Quilled lion nursery decor

My friends recently adopted a sweet boy from India and named him Aslan after the character in Chronicles of Narnia, one of my favorite book and movie series that I grew up reading and watching. As they patiently went through the long process of paperwork and logistics, I had some time to make a quilled lion for his nursery art. It took me awhile to find a lion that didn't look too fierce! I didn't want his wall art to give him nightmares overnight.


Click below for more of the step-by-step photos!

Felt floral baby headband and felt baby bowtie tutorials

While waiting for baby to make her grand entrance into the world, I decided to do a quick last-minute craft: floral baby headbands! We'll see how long she tolerates wearing one when I put it on her head before she figures out how to pull it off.

Click below for the tutorial!

Floral nursery mobile

I debated for a LONG time what to make for the baby's nursery mobile and wall decor because being married to an ophthalmologist resident means that we are hypervigilant about preventing eye injuries. We ruled out sharp pointy objects to give my husband some peace that even if something fell onto our poor baby, it wouldn't cause an open globe.

This floral mobile with soft silk flowers and a styrofoam base fit the bill and earned my husband's approval for baby safety!

Read on for the full tutorial!

Baby carriage card for Koman STL fundraiser

My friend Julie recently asked me to make a baby card to donate to the Koman St. Louis fundraiser trivia night. To make this card, I used the Cricut to cut out the baby carriage out of one of my favorite scrapbook patterned papers: purple polka dots! Perfect for a sweet baby girl. The little pink heart is quilled and I bought the little butterfly scrapbook embellishment in a pack.

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. 

Jayhawks baby card

I had to google what "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!" means this week because I notice it on a lot of Kansas University gear. Apparently Kansas has lots of chalk rock limestone and KU fans chant "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk" during sports games.

My friend requested a baby card for two of her close KU Jayhawks parents. She showed me around KU's campus a few years ago when I was doing a clinical rotation in Topeka and for her wedding ceremony a year later. It's a beautiful (and big!) campus with lots of greenery.

Despite my sadly minimal knowledge of college sports, I DO know that KU's basketball team is pretty amazing! I included hints of yellow/crimson/navy to match KU's colors and to welcome a new baby Jayhawk into the world!

Under the Sea baby shower banner

About 5 years ago, I met the Macaron Whisperer, also known as Amrita, after eagerly perusing all of her wonderful dessert and food recipes at her blog, The Sweet Art and generally being a fangirl. I loved being her neighbor and how it meant long walks at Forest Park with her dog Mila, eating the leftover macarons from her dessert business, taste-testing desserts like Shrikhand, Oreo ice cream (I love ALL her ice creams), Earl Grey Cardamom Pound Cake, and Clementine Cake with Chocolate Ganache, and doing Wii Just Dance in her apartment (to work off calories from eating all her desserts). 

Fast-forward to the present: we sadly no longer live across the street from Amrita & Joe, but they happen to be visiting NC this weekend to throw a baby shower for a friend! She needed a banner to fit her Under the Sea theme so I put my new Cricut machine to use. 

Amrita purchased the sea creature graphics from Etsy, and I bought the Kraft paper and cardstock at Michaels. I used my Cricut machine to cut scalloped 6-inch circles and 5-inch patterned/color cardstock, which has little fishies in the background. I then cut letters out of navy cardstock and adhered everything together with double-sided tape. To hang the banner up, I strung twine through the holepunched circles and taped it all into place in the back of each circle, so that the space between each circle is uniform.

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)

Emma Grace!

Welcome baby Emma Grace! I was supposed to grab dinner with my dear friend and coworker M this week, but Emma decided to make her grand entrance 2 days early!

I forgot to take a photo of the sheep-themed flannel receiving blanket I made for Emma, sadly, but here's the card I made her with watercolors!

Bride and baby gifts

We're attending 5 weddings in the next 10 weeks, which means lots of wedding cards and bridal showers! And being in our upper 20s means lots of BABIES and baby gifts. 

Here's a couple of things I've made and gifted in the last few weeks! Including some brushlettering practice on the greeting cards. 

                               

Tutorial here for the personalized wedding dress hanger

1 Samuel 1:27 

I can't resist buying mint clothing for my friends' babies! 

DIY Letter Decor

I've longed to make letter decor for awhile now, and the perfect opportunity arose when I threw my coworker and friend B a baby shower! I love it when my friends announce their baby name ahead of time because it enables me to go all-out in personalizing their baby gifts and baby shower decor. B chose the name Luke for her baby boy. 

It took Andrew a long while to guess what I made these letters from....cereal boxes! We kind of have a problem in our household, AKA consuming mass quantities of cereal--Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Mini Wheats, and our favorite, Honey Bunches of Oats. In college I used to eat cereal for breakfast, afternoon snacks, and midnight snacks. Basically, we have tons of cereal boxes, and I finally found a way to upcycle them!

Read on for the full tutorial!

DIY Personalized Baby Hat

When I found out that one of my best friends was having a baby boy, I was elated both for her expanding family and for the chance to finally use my Pinterest board that I'd been adding to for the past few years! I decided to create a simple personalized baby cap with their last name, "Baker". Here's the tutorial below!