Cozy Toes for a Baby Girl

 And these make for a total of five baby cards made in the last few weeks!  I've mainly needed baby boy cards, until a friend saw my girl version a few days ago, and asked for another...  So I have two baby girl cards to share with you today, made with the Cozy Toes stamps and dies from Cocord & 9th.

 I once again pulled out paper packs from Art Impressions - as the coordinating smaller scale prints work SO well with this design.

The use of patterned paper with the dies also make these come together really quickly.  I loved making a couple of non-traditionally coloured baby cards.

Baby Girl Card

Once again, it's Cozy Toes by Concord & 9th to the rescue!  I had a last minute request for a baby card, and reverted to my trusted and true card design with this set.

I pulled out the 5835 Mini Paper pack by Art Impressions, and used it with all the dies from this set to put a card together fairly quickly.  Using a coordinating paper pack takes out a lot of the guesswork.

I think this is my 5th card with this design, just switching up the papers.  More are in my future, as I cut a bunch of additional pieces to use in cards down the road.

C is for Cozy Toes

I'm playing along with the Alphabet Soup challenge on the Papercrafter's Inner Circle Facebook group today... the Feb letters are C and D.  So this is C is for Cozy Toes and Concord & 9th.

I got this sweet Concord & 9th set a few months ago.  My kids, nieces and nephews are all at the age where they and their friends are having babies, so I think this will get a lot of use.

The set comes with a bunch of sweet stamped patterns to create the sock designs, and then the dies to cut them out.  I paired them with the Art Impressions Baby Boy paper pack.

You can find the stamp/die set at The Papercrafter's Workshop!

Cozy Toes

This sweet set is the Cozy Toes stamp and die set from Concord & 9th.  I loved it from the moment I saw it, especially for this sentiment.

The set includes a bunch of options to cut two lengths of adult socks, and a cute pair of tiny ones, all of which you stamp first, then use the dies to cut them out.

The details are so amazing, there are two clotheslines, clothespegs, and even sock details like toes & heels, and frilly tops.

There are several other great sentiments, so you're sure to see more of these from me in the future, but this is my new go-to set for baby cards!

Welcome Faye!

I made a new baby card for my son to give to a friend.  I love her name, and decided to put it on the card, just using some fun papers that I've had in my stash for a while from Cosmo Cricket.

Both alphabets are from Art Impressions.  I cut the name out twice and stacked them for a bit of extra dimension.

I added a few aqua gems for a little sparkle, just because.

Wildly Cute!

I've been working on a baby gift for the past couple of months... having fun knitting, and then creating a card to go with it.  I haven't shared my knitting in quite a while, and knitting for a baby is definitely a favourite thing of mine.  I found a wonderful book at my library using Cascade Superwash yarn, and knit up a pair of socks, a hat with ears, and a sweet toy.

The hat and socks aren't for a newborn!  So they look a little large... and I'll admit that the hat ears look a little goofy, but they should be cute on a little guy's head.  I really loved making the little lovey, which is just a square with a teddy head sewn on - something to snuggle with.

And for the card, I reprised a card that I'd made 11 years ago!!  The Wildly Cute stamp set from Art Impressions was retired years ago, but I won't part with it, as it makes such sweet baby cards.  The ancient papers are Babycakes from CTMH.

I coloured with Copic markers on Cryogen paper, fussy cut it, and created by background with a little paper piecing.  The image and sentiment are adhered with foam adhesive for some dimension.

Nothing like making something for a new baby - especially when it's for one of my daughter's best friends.

Welcoming baby Alex!

 I was lucky enough to get a new great-nephew at the end of November!  I like to do a little knitting for new babies, and found this pattern called "Elevenses Cardigan" on Ravelry.  I thought it was adorable - to knit a little-old-man style of cardigan complete with elbow patches for a newborn:

I learned a lot - how to do German short rows, and picking up stitches to add the front ribbing, which I haven't done a lot of.  I changed it up a little, too!  The pattern had pockets in the front, which I didn't like, so I added a seed stitch border instead.

Even though it looked tiny to me, I think it's going to be big on him for a bit.

And of course, Alex needed a little welcome-to-the-world card, so I pulled out my Copics, and coloured up an older Art Impressions image:

There's nothing like knitting for a new baby in the family!

I'm a Great Aunt

I was pretty thrilled to wake up to a text a few weeks ago, saying that I was a Great Aunt - my niece and her husband had a baby boy :o)  The first of the next generation in my family!  So of course I whipped in to my craft room and started on a baby card using Art Impressions Welcome Little One MTF (Sku #4852):

 Mini Try-folds come with stamps for all three layers (and this one included both a boy and a girl for the inside):

 Also included are the dies to make the windows that allow you to see through all the layers.

 The sentiment in the set is "Welcome Little One" - I wanted more room to write, so left mine blank.  So fun to make baby cards when it's for family!

