Baby Shower Gift!

Saturday I was fortunate enough to get to drive two hours north of Pittsburgh to attend a good friend's baby shower. Let me just say... she is absolutely one of the most precious preggo's I've ever seen. Since the first day I met her ( I worked with her Husband), I knew she was going to be a fantastic Mommy... Her husband on the other hand... let's just say I can't wait to see him change a diaper!

In my fashion, I created a gift... It started like this.

Yes, this was a cabinet door.

I used my cricut machine to do this...

(can you see the cut outs? Okay, well that's what I used for my 'stencil.')

So now imagine me... painting it white between the tape.... then taking a bunch of words and arranging them, then re-arranging them... then starting to paint.. then realizing I have gaps.

Lucky for me, I'm creative:)

Here's almost finished...

As you can see, I used puffy paint to fill in the one gap.. I also love to always make LOVE red. It just HAPPENED to fall in the middle of the piece. 

So I was getting ready to put on 'No Spitting, Hitting, Screaming.' When I thought to myself... Self.. These are things you wish for the child. Maybe the parents have something else... Thus. I painted the section with Chalkboard paint... and it looked like this..

I'm kind of a fan of it.

Then I wrapped it like this..

Oh yeah. I got them Sarris'. They love me.

As for the shower. It was adorable.

Here are some pictures:

Place setting..

Rubber ducky... your the one...

Tell me these aren't the cutest.

Unbelievable mini cupcakes. And since they were mini, it was okay to eat 3. That's like eating one, right?

There's a huge possibility that i will be copying this idea in the near future. All I have to say is that Jen's sister is an AMAZING scrapbook creator. This book was just awesome. So the deal is that they take the baby's picture next to the monkey for the first year to show how he grows. Then they document it in the scrapbook that was created. She added pages in the back for 'parenting advice.' I loved this. It was just awesome.

The Mommy-to-be and Me!

She's so cute. I just love her.

Take it easy.

Nothing makes me....

smile more than when I receive pictures from friends showing me how they use my 'creations.'

Back story....
As an avid facebook reader stalker, I noticed one of my friends was contemplating painting a cabinet door with chalkboard paint. I immediately went nuts on her status and informed her that she better not even think about it again, and that I would take care of it... I might have posted 4 responses.. give or take 2.  I was pumped. Finally, I would be able to use some of the great deals I had picked up at my favorite-place-to-shop-ever store aka get rid of some of my 'crap.'

So the ideas started to swarm... I went into my inventory of 20ish cabinet fronts to find the perfect one.. and then I heard the bells on high ring and I saw it... in all it's beauty. This would be the piece I would use. The excitement grew.. I jumped around for a moment... Then it hit me.. 'Now what?' I can't just use the chalkboard paint... I mean... what fun is that? What type of personalization is that? None. I don't roll that way... So as I stared in sadness, it hit me like a ton of bricks... One of the things I love about this girl is that she started her own blog and about her and her now husband's life.  Ding! Her tag line was 'Celebrating the Great*ness of Life.' I know. I love it. I thought it would be perfect for a newlywed & new homeowner couple!

Unfortunately I did not take a before picture... but I have a picture of it for when I finished it...

However, this picture makes me totally happy. Knowing that it gets used, to me, is priceless. It means so much to me that I was able to provide a gift for a friends and at the same time fill a void. It just makes me all giddy inside.  ( I know it's blurry aaannnnd I know she's a really good photographer... but I'll take it ;) ).
Simple things make my day.

Take it easy.



pssst: I'm participating in another 'Paint Party.'