Our little guy was baptised about this time last year, so naturally, I am just now getting around to sharing the decorations I made for the luncheon we held at our home afterward. This altered blank wrapped canvas and the decoupaged letter at the end of the post both feature more of the Martha Stewart Crafts Baby Boy paper pad I also used for the Newborn Scrapbook Pages, shared earlier this week.
For the canvas, I used Mod Podge to attach a picture from LB's newborn photo session at Kiddie Kandids. Ribbon and rick rack have been layered over the the bottom edge and the scalloped border is made out of punched paper circles. The baby animal paper below that is flocked, so tactile and perfect for a home decor project since you can see and feel the texture.
I created a little banner out of paper scraps, coordinating dimensional stickers, buttons, and the ever popular twine. I think particular bit is by Echo Park.
The fuzzy elephant is a coordinating sticker and the chipboard letter is older Making Memories. I used the negative shape and backed it with paper to make the letter. After finishing decorating the front of the canvas I painted the edges to cover up any gaps and wrapped the sides with paper strips.
This canvas was displayed on our mantle along with a set of decoupage letters that spell out our little guy's name. Since we only refer to him by his nickname initials "Little B" on the blog I'll just show you the first letter. If you'd like to learn how to cover letters like these, you can find my tutorial in my post on the GIVE thanks letters I did a few years previously.
Have you createe any home decor for any of your children or for a celebration for one of them? I'd love to come see it, leave me a link to yours in the comments.
Normally I'd be knee deep in seasonal crafts and activities this time of year, but with a very active little guy underfoot and into everything, decorating has taken a backseat this time around. I've been feeling overwhelmed with all the projects and ideas I have spinning around in my head. Sometimes Pinterest is both a blessing and a curse.
It's a good thing because you can find a wealth of inspiration all at one place but if I'm not careful it can also make me feel like I'm not keeping up with the rest of the blogging world. After a little refocusing on what is truly important to me, right now, I've been focusing on putting together my little guy's First Year Baby Album. It's very therapeutic to complete each spread and know I've held onto a memory each time.
The first few pages in his album were put together with the help of sketches from Close to My Heart founder Jeanette Lyndon's book Cherish. I mainly used a 12X12 Baby Boy Paper Pad and coordinating sticker packs all from Martha Stewart's Crafts and purchased at Michael's. I knew the soft tones and color palette would be perfect for infant photos. The white word stickers and spiral clips are older Making Memories, but for the most part the supplies are the same company. Having fewer supply choices meant that I could move through making the pages quicker, no stopping to look for something or over thinking.
At the monthly weekend crops I met my friend Jill at, I did all the planning, cutting of papers, assembly, and placement of embellishments a couple of months before LB was even born. It was so nice to have pages ready for my pictures during the hectic first few months after LB's birth.
Heaven Sent is very special to me because I planned to use it for the very first pictures of LB. All of these were taken in the hospital's Triage department, both right before and right after he was born.
These are some of my favorite details from this page. The rocking horse sticker is subtly layered and stitched. I think you can just see the soft fuzzy texture on the word stickers in the photo above, love that!
On this side is our first photo of us together with LB, complete with hair nets and bad lighting but so special nonetheless! In all of these we look slightly redish and the composition isn't fabulous but I've always thought it's important to scrap your photos when they tug at the heartstrings and not just your perfect snapshots. That one of LB sticking his tongue out, as if to say this is what I think about leaving my warm home and being born, cracks me up every time.
On the next spread are pictures taken after we'd been moved to our recovery room and a few of LB in the birth room. These have been blurred for reasons I'm sure you can understand. I wanted to include pictures of him with each of his family members on this layout.
I used rub on stitches for add extra detail and interest on the thin paper strips, they're from an older Martha package. More of the matching glitter sticker icons and a fun layered car from matching sticker packs were also incorporated.
This is one of my absolutely favorite photos, the very first of Brad with both kids. ER was so happy to be a big sister and proud to be able to hold her baby brother. I just love these three so much! They're my whole life and every time I look at this one I'm so thankful for them.
