More Chocolate Announcments--Can I be stopped?

I had a doctors appointment on Wednesday. And just when I thought this pregnancy had come to an end my doctor informs me that baby is doing SO well that she wants me to get to my due date now. AHHHH I thought I would be induced next week but looks like I'll be going another week. Baby was actually SO active at the appointment that when they hooked me up to the heart monitors to monitor baby every time they'd 'find' baby and start recording baby would switch sides. The doctor wanted at least 20 minutes of continuous monitoring and baby would only stay put long enough for 5-10 minutes at a time then we'd loose the signal. The baby would literally switch sides and roll over so that the monitor couldn't pick up the heart beat signal. So we'd switch the monitor to the other side and 10 minutes later she'd do it again! So it took almost an hour and 2 nurses to finally get the 20 minutes of monitoring the doctor wanted. So I went in for what I thought would be a 45 minute appointment (after the ultrasound, monitoring and seeing the doctor) almost 2 HOURS later I left!!! If baby doesn't come by October 18 we WILL induce then. Then I'll be overdue and she DOES want the baby out by then. So I should for sure have a baby by then :) We're still very hopeful baby will decide to come on her own in the next week or so. I'll be counting down the next 10 days!!!


I have more chocolate baby announcements to show you. I've seriously gone off the deep end with chocolate in my house. I think I now have more announcements that have candy attached to them in some way than card announcements that we'll send out. Isn't that just crazy!?! And don't tell anyone but I thought of more people I need to make some for--ahhhhahahah!!! Still not sure what I'll do though, but I'll make sure to post them when they're done.

I have 2 different ones to show you today. I've already shown you the other 2 that I've done, 36 of these and 16 of these The first ones I have today I only have 7 of, they're for Logan's teachers and staff at school.
I used the bitty box die for them and when baby comes I'll wrap baby's birth info around the candy and stick it in the box.

I used the All in the Family set and my markers to color them. It actually went really fast.

The next ones I also only have 6 of, they're for the nieces and nephews, so they're not too fancy and were really fast. And the only reason I did them was because the pouches were already made from doing them for Logan's class so I thought why not?!

The birth info will also be wrapped around the candy in this one.

So I think that's it. IF I get around to making an additional 15 or so like I want I'll have completely lost my mind!

Supplies:

Stamp Sets: All in the Family, Teddy and Train

Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Subtles DSP, Lap of Luxury DSP, Whisper White, Concord Crush

Ink: Staz On, Pretty in Pink, Concord Crush pads and Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette, Blush Blossom and Daffodil Delight markers

Accessories: Big Shot, Bitty Box Die, Petal Card Die, Scallop Circle, 1 3/8 and 1 1/4 inch Circle, and Word Window Punches, Dimesionals, Sticky Strip

Think happy baby thoughts for the weekend. Maybe baby will decide that 10-10-10 will be a good birthday, I'm sure hoping and praying for that anyway!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Thinking of you in Peach

I wasn't sure I liked this card at first but the more I looked at it the more I did like it. I think I did go a little nuts with the color spritzer tool but I just love that thing!!!

One color that I was not thrilled with when the color change was made was Cajun Craze. Ugghhh, it just looked too much like Really Rust which I NEVER used! So I wasn't too happy with it and I was sure I'd never use that color. In fact I only have like 2 sheets of it :) But after using it for 2 projects, this one and the one I showed you on Monday I'm learning to live with Cajun Craze and I think with the right colors it does work. So here's my Peachy-Cajun card!

Now how on earth did I pair Peach Parfait with Cajun Craze? None other than the new AWESOME color coach! And together they actually look really good. I did a lot of masking for this card and I had to break out my Stamp a Ma Jig for it too. I'm finding that I'm becoming more and more picky about things lining up. When I first started stamping, one of the things I loved most about our 2 step stamps was that most of them didn't line up perfectly so I didn't have to try too hard to get them to line up. But as I stamp more and more I find myself NEEDING it to line up as close to perfect as possible. This is the Level 2 hostess set, it's so pretty and though I really don't need another flower set this one is perfect for quick cards.

