Sex Announcement...no, not THAT sex!

After all, this is a G-rated blog LOL!

My last post (here) showed how my husband, daughter and myself found out the sex of our newest addition.

Once we knew, it was hard to keep it a secret. I am the worst secret keeper EVER, when it's about me anyway. So how would we tell the grandparents that we had a baby boy coming??? My wheels started turning and I quickly got out my computer, opened up SCAL and Design Studio (DS) and got to work!

I decided to make a gate card. I knew they were easy, yet I had never made one before. I thought it was the perfect format for our mom's to open up to the big news Here's what I came up with for the outside.

The left panel reads, "Frogs, snails and puppy dog tails?" and the right "Sugar, spice and everything nice" with the center scallop asking the big question. I chalked the edges of the panel to add some dimension. I used SCAL for the scallop and used PDDU for the frog and sugar bag. There's also a stream of glue coated in sugary glitter flowing from the sugar bag. I can't resist an opportunity to use glitter or other bling :)

The inside announces the big news without saying a word:

The crib, window and stars were made using SCAL. The baby, babies shirt and hanging frog uses PDDU - such a versatile cartridge! The little dog is modeled after my mom's westie and is cut using Paper Pups. I had made a snail, but I just couldn't get it to fit into the "nursery" so I left it off and told myself that "simpler is better."

We let Lucy give both grandma's the cards. My mom figured it out right away when she opened it and started giggling with excitement. Both grandma's are excited for the little one - girl OR boy, they didn't really mind.

Boy or Girl? THAT is the question!

With my first child, Lucy, my husband and I were so happy to be pregnant (and finally stay pregnant!) that we really didn't care if we were having a boy or a girl. So we didn't find out despite having many opportunities. Now, of course, I can't imagine my life without her.

This time around, I still did not want to know. I am again, just happy to be able to keep and have a healthy pregnancy. However, my husband wanted to know and so did Lucy. I agreed to find out, mostly in an effort to be able to prepare Lucy in the event that the baby is a boy (she REALLY wants a girl!). But, being a sentimental, crafty scrapper, I wanted it to be special. My hospital doesn't allow cameras or video cameras in the ultrasound room. It was really important to me that we got the news as a family, not in a cold, dark, sterile hospital room.

So, I stayed up late the night before making these scrap page headers:

[Like I said, it was really late, and dark house = dark photos, sorry!]
I used SCAL to make the pea pod, bow and letters (love that font!). The babie's faces are also made using SCAL, but could easily be done using the PDDU cricut cartridge.

They both went in this envelope, also designed and cut using SCAL. I decorated with the same font and used a black marker to make "stitches" around the letters and question marks. Though most of me didn't want to know, I was excited to see which of these page headers I would eventually use on a scrapbook page for my little one.

I attached adhesive squares to the envelope flap and kindly asked the ultrasound technician to turn and remove the card of the sex of the baby that wasn't what we had. She loved them, commenting how cute they were. I told her that she could give away the other card to another expecting mom that was having a baby of that sex.

So what was left in the envelope?!?!? We waited until that evening when we were all home together and could get Lucy's reaction on video. We were on pins and needles!!! Then, she opened it...
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She managed to muster a smile, but I could tell she was disappointed and it broke my heart a little. I take comfort knowing that once he's here, she'll love him all the same.

It's about time!

It's about time that I actually start writing on this blog. I created the layout nearly a year ago, along with my other blog: The Lone Quilter. I just finally started posting on that one as well. Yes, that is my face in both of my headers, but it is not my body LOL. Far from it, since I am pregnant right now!

Like a lot of you, I struggle to find the time just to balance life and create new projects, much less upload the pics and blog about them. I have taken pictures of nearly everything I have ever done. Whenever I upload them to my computer, there's always a little voice in my head that says, "you should really blog about this!!" So I am.

This is my most recent project, a shadow box that I created for a friend who had a wedding this summer. I saved her invitation and bought all the supplies months ago, but took me forever to actually sit down and do it. This is one of the first scrap projects that I did that I drew up a mock layout beforehand. Boy did that make buying supplies and putting it together so much easier! It saved me time and money because I didn't buy a whole bunch of stuff that I didn't really need. I plan to do this more often in the future.





Her colors were silver and navy. The white satin and crystals just below are actually modeled from the bodice of her wedding dress seen here.



Wasn't she a gorgeous bride?!?

Since all I had were candid photos, I left the photo mat empty and gave her a template and adhesive dots to add her own pic. That way, she could pick her favorite.

I hope you enjoy my project and my first post. Even more, I hope you choose to become a follower :)

-Babs