My friend recently had a baby girl. In addition to the fat quarter gift set, I also put together an ABC book for her to highlight some favorite photos from the first year. The ABC concept works with many themes. It is an especially good one to make for friends who do not scrapbook because photos don't have to be in chronological order and with a little planning photo cropping can be kept to a minimum. I've found that when making gift albums it's best to make things as easy as possible to complete to ensure it actually gets used. This is a simple and straight forward concept, after all we all know our ABCs! It's also fun to come up with pictures to match each letter.
This book was made with an 8X8 sized scrapbook, I found on clearance a few years ago, that came with the standard ten page protectors. It's been waiting in my stash, along with the sheet of round letter stickers from Pebbles Inc., for the next baby girl to be born. Any alphabet sticker set or even stamping would also look great.
You open the book and the first thing you see is a summary sheet attached directly onto the inside cover.
Leftover alphabet stickers were placed randomly on top of background paper to create the custom paper for the title page.
For the letter pages I designed a number of basic page layouts and reused them through out the book so the design process was easier. Each time a new page design appeared I wrote directions on the photo mat to help my friend add her pictures. As you can see many pages only require her to center a 4X6 photo onto the patterned paper mat.
For each letter there is a stanped and embossed title, patterned paper photo mat, and prelined journaling card I created in Photoshop and then printed as needed directly onto color cardstock. With a little planning I was able to assemble the foundation pages in one night at a crop. Then I pulled together my baby themed stash and embellished each layout to make it special and unique.
Here is a look at the rest of the pages. When two photos are on one page the photos have to be cropped a little to 3.5X4.5.
You will probably see the pattern between layouts and see how just by moving the picture placement from the top to the bottom or left to right you can come up with several variations to keep thing interesting. I like how there is continuity between pages but still room to put creative touches.
Tip #1: Stick to a standard color palatte for baby girls products so you can mix and match things from your stash but still look coordinated. I was able to use up a significant number of leftover stickers, quotes, etc. to make this gift album special.
Tip #2: Give an ABC album with a list of suggestions for each letter to make it easier for parents to match up letters with photos. You could also include a "coupon" good for a night of help assembling the book. Show up with snacks and you'll become the new parents' best friend!
For the last page I fit the last three letters but if doing it again I think move letter Z to the back cover to make the photo spaces larger.
Have you ever made a gift album? I'd love to see your project. Leave me a link in the comments and I'll be sure to come give you some comment love!
My best friend from high school just had her first baby! I had to make her a little handmade goodness to celebrate and had the most beautiful fat quarters from Oh My Crafts to use for them. My little gift set includes a plush burp cloth, first initial onesie, and fabric covered brag book for all the photos sure to be taken of the first grandchild in both of their families.
Check out the Riley Blake fabric they sent me to work with, I love how they all work so well together! It was so exciting to get the package because Riley Blake is my favorite fabric designer :)
You can mix and match the smaller packs to get exactly what you need or you get the Dainty Blossoms Fat Quarter Bundle with all the patterns.
Here is a closer look at each of the items, the burp cloth shows more of the gorgeous colors. This was my favorite print and I was so excited to use lots of it! The reverse side is a thick textured dotted fabric I picked up locally to help make sure the burp cloth would be extra absorbent.
The onesie has an /e/ for their little one's first name, which I especially love since I have a great aunt with the same one. It's the first time I've tried using my machine to stitch on the monogram and let's just say that if effort equals love, then this was made with a lot of love! It's a little wonky but I know Melissa will appreciate it. I tried to give it a random crafty look by going around a couple of times, it kinda worked but you can still see the oops on it. Everything was ironed on nice and good so I had to work with what I had. Normally I hand stitch the monogram and I think I'll go back to that method.
I used an inexpensive 1Up photo album bought on clearance, it was soooo ugly before! To play it safe I used all iron on for the fabric covered brag book. This won't be sent through the wash so it should be fine, I used the heavy duty kind. I'm going to package up everything and send it off with a gift card to the new parents. I hope they love it!