I used the Decorative Label punch for just a little accent on the side. I was going to add some brads to it but they were too much and didn't look right so they were removed. But even with the Cajun Craze I love it and who knows maybe I'll come to LOVE Cajun Craze-probably won't happen too soon though :)

Supplies:

Stamp Sets: Fast and Fabulous, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Cardstock: Peach Parfait, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Hostess DSP 6x6 pack

Ink: Peach Parfait, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso

Accessories: Decorative Label and Scallop Edge Punches, Color Spritzer, Dimensionals

Thanks for looking see you soon!!

Fall Tag

Well I wish I could give you some baby news but nothing yet! We're still trying to naturally induce labor THIS week so that I don't have to be medically induced next week. I've been walking like a mad woman, drinking raspberry tea (which I didn't know induced labor but I guess it does), spicy foods, and more naturally inducing things. But so far nothing is working :) I'll see my doctor on Wednesday and we'll see what she says but if nothing happened and there's no sign of anything happening, we may ask to schedule induction for this weekend. But we are still hoping that I can go without being induced. Just gotta convince baby :) Plus I don't have any winter/fall maternity clothes and the weather's starting to get cooler so now I really need to have this baby :)

Here's today's project. You may remember the elephant and giraffe stuffed animals made from our fabric that I showed you in September, well my friend Lisa in Minnesota-HI LISA wanted one so I asked my Mom to make another and in like a day she had it done. So we shipped it off to Minnesota. I attached a cute little tag around her neck before shipping though :)

So remember when I told you that I had tons of chocolate baby announcements on my desk? Well I didn't notice when I took this picture (the one above) but you can see some of my stacks of chocolate. There's a Hershey box, which is on the top of the stack. The stack is at least 12 inches tall, probably more. Then there's chocolate in the purple bag next to the stack. That's my chocolate announcements for the doctors office. Then in front of that stack that you can't see I have more boxes of chocolate that go all the way to the edge of the desk. And there's even more on my desk now. Some of it's not even in boxes, there's so much of it and I ran out of boxes :) So this baby has got to come before chocolate takes over my desk. Anyway, back to the tag.

I think it's super adorable. I used the 2 tags die and the Paisley Prints stamp set for this tag.

I used my markers to color the leaves. I can't remember off the top of my head but I'm pretty sure I used Daffodil Delight, More Mustard and Cajun Craze. Then I used my color spritzer tool with Early Espresso to cover the leaves and tag. A button to finish it and it's just too cute!

So think baby thoughts this week and I'll keep you up to date too! I think today I'm going to spend Logan's naptime scheduling posts to go up in the next couple of weeks. But as things progress I'll try to update with baby news.

Supplies:

Stamp Sets: Paisley Prints, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Cardstock: Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla

Ink: Daffodil Delight, More Mustard, Cajun Craze and Early Espresso markers

Accessories: Big Shot, Two Tags Die, Neutrals Buttons, Linen Thread, Color Spritzer Tool, Glue Dots, Dimensionals

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

My Mug Mat

Super quick post today. We're taking Logan to a birthday party this afternoon so I don't have much time, but I wanted to show you our make and take from the meeting on Thursday. We made these adorable coasters or as Amber called them 'mug mats'. Which I think I prefer over coasters! It just sounds so much better and cuter!

They were super easy, we used the square scallop die on 2 pieces of our fabric and some felt. We held the 3 layers together with a small x in each corner with some linen thread. I love them. They're super easy. The mug mat went with some of the other things Amber demoed but I can't tell you what those were because I think I'm going to make lots of Christmas gifts this year and use her idea. :)

Here's the mug mat in action, though with my glass of water not a mug, but you get the idea. I'm so looking forward to drinking something other than water when baby is born :)

Ok we're off to a birthday party.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!

Meeting Swaps

Last night was our meeting. I had a great time as usual! But we'll get the to awesome swaps in a second. I had a doctors appointment on Wednesday and she said that everything looks good. Baby looks good and we're going to hope labor starts naturally by itself in the next week or so. If I get to 39 weeks, (which is in 8 days) we'll schedule a date that week to induce. Hopefully I'll have the baby before then without having to be induced but we'll have to wait and see what happens.

