Decoupage Butterfly

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's struggled with getting out the house with a newborn. By the time you are both washed, dressed and you've done your hair and make up (as best as you can with one hand) and the baby's changed, fed, changed and fed yet again, sometimes there really is little point leaving the house. Usually because it's now dark and the shops are closed.
So when it was my friend's birthday recently I found the card I bought her whilst I was still pregnant/organised/almost getting a decent night's sleep, but alas I had not been to shops to get her a present. She had just moved in with her boyfriend so I thought a girly decoration would be just perfect!

It was my first go at decoupaging and I learned a lot. Not everyone agrees whether you should glue the decoupage paper or the motif. I decided to give the paper a good coating of glue and pushed the motif down onto it after leaving it for a few minutes. Once that was dry and I made sure all the edges were stuck down thoroughly. Then the difficult bit, I used a craft knife to cut out the holes, this took a lot of patience! Then I repeated the whole process again for the other side of the motif, then I finished it off with some pink ribbon to hang it from.

The finished product

To make it a bit more personal I made a gift tag to go with it. I didn't have any white gift tags so I made my own by cutting round a kraft one. I then stamped the tag all over on both sides creating a pattern. I then stamped a motif and used 'To' and 'From' stamps. I cut round the motif and glued it to the gift tag. Finally, I punched a hole at the top.

I got the stamps from a magazine called Creative Stamping. Every issue comes with several free stamps, I've only bought one issue so far, but the stamps appear to be very good quality and stamp better than the ones I bought from Hobbycraft.

Do you buy any crafting magazines? If so, which ones would you recommend? Do you think the content as good as the freebies?

Mimi x
 

Baby Boy Scrapbook

Wow did I underestimate how hard it would be to get posts done and look after a newborn. Felix dropped all his naps and then somehow discovered the fine art of power napping, waking with more energy than ever! There are so many new parent blogs, how do they do it?! It's hard enough finding the time, let alone the energy!

Anyway, now he's a little older he's a bit more predictable so I have managed to fit in a little work on my projects. I have started a scrapbook to document the first year of his life and I've finally finished the front cover:

I got this American Crafts Blue Boy Hands Single Paper Sheet from Hobbycraft for 90p for the background.

I added a little 'washing line' tied to some buttons. I just cut out the shapes from the gorgeous First Edition - It's a Boy papers and added some finishing touches such as the pockets on the trousers and the bow on the vest. I already had the little pegs from my wedding scrapbook.

I cut out what is intended to be used as a tag from the First Edition - It's a Boy papers and ran with the saying 'cute as a button' by adding several buttons around it and adding one on top of the tag too. I got these blue buttons from Hobbycraft for £1. It doesn't say how many are in a pack and I haven't counted. Apparently it's 60g of buttons and it looks like there are at least 70 in a pack. I think it was great value and all the buttons are different designs and sizes.

I was worried about the bow untying and my husband suggested sticking down the ends too. Stupidly I used glue and it's shown through so I now need to cover those bits up!

I just need to get some photos printed and then I can get started on the inside. I got the Snapfish app on my phone which allows me to print 50 photos for free every month (you just pay £1.99 p&p) for a year which I think is brilliant and will definitely come in handy.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome!

Mimi x