We know of another baby girl coming soon and I also made a burp cloth with the green floral fabric to have ready for the birth. I paired it cute wipes container, so easy and no sew! The flowers, centers, and leaves are all ironed on.
Thank you to Oh My Crafts for sending me an awesome selection of their fabric to create with! I have some more things planned and am excited to share them with you. Look for how I used up some fabric scraps this Wednesday and get ready for another giveaway I'll be hosting for them real soon!
I am linking this project up :) I will add individual links when the baby is asleep, for now see my parties page for where!
Gosh it seems like such a long time since I've had the time or energy to do anything creative! Last weekend I finally had some time at my crafting table and began making some simple pages for LB's newborn pictures. To simplify things, I've been using the Baby Boy 12X12 paper pad from Martha Stewart, loving that glittery border of animals printed onto this sheet, and the coordinating supplies. Here's my first page, based on a design on the back of the package. Two photos down, only a few hundred to go!
Last week LB hit the two month mark, gosh has time flown! It seems like forever since I posted a picture of the little guy, besides the one of him with his paci in the MAM baby product review, so some of you might be surprised by how big he looks. And BIG he certainly is! He's grown over four inches since birth and put on three pounds! That puts him in the 86% for length! I'm pretty sure that won't always be the case as neither Brad nor I are very tall. I'm not even 5'2" to put things in perspective. Although, it'll be fun to look back and tell him how tall he once was!
His growth rate is way faster than ER's. I think it took her until four months to weigh around 12lbs and he's almost there already. She was born at 37 weeks and he went to 39 but I don't know if two more weeks would really account for LB being 2lbs more and 2 inches longer than she was. So when we're out and about and people say how little he is, we laugh to ourselves because to us he seems huge!
At our well baby visit the doctor said he's got great neck support for his age and is developmentally right on track. He establishes and maintains eye contact and is beginning to track objects with his eyes. Right now we just dealing with the normal baby issues, he's got some flakes on the scalp and a little baby eczema but both should clear up soon. He burps up a lot more than ER, which isn't too hard to do as she didn't spit up at all. He's obviously still gaining weight, and at a good rate so the doctor's not concerned that it's preventing him from growing. I think it's because he thinks he must constantly be attached to me and probably over eats. He just loves being all snuggled up against mommy!
Two weeks ago he got his first little cold, probably brought home by big sis, but never developed a fever so nothing too bad, just congestion. The past few days he's actually been a lot crankier and fussier than when sick. He just had his two month appointment, where he got three shots and one oral dosage.
It was tough for Mama to see his little face turn bright red and hearing him whimper. But I know a little discomfort now is better than if he got really seriously sick. He's been mad ever since. Poor thing, he should be back to his normal happy self tomorrow, or rather today as I'm writing this Tuesday night. Let's hope so for his sake and for mine! It's been rough having to hold him nonstop while pacing back and forth and jiggling him! He wants to be held and not only that but held a certain way. Some times I think, he thinks my only purpose in life is to feed and be his personal holder. But seriously, he's so cute it's hard to force myself to do anything but that!
It's been five years since the last time we had a baby in the house and there's been a lot of changes in baby products since then. Oral baby care products are ones you can't pass on and we'd been concerned about the bottles we'd had previously. So we were starting all over and with so many choices, deciding on types of pacifiers and bottles can be overwhelming. I was so excited to get a chance to try a selection of baby care products from MAM, a trusted brand for over 25 years.
Our last child wouldn't take a pacifier, and I used to be so envious of other parents at the store as they'd push their baby quietly sucking theirs by in a cart. My baby was usually crying at the top of her lungs and they'd give my sympathetic glances as they went. I was really hoping LB would take one and he loves his MAM Perfect pacifier. I could not be happier!
One concern I had with pacifiers five years ago, and the reason we didn't try too hard to get ER to use on before, was jaw and tooth development being affected. I don't have to worry about that with MAM pacifiers because the anatomically correct nipple design lets LB calm himself with sucking while maintaining proper alignment. The nipple will adapt to his mouth so it's always in the right position and I can also have size choices so that it's the most comfortable fit for his mouth as he grows. I also like that the design won't block airways and that there isn't too much surface to rub against his sensitive skin.