Blog Hop for L'il Miss Croghan

I am very happy for my crafting friend, Lesley Croghan and her husband Corey, who are having a much anticipated baby girl any day now.  A few of us decided that it would be fun to not only do a blog hop for them, but we all sent the cards to them in one big box that they could open and see at the time of the hop.

I've been an avid follower of Lesley's blog for years... she has crazy good card making skills, and is well known for her interesting and well run challenge blogs!  She gave me one of my first Design Team gigs on Dynamic Duos several years ago.  Here's the card that I put together using the sweet Baby Giraffe from High Hopes Rubber Stamps:

This little giraffe is so adorable!  High Hopes did an entire baby release last year, with such cute images and great sayings.  To see the rest of the cards on the hop - go to Lori Turner's blog, here.

All the best, Croghans!!

Patterned papers are Carta Bella; Stamps are Baby Giraffe SS018 and New Addition HH022 both High Hopes Rubber Stamps; Cashmere cardstock is Close To My Heart; Gumdrops from Your Next Stamp; Copic Markers.

Bedtime Bear & the Minc Machine

I am posting today on the One Crazy Stamper blog!  We have all kinds of wonderful inspiration in store for you in 2016... and to kick things off, I have the sweetest little bear from High Hopes today, along with my Minc'd background paper.  Here is Bedtime Bear (S188):

 This is a 5 1/2" square card, and I used my Heidi Swapp Minc Machine to create the silver foil background of 'dream' words which I thought worked perfectly with my sleepy bear stamp.  The Minc machine will adhere foil to images printed on a laser printer, or run through a photocopier, but this sheet of cardstock was from the Heidi Swapp 6" x 6" paper collection that you can find here in the OCS store.  It is a pack of 24 preprinted sheets that work with the Minc machine, so I selected some silver foil and ran it through.  Here's a photo taken to show off the silver words a bit better:

 The image was cut out and popped up over a circular die cut.  The stamp comes with the little star placed as shown, but my daughter came up with the idea of having him dangle on a string - which I loved.  Here are all of the products used that can be found in the One Crazy Stamper store:

High Hopes Bedtime Bear S188

Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Xpress It Blending Cardstock

Heidi Swapp Mini Minc Machine

Heidi Swapp Minc Signature 6x6 pad

Heidi Swapp Minc Reactive Foil Silver

Copic Markers: Blues - BV04, BV02, BV01, BV00

Browns - E57, E55, E53, E51, E50

Yellows - E15, Y38, Y35, Y32, E50

Nose - W5, W3, W1

Bananas card

I am posting on the Art Impressions blog today.

If you don't own any of the Ai Zoo Babies yet, you need to check them out!  (And if you only own one or two, then you need to get them ALL!)  These are the sweetest little critters, and make perfect baby cards, or a card for a toddler.  Today I'm using Bananas Set (Sku#4531):

There is still time to participate in our "Have a Heart Challenge" over on the Ai blog - we want to see your creations with a heart on them.  Happy Stamping!

Copics used - Monkey: E57, E55, E53, E51, E50

Bow: B95, B93, B91

What's New? Challenge

The Art Impressions Design Team is back today with our first challenge of 2015!  It's called "What's New?"  It's a New Year, so we want to see you using something that's new... a new stamp that you've never used, maybe a new technique?  I'm using three new products on my card today - this cute little Zoo Baby elephant in the Dream Big Set (Sku#4533), some new Teresa Collins papers (I bought these before I even owned the Dream Big set, but knew that I'd be getting it soon...) and I broke open a brand new package of sequins that I've had for a few months but never used:

 This is the version that I ended up with... but I initially made him up without the sequins (I think that I might be embellishment challenged - I hummed and hawwed over the sequins for a good 10 minutes!)  I actually like both versions, but would like to know what you think?

The designers are all sharing our New Year's Crafting Resolutions today, too -  this year I really would like to develop my watercolouring skills more.  I received a set of brushes and a lovely set of watercolour pencils for Christmas that I hope to put to good use shortly.  I love my Tombow markers too, so will continue to play and learn with them as well.  An ongoing resolution of mine is to continue learning and trying new things with my Copic markers.  What are your crafting resolutions?  We would love to hear them, and see what new creations you come up with - you can link them up on the Art Impressions blog, here.

Copics used - Greys: W7, W5, W3, W1, W00

Pinks - R37, R35, R32, R30

New Art Impressions Zoo Babies Hop!

The Art Impressions design team is hopping today to help launch the new line of Ai Zoo Babies now available on the Art Impressions website.  And OMG are you going to LOVE these little guys - there are four different animals, each with a sentiment.  They would be awesome for a baby or child's card, and would make amazing baby shower items... which is kind of what I was aiming for.  I've done a baby card, with a matching tag and gift bag using Wildly Cute Set (Sku #4534):

You should've come here from Cheri's blog... and your next stop along the way is Kerry.  For a complete list of hoppers today - head back to the Art Impressions blog, which is the first stop on our hop.  While you're there, you can read about the new challenge starting today on the Ai blog, which is Zoo or Animal themed - we hope you'll play along!