Thoughtful Gifts

I'm lucky enough to be involved with a group of women who all had babies around the same time that I did. They have been such a wonderful group to talk to as our daughter has grown in her first year and I'm lucky to call them all friends. We did a birthday swap this year so each of us got another baby in the group to send a birthday gift to. One thing I have tried to do recently is give thoughtful gifts over something that may get used once or twice and then tossed. The baby I was paired with was born in early May and as soon as I knew who I was paired with, I knew what I would make her.

I had been thinking about making one of these signs for some time now but just never got around to it. I'm so glad I was involved in this birthday swap so I could put my crafting skills to work again. It felt good to get back in the craft room after taking a long break. I don't think I had been in there crafting but one or two times since our daughter was born.

For this project, I cut a piece of cardstock down to 8 x 10 and then used some scraps to plan out the little squares. I knew this baby's nursery was done in girly colors and her theme was classic Pooh. I couldn't get the Pooh characters to come out right for this project so I just went with a pretty design. I'm very happy with the end result and I think the recipient liked it, as well.

I used all Close To My Heart products for this project including the Chantilly paper pack and bitty opaque pearls. My friend Cecilia took the Chantilly paper and used her button maker to make the buttons seen at the top right and center left. I found a shadowbox at Michaels that worked perfectly for this project. The paper is pinned to the back of the shadowbox with pins that came with the frame. It took some serious packing supplies to make sure this didn't break on its way to the birthday girl but, it arrived in one piece and on the day of her party!

I have made one of these before this one but I forgot to take a picture of it before I sent it off! This project didn't take too long to make. The hardest part for me was figuring out what decorations to use once I had the paper glued down and the name in place. 

I would really like to make one of these for our girl someday. Maybe once I'm done with her party planning, I'll get back in there and put one together for her, as well.