Welcome To The Creative Memories Baby Blog Hop!

Welcome everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful time exploring all the wonderful blogs of the design team members. They have come up with some wonderful ways to use the It's a Girl/Boy lines and I have loved looking over all of them myself today! You should have arrived here from Chris Robertson's blog.

If you are just learning about the hop you can start at the beginning by going to the Creative Memories Traditional Blog here. Be sure to collect all the letters so you can have a chance to win one of the amazing baby lines for yourself!

For those of you who are regulars to my blog you will know that last July I had a baby girl, so having Creative Memories come out with a wonderful baby girl line this year was just perfect timing for me! I have loved creating with it and can't stop making new layouts, cards, and other items with this fabulous line!

For today's hop I have a layout to share about my sweet daughter and her love for Puffs! 

 Claire is our 4th child. She has three older brothers who adore her and are her biggest fans. For a long time we thought the boys would be our only children and therefore we were very much out of the baby mindset when we found out Claire was joining our family. 

Having her so long after the boys made it feel like we were starting over again and re-learning these super fun baby stages. Even though that can sometimes make things challenging, there are advantages too. One of the things I like about this fact is that there are some fun new and improved products that didn't exist when the boys were little. Puffs are one of those.

(Yes, sometimes they stick to her face--silly girl)

 They had just come out when Spencer was little and I remember using them a time or two with him, but he was too old to use them for long and quickly moved on to more advanced food. Claire has had a love affair with them now now for several months so I thought I'd snap a few photos of this stage before it disappears and I forget all about it!

I just adore this beautiful baby line (and even though my boys are no longer babies the It's A Boy line is really wonderful for them as well--definitely check it out)! I also used lots of other fun Creative Memories Supplies to make this layout! Here is my supply list:

It’s A Girl Stack Pack

It's a Girl Title Stickers

It's a Girl Stickers

It's a Girl 12x12 Embossed Cardstock

Platinum Shimmer Cardstock

Raspberry Cardstock

White Cardstock

Double Heart Chain Border Maker Cartridge

Scalloped Stitch Border Maker Cardstock

Cheerful Seasons Cricut Cartridge

Foam Squares

I normally wouldn't have pulled in the Raspberry Cardstock with this line, but it perfectly matched the color of my daughter's high chair, and since that was such a prominent color in my photos I felt that it did work well here. I used it in my title (cut with my Cricut and the font on the Cheerful Season's Cartridge), my border, and in the flowers (again cut with the Cheerful Seasons Cartridge) and heart accents on my layout. I think it really helps to tie in the photos with the page.

The journaling reads: 

"Ever since you were able to gum some solid food you have loved puffs! They have been a favorite food for a couple of months now. Your favorite flavor seems to be vanilla, but banana is also high on your list! It is fun to see how excited you get each time you see the bottle of puffs! -April 3, 2013

So for those of you collecting letters to enter the prize drawing my letters are R and A

 To continue on with the hop, head on over to Cindy Liebel's blog here.

Thank you for stopping by today! Enjoy the hop!

If you love baby ideas, you won't want to miss this!

I'm very excited to be participating in another Creative Memories blog hop! They are always fun and have great prizes to win!

This one will be starting in just a couple of days and will feature lots of wonderful ideas using their newest baby lines--It's A Girl and It's A Boy. I adore these lines--some of my favorite lines from any company ever!  They are full of wonderful little details beyond the fabulous papers, like matching embossed cardstock, perfect cardstock stickers and elements, and a matching Cricut cartridge--Tiny Treasures (sadly currently back ordered, but hopefully back in stock soon). I had a lot of fun making my layout for this hop and I can't wait to show it here on my blog!

But since I have to wait until Wednesday here are a couple of my past projects with these lines:

So, I hope you will join me and the other Creative Memories Design team members this Wednesday and Thursday for lots of fun and inspiration!

Have a wonderful day!

Tiny Little Toes

A drive by posting for this Friday! Just another layout to share with the fabulous My Mind's Eye "My Girl" collection. I still have one or two more layouts done with this collection--I just loved it so much!

There is more Queen and Company Baker's Twine and Washi tape here and more stamping with my K and Company date stamp. The large letters are by american crafts and the little one by Echo Park.

 The journaling reads: "I can tell you have been growing and stretching out over the past couple of months Claire! Before you were two months old your tiny little toes stayed wrapped up well, now however, they always seem to be peeking out the ends of your blankets!"

Have a great weekend everyone!

Tiny Girl, Giant Yawn

This is one of my favorite photos of Claire. She was about a week old and I was posing her for her newborn portraits when she let our this giant yawn. I was lucky enough to have my camera in hand and I'm so glad I did! It's strange to remember just what a tiny little thing she was back then. She was just shy of 6 lbs and when you picked her up it seemed almost as if you were holding a doll instead. Her brothers were closer to the 8 lb range at this point so she was really a big contrast to them.

 

The papers and embellishments here are more of the wonderful  My Girl collection from My Mind's Eye. The buttons, Washi tape, and Twine are again from Queen and Company, and there is my favorite new date/expression stamp again from K and Company.

No Cricut title work this time, just some American Crafts Chipboard. I did put my circle punches to good use though. I have always loved circle punches!

The Journaling reads: "I just love this photo of you Claire! I just happened to have the camera out to take other photos of you and got lucky enough to catch this expression. I just love they way your sweet little face is all bunched up in this giant yawn! It’s adorable!"

Thanks for visiting today!

Where's My Water?

