Altered Boxes for Brides, Newlyweds and Mommy-to-Be's in my shop on Etsy.com

These are a few altered boxes that I have for sale in my shop on Etsy.com at the moment. There is also a nice little "Baby Firsts" Altered Lunchbox in the shop that is a wonderful gift for a new mom or mom-to-be (think baby shower). I also do custom orders on my tins and boxes, cards, invitations for all occasions, as well as any scrapbook page (want a duplicate of one I made for myself?) all you have to do is ask!

The above two boxes are Bridal Guests and Gifts Keepsake Ledgers that are designed to hold Guest info for before the wedding. A wonderful way to keep your records organized. Did you send a Thank You Note, what is their email address? Check. Did they RSVP? Check. How many guests are they bringing? It truly is a nice idea. And I'm not just saying that because I made it. ;)

This altered box is titled "Advice for the New Mother!" and would make a wonderful Pre-Baby Shower Gift. Pre-shower because the purpose of this box is to have each guest fill out a card with advice for the new mom, weather it be on surviving motherhood or even a cute anecdote. No shower? You can have visiting friends and family members fill out a card instead. This is a must have item for any new mommy!

This box is similar to the one above except its meant for a newlywed couple. Titled "Advice for the Newlyweds" the box is meant for the couple to have each guest fill out a card with advice for the new couple. No shower? You can have each guest at the reception or even visiting friends and family members fill out a card instead. This is a must have item for any new couple!

*I am aware that I misspelled "Newlywed" on the box and it is currently being fixed.

Be sure to check out my shop on Etsy

for new Altered By West items.

1st Birthday

This LO is of my daughter's first Birthday. I was trying to make the one picture the main focus of the LO with out distracting from it with the ten or so photo's I wanted to use. Now that I am done, I think I would have preferred the same background paper on both sides. Anyhow, I had fun adding some elements to the page that came from the actual day, such as the ribbons and the cupcake.

The huge "1" is something I think that was originally intended for use on a quilt. It is fuzzy and made of fabric. The title is a rub on that I embellished with Stickles (I love my Stickles) and attached a plastic "button" to that which says "Sparkle". The button on the top of the hat is a fabric covered button, and the ribbons are ribbons that came from Aubrey's actual birthday dress, as did the Cupcake applique. I added the green "pearl" to the top. The large "27" rub-on is from Gin-X Express-ons, and "Jan" are foil letters. The background paper is from Imaginisce from the All Kinds of Happy line called Tied up with Strings

There are several photo's on this page that are under peek-a-boo flaps (see below photo). The background paper and the two upper "gifts" are also from the All Kinds of Happy line. I used Parfait Par-tay for the background, Chatty Cake, Chatty Cake on the pink gift and Oooo, You Shouldn't Have... on the gift bag. The gift bag has a few pictures in it with pull-up tabs made from Vellum to resemble tissue paper. The Vellum is from Paper Pizazz. I cut the edges using decorative scissors and the ribbon is also from Aubrey's birthday dress. The brown and pink "Happy Birthday" ribbon is Martha Stewart Crafts. Each flap (other than the gift bag) opens or rotates to reveal several pictures beneath. I embellished with ribbons, charms and rhinestones. The small purple envelope at the top was made using the Cricut Cartridge called Wild Card. I added stickles for depth and pizazz and used a Zig Millennium Pen to add her name. The envelope is secured to the page using the tiny white clip at the top and is easily removable. Inside the envelope is a card with the journaling of the day on it.

This photo displays how the peek-a-boo flaps open to reveal the photo's. There are a few photo's under every flap. I really enjoyed how this LO took on a mind of its own and revealed a nice new idea for me to add several pictures to one page without making the page feel overwhelming. And now, 4 days shy of her 2nd birthday...I have finished! :s I really need to pick up the pace.

Trick-or-Treat

Here is what the LO looks like together. It's a double page LO. This page gave me a lot of grief, but in the end I am very pleased with the way it turned out. Thanks to some .svg files I used (for the title and the monkey) on my SCAL, and some pretty great embellishments I picked up in the weeks I was working on this LO. It seemed so plain brown to me, and blah. And it took me forever to find a Monkey that I liked. This monkey wasn't my favorite, but it was cute enough. I got the Monkey .svg file from Southern Belle and I got the title .svg file from http://www.svgcuts.com/ (who had some really great ones!!).

So the title and monkey are cuts I did on the Cricut. The title paper is by American Crafts, The Goods Collection in Pumpkin Pie. I used the stripes on the front and the back is a coordinating color that I used for the shadow of the title. Then I used a few sticky pearls from Recollections, along with several of the stickers. The spiders body is one such pearl, and then I used black Stickles on the spiders legs, and some little doodads here and there through out the LO. I put two photo's on tags that are hidden beneath the top three photo's. I had a lot of photo's I wanted to use for this LO, being that it was my daughters first "real" Trick-or-Treating experience.

My favorite part of this LO is the journaling tag. I found this cute little .bmp in Microsoft Word. I inserted the picture, enlarged it and then wrote on it using a text box, printed and then cut out the image by hand. A daunting task, there are 7 pages. Hey, I'm a wordy gal! The top flap opens up to reveal the other 6 journaling flaps, telling the story of the day. The font I used is called Dilate. I used foam tape behind the upper part of the bag to give it a 3D effect, and to also allow room for the thickness of the other 6 pages of journaling. I used black Stickles on the ghosts eyes and highlighted them with blue pearls from Recollections. The Happy Halloween Stickers, tag and candy are also from Recollections. The black dots around the large photo are "brads" that I made using black Stickles. I later added two small ghost stickers. I really recommend clicking on the images to get a closer look, I really am proud of the details in this LO. And happy to be moving on...

Journaling says:

" We went all over town today for Halloween fun! I think the fun was more for Momma's sake than any one else's. First thing this morning we went to a little costume parade on Grosse Ile, and Grandma joined us. I was dressed up in a little monkey costume and thirteen layers of clothes because it was so cold and the wind was whipping. Later that day we went to a little Boo Bash that had Pony Rides. I got to sit on one of the Ponies, my first time ever!! Then we went to visit Great Grandma and Auntie Maddie. Who just think I'm the cutest thing EVER!! Later that day we were off Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood. I went last year, when I was only 9 months old, In Niles with Momma’s Family. This year I got to walk around and carry a little pumpkin and beg for my own candy (which Momma has already confiscated and probably eaten). We took Kaida too! Daddy walked Kaida, but I tried my hardest to get him to let me do it. In the end I let him “help” me. I had so much fun! We crunched through the leaves up and down my street. I even put some in my pumpkin. Daddy threatened people not to scare me, I got tons of candy, chips and cookies, went for a nice walk in a fun costume and saw lots of little kids and even dogs that were dressed in funny costumes. Then we went back to our home and passed out candy for a little while before I had to go to bed. I loved seeing all of the kids dressed up and coming to the door saying "Trick or Treat". Every time Momma said, "Muffin, someone’s coming!!" I ran to the door to see. Kaida did too! It was such a fun day, but when we were all done I was pooped!! I think Momma and Daddy had as much fun as I did, if not more. It is possible that they were also more excited than I was, especially Momma. I think she may have been holding back tears while we were Trick-or-Treating!! I am 21 months old. 2009"

Monster Card

I loved making this card. I made this card for my young cousin, using the Cricut cartridge Wild Card. It was the first card I've made from that cartridge. All of the elements are from the cartridge. I added Stickles for depth and flair. The little monster lifts up and the card is written on there. The card is about 5" square. I am so excited to get started making all sorts of new cards using this cartridge!!