The meeting last night was great! Unfortunately most of our group was late due to traffic nightmares thanks to VP Biden's visit here. But everyone eventually got there and it was great. Amber's workshop went great! She did a great workshop with AWESOME projects of which I plan to copy so I won't tell you what she did! I forgot to take a picture of our make and take this morning so I'll get that done and posted in the next day or two. But our swaps were awesome! The theme this month was workshop cards, and THANK YOU to everyone for labeling your cards. You can see my swap here.

First up is Karen. Karen ALWAYS impresses me! Look how simple and stunning this card is!
And the inside, just fabulous!

Next up is Kim 1. I love this set. I don't have it and I don't think I'm going to get it, but never say never because it's really growing on me :) Oh alright....maybe....I probably will just get it :)

This one is Corrina's. I love the colors and those cute cupcakes. I don't have this set either. But that's the AWESOME thing about swaps is that even if I don't have the set, I still have samples using that set to show my customers. Isn't that great!

This one is Kim 2. I love those colors, especially the Concord Crush and I never thought I would like that color!

This one is Pam's. It's beautiful! I love the fall colors on this one too.

This one is Michelle C's card. It's amazing how one tiny piece of ribbon can add so much to a card! I love this card.

This one is by Michelle G. I'm so glad I got that Aviary Stamp Set. Just wish I had more time to use it. I love how Michelle used an eyelet on the birdcage.

This super cute Christmas one is Carmelita's. I love how she used the border punch on the top and bottom of the cardstock. CUTE! Carmelita also brought me a HUGE bag of baby girl clothes, I LOVE THEM. THANKS Carmelita!!!

This one is Mindy's. I love those owls! I don't have that hostess set either but it's really growing on me. The more I see it the more I love it! And I love how she made the cardstock look like ribbon on the bottom of the card. So cute!

This one is by Nichole. She's Michelle's new recruit. I love this embossing folder, I think it's one of my favorites. It's so pretty that you can make a great card just with the folder!

This one is Amber's. It's hard to tell from the picture but there are rhinestones on the tree and you all know how much I LOVE the rhinestones :)

This one is Kay's. I love the colors, and never in a million years would I have put Real Red with Peach Parfait but it works!

This one is by Theresa. I love the butterflies, I love the embossing folder, I LOVE IT all!!

If you're interested in joining our group of demonstrators you still have a couple of weeks to sign up and get the great Greenhouse Gala tote bag! I'd love to talk to you about being a demonstrator, so if you're interested please let me know!! We have the MOST fun at our meetings!! And I'd love for you to join us!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Peace on Earth Swap

Our monthly demonstrator meeting is tonight and normally I would be preparing a 3 minute demo but this month were doing a different kind of meeting and I'm super excited about it. We're going to a pretend workshop. Amber will be the demonstrator and we'll all be guests. Doesn't that sound like fun!? I'm excited. We have lots of new people and people that haven't done workshops in a while so we thought doing a pretend one might give people ideas and see how it's done so that we'll want to go out and book a ton and do a ton of workshops too! I love our meetings, I just love hanging out with our group of demonstrators, they're some of the nicest and most creative people I know! Plus I'm really excited not to have to worry about a 3 minute demo this month :) But we're still doing a card exchange and since we're going to a 'workshop' the theme this month is workshop cards. So like I do in my workshops I try to keep my cards fairly simple. So here's my swap this month.

This is the level 2 hostess set in the mini catalog right now and I LOVE the greetings in it. I don't know if it's the fonts of what they say I just love them!! So this card looks simple and IS but uses a bunch of products which is nice. First we have the lovely Deck the Halls DSP, the hostess stamp set and punches. So while it's an easy fast card it's a great card to show our products too.

The earth is popped up with dimensionals, it's a little hard to tell from the picture :) I got the idea for this card from a card on splitcoast, I love that site :)

You could always jazz up this card a little more simply by adding some ribbon or other accessory if you wanted.