Many of you are probably familiar with the iPad game "Where's My Water?" It is a big favorite of Spencer's and I wanted to create a layout that capture's his current love of this game. Spencer is autistic and non-verbal and because of this sometimes people think he isn't as intelligent as your average 6 year old. That couldn't be farther from the truth. Spencer is very bright and this game is one small evidence of this. He loves to solve the complex problems this game can present and he does it with remarkable speed. He also has a wonderful memory of how he solves each problem and can repeat levels he has previously completed in record time. Every now and then he does get stuck and ask for help, and that's when his older brothers love to step in and "help." 

The papers here are again from then Echo Park Scoot collection, the stars, washi tape, jewels, and most of the buttons are from Queen and Company, the the stamp is my new date stamp from K and Company's Smash line.

The title was cut with my Silhouette Portrait and the Lobster font.

The journaling reads: "Spencer, you love many of the games on your iPad, but hands down “Where’s My Water” is your current favorite. Solving the various puzzles can keep you happily occupied for quite some time—at least until you get stuck. Then you call your brothers to the rescue and you all three sit together and work until you solve it!"

Thanks for visiting today!

3 Months

So I guess I'm adding these to my blog out of order, but here is Claire's 3 month layout. It uses the same wonderful My Girl collection from My Mind's Eye as her 4 month layout I showed last week. 

For the title I covered white cardstock with some Queen and Company yellow and pink washi tape and then ran it through my Cricut using the font on the Birthday Bash Cartridge to cut the letters. 

There is also lots of  Queen and Company pearls, buttons, and twine on this layout

The journaling reads: "You have been growing and now weigh nearly 10 lbs. We can now wear some 0-3 month sized clothes! We have been able to switch back to nursing full time as you are now a much better eater. You smile at everyone all the time and sometimes laugh. You laugh at your brothers most of all. One time Ty zoomed past us in the kitchen and you thought it was the funniest thing! You gave one great big laugh when he did it but refused to repeat it when he tried to zoom by again. You still sleep pretty well at night and frequently sleep for 6-7 hours at a time. You have started hating driving in the car at night. You still love the swing and take lots of naps in it. You have a little bald spot on the back of your head where the hair has all rubbed off. You recently started to love to look at your mobile above your swing. It can entertain you for quite awhile! You really don’t care for the pacifier and we have pretty much given up on using it with you."

Thanks for stopping by today!

Play All Day

I have really enjoyed having the opportunity to scrapbook with girl products lately, that has not however changed my love of awesome boy scrapbook products! I was instantly in love when I saw "Scoot" by Echo Park. It was an instant favorite and I picked it up the first chance I got. It was perfect for scrapbooking these photos of Spencer playing with his all time favorite toy--trains!

The title was cut out on my new Silhouette Portrait. I opted to get the smaller machine as I already have a nice supply of Cricut machines and space has become an issue lately in my scrapbook room. I mainly wanted it for it's cut and print feature which does work really well! It's been a fun little addition to my die cutting machine addiction. I also cut out the little arrow cut with it.

I also had a lot of fun adding little bits of Queen and Company Washi tape, buttons, and pearls. I really love Queen and Company embellishments and find they work just as well for boy pages as they do for girls--even the pearls!

I also used another new tool on this page, my new date stamp by K and Company. I love that is has some super fun phrases as well as the date stamp!

The journaling on this page reads: "Spencer, one of your all time favorite toys is our wooden train set! You have loved it for quite some time and can frequently be found play with it! You especially love the Thomas the Train characters! I love it when we sit down together and build a giant new track together. It’s one of my favorite things to do with you!"

Enjoy your day!

4 Months Old

I love doing monthly baby layouts! It gives me a chance to capture a snapshot of time and remember all the fun of each baby stage. Today's layout is about Claire at 4 months old. It's hard to believe she already about twice that age! Time really does fly!

I used the fabulous My Girl collection from My Mind's Eye for this layout. It has become a new favorite collection of mine (it's so fun to play with girl colors and patterns now).

The "4" cut was done with my Cricut and the Graphically Speaking cartridge. The buttons and pink Washi Tape are by Queen and Company.

The journaling reads: "Claire, you now weigh 11 ½ lbs. You recently moved up to size 2 diapers and wear 3 month sized clothes. You love to smile and smile all the time! You started pawing at toys and other objects. You also started sitting in your Bumbo and play saucer where you bat toys around. Your neck is getting very strong and you can hold it up well while you are on your tummy. You frequently demand to be held upright so you can better see everything! At Ty’s arrow of light ceremony you demanded that grandma hold you up where you could look at and see everything that happened. You are very interested in everything happening around you. You will no longer take a bottle at all. You were the cutest little Witch for Halloween! You still spit up all over the place and we are fairly certain that you spit up even more than Blake did as a baby! Thankfully you seemed to have gown out of the phase where the spit up would also come out your nose and make you cry. You love it when your “fan club” (a.k.a your big brothers) arrive home from school each day and you start smiling at them the moment they pile into the van after school!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hints at What's Coming

Sorry to be so absent! It is never my intent to have that happen! I don't even have very many good excuses this time, we have just simply been enjoying life--and being more present in all the small moments this past month. Having a baby in the house again reminds me just how fast all these moments fly by and I'm trying desperately to soak in all these fleeting stages before they are gone! So I've been busy cuddling, holding, playing with, feeding, and singing to Claire; teaching Blake how to make Origami animals, boomerangs and Ninja stars--as well as a bunch of Cub scout stuff; helping Ty with his homework, projects, and plans for moving up to middle school; and working with Spencer to have more communication tools--including a daily calendar and tasks chart where he can communicate more to us about the activities coming up in his day/week/month. It's been a month full of fun, work, and lots of family togetherness and I've really enjoyed it all. 

I've also been busy creating things--as usual. So the good news is I have a large backlog of projects to display. The bad news is I'm going to start tomorrow. So for today I'm just leaving you with little previews of what's coming over the next couple of weeks!

Enjoy your day!