Baptism card.

Catherine's paternal grandmother requested that I make a prayer card to hand out at Catherine's baptism, so I did.
Such a lovely, thoughtful idea!

Doesn't she look oh, so holy?!
The background frame is a picture of a gorgeously blooming magnolia tree I photographed the day Catherine was born.

birth announcements, and a freebie!

I've been busy this past week with various projects.
The most fun project has been designing birth announcements for my niece and nephew.  They came together, pretty well, I think.

It was interesting looking through the pictures, and realizing a few things that aren't immediately obvious.
For example, the reason why Cate's feet look so completely wrinkly in her birth announcement is because, when I took the picture, they still had ink on them from getting her foot prints taken.  Also, there is only about one photo of Vincent with his little son, and about 43 bazillion of Sujeong with Communio, because Vincent is always the one taking the pictures.

I also thought I would include a freebie in this post.  A while back, I designed a print-out for "Baby Bingo."  I designed it for Sarah's baby shower, and then we never used it, because this game took too long.  So I refreshed it and made two other version, one for a baby shower for a little boy, and a unisex game board.

You can play Baby Bingo several ways, and this board should work for any of them.  I had no idea there were so many varieties of baby shower bingo, until I googled it to get a link for directions.
We play it where the guest fills in the squares with presents they think the mommy to-be will get.  When she opens a present that the guest has written down, the guest crosses it off.  When the guest has crossed off five presents in a row, they win.  You can keep playing so that there are multiple winners.  I usually plan on 1 winner per every 10 guests.

If you just download the picture, it should print at a good resolution.
Enjoy!

Look what I made!

There are items that have been lurking on my crafting to-do list for far too long.  Well, no more!
I've been kicking butt and taking names, busting out project after project.

These pictures represent a sampling of what I've been up to.

The doily is a project for a friend.  My favorite parts are the yellow french knots making "petals" on the small daisy, and the whipped running stitch border, neither of which were in the original printed design.
It's interesting to me how much leeway is left once the design has been determined.  Not only are the color choices completely up to the sewer, but choice of stitch as well, which means the same design can have a very different look and texture, depending on what stitches are used.


I made this pint-sized dress for my niece that's on the way, using this pattern and tutorial from Sew Much Ado.  She has great tutorials and tips.  The pattern worked great.  I had no problem sewing it, even though I've never inserted elastic before.

I added the ruffle to the design. The ruffle means that it'll go down to her ankles.  Can't you just imagine her little toes kicking out of it!

I carefully trimmed it with the tiniest lace imaginable, a gift from my aunt.

This dress is a modification of Made By Rae's itty-bitty baby dress.
Instead of finishing the shoulder straps with ties, I converted them to a button closure, so the straps would fit better under sweaters and jackets.

Then I trimmed the bottom edge with a ruffle salvaged off of an old blouse, and added a whipped running stitch border to the front bodice edge and around the hem.

These are some headbands I made for my niece.  Her school's uniform guidelines specify that she can't wear hair accessories unless they match the uniform.  So, her mother kindly saved me some uniform bits she'd outgrown, and I recovered and accessorized some headbands for her.

Here she is, happily modeling one for me.

Doesn't she look like she's going to turn 14 any minute, even though she's 9.  She's grown at least 3 inches in the past 8 months.  I yi yi.

The last project isn't finished, but I thought I'd give you a sneak peak anyway.  I've been working on printable wedding suites that brides could download and print themselves.  This way, they could save money, but also have gorgeous invitations. This suite is based on traditional Mehndi designs.

I love having a project going that encourages me to draw.

A Shower for Baby Wombat

Today, my little brother spontaneously complimented me on a design, rather out of the blue.  I hadn't shown it to him yet, and so was surprised he'd seen it.
I was deeply touched, because it's rare for him to offer me an unsolicited compliment. (It's my own fault: when I finish something new I tend to shove it at various loved ones until they Give Me Opinions.)

The thing he complimented me on was the design for a second baby shower invitation.

My sister and my sister in-law are due within two weeks of each other, and another sister is due in September. My parents are surprisingly chill about it all.  For how much they love babies, you'd think they'd be over the moon.  Instead, they are totally laid back.  You see, unlike most grandparents, who love that they can spoil the kids and then give them back, my parents would much rather keep the babies.  Yes, they love babies that much.

I've been calling my brother's baby-to-be "Baby Wombat" because, well, first because it's fun. Second, because have you ever seen a baby wombat? Stinkin' cute (and I don't normally go for the whole look-at-small-animals-and-coo sort of thing).

Print Design for Sarah's "nest egg"

I've been ignoring various projects I'm supposed to be finishing (can we say really late Christmas presents anyone?).  Instead, I've been working on a braided rug for my new room (more on this later), and designing the invitations for my sister's baby shower.

The invitation is very pink,  especially once it's combined with the pink envelope and the pink-and-black bird sticker I designed to seal them.
I forgive it because I really like the nest I drew.

The most interesting part for me was the evolution of it as a graphic design.  I have digital documentation of almost all of the stages because I was emailing back and forth with my sister.

I started with an image I created as part of a future wedding suite.  It's meant to be on the back of the RSVP postcards.  (The frame for the main invitation is an adaptation of the frame in this post.)

Then I added an egg I created digitally and filled in the background.  It ended up blue because I was thinking of robin's eggs.

The mommy to-be pointed out the inappropriateness of blue, seeing as how she's having a little girl, so I turned it pink.

Somehow that was less than thrilling. I tried making it even more pink.

I kind of liked it, despite a sincere aversion to pink.  My mother and sister didn't.

I tried to tone it down.

I tried pink with blue flowers and almost heaved.  Baby pink and baby blue really don't look good together, which is probably why almost all designs incorporating both incorporate another color, such as grass green.

Finally, I tried pink egg, black floral design, and a pink border.

viola.  Something everyone could be happy with.

Here's what the inside looks like:

I'll show you what it looks like all printed out tomorrow, when there's better light to photograph by.