Supplies:

Stamp Sets: Peaceful Season

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Deck the Halls DSP
Ink: Early Espresso, Always Artichoke

Accessories: Scallop Trim Border Punch, 3/4 inch Circle Punch, Dimesionals

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Christmas Treats

I really should be working on Halloween stuff, but I'm having so much fun making Christmas stuff right now! But we'll get to the project in a second. I haven't posted in a couple of days and you may (or may not) be wondering if anything has happened. NOPE! Still pregnant. I've been doing lots of things to try to get labor going. I walked a TON over the weekend and into this week. Monday I turned the house inside out cleaning it. And I'm horrified to mention this, but it's still not as clean as I would like. It's pretty clean and if you were to come over right now, besides a few dog toys and kid toys being on the floor you might say, 'this is a clean house'. But when you really look, there's still dust, there's still the oven that could use a huge clean, there's still the messy closets and a few more things that bother me but probably wouldn't bother anyone else :) But anyway, so Monday morning before lunch, I had done 2 loads of laundry, cleaned 2 bathrooms from top to bottom, striped and remade 2 beds, done the dishes, and gave the dog a much needed bath. In the afternoon after Logan's nap I vacuumed, Logan dusted (which means the bottom 3 feet of my house are semi dust free but nothing about that), then I moped. I've been told and probably it's true that I was/am nesting, but really I was hoping that ALL that would induce labor. No luck! So now I have more time on my hand. And in my last post I warned you that if I didn't have the baby I would think of more people to make baby announcements for and I did! I'll show you those soon. So now my desk which was half covered in chocolate is now 3/4 covered in chocolate baby announcements. So if this baby doesn't come soon I may not have a desk at all. I seriously have so many chocolate announcements on my desk that I had to make a list of who I made which ones for. It's such an addiction, I NEED HELP!!

But somewhere in between making baby announcements I managed to squeeze in a Christmas project. Would you like to see it? Of course you would, why else would you be here, certainly not to hear me rambling on and on :)

Isn't it A-DOR-A-BLE! I love it!!! I saw this variation on the candy wrapper die on Dianne Shiozaki's blog. I LOVED it and had to make my own!!

I punched out the window with the large oval punch and added a window sheet on the inside behind it. Looking at it now, I should have wrapped the Snickers in some DSP to match the box but wasn't thinking about that at the time. I was only thinking about how cute the box was!

I love this box! And I know that I say it EVERY TIME I get a new die but this one is my new favorite, I just love it!!

I have another doctors appointment tomorrow, so we'll see what the doctor says and how much longer I have to wait. I have been having contractions that are getting stronger, but they're not frequent enough to time or get too excited about but I'm hoping with everything I'm doing I can induce labor. I'm pretty sure, almost positive actually, that my doctor will be inducing me soon. I really don't want to be loaded up with Pitocin, so that's why I'm so eager to get this baby out using natural induction. But if the doctor says lets do it today, I woudn't say no! But anyway, I'll keep you up to date on what's going on!!

Supplies:

Stamp Set: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Deck the Halls DSP, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso

Ink: Early Espresso

Accessories: Large Oval and Scallop Oval Punches, Big Shot, Candy Wrapper Die, Early Espresso Taffeta and Striped Ribbon, Window Sheets, Glue Dots, Sticky Strip

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Beary Sweet Treats

I really need to have this baby!!!! Everyday that goes by I think of more people that I want, no wait NEED, to make treats/announcements for. On Friday night I was flipping out because I had 36 candy announcements for friends/family/nurses/doulas/etc., but NOTHING for Logan's school! How on earth could I possibly be so forgetful!?! So on Saturday I went out and got candy, this time the small ones though. I don't think 4 year olds need a king size candy bar and I'm sure their parents would agree :) So fortunately for me the stores are packed with Halloween candy! So Saturday afternoon Logan and I sat down and made 16 of these super cute treats for the kiddos in his class.

Logan choose the stamp set, Beary Best Friends, and I stamped them all and he colored them with the pastels. He was so impressed with the pastels and kept saying how cool they were and how he'd never colored anything with a q-tip before. So if you're looking to impress some 4 year olds let them use your pastels. They're a really safe choice too because you can't really mess them up (and if somehow they do get messed up, they're pretty affordable to replace) and if you designate one q-tip per color like I did colors don't get mixed up and they're pretty easy for little hands to use. The pastels may be my new go to coloring tool when Logan stamps with me :) When the baby is born I'll quickly print up some address labels that say something along the lines of "Logan is proud to announce the birth of his baby sister ________ on ________" I think that's enough info for 4 year olds :) Then I'll stick the labels to the candy bar and send them to school with him.

