Quilled nursery decor and watercolor greeting cards

I co-hosted a baby shower this weekend and it was so delightful to celebrate a dear friend Bekah from my church! She is naming her daughter Elsa after her grandmother (and also happens to be a Disney princess now ;)  ). I've been loving the combination of watercolor and calligraphy and also made a birthday card for my bff. Read on to see the framed quilled nursery decor that I made for Bekah!

Banners galore

I've been making more banners than I expected this year! Basically banners make ANY party instantly more festive! 

For Luke's 1st birthday party banner, my friend Brittany went with a nautical/ocean theme. She found some awesome nautical rope from Joann's to go with the burlap banner. I cut 6-inch diameter scalloped circles using my Cricut machine. The font is from the "Don Juan" cartridge, and the whale and the anchor are both from the "Wild Card 2" cartridge. We used gluesticks to attach the letters (cut from scrapbook paper) onto the heavier cardstock backing. I love the color scheme Brittany ended up choosing! If you look closely you can see that some of the letters were cut out with scrapbook paper with an adorable anchor pattern.

Next, the "ONE" banner on burlap. I cut cardstock letters with my Cricut machine and we used Elmer's glue to attach it to the burlap, which we cut out in bunting shapes.

We then used a hot glue gun to fold the top edge of the burlap down onto the rope and secure the banner in place. 

Love the finished look of this burlap banner! 

Last week I made this banner for my friend, who was organizing a bridal shower for her best friend. Her wedding colors are coral, gold, and yellow. 

Reminds me of pink lemonade! My favorite part was the shimmery gold cardstock I found at Michaels. 

April blooms and birthdays

Last year I planted iris bulbs from my coworker's yard, and after 14 months of waiting....they bloomed this month! It's so lovely to come back home to these colorful flowers. The colorful petals seem to open and close more depending on the time of the day, and the earliest bloomers have shriveled up and new ones are catching up and blooming now.

I also made a few April birthday cards this month:

 This card was for our secretary--a nod to her black cat!

And this sunflower card (letters cut out with Cricut) was for my mother-in-law!

Birthdays and babies

My coworker have been keeping me busy recently! They ordered 4 greeting cards from me this week and I finished them just in time for my trip to New Orleans. I used my new Cricut Expression 2 machine to cut out the Scottish terriors, banner, baby carriage, and to stencil out letters. My learning curve is still pretty steep right now and I'm spending more time choosing and designing the cuts than it takes for the machine to actually make the cut. I'm loving the crisp edges of the machine cuts though!

One hot mama! Gold glitter washi tape, scrapbook paper, and I used the end of a pencil eraser dipped in gold inkpad to make the polka dots!

A little blue quilled heart for a baby boy!

Hand-stamped bluebird, banner and Scottish terriors cut by Cricut machine, and washi tape (Elmer's designer masking tape)

Quilled flower wreath and pink and gold glam birthday cards

Birthday cards galore! K requested a bright card with red flowers for her mom, and a pink and gold card for her niece, whose recent 1-year-old photoshoot had lots of adorable glam elements.

Materials used: chipboard letters, baker's twine (DIY'd with yarn and a power drill), cardstock, alphabet stamps (similar), and glitter washi tape (exact).

Materials used: paper, paper, and glue 

Pop-up typewriter birthday card and quilled cat bridal shower card

Last month I visited my little sister in San Francisco and we discovered a pop-up Golden Gate Bridge greeting card in a gift shop near Lands' End, one of my favorite places in SF. She immediately turned to me and said, "Make this!" So when I saw this pop-up card tutorial, I knew she would love it for her birthday card! 

In other news, this past week my friend Kristin ordered a custom card from me for a bridal shower. Her requests for the card were to include a monogram and cats. I used to make lots of animal-themed cards for a florist shop in Saint Louis and cats are one of my favorite things to quill.