Upcycled Tires

Ben is a huge climber so I thought I would make a fun project that he could climb. I decided to spray paint some tires in fun colours and stack them various ways every time that we pull them out for him. He loves to climb them and down the road, when he's older, I'm sure he'll love using them as an obstacle course somehow.

This was super easy to do. I went to a local tire shop and got different sized tires from their garbage pile, spray painted them with primer and then with the colour.

Personalized Hanger

A good friend of mine recently got married and seeing as I got her lingerie for her bridal shower, I wanted a nice way to present it. I saw these gorgeous personalized hangers that you could buy on etsy but they were ridiculously expensive once shipping was added on, so I thought I would try it out on my own!

To make it, I bought wooden hangers and drilled a hole on both sides of the hanger for the wire to sit it. I used 12 guage wire and sketched out a design on paper before trying to experiment with the wire. Once I had a design I liked, I copied it using mostly just my hands and needle-nose pliers to tighten up some of the loops. I tried doing her last name countless times, but I just couldn't get it to look good, so I opted just for "Mrs." Once the wire was arranged, I cut it down to size and super-glued each end into the holes.

I think it turned out pretty well, would have been nicer to have the new last name, but to pay an extra $30 for it on top of the lingerie and other gifts was just too much for me!

Been a Long Time...

It's been a long time since I've posted to my blog. I've made only a few paper crafts in the last while and never got pictures of them before giving them away. I have missed crafting a lot and have decided to try to do at least 1 project a week. My blog will change a bit though because I'm not just paper crafting (partly because I am no longer a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, but also making several DIY projects for around the house and play items for Benjamin.

I will start off with this peacock yarn wreath that I made for the front door. It was super easy to make and I made the whole thing while watching an hour long tv show!

Using a 16" wreath form, I wrapped the deep purple yarn around it tying it at the back to start and finish (I did this after painting the monogram so it would have time to dry). The tighter together you wrap the yarn, the better it looks. Then I just used my glue gun to adhere the feathers and monogram where I wanted them. Super easy. The feathers normally sit a little nicer, but it's really windy out today!

More of Ben's Thank Yous

This is the other card that I made several of to use as thank yous for all of the wonderful gifts that Benjamin received from friends and family.

I love this baby prints set and finally got the chance to use it! The handprint panel is raised up on dimensionals too.

Stamps: SU Baby Prints, Thank You Kindly (retired)
Ink: SU bashful blue, not quite navy
Paper: SU ww, not quite navy, maine blueberry dsp (retired)
Brads: SU 3/16" night of navy
Misc: SU dimensionals

Benjamin's Animal Thank Yous

Benjamin has been quite the spoiled little guy! We have SO many thank yous to write. Here are some of the thank you cards that I made.

I used the retired stamp set Fox & Friends because it is one of my favourite Stampin' Up! sets for baby cards because the animal images are so cute!

The designer paper I used is the long since retired Maine Blueberry because the colours really say baby to me and I haven't liked any paper for baby cards as much since! It's hard to tell in the photo but the animals are raised up on dimensionals - I think dimensionals are one of my favourite things to add to a card!

I'll post a set of pink baby thank you cards that I made like these cards in the next week or so. I made them for a friend of ours who was due 2 weeks after us and after seeing how many thank yous we have needed I thought it would be a great part of our gift!

Supplies

Stamps: SU Fox & Friends (retired), Fabulous Phrases

Ink: Versamark

Paper: SU ww, certainly celery, bashful blue, maine blueberry dsp (retired)

Ribbon: SU 1/4" bashful blue grosgrain (retired)

Misc: SU white embossing powder, heat tool, dimensionals

Benjamin's Mobile

Benjamin is still in the NICU so I've been working on getting his room ready for him so it is all set when he is finally able to come home. One of the projects I made for his room is this mobile. I got inspired from some ideas on pinterest using yarn balls.

I took a bit of the fabric from his bedding set to the store and matched it to the colours of yarn available in the store and lucked out with some perfect matches. I made this recipe for paper mache paste, dipped the yarn in it and wrapped it around a balloon (I used punch-balloons instead of regular balloons so my yarn balls would be more round). Let me tell you that this is not as simple as it sounds, well up until this step is easy, but it's the drying process that is not. I hung my balloons from the shower curtain rod but as they dried many of the balloons shrunk in size before the yarn dried so the yarn balls turned into a yarn mess instead. As a result, I only had success with about 1/3 of the yarn balls looking right. Originally, I had wanted a few more balls on there but it was just too much work for so few to turn out. I still love the way it looks though!

I bought a dowel from the hardware store and stained it with some leftover stain that we had from when our house was built. I used some Stampin Up! ribbon that matched the light blue and used it and hot glue to hold the dowels together. The ribbon at the ends of the dowels were to hold the clear line in place that hangs the whole mobile from the ceiling.

Introducing Baby Benjamin!

Meet Benjamin, the newest addition to our family. He was born three months early on April 28 at only 1 pound 11 ounces (small for his gestational age) and 13 inches long.

This was the first picture ever taken of Benjamin after he was taken to the NICU and a lot of medical things done to him (including the cpap to help him breathe that is on his face).

This is him as of yesterday. He is just over 3 1/2 pounds and is 15.5 inches long.

He is doing quite well considering he was so early. We still have a ways to go but we're getting there! We were transferred prior to his birth to a larger hospital a couple hours away from home so it'll be some time before I post new projects or take the time to update my blog - hopefully you will all stick around! I've been taking tons of pictures so there will be a baby scrapbook on its way!