Babies on the Brain!

I have taken a little break from paper crafts and have been focusing on woodcrafts, but with a scrapbooking twist.

First, here is a card and envelope that I made for someone special that is having a baby.  She hasn't announced it yet to everyone, but I am very excited to meet "little bean" in January 2012!!

This is a plaque to show off "little bean's" first sonogram picture. 

I made this card for my sister-in-law.  She is expecting another sweet little girl this October.  I made this card to coordinate with some closet dividers that I made.

It has been a lot of fun making wooden wall hangings for nurseries and (my favorite) closet dividers to organize baby clothes by size. 

I made these closet dividers for my sister's best friend who welcomed a little boy in May.  The nursery is decorated in varying shades of blues and greens.  I think they are great because you can tie the ribbon around the closet rod and organize the clothes by size.

 

I made these closet dividers for a friend from high school who is about to welcome her second boy in a couple of weeks.  His nursery is decorated in shades of blues and browns.

I also painted these letters to spell his name.

Here's a picture of them hanging above the crib.

To accompany the dividers and wall hangings, I made this card and envelope to welcome baby Logan.

Right now, I'm working on some adorable baby shower invites.  I'll post pics soon!

Family Tree

I wanted to make something special for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day, so I made her a chipboard family tree.  I bought the chipboard kit at Nana's Scrapbook in Weatherford, but all the papers I used were scraps that I had left over from other projects.

Bridal Showers, Rehearsal Dinners, Weddings, and Birthdays... OH MY!!!!

I can't believe how quickly this year is going.  Is it really the end of May?!?!?  The countdown to my sister's wedding has begun and we've been busy with bridal showers, graduations, and getting ready for the rehearsal, wedding, and my sweet boys' first birthday!  In between, I've done a couple of other projects (including a family tree made entirely out of scraps that turned out soooooooo cute), but I will have to post those later.

I think I've already blogged that I decided on a "retro" kitchen theme for my sister's shower.  I found the cutest red and teal polka dotted paper and a coordinating paper with a paisley print.  Those papers were the inspiration for the shower.

 Here's a picture of the entry table. I displayed an invitation, a picture of the lovebirds, cute plate that I wrote "best wishes Becky" on and a guest book that I made out of a journal I got at a craft store for a dollar.

 Delicious cake balls!!!  My middle sister ordered the cake balls from a bakery in Round Rock.  We had three different flavors.  She gave the baker (an artist, really,) an invitation and used it to create the different designs on the cake balls.

 Drink and present table.

 Close up of the drink stands.

 Each table had a framed picture of the lovebirds, potted plants, and kitchen utensil favors.

 Here's a close up of one of the favors.  I found these icing spatulas at a dollar type store.  My husband helped me create recipe cards to match the invitations and, finally, each favor was tied with  a bow and a monogram.

 The bride-to-be and some of her bridesmaids.

 Dessert is served!

 I also made some thank you cards.  I used a Hero Arts lovebird stamp.

 Once we got through the shower, it was time  to start working on invitations for the rehearsal dinner.  I used some paper that I found at Jo-Anns that was so similar to the paper I used to mat the wedding invitation and enclosures.  I used the same layout as the wedding invitation.

 I wish I had rotated the pictures before I uploaded them!!!

 I made envelopes (with my Martha Stewart Scoring Board) using the same swirled paper. 

 If a wedding wasn't enough to keep us busy, we are also planning my boys' first birthday!  I can't believe they are turning one!!!  I decided on a monkey theme for their party.

I can't take credit for these adorable address labels, but they were just too cute to pass up.  I ordered them from Amy Adele.  What a great website!

Not sure why this picture is blurry?!!??!

Love Birds and Babies

It's been so long since I've posted any of my design items, but time is just flying!! 

I've written before about my sister's upcoming wedding.  I have been tasked (and excited to do so) with making the engagement party invites and matching thank you cards, save-the-dates, invitations, and bridal shower invitations.  My sister, Becky, was really specific about what she wanted for the save-the-dates.  She wanted to incorporate a photo booth-style picture with each picture depicting the words "Save the date" and the date. AND she wanted to incorporate a bird somehow.  The difficult part was how to include the bird.  While visiting my family in Austin, my mom, sisters, and I went to one of my favorite scrapbooking stores, Archivers.  I found the perfect bird stamp!  It depicts two cute birds facing each other with the words "LOVE BIRDS" above them.  How fitting for a wedding save-the-date!!  On the back of the save-the-date, I stamped the love birds stamp and included the location of the wedding.

(I'll post pictures of the back later.)

One of my duties as Becky's matron of honor is to co-host her bridal shower.  My middle sister, Laura, and I decided to honor Becky with a kitchen-themed shower because she loves to cook.  As a new homeowner, she doesn't have a lot of things other than the basic kitchen necessities, so we thought this would be a great idea.  I loved the idea of making a kitchen-themed shower even more unique by giving it a retro 1950's housewife feel.  I tried to get Laura on board with my idea, but I couldn't sell it, so I decided to give the invites a retro feel by shopping for teal and red supplies.  I found the cutest polka dot and printed papers.

This picture shows the matching envelopes I purchased from envelopes.com.

I can't wait to send them out!

It seems like everyone I know is having a baby(ies) or just had a baby(ies).  Last year, the copy parent for my class (and my grade level) was AWESOME.  She went above and beyond and helped me sooooo much while I was pregnant with my twin boys.  At the end of last school year, I found out that she was expecting her third bundle of joy and within the past couple of week she welcomed a beautiful little boy.  I had seen an adorable "Welcome Baby" card on a blog that I "stalk".  The designer had a really cute stamp set that she used to create the card.  Since, I don't own the stamps, I used paper piecings to create what I think turned out to be pretty simple and cute.

I included this card with a small gift and a handmade chipboard scrapbook that spells out "BABY".  I'll post pictures of the scrapbook once I add her photographs to it.

Many more projects are waiting to be posted.  I made some adorable valentines cards and am working on something for my college roommate's baby shower.

So many projects...I don't know where to begin!

A friend from high school recently graduated with her MBA.  (I made the graduation ceremony invitations.)

 I love the way the invitations turned out!  They were exactly what I had envisioned.  I love the tassel on the graduation cap!  I was so lucky that Vanessa let me pretty much have free reign (sp?) to design what I wanted - colors, layout, etc.

We were invited to her graduation party, so for a little giftie I made her some note cards.

 I used my embossing tool for the first time on these note cards.  My husband couldn't get over the fact that the green cardstock was flat and untextured before I got started.  I really like the way they came out.

Thanks to my mom's help (watching the babies and her sewing expertise), I was able to participate in my first vendor show.  I had so much fun!  It was also great to see some old friends that stopped by and meet some new people!  Many thanks to Andrea for opening her home to all of us!  One of the products that I added to the Escamilla Designs repertoire are burp cloths.  These burp cloths can be made to coordinate with any outfit, nursery, diaper cake, or shower theme.  I had made some diaper cakes for an upcoming shower, so these burp cloths were made to coordinate with them, but the possibilities are endless!!!

The burp cloths are $6.50 each and are padded down the center for extra absorbency.

More coming soon!