The letters across the bottom were just printed out from my computer, cut out, and layered over patterned paper. Easy, easy! Much cheaper than stickers too! Here is the poem that is used on this page:

Baby Dedication

Dear God, please bless our baby

Keep watch both day and night

As we raise our little miracle

So precious in Your sight

Please grant to us great wisdom

As we teach this child each day

To follow Your commandments

Your holy will obey

We dedicate this child to you

Our blessing from above

And we thank you Heavenly Father

For Your precious gift of love.

I’m not sure who wrote this poem, but I thought it was cute. Anyone have another cute Baby Dedication poem or saying to share??

I came across the cutest idea tonight on this blog! And I thought that this might go well with our new theme of minimizing and reusing/re-purposing things. If you have some old, outgrown clothes of baby’s that you just haven’t been able to let go, this may be a great solution for you:

Turn baby’s clothing into a keepsake quilt!

And if you don’t know how to sew, you can send your clothing to this company (for a pretty penny!) and they will turn them into a beautiful keepsake blanket. Here are some examples from their website of what they do:

I LOVE this idea!!! And it would make a great gift for somebody too!

Baby’s First Valentine’s Day

Buttons & Love

I absolutely love decorating my home with stuff that represents my family; photos, little knick knacks (Willow Tree in particular!), and my favorites: hand print crafts that my kids have made. Here are some crafts that I’ve done as gifts to grandparents. I liked them so much that I even made a couple to keep for myself!

Framed Hand Print Flower

I just bought a cheap matted frame at Walmart for like $3, and put this cute little painting in it.

Plate With Hand Prints

You can find a plain, white plate really cheap, like at the dollar store. I got a whole set of these from a yard sale for next to nothing. You can bake these at 400* for about 10 min. to set the paint. Use acrylic paint, and seal with a Clear Gloss Acrylic Sealer. I do about 6 coats of this sealant.

“I Love Pappy” Wall Plaque

I used a pre-cut, thin wood plaque, thin metal wire, and raffia for the bow. I prefer using acrylic paint, and a Clear Gloss Acrylic Sealer. Drill small holes near the top for the wire hanger. Twist the wire around a pencil to make it curl, push it through the holes and secure.

Hope this inspires you to capture your child’s hand print in some way while it’s still small! Do you have a favorite hand print craft, or gift idea to share? I’d love to hear what others are doing!

Since I’ve noticed that many of you are fellow scrapbookers, I thought it might be fun for me to share some of my scrapbook page layouts with you. Now, I’m not a scrapping expert by any means. I don’t get very intricate, and I don’t like to over decorate. My style is the frugal way; more about the pictures and not so much about the embellishments (though I do use them). I adore scrapbooking because it gives me a creative and beautiful way to display memories of my children’s special moments in a way that photo albums just can’t compare with. I do it as a gift to my babies. To me, it is an expression of my love for them. So, occasionally I will be posting some of my pages, and hopefully I will give you some creative inspiration for your own book.

Simplify It.

What I like about this page is it’s simplicity, not in design, but in creation. What I mean is, there are no embellishments, no stickers, no brads or ribbons, yet it is still colorful and interesting to look at. All I used was my photos and some paper. I wrote some letters out onto yellow paper, and cut them into squares. Nothing fancy, but still a very nice way to display pictures.

Here’s a tip: Don’t feel like you have to spend a fortune on each page you design. Simplicity is sometimes even more beautiful than adornment.

Kids have a natural drive to explore…I’m learning this with my son. He likes to explore everything (especially things that are off limits. why is that?). Well, this past weekend I gathered a bunch of craft supplies that I’ve been hoarding and put together an "exploration board" for my son to…well…explore!

I wanted it to be full of visual and tactile stimulants for a 10 month old baby, so I included a variety of colors, textures and activities on the board. If you decide to make an exploration board, let me suggest that you supervise your child while he/she is playing with it as some of the objects do have the potential of coming off (and kid’s have been known to pull toys apart!). You may want to keep it out of reach and simply pull it out for "play" or "lesson" time with your child.

Here’s what I did (you could do this with any craft supplies, or even just things from around the house):

Gathered the Supplies

Made a header that says "Explore!" and pasted it to the board.

Powered up the glue gun and started gluing!

Finished!

Here is what’s on the board.

Tassles

Fuzzy Fabric

Velcro

Fabric Flaps covering pictures

Fuzzy Ball Ribbon

American Flags and Hinge

Ropes and Zipper

Bricks and Tractor Sticker

Marble Pictures

Alphabet and Numbers

Baby Picture from Magazine overlaid with Clear Sticky Squares

Then we put it to the test

He loved it! My husband and I had so much fun watching my son "explore" his board…and mommy had so much fun making it! Like I said, you could basically use anything from around the house to put together an exploration board! It also makes for a wonderful teaching tool!

Here is a simple and easy craft that is perfect for gift-giving. My mother-in-law actually made one for our son and he loves it! Below is a video tutorial. I can’t wait to get some fabric to make one myself!

Check it out HERE.

I did a little apron-flipping this past week. See, I’ve been wanting to get a good waist apron that I could wear throughout the day to:

• keep a notepad and pen in for writing down ideas
• keep a rag to wipe up messes/dust/fingerprints with
• store clutter in while I transport it to it’s designated home
  

I’ve been looking for an apron that has a reasonable amount of pocket space and that was *affordable*. Well, my husband gave me a great idea…

• Me: “Sweetie, I need a good apron…a good waste apron to be exact.”
• Hubby: “Hmmm…”
• Me: “Yes, a pretty one”
• Hubby: “Why don’t you use a Home Depot belt. Like the one I have!”

Pretty…I said pretty. Well, it only seemed logical to my husband (he uses his Home Depot belt to store bolts and screws in). Other than the pretty part, my husband’s suggestion was PERFECT! Home Depot aprons have good pocket space and only cost .99 cents! So I took his advice then made a few “womanly renovations” to it:

1. Note the bright Home Depot logo…

2. I dug around my fabric bin and found some flowery scrap fabric to cover up that logo with! I will confess, this is not a bona fide sewing job. I did cheat a little (since my sewing machine is currently “out-of-order”) and used iron on hem tape. It worked wonderfully (we’ll see if it holds up until I get the sewing machine fixed)!

3. Finished!