Baby Shower Projects

Hello friends! Two Saturdays ago I had a baby shower for my son and wonderful daughter-in-law.  Their son is due in about a month (that will be my third grandchild, second grandson for those who are keeping count), and we thought a month out was good shower timing.

Knowing they are having a boy, I went with a baby nautical theme.  I purchased some of our party decor and serving accessories, but I also used my trusty Cricut (with Design Space) and crafted several of the decorations, as well as the invitations.

The small sailboats above were the party favors.  They were made using a hexagon cut, sliced in half, and the sail section of a sailboat.  Add a bit of Design Space welding and a bit of Design Space slicing, and voila!  

I filled the boats with custom covered (yes, I made the chocolate wraps) Hershey nuggets which read, "Ahoy! It's a boy!"

I made two paper banners to use at the shower.  The first was this cute baby boy sailor banner.  It was Avaleigh's favorite because it had "babies."

The second was a sailboat and anchor banner that I placed over the drink station on our antique cabinet.  Crissie and Aaron took this banner to use in the baby's beach themed nursery.

I used disposable paper products for the party (though it pained me to do so as I am a "use real plates and glasses" kind of woman).  The main reason I went with disposable plates, napkins, and solo cups, was to match my color scheme.  I added a bit of decoration to the red solo cups by adding vinyl cut anchors to the tumblers.  My paper crafting friends who attended the shower did note the detail!

I used these mini popcorn boxes (via Amazon) to add a bit of pop to the serving plates.  I added the chips to the popcorn boxes, with dip on the side.  In the right rear is the nautical cupcake tower - also purchased.

I downloaded some free nautical printables and used them in several places.  All of the food and drink labels were personalized and printed.

Another of the printables is visible behind Crissie in the photo below. It was a simple printed banner.  In this photo, taken after ALL of the gifts had been opened, Crissie is opening her "diaper cake", which isn't a cake at all.

The diaper cake is actually a diaper ship!  Very in keeping with our nautical theme!

Because I forgot to take photos until the very end (duh), I missed a lot of the guests.  

But someone did snap a couple of photos of me with two of my girlfriends!  I love these women!

This a photo of the dining room BEFORE all of the food was placed.  We served sliders, chips, veggies, chocolates, cupcakes, drinks and at the end, banana split "boats" for an ice cream sundae bar.

I will be back on Monday morning with this week's Bitten by the Bug 2 challenge!

Happy Holidays

Hello everyone, I hope you had a lovely Christmas!  The Bitten By The Bug 2 design team is on holiday break this week so instead of a project, I am going to bore you with my mediocre family Christmas photos!  Above and below are photos of our tree BEFORE the the paper-apocalypse of gift opening.

Below is John in a semi food coma following dinner.

Bethany was still feeling perky at this point (unlike her husband above) so she paused to pose with her granny!  Bethany is looking VERY pregnant as the baby is due in less than three weeks (YES, I am EXCITED)!

Duncan received the first gift this year - a new blue and magenta adorable dragon.  Duncan loves him!

The passing out of the gifts with John making a move to open a large box first.

Granny selecting her first package to open.

I an reacting to a gift from one of his siblings.

Doug liking his new Apple Mac Book Pro.

The mess - the pile of wrapping paper AFTER being crushed down twice.  Yes that is me sitting on the ottoman enjoying the show.

Before gifts, after dinner, we took time to have our annual crazy cookie decorating event. This was John's first year doing crazy cookies with us and he REALLY enjoyed himself.

Aaron, Crissie, and I are working hard on our cookies!  Doug was the photographer, drink filler, and all around "footman" as he did not want to decorate cookies.  Though in the end he did decorate three cookies.  My favorite was his angle which became a Ninja Turtle.

Ian, Bethany, and John hard at work creating cookie masterpieces!

Crissie and Susan's cookies.

Ian's cookies.

We had a wonderful celebration and hope that all of you enjoyed time with those you care about also.

I will be back with projects to share later this week.

Defense Prompt Leads to Fun Layout

Hello everyone.  Today's layout is, of course, one of my LOAD 513 layouts.  The daily LOAD prompt (again they are all from the board  game Clue, or deal with mysteries) was a motive for a crime.  Last Saturday the motive was self-defense.  

I was at a loss for what to do with the self-defense prompt, but I saw several great ideas in the LOAD project gallery.  One of my favorites - someone took a photo of her facial care products and called that her self-defense against aging.  I wasn't as creative.  

I went digging through my photo stash and found this funny photo that Aaron photo-shopped of himself.  I am guess this was based on an X-man movie character. 

During his college years, and shortly there after, Aaron took a series of photos where he is impersonating different characters... JFK, James Bond, a Battlestar Galactica bridge officer, etc.  I took three of those photos and added three of my favorite "Aaron" photos - Aaron teaching, Aaron and Crissie, and Aaron, Bethany, and Ian with Chip and Dale at Disney, and created a this fun, cartoon-ish layout.

I like that even though I used a digital program to scrap this layout, I could still personalize the voice balloons.   I enjoyed coming up with the caption, "Take that, Captain Slime Pants!"

This is a close up of the Aaron photos as well as the hings I added between two of the photographs.

Thanks for stopping by today and checking out my cartoon layout - Defender of the Plant Earth!  This is not my normal style of scrapping, but it was fun to create.

She said yes - - Everyday Cricut Project

Happy Saturday everyone.  Sorry to have been MIA all week - I was dismantling my Christmas decor and working on some other projects.

To make up to you for being gone all week I am the Saturday designer at Everyday Cricut.  Okay.  Really.  It is just my normal Saturday at the Everyday Cricut blog but I AM sharing!

This week's project is called, "She said yes"!  My older son proposed to his girlfriend during the Christmas holidays and Crissie said yes to marrying Aaron!  As you might have guessed, my husband and I are thrilled. This layout is one that I will actually use in their scrapbook, but the photos were quickie computer printouts.  The real photos are still being printed. 

For all of the details on creating this layout, including cartridges, please head over to Everyday Cricut.  There are also additional photos on the EC blog.

I will be back on Monday morning with a fun Bitten by the Bug 2 challenge project.   Have a wonderful long weekend!

Trip to Beaufort

Yesterday my husband and I made a trip south to Beaufort, SC to visit our older son.  We were celebrating his birthday a week late while meeting some of his friends and enjoying the area.  We had lovely outdoor lunch at a small sandwich shop that was FABULOUS - round sandwiches!  Dinner was at a local seafood establishment.... With THE BEST crab legs every!

We also did a little Christmas shopping while we hung out with Aaron and his girlfriend Crissie.  On the way to our Christmas shopping we did a littel half hour detour to the Old Sheldon Chruch ruins for a few photographs.  We had no idea that a wedding was getting ready to begin or we would have timed a visit a bit differently.  I spoke with the wedding planner who told us we had 20 minutes until the wedding so to feel free to grab a few photos. 

We quickly spent 10 minutes grabbing a few photos, though my son refused to relax due to the wedding. But overall I think we did okay for a ten minute photo shoot!