Dogs and Babies

My mini schnauzer, Toby, recently chewed up a really nice pair of shoes for the first time ever a few days ago. I bought a pair of quality flats to wear at school since my foot/ankle had been giving me such problems, and these shoes felt like a dream. So yes, anyway, I spent almost $200 on a pair of shoes (yes, I know... $200?!? But trust me, it was worth it) and my dog chewed one up less than 6 months later. The company is WONDERFUL, though, and offered to give me a discount on a new pair if I would send a picture of the shoe and offending pup. I sent them this dog-shaming picture and ordered a new pair the very same evening:

Anyway, he inspired me to pull out some doggie paper and make a few cards. For starters, I practiced coloring with my copics on a piece of yellow card stock. 

Then I made these!

And one of my co-workers lost her cocker-spaniel after a long sickness, so I made her a sympathy card.

I also practiced coloring a new island stamp and playing with Tim Holtz distress inks to make a thank you card.

And for some reason I never posted about this I made in the fall... we had a baby shower at work for one of the ladies. This card was made out of a sheet of white paper and some ribbon (yay Cricut New Arrival and my copic markers!)

 And, being on the hospitality committee, I was responsible for making a banner. A friend gave me some zebra print fabric, so I covered it with starch and added some more Cricut lettering and ribbon and other decorations for cuteness!

Bash's Baby Album... Rawr! Picture HEAVY

Here is the book I've been working on F-O-R-E-V-E-R!!! Actually, the babe just had his first birthday, so it couldn't have been that long, but it sure felt like it. I would work for a bit, then get tired of seeing Safari papers and not touch it for a month... over and over and over! I finally finished it and gave it to Whitney when she and Sebastian were visiting from out west. I left lots of space so she can journal, and several envelopes so she can put random stuff she keeps (yep... she's one of those moms, haha) Anyway,  here it is: 

page 1

Up close... from New Arrival

pages 2-3

I cut the monkey and lion from the paper stack, the banner is from Dinosaur Tracks

pages 4-5

I love this page, where Whitney can write all of Bash's "Firsts." And the giraffe is too cute! He and the elephant came from New Arrival

pages 6-7

pages 8-9

pages 10-11

page 12

 page 13

pages 14-15

pages 16-17

page 18

page 19

page 20, where all the extra stuff goes

Whew! I should've posted the pages as I finished them, instead of waiting until the end. I can't remember all of the Cricut cartridges I used. All paper was DCWV.

New Baby Book- VERY GIRLY :-)

Here is a baby book I worked on last night and finished today (after helping the mothership make her pond look gorgeous!). I love love love the paper and almost didn't use it, just because it was so pretty. I used the same G file that I used on the last book, but with the different paper and accent pieces I think it has a completely different look!

Now that I look at the pictures, the pastel colors don't show up very well in the photo (and the fact that I took it in a dark kitchen at 1 am... It's really cute, though. I love the babies! (One is missing a belly button, though... I need to fix that!)

Next page... I used mostly New Arrival, but also threw in Sugar and Spice and Paper Doll Dress Up, too!) I inked the edges of everything, and used my bind-it-all (1 1/4 inch) to bind it. If you don't have one of these machines, you have no idea what you're missing. Even the husband loves it, and he is not a fan of crafting!

The paper is from Brenda Watson (In the same set I used to make the FM album in my previous post). There were 18 sheets of paper in this grouping, I think I used 17 and a half of them! Her designs are so beautiful, and the colors are pretty easy to match! (I love the safety pins... I used a silver marker to color the "metal" part. TOO CUTE!)

Next page... *sigh* I wish you could see the detail in the paper. The pictures truly don't do this book justice!

I LOVE the carriage on Sugar and Spice! And right now I'm addicted to the MS punch... it just sat on my table waiting to be incorporated into this book! I also used Stampin' Up blender pens A LOT. I've got a couple sets of the Stampin' Spots, and the colors i have seem to flow seamlessly into the design.

I put the MS border around the edge of the "giftbasket" which I thought was pretty cute! I colored the bottle and bear with the blender pens, the rolled towel is a different purple pattern from the set.

I love ribbon, too, if you haven't noticed! And this page is SO adorable! I love those dresses (cuts from PDDU). I thought the matted dresses matched the paper so well (the yellow one is the paper). Another example of bad photography: you can barely see the bottle in the corner. In real life, it really shows up nicely.

Here is the back page, I used one of the stork blankets to sign my name. I can't WAIT to get my stamp in the mail. It's going to be AWESOME :-) I do kind of like personalizing the books with an image that matches, though. And since I usually cut out about 5 times as many things as I need to, I've always got plenty of cuts to choose from!

And now my post at 3 am is finally finished. I think I rambled a lot, but it's because I'm kind of hyped up. The Martha Stewart Cake premiered on HSN tonight, and I won a cartridge through a contest they were having on Facebook. I can't seem to sleep, now!