I still need to make the teachers and staff at his school some treats, they'll be almost identical to these, since I cut too many petal cards :) But I think I'll use a different stamp set. I'll get those done by tomorrow, I only need to make 7 of those. I did use a retired die for this project but I'm sure you'll forgive me. It's the Petal Card die, it wasn't a SU exclusive die so it may be available still from Sizzix. I have no clue though. I'm really a SU purist and only know what we sell and how to get that :)

My next goal is to get 6 more treats made for Logan's cousins. But seriously if I don't have this baby soon who knows how many more treat announcements will get made and for who!? Half of my desk is FULL of chocolate and baby announcements.

Supplies:

Stamp Sets: Beary Best Friends, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Cardstock: Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Subtles DSP

Ink: Staz On, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Scallop Circle, 1 3/8 inch Circle, and Word Window Punches, Pastels, Dimensionals, Big Shot, Petal Card Die

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Pretty Poinsettias

Well nothing exciting to report. Baby is doing good. I'm STILL pregnant. The tests and monitoring went well yesterday. They had me hooked up to the monitors for a while and baby was moving and the heartbeat was going up and down like it's supposed to. It took so long to find a spot where they could monitor the heartbeat for an extended period of time. Every time they thought they had it baby would start kicking the monitor so bad that it couldn't read the heartbeat like it was supposed to. So it took 3 tries to find the right spot where baby couldn't kick it off. I think the baby was trying to tell the doctor something :) Then I had another ultrasound and this one went really well. Baby scored 8 out of 8 this time instead of 2 out of 8 like it did on Wednesday. So we're back to waiting. I won't see my doctor again until Wednesday. I'm not sure if they'll do another ultrasound or not, I have to call Monday morning and check in with her to see, hopefully not, hopefully it can be just like a regular appointment without all the drama. But you never know with me! :)

I spent a LOOONNNNGGG time on today's card. Longer than I normally spend on a card, but I had this vision and while the card didn't come out exactly as I planned it I still think it's so pretty and elegant.

Now before you start asking-no that's not a stamp, I cut out some of the poinsettias from the Deck the Halls DSP from the Holiday Mini. That's one of the reasons it took so long. All the little petals and leaves took forever to cut out.

I added some pearls to the center of the flower and some rhinestones around the edge of the circle. Who says you can't mix and match them! I love it! I lightly sponged everything in Early Espresso ink and used my color spritzer on the greeting and the vanilla circle.

Isn't that ribbon so cool? I learned this technique from Mary Fish who does amazing work. She has a tutorial on her blog on how to do the fringed ribbon. I love it. I actually layered 3 layers of fringed ribbon on the card. It's much clearer and much cooler looking in person than in the pictures.

The greeting was very simple and probably the quickest thing to do on the entire card. In the end it was worth spending all the time doing.

Supplies:

Stamp Set: Christmas Greeting

Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Deck the Halls DSP

Ink: Early Espresso pad and marker, Cherry Cobbler marker

Accessories: Sponges, Circles #2 die, Early Espresso Striped ribbon, Dimensionals, Color Spritzer, Adhesive Rhinestones and Pearls

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Fast and Fabulous!

Well I'm headed to the doctors office for the third time this week in just a few minutes, but just in case I sent back to the hospital I wanted to get one more post in. I have 4 projects, photographed that I would love to show you but didn't get the time to pre-schedule my posts, so they'll have to wait until I get back with or without a baby. This time I'm taking my hospital bag. I'm really not sure if I'll need it or not. I plan to fight them this time if they send me to the hospital, I'll go BUT I want a guarentee that I'll leave with a baby :) I'll be 37 weeks tomorrow so we're really ok to deliver so I'm really ok with having the baby now.



This card is so simple and fast. I used the level 2 hostess set Fast and Fabulous. And it is by the way Fabulous. I hesitated about getting this one because I have so many flower sets (I'm sure you know what I mean) but I'm so glad that I did get it, I love it!!



