Heating in Chicago, BRrrr!

Recently, our apartment has been very hot. VERY. Like a 90 degree day in summer. It's the hot night in summer where you point all the fans at yourself and can't sleep. Mind you it's Chicago and winter-ish and 32 degrees or less out already. And there are only so many clothes you can take off. The Radiator in my small bedroom is working overtime. It's hissing, it's clanking, it's making its self known to the world. In looking up what could possibly be wrong with this bugger, I found this: http://strawstickstone.com/renters/your-new-noisy-roommate-steam-radiators-in-chicago-apartments/ Really? All I need is a blanket? I have plenty of those! WIN. I guess I'll go close the windows..

Dry Skin - Epic Issue

Basically,

I'm a BzzAgent. Which means I get to try new products *for free* and hand out coupons to friends to share the saving with them. Imagine my surprise when instead of a coupon to go get a sample to try I got full size products from Burt's bees! I'm trying out their intense moisture line and have a face wash, night creme and face mask to try out.

My skin is always dry and flaky in winter, so I'm REALLY excited about trying these out. I get flaky skin on my scalp on the hairline, on my chin and cheeks and sometimes even my eyelids! I've been looking for a good skin care regimen and this looks like the ticket!

I'll let you all know how it goes.

xoxox
Cat

Baby Shower Invitations for Raelynn

My sister in law is having the first immediate family grandchild in February. So, my duty as Aunt is to help with a baby shower. I googled and googled and decided we'd go with "Cute as a Button" for a theme. Buttons are cheap, and there were enough ideas out there to make it work.

inspiration!

Above is the inspiration for the invitation. However, when I found this picture on Pinterest it's just a link to a site selling stamps. I'm NOT a fan of stamps. But I had a deadline, these invitations needed to get out within the week, so off to Michael's I went. Here is the picture of my supplies:

supplies!

Basically I got a two color pack of card stock, black and white (25 of each color) I only needed white, but I didn't need 100 sheets. We were only planning a guest list of maybe 16 people that needed invitations, so I wanted extra because of the inevitable mistakes. I couldn't decide on ribbon, so I bought a couple rolls. Michael's had the plaid stamp I wanted to use from the example, but the only pink ink pads available were normal sized. With such an oversized stamp I worried that it would be an issue, but I figured it out. I invested in a few bags of buttons from Walmart, as Michael's didn't have ANY bags of buttons. I got the modge podge for plastics and stones, as I'll be gluing the buttons to not just the cardstock but also wood for the next craft. I also invested in a glue dotter, and some scrapbook stickers for baby pages. The large modge podge is mine from previous crafts. (Love that stuff!) Unpictured: Computer, color printer, scissors, paper cutter, rolling pin.

First thing I did was fold the cards in half (hamburger style) so I had a nice sized card that will fit in a 5x7 envelope (which are available in bulk at Walmart as well). I then started inking the stamp. Unsuccessfully. It took a couple of botched cards before I realized that, duh, I needed something that would provide even pressure on the stamp (provided I had inked it well enough). Out came the rolling pin. The plaid started coming out much better. None of them looked quite as perfect as the example, but I think that's alright. By the time I had inked 20+ cards It was time to start sorting and gluing the buttons on. I decided to go with one large and two small for each card. 

 Next was gluing on the ribbon. I used the modge podge to glue it on. I did one example card for one kind of ribbon, another for the other. After letting my mother (the grandma-to-be) pick the ribbon choice I thought was lacking, we came to the mutual decision to use two kinds of ribbon. Then we printed out (after customizing a font in Word) the "Cute as a Button!" wording, printed it en masse, cut it with the paper cutter and glued it on to the front of the card with the glue dotter (best invention ever!).

Comparing Ribbon on practice cards

Double Ribbon

Completed Products!

Mom went to work on the inside of the invitation, getting the wording together. I customized a wedding invitation template (again, by Word) by making it very pink and removing some of the wedding elements for the border. We printed these out and cut them to the appropriate size, and using the glue dotter, pasted them into the card. I embellished with some of the scrapbooking baby stickers.

When I was younger I thought making greeting cards was my calling, for a stolen idea, customized, I'm pretty proud of these!