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Birth Announcements

December 1, 2009 jennifer Paper

Okay, so I know that you don’t usually celebrate a baby’s first 3.5 months of life by mailing the birth announcements. I realize it’s supposed to happen sooner than that. But… when it’s your 8th baby and you’ve done it for all your other children, well, you do it late rather than not doing it at all.

I’ve had the design figured out since she was 3 weeks old, and the supplies have sat, cut and neatly stacked ever since.

I love tidy stacks of cut paper, just waiting for something to happen to them.
These came from my stash of old scrapbooking supplies. Perfect colors, perfect amount. Hooray! (No shopping.)

I also used some of this lovely embossed white paper. (Again, from the stash.)

This week I finally managed to carve out the time to assemble.

I had four pictures I wanted to use, so I made an announcement that could be opened, accordion style, to see them. This meant I needed a strip of paper around 16 inches long, so I used strips of 12 inch paper and sewed them to 4 inch pieces that were the same width. Before I did that, I used my dry embossing tool and made fold lines at the appropriate spots so it would be easier to sew and easier to fold.

With my paper cutter as a guide for straight folds, I made fold lines at 4 inches, and then two more spaced 3 and 7/8 inches down. This left me with about 1/4 inch at the end for sewing my paper together.

The strip looked like this when I was finished. You can see the faint fold line in the paper.

Next I took my stack of 4 inch long pieces, and carefully lined one of them up with the tiny tab on the long piece. I then placed them on the sewing machine.

I put my sewing machine on the slowest speed setting and carefully stitched the pieces together.
I now had a strip of paper that was just under 16 inches long.

I then centered the pictures and birth information in the appropriate spots, and secured them to the paper. The birth statistics I printed on more patterned paper from my stash.

It’s starting to take shape! Because of the fold lines, it was easy to get them folded neatly, and they lined up just right!

I guess I should mention that on half of them I added a couple of little ribbon tabs on what will be the front, but when I ran out of ribbon I didn’t worry about the rest of them. They looked pretty either way.

Time for the final assembly! I took my stack of pink paper which I had embellished with a strip of striped paper and her name stamped in brown, along with a little detail on the left edge. These were half sheets of 8.5 x 11 paper, cut to be 8.5 by 5.5 inches.

Don’t you just love stacks of pretty things?

I laid a piece of lovely olive green vine ribbon down the middle of the striped paper (my ribbon was cut in 14 inch lengths). This ribbon is my all time favorite ribbon, made by May Arts . I feel like this ribbon was the perfect complement to the announcement. The olive color grounds the whole project and adds balance to the dark brown ink and sepia pictures, but the ribbon itself is very dainty and fragile looking.

Next I put a glue dot on each corner of the last section of the embossed paper (which was the part I had sewn onto the long strip) I carefully centered it on the paper and adhered it.

I punched the final picture of her little fist using a scalloped circle punch and put it on the center of the front fold.

Lastly, I tied the ribbon in a loose knot.

Finished, at last! Now they’re mailed and gone and I’m so thankful!

I should probably also note what a bittersweet thing it was to spend a few hours with pictures of her as a newborn. She’s changed so much! I love her as she is now, but I hardly noticed the changing as it happened, which reminds me how quickly she will be different again.

Part of me wants the newborn back, but another part of me is so grateful for the passage of time… it means we’re a little closer to new routines, I’m a little closer to feeling fully recovered. I just wish she could stay the same during the adjustment! But alas, God didn’t appoint it to be that way. Still, I can wish, and hold her close and try to capture this moment with my heart, before it’s gone.

3 comments baby, crafts & activities, Paper, Ribbon

A Decorated Laundry Room

November 18, 2009 jennifer Decorating

I really love my laundry room.

When we built our home, I did a few things right. Four of them involve the laundry room:
1. We put it upstairs where the bedrooms are instead of on the main floor where the original plans placed it 2. I had the cabinets painted red!

I LOVE these cabinets. They make me smile every time I see them. Funny how something so simple can make such a big difference.

Because I needed so few of them, I splurged on a special order starfish knob for the doors and drawers. I love them!

The third thing I did right was have the room built to hold two sets of washers and dryers, one stackable set and one set side by side.

These machines are my friends. Every time I start some laundry, I pause in the doorway when I turn off the light. I love to look back into the dark room and see the digital lights on all four of them, assuring me that they will do their job while I do other parts of my job.

You see, these friends are the only things in my house (next to my dishwashers) that I can count on to work even when I’m not watching. I have 8 children, and the real workers are the machines! (I know, I know, I must be doing something wrong but please tell me that when you look away your children start playing too!)

You can think I’m weird, but I give thanks for those machines EVERY TIME I turn them on. I don’t ever want to know what life would be like without them! I’m so grateful for the 847 loads of laundry that they help me to do each week.

True story (except the part about 847 loads. It’s not really that much, but it sure feels like it sometimes).

