Paper Doll

One of my Christmas gifts this year was a paper laminator, but I hadn't opened it until this idea came to me.

We had just received the Paper Doll Dress-Up Cartridge (thanks to Grandma!) and Aidan's cousin's birthday was the following day {she's the one I made the Feliz Cumpleaños card for} so I decided to make her a little princess doll to decorate her gift. Laminating it made it so she could keep it as a decoration/toy.

I started out by making the doll, using the Paper Doll Dress-Up Cricut cartridge. I used glitter paper for her dress and then an even more glittery paper for her necklace and crown.

I believe I used the DCWV Neutrals Mat Stack for her base and hair. The shoes were made with some eyelet patterned paper.

Then it was time to laminate. I have to admit I was worried, I've never used a laminator myself.

This was one of those Christmas presents I'd picked out myself. It was a great deal at Costco. There are 100 laminating sheets to get you started.

I'd probably better read this...

The "Guide" wasn't all that helpful though. It explained the basics but...that's about it.

It's pretty simple though. You put your paper in the sleeve and then once the machine is warmed up you can slide it in, it pulls it through and you're done.

I had to cut her down to size, of course, which was a bit confusing because I didn't want to cut into it too closely and have the lamination be ruined, but I wanted it to be as close as I could get it....the "Guide" doesn't explain this at all.

Pretty!

I'll be using this laminator more and more, I think!

4th Birthday Card

It's been a while since I shared a paper craft on here, and I had to make this card this week so here you go!

I realized a while into it I should start photographing to blog about the process, so the first half or so is missing...but I created a tri-fold as seen on many you tube video tutorials. Basically it's this process:
Using a 12 inch by about 5.5 or 6 inch piece of paper (patterned or not, it will be your background but you're likely to cover a lot of it up) score straight down the paper (holding it hot-dog style) at 2 inches, 4 inches, 8 inches, and 10 inches. Basically you need two scored lines at the first 2 inches on both sides of the paper, running short-wise. This is very poorly written, sorry.

Then using a paper cutter (or x-acto knife if you don't have a cutter (go to the store and get a cutter)) from the first score to the last score (2 inches to 10 inches) cut two lines, each 1.5 inches from the edge of your paper (holding it hamburger style), down the long side.

This is too wordy, sorry for the mumbo-jumbo, but I wanted to make sure you could (sort of ) follow the same directions and the you tube videos are all different.

Anyway, fold the paper with your pattern back to back at the 4 inch score. This will be the front of your card. Then, fold at the 8 inch score so the pattern comes together. This is where the scoring comes in handy....

Now fold the top and bottom pieces backwards at the 2 inch score and alternate across, as shown below.

I had already added some complimentary colors before taking the photo, but that part is easy, cut some squares and glue.

I decided to use the Mickey Font for the "4".

I cut it as a shadow and I think I used 3.75 inches as the size.

I used a glitter paper and cut it on silhouette to make it stand out.

Then I switched cartridges to cut out a present, the same way.

I think this one was 3 inches.

I glued the pieces on the pannels...

...with some handwritten finishing in the center panel, this card is done.

Easy.

It's tempting to get carried away when making cards, but I think simple is best. The cleaner, more concise it looks the better in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I love to embellish (as seen in all my parenthesis when typing) but sometimes just enough is better than too much.

I tried hand making an envelope, without the Cricut, but it didn't work out quite right and I was tired and gave up. Store-bought envelopes do the same job just as well.

On another note, I never noticed before having the Cricut machine to use how much you can do without the Cricut machine. This card could be done using store-bought embellishments or hand cutting them. Many scrapbooking companies sell "scrap packs" that have not only card stock and decorative pages but also pre-cut shapes and adornments.  I love  the Cricut and the possibilities are endless with it, but don't let your possibilities stop because you don't have one, you can work around it.

Aidan's Build-A-Bear

Our lovely neighbors got Aidan a gift card to Build-A-Bear for his birthday. We finally got around to taking him to pick out his bear. It was a great way to get him out of the house on this rainy day, that's for sure!

He liked this dog the best.

He liked chewing on him...he was a little wet when we handed him over to be stuffed.

Aidan tried kissing the heart...he didn't exactly know what to do but thought it was cool.

He didn't see it boxed up, but he knew he wanted that box in the car.

And he got it...

We got him some spiffy overalls too!

Thanks so much, Ann and Jess!! I'm sure Spot will be a keepsake for years to come.

Aidan's First Birthday Party

Aidan had a great First Birthday Party!! I thought I'd share some photos.

Aidan's Aunt Gina came to help mommy set up, and before the chaos he tried unwrapping his first present. He didn't do so well with it, we saved it for later.

Even the littlest ones could have fun with the pull-string pinata!

Yummy Ice Cream Cake! I wanted to do Tres Leches but the baker at the Mexican store "went on vacation and never came back" and I decided I had enough to do getting ready, Ice Cream cake would have to do. This experience has taught me a lot about accepting details that change, ignoring some things that aren't so important, and delegating tasks to others to get things done and feel good at the end of the day.

Not so easy to cut though...

I just love this picture.

He got very messy.

We have about 20 minutes of video of him destroying this piece of cake. I hope to get a YouTube account up and running one of these days to share my videos with everyone, one of these days maybe I'll get around to it...I won't bore you with that whole 20 minutes though.

The next day he got to use crayons for the first time. Yes, there is a piece of paper taped to that tray, I'm going to do my best to keep him from coloring on the furniture as long as I can.

Birthday Shirt

So this is really basic and anybody can do this, but I decided Aidan had to have something special to wear. I saw a hat at the party store for a whopping $9. Aidan doesn't wear hats, he pulls them off. So I decided I'd take a plain onesie we already had and use some fabric paint to decorate it for him.

I used the cricut to cut out the words "Birthday Boy" and made a stencil from the background.

The Disney font was the best choice.

I kind of stenciled in the round parts. I was going to try to pin them on somehow, but I decided that would be a little harder and I wouldn't mind having rough edges from free-handing it.

I used good ol' fabric paint to make sure it would last and not turn stiff.

Then I pulled the stencil off...

Oh, I just remembered I used cardboard in the beginning between the front and back to keep it from bleeding through.

Then I let it dry.

After it dried for 24 hours I pressed it to make it heat safe.

The paint instructions say to wait 72 hours before washing it. Aidan got it awfully dirty as I posted before:

I don't know if it was 72 hours before I washed it but it held up very well. I soaked it with some Totally Toddler stain remover, scrubbed most of it out, and then put it in the machine The paint was perfect, there are some stains left but that's ok by me.