I don't use white for the base of my cards very often but it makes a very clean looking card. I kind of like it :) I used Rich Razzleberry and Perfect Plum for this card. It's super simple and I won't go into too many details on it.

I did use my stamp a ma jig to line it up. Normally I am not that particular but figured. Why not for this card :)

Wish me luck. Not sure what's going to happen or what to expect but here I go to the doctors office!!!

Supplies:

Stamp Sets: Fast and Fabulous, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Cardstock: Whisper White, Perfect Plum, Rich Razzleberry

Ink: Perfect Plum, Rich Razzleberry

Accessories: Word Window and Modern Label Punch, Rhinestones, Stamp a Ma Jig, Dimensionals, Sponges, Rich Razzleberry Taffeta Ribbon

Baby or No Baby.....

Well what started out as a normal day with a doctor's appointment quickly ended with a trip to the hospital. So let me explain. I went to my doctor's appointment as normal today. They did the ultrasound, said baby wasn't moving too much and that they wanted to hook me up to the monitors again too. So after about 30 minutes of that and baby still not being active, they said 'Go to the hospital now!' My doctor said, it may be that baby is just in an intense sleep cycle or that my protein from breakfast had worn off and baby was just extra tired. So to be safe and make sure it wasn't anything else, she wanted me to be monitored at the hospital for a few hours. She said that they would probably hook me up to a sugar IV drip and see how baby reacted that. If baby was still nonreactive they would do more ultrasounds and decide weather or not to induce, or do a C-section. So me thinking this would just be a normal appointment I left the bag at home, didn't even bring it with me to the appointment-of course! This after talking with Dan last night debating whether or not to take the bag. So I called Dan, told him what was going on he said he'd meet me at the hospital. I call my Mom to meet me at my house, pick up the bag so she could take me to the hospital. So when I got home. I repacked everything I had taken out of my bag and we were off. In triage at the hospital, Dan paced back and forth so much I thought he was going to walk a hole right through the floor, and this is just triage, we're not even in labor! They started me out just on baby heart monitors to see what baby was doing and wouldn't you know it, as soon as they hooked me up baby started having a party! Tons of movement, normal heart rates, completely normal and fine. So after a couple hours of being hooked up to the heart monitors, they said baby looked good and there would be NO induction. I do however have to go back to the doctors office on Friday for more tests and monitoring. It will be my 3rd visit there this week alone! They should really start paying me, I'm putting in so many hours there! So that was my day. This will end soon, it has to.....right?

Anyway I do have a project for you. I figured I better get this posted now before baby comes or I may not have a chance. I've been wanting to post the nurse/doula gifts for a while but haven't gotten around to it so I'm taking this opportunity now! I just love them. They came out so much cuter than I thought. I wanted them to be super easy so I could get them done quickly. With the help of the hostess DSP pack I had little cutting. The only cutting I did was the white cardstock. This project went so fast. I made 36 of them. We certainly won't have 36 nurses or doulas but I made a bunch for Dan to take to work and for us to give to friends. Kind of like the 'cigar' of our generation.

They're so cute. They're huge candy sliders. I used king size Hershey bars. The 6x6 paper was the perfect size! If you have questions on how to make candy sliders let me know. They've been around for a while so I won't go into huge details on how they're made.

Here's some close ups of them.

I thought my favorite would be the Blush Blossom but I ended up LOVING the Poppy Parade one the most! I used my blender pens and watercolor pencils to color the bear. Then punched the greeting with the Word Window punch and layerd it on a Modern Label punch. I love this look with only half the word window layered!

I love the Concord Crush one too! I used all of my retired Chocolate Chip ribbon on these. I had some in grosgrain and the satin. It's all gone now.

