Miniature Hat Boxes

For my last 'baby shower' post, I made these 3 miniature hat boxes
(with small gifts inside, of course!). The nursery for our granddaughter
will have some paisley printed bedding, so I wanted to stay with that theme and CTMH More to Adore paper was the perfect choice!

Click the photos to see larger image

As you can see, I made the middle size one backwards from the large and small ones. I used Mod Podge for Paper (following their instructions) to get the papers stuck to the boxes, just smoothing it out with my fingers as
I went along. Then after drying for at least 2 hours, I put one coat on top, just on the outsides and left the insides alone. 

All the insides are the same.... they all look like this:

It was quite a task to get that paper done "just so" on the inside of each box top and bottom! And I thought that was difficult until I started on the outsides, lol! Those paper mache boxes are NOT smooth and NOT perfectly round, and even 12x12 paper does not go all the way around anything except the smallest box bottom, inside and out. I had to piece together all the other paper parts, including the outside rim of the small box top! Being OCD didn't help, because I just had to have the stripes match up around those sides! Needless to say, there were some wrinkles when all was said and done, but for me, the end results were worth the headaches along the way! They turned out better than I thought they would, and my daughter loved them!

I used a variety of flowers and leaves, and even a 'spray' from I Am Roses to decorate each top, attaching them with a low temp hot glue gun. Everything you see came as that color except the yellow flowers... they were originally white. I painted them with Yellow Rose of Texas Magical Micas from Lindy's Stamp Gang, and then spritzed all the flowers and leaves with Medieval Gold Glitz Spritz.... so pretty! I chose yellow, even though it's not part of the colors in the paper set, because not only do some of the flowers have yellow stamen centers, but the baby's room is painted yellow! (pink, yellow, and green are her colors) I think I covered all of them in this design and even added the brown florals to go with the paper! The final touch were the stickpins.

Here's a close-up of the large arrangement:

Thanks for stopping by to check these out! Leave me some love in the comments if you have the time, and let me know what you think. :)

Supply List:

CTMH:
     More to Adore Paper pack (retired)
     Pretty Pins (reitred)
Darice Paper Mache Nesting Boxes
Mod Podge for Paper by Plaid
I Am Roses - variety of flowers, spray, and leaves
Lindy's Stamp Gang - Glitz Spritz and Magical Micas
hot glue gun

Baby Shower Banner

(click photo for close-up view)

While my daughter came home for a short weekend visit, we gave her a "family only" baby shower. I'll be throwing her an "online" baby shower in a few weeks (which should prove quite interesting!). Why online? I'll tell you!....

She can't have a "normal" shower with all her friends and family in attendance, because:
1) She lives in one state and ALL her family live 1000 miles and several states away!
2) She's only been in her locale for a few months (moving there from the West, more
     than half-way across the country) and she does not work in an office setting with a
     bunch of gals around..... just one woman, the rest men.... so I can't rely on them to
     give her a shower!
3) She went to college near the East coast (still half-way across the country from home,
     just in a different direction!)
4) ALL her college friends were from all over the country and overseas!
5) And while she was in college, we moved to a different city than where she went to
     jr. high and high school!

So, I think it's pretty obvious by now and ya'll have realized, that it's impossible to have a "normal" shower when everybody lives all over the place! Hence, the small "family" shower when she was home for the last time before the baby comes and an "online"
one for everybody else!

Now.... back to our little shower at home..... it was a surprise, as you can probably tell from the banner, and she really had no clue! Her dad dragged her off to Sam's Club, while I, Carol and Tom desperately hurried to get all the pink balloons up (it's a girl!).
Her brother lives about 90 miles from us, so he came up and drove me crazy for the last half hour before the party started! He just loves to irritate pick on me! And her aunt had
to come straight from work!

Even though we had major problems with getting the balloons to stay in place, we were ready on time. Everything went as planned, EXCEPT.....

Nobody could yell "surprise"!!! (Side note: our garage is attached to the house via entrance into the laundry room. Then there is a short hallway that goes from the laundry room straight into the Master Bed/Bath, but to get there, you must walk by the entry door into the living room that's off that hallway to the right. We had hung a bunch of the pink balloons in that doorway to the living area.) The ONLY thing we did not plan for, was the fact that while they were gone, she drank 64oz of fluid and by the time they got home, she desperately needed the bathroom since the baby was standing on her bladder! 
Of course she saw the pink balloons on her way by the doorway, stopped long enough
to hold her finger up and say "one second" before dashing on, and... we all were just dumbstruck! Literally.... time went by and we just sat there looking at each other!
I'm sure it was only for a few seconds, but it seemed to go on forever! Finally someone broke the silence and asked "are we still supposed to yell surprise?"

Well, when she returned, I had to make her pose for her "surprised look" photos!

So fake! But cute expressions anyway!

Then after all the greetings, we had dinner, cake & punch, and the unwrapping of gifts! So all turned out good in the long run. :)

Now, a little more about the banner.... here's some close-up shots of some of the individual pennants:

     

   

      

  

I absolutely LOVE how this turned out! It was my very first banner. I used a really old paper pack from CTMH called Flower Power with Buttercup cardstock, and covered the CTMH My Creations Banner. The pennants are each 6" across the top and 7" tall. I'll list supplies at the end of the post.

I used 4" chipboard letters I had custom ordered from an Etsy shop. First I triple embossed them with clear thick EP and then twice with White Daisy. Before applying the final coat of White Daisy, I sprinkled pink glitter on them and embossed the glitter right into the WD layer. On the "baby" word chipboard, I covered it more completely with the pink glitter before embossing.

I also used a variety of floral embellishments, making my own fancy-punched accordian rosettes with the Flower Power paper (inspired by Bev - SEE accordian rosette picture link in left sidebar to her blog). The embroidered flower on the "R", I dyed with Cotton Candy Reinker (it was originally white). All the letters are popped up with dimensional tape, and I also distressed the edges of all the papers with Desert Sand ink.

Well, I think that's all except the

Supply List:

CTMH Products:

    My Creations Banner

    Flower Power paper pack (retired)

    Buttercup cardstock

    Desert Sand ink pad

    White Daisy Embossing Powder

    Cotton Candy reinker

Custom 4" Chipboard Letters from Glitter Dust Designs on Etsy

I Am Roses Embroidered Flower

Martha Stewart Lace Border Punch

Clearsnap Cotton Candy Glitter

Basic Grey Lily Kate Ribbon

Scor Tape

Glue Dots

Dimensional foam tape

Ultra-thick clear embossing powder

Embossing Gun

Miscellaneous buttons, flowers, brads, embroidery floss, and "baby" word chip from stash

Baby Stroller Card

This card is just too cute! :)  It's a standing baby buggy carriage.... Adorable!
I made this for my daughter's surprise baby shower we had this past Saturday, while she was home for a visit.

I used this retired CTMH paper pack called More-to-Adore. Since the bumper pad for the crib is Pink Paisley Splash, I wanted to match the paisley theme, and this paper set was perfect! The card actually matches 3 nesting "hat" boxes I made for her. I will show you those in the next few days!

view laying flat

view standing up!

I got this card idea from Rhea, aka the night owl stamper. She shows how to make these in her 'take 2' attempt of her first video tutorial:   

Watch on YouTube: HERE

Aren't they precious? Hope you enjoyed it!

Supplies:

CTMH: More to Adore paper pack (retired), Cotton Candy Cardstock, Bitty Sparkles

Martha Stewart Lace Border Punch

Nestabilities Scalloped Circle Die

Adhesive: Dotto and Glue Dots
glitter flower brads (for spokes) and bow were old stash on hand