It's all "Monkey" business...

I read an article once about the origin of nicknames.  It seems way back in the dark ages, parents would call their children by substitute names during their youth (and especially their babyhood) to keep ghouls and goblins from stealing them.  This is how nicknames came to be.

We call our youngest son Monkey.  He's always climbing on everything, constantly clinging to us, and he has those HUGE chubby cheeks when he smiles really big.  People always look at us like we're crazy for calling our son after an animal.  I think it's adorable.  And he answers to it.  He knows that nickname as well as he knows his own name - although he chooses not to answer to either of them when he's up to no good and he's about to get into trouble.

A couple years ago, I attended a name frame workshop.  It was a complete BLAST!  Then, I made a name frame for my oldest son using the nickname I've called him from birth - Chunk.  He was the fattest baby I'd ever seen.  I used to call him my "michelin-tire baby".  You'd never know it now, he's as thin as a rail and is all angles.  I loved cataloging some of my favorite pictures in an homage to my son.

When our current Idea Book came out and I saw the adorable Babycakes paper pack, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do with it - make a name frame for the baby.  So I sent all my favorite pictures from my cell phone over to Walgreens and started measuring.  Thankfully, I was able to find the same frame I'd gotten for his older brother.  The finished size I picked is 9 x 12.  I wanted the most space I could  to put as many pictures of my little monkey as possible.

Don't you love it??  I absolutely LOVE how stinkin' CUTE this name frame turned out!  His favorite things are eating, getting filthy and being cuddled - typical boy!  I totally captured his spirit in this name frame and it's going to look GREAT hanging on the wall right next to his older brother's.

Welcome Baby Boy

I LOVE this card!  I might be a bit biased, cuz I made it.  And although I rarely make things I don't like, I don't always fall in love with some of my creations like I did with this card.

I don't think there are enough adjectives to describe how awesome I think this card is.  I love that the emphasis is on the mother and pram.  She looks blissful and peaceful - just the way we all want to look when we're pushing our little angels around.  I love that it's simple.  I love that it's elegant.  I love that it's "boy-ish" without being "baby-ish". 

I made it for my younger sister when she was pregnant with her third son.

First, I used our Later Sk8r paper.  (All current product is soon to be retired.  Later Sk8r is only available through July 31st, so order yours here before they're all gone.)  I love when CTMH brings out new boy papers!  I paper pieced the mother's dress and the baby's pram from two of the patterned papers in the pack.  I used our blending pen and inks to color in her hair, skin, shoes, and the baby's arm.  I added bling to hear ears and the middle of the wheels.  I traced over the wheels, spokes and handle of the pram with our silver metallic pen to give it the appearance of being made from metal.  I layered Lagoon, White Daisy and Outdoor Denim cardstock on top of each other to create a visually beautiful background without competing with the stamped image.  For the strip of Outdoor Denim behind the stamped image, I used our Color Ready Seam Binding Ribbon and daubed Outdoor Denim ink all across it.  But be careful!  If you do this, you have to color it on scrap paper and you HAVE to let it dry for 24 hours before using it.  Otherwise, you'll get ink all over you and your project.  I also added a few pieces of bling to the bottom of the card as a finishing touch.

I hope you like it as much as I liked making it.

Crazy for Cars Retiform card

I have LOVED this technique since the first time I saw it YEARS ago.  And it’s SO EASY!!  All you need to create this technique are – Post-It’s!  I have two boys (and 10 nephews), so I am especially fond of anything I can use to make little boy cards and projects.  And I love, love, LOVE cards that are SUPER simple to make and have a great WOW factor when they’re finished! 

All you need to complete this card, are:

-Outdoor Denim Cardstock – cut to 5 ½ x 8 ½ (Scored halfway down its length to make the final card dimensions 5 ½ x 4 ¼)

-Pear Cardstock – cut to 3 7/8 x 5 1/8

-White Daisy Cardstock – 2 pieces cut to 4 x 5 ¼ AND 3 ¾ x 5

-Outdoor Denim, Pear and Slate Inks

-Fast and Furious stamp set (companion stamp to Later S8r paper pack)

-Acrylic blocks

-Sponge Dauber

-Post-it Notes

The FIRST thing I ALWAYS do when I’m getting ready to create any paper project is set a LARGE sheet of scrap paper on my VersaMat.  I don’t know about you, but I make a huge MESS!  I always stamp off my image until I get one that I like; I never stamp the image on the actual paper until I’m completely satisfied.  I also love the look of inked edges.  And any of you who also love that look, know how much of a mess it makes when those inked sponge pieces come off the dauber.  You’re also going to need to remove some of the excess Slate Ink from the dauber by blotting it on a piece of scrap paper.  Even if you’re a normally neat crafter, this can be a pretty messy card so you might want to have a piece of scrap paper close by.

I prefer to ink the edges of my card.  I did it with the Pear and White Daisy cardstock pieces on this card because there was so much Slate Ink on the stamped image, the white edges were kind of distracting.  So I did that first and set them aside until I was ready to put the card together.

I started with the “Crazy For Cars” stamp and I stamped it slightly off-center.  I used the Rock n’ Roll Technique with the individual stamped images.  I stamped it in Pear Ink first and then rolled the edges of the stamp in Outdoor Denim.  I love that our stamps are clear and you can see exactly where the ink is, so if you want to add more to one part of the stamp, you can. 

After you stamp the image, you outline the image with Post-It’s.  Use the sponge dauber to rub ink around the edges of the stamped image.  Dip the dauber in the ink, then blot it on the scrap paper (just like you might blot off excess lipstick when you’re putting on your makeup).  I start the daubing process on the Post-it because it helps control how much ink ends up on the paper.  It’s easy to add more to make it darker, but if you start out too dark, you can’t make it lighter.

Then the images I stamped in order were the tire tracks, the dump truck, the race car, the beetle and finally the “beep”.  For the dump truck and the race car, I put the Post-It notes up FIRST.  It allowed me to get the image that I wanted, and also created the effect of the image being behind another image (I love it when cool things happen that you don’t initially plan.) 

After all the images are stamped and sponged, then I put the card together.

And voila!  You have an ADORABLE card for your favorite little guy!