not sure when I'll get to organizing because the next 2 weeks are a bit busy around here, but I"m itching to do so. I'll post pictures when I get to it. I'll have to stamp first though - I've got stuff I need to make!

Anyway, that's where I've been!