Altered Hat Box - Courtney

This is a hatbox I altered for my future SIL's Bridal Shower. It will be used at the shower and wedding for a card box and then later she can use it to store wedding memories. Her wedding colors are pink and green.

Wedding Autograph Book

This book was designed to have guests at the shower and wedding sign with sentiments, well wishes and advice for the new couple. There are four metal tabs on the pages that say Family, Friends, Love & one has a pattern (this section used for writing down the gifts at this particular shower). The pages are blank white. I have added journaling tags and stickers to each page to prompt the guests and add flair to the book. The book cover is overlaid with two glossy, shimmering papers taken from the Luxury Mat Stack. There is also a shimmering ribbon, a flower made of organza (similar to that of a veil) and a faux mother of pearl adornment for the center of the flower. The bride and groom sticker is fabric. I used rub-ons to add decoration, sentiments and also the bride and grooms initials. I also used Stickles to give a little punch to the flower on the brides dress, as well as on the flowers near the initials. The back cover is also covered. Hodgepodge was used to seal the book.

Missing Piece Bracelet

I made this bracelet in memory of my son. I used all sterling silver and Swarovski crystals. The puzzle piece is used to symbolize my son as the missing piece of our puzzle. The other bauble is an angel (complete with halo), the dark bead is a genuine garnet bead. Garnet is the birthstone of January, when my son was stillborn. I chose clear crystals to symbolize myself (diamond is my birthstone) and blue crystals because he was a boy. I stamped my sons initials on the puzzle piece. I know that the Angel doesn't really match the blue crystals...but then nothing about this situation matches my life, so I guess it's appropriate.

Ben & Jenna's Wedding Day

This LO is from my son's scrapbook. I was 9 weeks pregnant with my son when I was in my brother's wedding as a bridesmaid. I was so happy to have found a dress for my daughter that matched the color of my dress, and then my husband played along too. The title (in the heart) was done on my Cricut. Man, I love that machine! The "wedding day" is a vellum quote. The large picture has a journal pocket behind it. It is very hard to see here but IRL the photo's have a very sheer fabric over the top of them to give them a sort of canvas look. It looks pretty cool...IRL, and I like the effect it gave. These pictures and this day were very special to us as a family. I have very few photo's of us "all". I treasure these photo's and the innocence we all had.

But, I'm so tired!!

This page is from the first month of pregnancy I had with my son. It talks about how tired I was, the way my belly grew 6" in just a few weeks and made me affraid that I wouldn't fit into the bridesmaids dress I was to wear for my brother's wedding (it fit just fine). I also talk about my first OB appointment. There is a journaling pocket behind the calendar that holds some journaling on a large tag. I loved the little journaling tag I clipped to the tape measure that I created. The tape is true to size. I wanted to remember exactly how much I grew in that short period of time. I also had fun with the splashes of orange. I'm not real good at mixing colors and it was nice to have a little help from the journaling tag. The brad that holds the flower on the tag is cloth and made out of a tape measure. That was just a coincidence...and the brad is also orange and blue. It couldn't have been more perfect!

What's in a Name?

This LO is from my son's book. This is a LO about the different names we were considering, before we knew the gender. I used a lot of rub-ons and Stickles. This was also the first time I used rub-on stitches and was super pleased that they turned out looking like real stitches. The names were cut with the Cricut and placed over ribbon. I had a lot of fun layering the rub-ons here and also "coloring" in some of the BG paper design with Stickles. The journaling tag is also quite decorated.

Valentines Day Mini Tin

This is a mini tin (made from a mint tin) that I altered for my husband for Valentines Day this year. The tags were "12 things I love about you!". I used paper, and modpodge, and ribbon, and rub-ons and stickers and stamps... Anything that worked. He seemed to think it was cute.

Pregnancy

This is a double LO of my pregnancy for my son. Regrettably, these were the only "belly" shots I had taken. These pages are very busy, which symbolizes my thoughts at the time. Very scattered and messy. I used a lot of rub-ons and stickles as well as creating a lot of the swirls and text by hand using a pen. I used a BG embossing plate from the Cuttlebug to decorate some of
the photo mats. Lots of ribbon, and other embellishments were used. The Fat & Happy side uses a BG paper to illustrate a pregnant belly. I had a lot of fun making this LO, and there is a lot going on so you need to look very close to see it all.