Hopefully next time I go to the hospital I'll get to leave with a baby :) I don't have a supply list today, I am literally exhausted after the events of the day. So if you have questions on the sliders let me know and I will get back to you.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

The Elephant and Giraffe

No baby news to report. As everyone at church kept saying yesterday, "You're still pregnant?" Yep, still pregnant. But as far as I'm concerned I'm 36 weeks so baby can come anytime. Dan isn't so sure. He's more under the impression that I should go to my due date. Yes technically I'm not due for another 4 weeks but since I've been sick since February and with new problems added to the pregnancy every week, I'm ready to be done! I can't wait to eat 'normally' again. Wake up without feeling, or getting sick. I'm giving it until 38 weeks then I think I'm talking to the doctor about a TOP induction. My friend whose Mom is a midwife says that's a term doctors and nurses use for a "Tired Of bring Pregnant" induction. Not sure if my doctor will go for it. But I'm totally ready to be done :)

But onto the elephant and giraffe. I was inspired by this post from Shelli Gardner, CEO and Co founder of Stampin' Up! She had the most adorable little bears made from our new fabric on her blog and I wanted some of my own!! Well for the baby :) So I asked the person who sews everything for me, my Mom, if she could make some. So we went on a search for a teddy bear pattern, I have one that I used for Logan but the bear was HUGE! So we were looking for something a little smaller and found this pattern. For those of you that do sew, my Mom said it was a very easy patten to follow, for those of you like me who didn't even understand the directions it might be a little more challenging but I bet you can do it!! So I loved the pattern we got it and I thought the elephant and giraffe would fit better in the baby's room anyway since it already has alot of jungle animals in there from stuff we saved from Logan's room. So we got the pattern and ordered the fabric. Thinking we'd need more than one package we got 2, only to be pleasently surprised that the animals could be cut out of one package!! So I have an extra packge but have already started using it for another project :) But anyway I digress so here are the finished elephant and giraffe!!

Aren't they just so cute sitting on the baby's changing table? I added the bows to them, it changed the look of them sooo much! And the best part of it these animals are 99% made from SU products. The eyes are from our neutral buttons with linen thread and the fabric is all from the Deck the Halls package. The only thing that isn't SU is the stuffing, and the mane on the giraffe but the rest is 100% SU isn't that awesome!! I think these will be more of decoration in the baby's room than toys. I may even take them to workshops and classes. Wouldn't they be great little mascots!?!

I think the little baby elephant is my favorite!!! But the little baby giraffe is also really cute. I put the bows on their ears to make them girl animals but you could easily but a little bow tie on them to make them boys. Or make a boy and a girl that would be cute too! Here's the giraffe close up!

Aren't they just the cutest!! When the fabric first came out I thought I would never like the Deck the Halls Fabric, I like the brightness of the Candy Cane Fabric better, but after these little animals I think I have a new favorite!!!!

I have more super exciting posts this week. I'll be showing you the nurse gifts I made and hopefully some Christmas and Halloween projects (assuming I can get my act together to stamp this week). The house could use a good clean (hmmmm, maybe some deep heavy cleaning will induce labor) and I have and appointment with the dietian today and another ultrasound and Dr appointment on Wednesday. So it's going to be a busy week but I'll find time to stamp, I always do!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Spiced Pumpkin

Well I promised you yesterday that I'd have another card with the fabulous new DSP Autumn Spice in the Holiday Mini. This card idea also came from Paper Crafts Magazine. They had a card with this pumpkin on it and had the pumpkin pattern in the back that you could copy and use on your own cards. It's just so cute. Though next time I may copy it and make it a little smaller to fit on a standard card. This card is 5 1/4 x 5 1/4. This would be such a cute pumpkin for a scrapbook page or as a home decor item.

Isn't it just great!?!

The DSP really has the perfect patterns to do a card like this and since it all coordinates you don't have to worry about which pattern to use! I love the little greeting and how only the edge of the modern label punch shows. I did my nurse gifts like this (you'll see those next week) and I just loved the look of it!

I used the color spritzer to spritz some Early Espresso on the card. I love that tool!

So what do you think, have I convinced you that NEED this DSP yet? Not quite, well I'll have more samples using it soon! I just love it. I just need to learn not to hoard my products :)

Supplies:

Stamp Set: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Cardstock: Early Espresso, More Mustard, Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Autumn Spice DSP

Ink: Early Espresso Pad and Marker, More Mustard Marker

Accessories: Word Window and Modern Label Punch, Early Espresso Striped Ribbon and 1/8 inch Taffeta Ribbon, Paper Snips, Color Spritzer tool, Dimensionals

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!