The Christmas Card Photo...

A work in progress. Clearly. :/

Salt Dough Decs!

Like I said last week... I had down time. When in down time... craft.

So here's a little tutorial of some Christmas tree decorations "Euna" made for her NCT baby friends to mark their first Christmas trees that will be coming to a living room near them very soon...

Salt dough recipe:

300 grams flour

150 grams salt

Mix in water until you have a dough consistency

Stamps... I dug these out of my wedding crafts box... I used normal stamp pad ink...

Cookie cutters... You can cut before or after you stamp... 

Bake at 50 degrees celsius for 6+ hours... depending on thickness... (NOT AT 150 AS ONE TUTORIAL ON PINTREST TOLD ME OR YOU WILL BUBBLE AND BURN YOUR ENTIRE FIRST BATCH! ARGHHHH!!!!)

 The survivors...

 PVA, glitter, ribbon and jingley bells...

 VOILA!

Note I am not talking about my week of culinary adventures... It's not going brilliantly. :/

AND REMEMBER TO LINK UP THIS WEEK! :D

My Button Blessing Crafting Efforts... Condensed.

I get collage envy when I see these on Pintrest so here's my "Cute as a Button" themed baby girl blessing crafting collage! I have to say I am a little smug and proud...

Lesson:

1. PVA glue is the source of many a wonderful thing.
2. I adore that "I did that" feeling and I LOVE that "I did that for my baby girl" feeling.

Euna's Big Day

I have to write this now whilst I'm high as kite on love and all things warm and fuzzy from yesterday. But where to start without just exploding a gigantic dribble of gushy noises all over the page? I mean I was anticipating having a lovely day but I was not anticipating it being one of the happiest of my life...






























We had sun. We had bunting. We had chilli. We hung all things pink and girly all over the walls. We spoke some words from the heart. We spoke about how blessed and happy we feel. We toasted with champagne and ate strawberries and cake. And we did it all surrounded by our nearest and dearest.

It was everything I wanted it to be, I just anticipate it FEELING so wonderful to do. To welcome her officially, to share her with our loved ones and to celebrate what a wonderful journey we have been blessed with. It was a blessing in itself and the sun shone for us.

Here's a few pictures from around the party of the bits we added. A cake by a very clever friend of mine...

Balloons and favours bowl...

Just incase people weren't clear on the button theme...

Sweetie favours in a picnic basket and a little photo collage just to accentuate precisely how scrummy the girl of the day is...

Birth announcement piece...

The baby handprints on to mini canvas' went down a treat! What a spend of a quid...

The adults after party... Comfy clothes, curry and champagne...

It was perfect and it went too quickly.

Lesson:

However you do it, celebrate your blessings.

Thank You Cards...

I thought it would be nice to send the favours off with a little "Thank You for Coming" card. I got a pack of 50 plain cards from The Range for £2.99 and a pack of buttons for £1. I found little verse online and printed them up on our Kodak printer. I'm really pleased, think it'll be lovely to send everyone away with a little Thank You.

Flying Saucer Favours

MORE baby party preparations come in the shape of flying saucer favours. Another part of my shop at The Range were 3 large tubs of flying saucers (£2.49 each), microwave steamer bags (25 for £1.49) and pretty gingham ribbons (£2.10 for 5m). Super cute. The colours will match and far less labour intensive than my planned button cookies (I had a lazy turn). My Mum is lending me wicker picnic basket from her shop (shameless plug but to be fair it's my first one) to display them in. Love it!

Baby Handprint Mini Masterpieces

I just finished a post on multi-tasking. The reason being that with two days to go until our little girl's "Welcome to the World" party I am a multi-tasking MACHINE. Why do I have so much to do considering it's being catered by a local pub? Well clearly I just love to make work for myself... I seriously can't help myself when it comes to party/event planning!

So here's one little crafty idea... MINI EASELS! As soon as I saw them in The Range for a steal at £1 I had like a TRILLION ideas! My favourite being buying some ink pads (and luckily they had non-toxic and child-safe ones) and let the babies coming to her party make themselves little keepsakes!

In a Blue Peter-esc "here's one I made earlier"... HERE'S ONE I MADE EARLIER! 

Obviously these HAD to be made for display purposes. Not because I needed to have a play. And I definitely did NOT get pink ink on the cream lounge carpet... Honest.

Lesson:

The second you think "how messy can this be?" step away from the craft materials and get yourself to wipe clean lands.

Homemade Birth Announcement Frame

A little crafty homemade boast post from me... On the right is a prototype made for baby A and the left is one that I made as a gift. I got the box frames from a shop called The Range. Rather smug about these!