Great Expectations

This is a LO for my sons book. This was our first "family" picture of all "four" of us. This is the day we found out we were pregnant with my son. You can clearly see how tired I am. My daughter is wearing a shirt that says "Big Sister" as this is how we broke the news to the Grandparents. The title is made out of Rub-ons. The hearts were cut out using the Cricut. The journaling is between the two hearts in a pocket. The idea there is that my sons story is forever held between our two hearts (my husbands and mine). There are several rub-ons that blend in with the BG, though IRL they stand out a lot more. The swirls at the top and bottom of the photo are chipboard that I inked the edges on. There is a rub-on located in the bottom right of the photo that says "Family", that is not a tattoo on my arm, though it certainly looks like one.

First Photo

This LO is of my son's "first photo". It's an ultrasound from my 7th week of pregnancy. This was also the first time I really gave layering of rub-ons a try. I loved the results. I think that rub-ons are my favorite embellishment. I stamped the title on in two layers, white and blue. I used a chalk ink to do this. I used a scalloped edge round sheet of cardstock, and accented the scallops with a dot of blue Stickles. I used a poem sticker by Wendy Silva to the left of the photo that reads: "I wonder if you could possibly understand how hard it is for me to let you grow. On this day know that my heart breaks, for this is the first step in letting my baby go." At the time I didn't realize it was the last verse in a poem titled "First Day of School". I created this page after my son was stillborn, so my mind set was along the lines that I didn't even realize at the time, that this day was the first step in letting go. Some of the other rub-ons you can not see unless you look really close. IRL they stand out a lot better.

Rolling Over

This LO is of my daughters first attempt to roll over! She was 3 weeks old. I loved the loud colors of the BG paper that pulled loud colors from the tummy mat my daughter is on. I used the Cricut to cut out the title in one large piece. The title is supposed to look like it is rolling over the
picture's edge. The journaling is on an oversized tag and tucked behind the photo. IRL the main colors are bright pink and orange and a softer green. I was so glad to find flowers and ribbon and brads in my personal stock. I think they play off of the colors very nicely. I thought this was a fun page.

Baby

This LO is for my daughters book. This is probably my favorite LO of all times. It was also the easiest. It's just a nice piece of paper, a B&W photo and a transparent overlay. Most of the decorations are on the overlay. I took a picture on an angle so that you could read the poem on
the right with out a glare. This is also one of my favorite pictures!

Diaper Duty

This LO is from my daughters book. The title was cut with my Cricut. As you can tell, I love using the Cricut. I inked the edges of each letter so that they would stand out better. The diaper opens and inside contains the journaling which talks about how my husband changed every diaper while we were in the hospital (and he was there) and how I didn't change my first poopy diaper until we were home, at which point he had to show me how to "clean" her properly. The diaper is cut from a vinyl like paper, so IRL it feels like leather. There are clear ghost flowers on the edge of the picture and I used some white rub ons on the photo itself too.

First Bath

I loved doing this LO. This is my daughters first bath! For the title, the "first" part is made with rub on letters that have pebble stickers over the top, to resemble bubbles. Then on the word "bath" I used Stickles to also represent bubbles, and the letters are "ghost" letters which are plastic. There is a small rubber duckie rub on in the bottom right hand corner of the photo that I thought was to die for. I also used Stickles to highlight the bubbles in the bathtub and floating up the side of the LO. The bathtub is an embossed vellum diecut that couldn't have been more perfect! The little duck at the top of the journaling tag is fabric and I used puff ink to write the journaling.

The First Week!

This is the first week my daughter was born. I rated each day and journaled on little tags that I tucked into numbered pockets with cooresponding pictures. I used a few white rub ons. I love rub ons. This LO was actually my husbands idea, and I love it. I like having a little snippet of
what each day was like in the first week of my daughters life.

Introducing Aubrey

This is from my daughter's scrapbook. This is her birth picture. I had a lot of fun with this page and it's colors. I used puffy ink on the journaling tag. I used the cricut to cut out the title. This is also the title page of her personal scrapbook.