B is for Babies

It seems like a lot of people I know are starting to make announcements that cute little babies are on the way. I'm looking forward to meeting the little guys. Over the summer I went to a baby shower for one of my college friends and last weekend I went to the shower of one of my many cousins.

 

It's been a great excuse to use up some of my old scrapbooking supplies. Growing up I decided that I needed to document absolutely everything through scrapbooks, so I've built up a pretty healthy collection of craft papers and supplies that are just gathering dust with the exception of making cards every once in awhile. Once photo books came out through sites like my publisher, I kind of gave it up.

 

I used some of my old papers recently to make some bunting to use as ribbon for my college friend's baby shower gift and made a matching card. 





I also used my Silhouette machine (it's a machine that cuts paper into shapes and letters) for probably the first time ever for my cousin's baby shower gift wrapping. Jim bought it for me our first Christmas after we got married. He thought I'd like it because leading up to our wedding I spent a lot of time crafting - we had a heavy DIY wedding. It was super thoughtful, but after the wedding I didn't have any reason to use it. Until apparently now. Going forward I think all of our friends will get monogrammed baby gift wrapping. I don't think that's what Jim expected I'd use it for, but at least I'm using it now, right?

 

So thank you babies for giving me an excuse to craft again and giving me a reason to use the thoughtful gift from my husband (3 years later).

Baby showers are also a great chance to see the awesome crafting skills of my talented friends and family. At my cousin's (technically cousin-in-law) baby shower, her sister-in-laws, sisters and mom and mom in-law put threw the most adorable event. There were so many sweet details. There was a lot of thought and love put into it. How sweet is this little poem at each guest's seat?

 

I also loved the centerpieces. One of the hosts, my cousin M, wanted to have baby block centerpieces. When she couldn't find them pre-made, she decided to go the DIY route and created these beautiful centerpieces getting the supplies at A.C. Moore and ordering bulk hydrangeas through BJs. They came out awesome. There were so many other thoughtful details like homemade chocolate covered Oreo favors made by the mom-to-be's sister in law. 

It was a lot of fun to spend time celebrating the soon to be baby and spending time with friends and family in such a pretty setting.

I'm apparently on the watch list for the next in line to have a baby. I guess that happens when you're about to hit three years of marriage and inching closer to 30. For now, I'm just enjoying celebrating other people's babies.

Are you and your friends in the baby stage? Any tips on using up old scrapbook paper or cool ideas on things to make with a silhouette machine?