LB is using his MAM Perfect in the picture above, along with one of my favorite products we received for this review. The MAM Twist Clip is great because a pacifier only helps if you can get it to stay in baby's mouth and that was a major problem the first few times we tried a pacifier with LB. It's really easy to use, just snap the pacifier into the transparent ring. You turn the wheel to the left to open the clip and turn it to the right to close. We haven't had any issues with the pacifier getting droped on the floor since we started using it with the clip.
We also got a MAM clip & Nipple Cover, which is great for when you are heading out and need to throw a pacifier and clip into the diaper bag. The clip can be attached with one hand and there's a nipple cover incorporated into the design, so I don't have to stop to grab a baggy to put it all in before packing in my bag. I love having one less thing to worry about while trying to get out the door, see a picture of it here.
Besides the MAM Perfect, we also got a set of MAM Night pacifiers. It's a little early to use them because their nipple is designed for 6+ months, but I think they'll be quite handy as they glow in the dark. It shoud be easy to find one in his crib when we go in for feedings and to check on LB during the night. This set also comes packaged in a great reusable box that can be sterilized and used to carry up to two soothers. I am definitely planning to continue using MAM pacifiers and accessories, purchasing more as needed.
Most of the time I don't use bottles, as we're breastfeeding. However, some places are just not conducive to it, like when we were at the local fair all afternoon. It was crowded and hot outside, with no where remotely private or good to sit down. There's also times when a family member wants to feed LB.
I've got a great breast pump, but needed some new bottles. We got an 8oz. anti-colic bottle to use. First impressions, it's really cute! To be honest one bottle to the next really seems pretty much the same to me. I rely on reading the information from each manufacter to learn more about its features. All I know is that when I gave LB some pumped milk in the anti-coli bottle, he sucked it all down and then took a long nap. In my book, that makes it a winner!
Its vented base has small air holes and a silicone seal that allows for maximum air flow in while still preventing milk from leaking out. The vented base ensures controlled milk flow by balancing air pressure inside the bottle. Liquid is also pushed towards the nipple allowing it to retain its shape and preventing it from collapsing. All Anti-Colic bottles use MAM’s patented ultra soft silicone™ nipple. Transitioning from breast to bottle is simple because MAM ultra soft silicone™ nipples feel most like mom's breast.
All MAM bottles and training cups are CPSIA compliant and completely Baby Safe; BPA-free, Lead-free, PVC-free and Phthalate-free. Here is a short video that'll tell you more about the bottles features, including the different layers that can be taken apart and how to reassemble for self-sterilization in the microwave. It's pretty neat and one of the biggest draws for me to continue using these bottles.
The last product I'll be including in this review is the Oral Care Rabbit and it helps me with an area I'll admit to being somewhat lax with our first baby. You use it clean your baby's mouth, first by massaging his gums and then teeth to remove bacteria and get him used to a regular oral care routine. .
With ER I would use a wash cloth from time to time, but have to admit this is a lot easier to use. For one, the shape is much better designed for getting into little mouths. You slip your fingers into the bunny ears so you fingers are a little bit more protected for when he bites down on them. There is also less excess fabric inside his mouth as I try to move around to clean. The Oral Care Rabbit is easy to clean in the machine or with warm water and can be sterilized so you can use it for a long time.
We really enjoyed learning about and trying out MAM products! We also received some teething products from MAM and will let you know what we think of those, when it's appropriate for LB to begin using them. Find out more about MAM and their products on their website, Facebook page, and by following their tweet on Twitter.
Disclosure: Complimentary review products were provided via Team Mom. The experiences and opinions related within are personal and unbiased by this relationship. No other compensation was received.
I love to do family friendly reviews and giveaways for products that make life better from the kitchen to the playroom and beyond. As a former teacher, I also enjoy reviewing learning materials. Click above or katiesnestingspot(at)live(dot)com
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