Well, when I placed my new runner made from placemats on the dryer this week, I suddenly had NO DESIRE to fold those 847 loads of laundry that were sitting in baskets in my bedroom. All I wanted to do was play in my laundry room!

I liked the flag and vintage chairs that I have sitting atop the washing machine, but wanted to do more. A little trip around the house yielded this:

A silver mirror with lead between a set of old shutters. Both were just waiting for me to do something with them. (Yes! I love it when I finally put something to good use!) I like the way it helps the room feel a little bit more open since it’s long and narrow.

Notice the laundry sign at the end of the room? It says: Laundry Expertly and Neatly Washed & Folded under personal supervision. Sometimes that’s my accomplishment; sometimes it’s my goal. And sometimes it’s my joke. Either way I like the sign.

The fourth great thing I did in my laundry room was to add a door between the laundry room and my closet. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been thankful for that thought! I decided to add something to that door to help the room feel more pretty.

I am a collector of old linens, but generally I don’t collect items of clothing. A couple of years ago, however, I stumbled upon this vintage slip. It is nothing short of incredible. To me, It’s awe inspiring. It’s hand embroidered, and I can’t begin to describe how beautiful it is to me. I bought it.

I’d like to meet the woman who spent dozens of hours working on this piece of art.
I ironed it and hung it with an old wood hanger. I then tied some ribbons and a lavender sachet made from old embroidered linens to the hanger. I added some millinery flowers, and hung it on the door.

On the laundry room counter I keep a few things:

A bucket of lavender laundry detergent for my vintage linens, fabric softener for them as well, and a basket holding lavender sachets made from lavender I grew and some pretty ribbons to tie around my favorite pieces. On the other end I keep:

Soap, hand sanitizer and my favorite lotion in a cast iron tray with some towels for hand drying. I also keep a wooden spoon which I use when I’m soaking linens in the nearby sink.

And that’s my laundry room. I felt so happy when I finished decorating it!
Which brings me to the fifth thing I did right in my laundry room (Yes, I said four, but now I have five). I filled it with things I love. Making my laundry room a place I like to be sure helps motivate me to do the laundry! Hey, if you’re gonna do the work, why not do it in an inspiring atmosphere?

2 comments blue, Decorating, Linens, vintage, white

Book Page Wreath DIY (Part I)

November 17, 2009 jennifer Decorating, Paper

Last week I saw a post on The Inspired Room about a wreath made from the pages of a book.

I popped over to Living With Lindsay and read her tutorial, then watched her video on how to make one. She shows you how to roll the paper and how to avoid burning your fingers to death, which is a good tip. Now, I had a lot to do, but all of a sudden the only urgent thing in my life was to get to the nearest dollar store and make one of my own. As in, tonight, before I go to bed.

Lindsay was right. It really costs only $2.00. Now that’s my kind of project!

Lindsay’s video and tutorial are far better than what follows, but for what it’s worth here’s how I did it.

At my dollar store they only had 2 kinds of books: dictionaries and Bibles.   The idea of tearing up a Bible didn’t sit well with me, so a dictionary was what I came home with, along with a foam wreath.

I didn’t have any craft paint that wasn’t all dried up, so I used a dark brown ink pad to rub the edges of the pages. After I’d finished, though, I wished I’d had paint. I think it would have been a little more noticeable.

I also found that tearing pages out of the book didn’t work too well. My binding was too good, I guess. I ended up using an exacto knife to cut my pages out of the book.    It was 11:30 pm when I finally started this project. I plugged in my glue gun, took a deep breath and started.

Soon I’d gone all the way around.

I turned the wreath over (again, check out Lindsay’s blog) and kept going. After a while, I had a wreath! Hooray!

I pinned a piece of ribbon to the back and rushed to the wall to hang it up. It is so light that I just used a thumb tack to pin the ribbon to the wall.

What do you think? I like it!

I hung it in my family room, between two pieces of furniture. I’ve been planning to hang something circular there for a long time. Well, here it is, I guess. (And yes, I know there’s one piece on the top that is sticking out too far. Beginner’s lesson learned: stick that paper down in deep more quickly or it dries where it paused.) That’s okay. I’m not into perfect. (I might be lying here, just a little, because I’m really a perfectionist, but I’m overcoming it. Having 8 kids sort of forces me to do that.)

I realized a few things after doing this. Mine is more gray. That’s because the dictionary I used had newsprint pages.

It got me wondering: what about a book with gilded pages? Or a vintage book with red edges to the pages? or what about an old book with yellowed pages? Or a book with crisp white pages?   Changing the kind of book you use could change the whole look! Kind of fun. I think I’m going to make another one after I go scan the thrift store for old books.

Editorial note: To see part II, which shows how the wreath looks using 4 different books, click here .
Meanwhile, I decided to try an experiment with my wreath:

I got a long piece of orange ribbon and very loosely tied it in a knot around it.

And that’s how it stayed.   You want one of these, I promise. They’re fast, cheap, simple and fun. Try it!

5 comments crafts & activities, DIY, thrifty

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