{Madi's "Mi" Bag} Shutterfly Practical Gift Pt. 2

*This post is part of a sponsored collaboration between Shutterfly and LooksiSquare. I received product compensation, but all opinions are {honestly} my own!*

Pt. 2

An issue I've never wanted to deal with for the little Miss Madisyn, is the loss of her beloved "Mi" [her very, very special blanky].  As a baby and child, I also had a very special blanky that I needed to go to sleep.  I don't recall getting to take it everywhere with me, but it did ALWAYS go on overnights.  There were a few times that it got left behind, and consequently some lonely nights without it until it was able to be returned.  

As a Mommy, I have always wanted to prevent this issue from EVER happening to my baby.  The solution I came up with, was making sure that whenever "Mi" leaves the house [only when we won't be sleeping or napping at home] it has to be in a specific bag, and that specific bag [with "Mi" inside] also has to return home with us.  It would be like forgetting my purse [which does happen from time to time, but hopefully less likely than just the blanky on its own].  We've always used a plain old boring reusable shipping bag, nothing special.  When I saw that Shutterfly offers a wonderful Reusable Shopping Bag, and IT CAN BE PERSONALIZED with a PHOTO AND TEXT, I knew it was EXACTLY what we needed!  

Madisyn enjoys the excitement of opening a gift, often as much as she enjoys what is inside.  It is so fun watching her open, I thought I needed to share that with you as well *insert smiling face here*.

You can see she enjoyed what she found inside the pretty wrapping as well:  Who wouldn't enjoy seeing a picture of their beautiful family, stuck onto a pretty bag?!

The 3 best things about this new, special "Mi Bag" are:

1. It feels super good while wearing it and seems very durable!
2. IT IS LARGE- not only is there room for "Mi", there is extra space, because you know it's never JUST "Mi" that has to go, an entourage of "friends" [stuffed animals] also have to come along.
3. and its PRETTY!  I chose the Mutil Chevron Stripes design option, but there were so many to choose from!

The possibilities are endless for uses of these Reusable Shopping Bags because there are so many style, and personalization options!  I would love to hear if you order some, and what creative uses you came up with for them!

Thank you for following along in our Shutterfly Practical Gift series.  I felt that the two wonderful photo gifts we were blessed with needed to be honored with their own separate stories!  

Don't forget to stop by tomorrow to be entered into a chance to win $100 from LooksiSquare and Shutterfly!

"Mi" Bag Bloopers:  I couldn't NOT share the outtakes from our photo shoot- Madi is TWO- and almost everything we do gets accompanied by a really big tantrum these days.  While Madisyn was VERY excited to get to open a Birthday Gift, and LOVED the bag she received and the pretty picture of her family on it- at the time, she was NOT EXCITED to put her "Mi" in it= so funny, I had to share:

Baby Shower {Greeting Card Scrap Book} Kit

What do you do with all the beautiful greeting cards you receive for your child's first birthday, or in the mail for Christmas, or on your Wedding Day???  Well, I am the type of person that has a hard time throwing them away, but they just end up sitting in a keepsake box tucked away on a shelf.

THE SOLUTION

I've come across  a concept  over the past few years on blogs, Pinterest, etc and I think it is fabulous.
But, I think there is a way to take this concept up a notch and not only include those beautiful greeting cards in the scrapbook, but use them as backdrop for photos from the event, journals, keepsakes and more! [Click the photo to be taken to one lovely blog post with the idea]

SOOOOO....I've been saving the cards we receive for different milestones and holidays to create this style of scrap book ever since, but have not taken the time to put one together yet.  Here's the bin I've been saving all of Madisyn's Baby Shower Cards in....

As you can read here, I needed a gift for a Gender Neutral Baby Shower and wanted it to be something useful, unique and memorable.  I figured it was the perfect time to make myself put together one of these scrapbooks for someone else, so that I would know exactly how I want to do mine that I've been saving all my cards for.

So, I went through Madisyn's books and found that we happened to have two copies of the Pokey Little Puppy.  This is the perfect, classic, and gender neutral book to create this kit with!

I started by using a box cutter and carefully cut off the front and back cover of the book right along the spine.

And ended up with a front and a back for the scrapbook.

I gathered some gender neutral colored supplies (ribbon, cardstock, patterned paper, etc) and some binder rings and started to put it all together.

Using my book binding punch, I made 3 holes in the covers for the binder rings.

Then, I Mod Podged some patterned paper on the inside of the covers for a spot to include the Invitation to the party on the inside of the cover and a Guest List in the back.  

I also included a few blank patterned pages inside in case she needs extra room to journal or anything.  To complete the kit, I gathered photo corners, some extra coordinating card-stock pieces, a sharpie to write down the gifts and guests at the party, and a hole puncher.

Then, I created a little celo bag to put it all together in and made a cute little tag for the top!  To make the tag, I just measured a half an inch on either side larger than the envelope and folded a piece of paper, then stapled it onto the top of the bag and glued my letters over the staples.

And here it is all together (with the Mod Podge not yet dry behind the letters).

In her gift basket I also wanted to include the What to Expect- The First Year book that I used as a reference with Madisyn.  I enjoyed this book, and thought it might be special for her to thumb through the same one I used (and there's no sense in buying another book, when I already had it and don't need it anymore!)

It turned out great, and I can't wait to see it after she puts it all together.  Now, I just need to pull out another duplicate book and get Madisyn's made! [I will certainly do a follow up post so you can see how the greeting cards are used to mount photos, keepsakes and more!]

I did create a Silhouette cut file for this project that I'd be happy to email to you for the wording on the tag- just leave me a note!

I'd love to hear about the Greeting Card Scrap Books you make with this concept- the possibilities are endless!  Your comments make my day!

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Gender Neutral DIY Baby Shower Gift Ideas

I am headed to one of my best friend's baby shower this weekend, and I am super excited to see all the ladies and babies!  However, this strong friend of mine has held out in finding out what the gender is of her FIRST BABY at the request of her husband!  This is fun and exciting and all, but it makes gift giving difficult.  Especially when I want to hand-craft gifts special, just for this little sweetie.
Aimee has special requested one of my {Monthly Onesie Sets} as her baby shower gift, but I don't want them to be gender neutral, so those will have to wait.  BUT, I can't show up EMPTY HANDED, right?!
So, I went on a Pinterest Hunt to come up with some cute, and easy gifts for options to take to the shower.

I hope you enjoy my collection of DIY Gender Neutral Baby Shower Gifts below! [Click the image to follow a link to the tutorial]

Burp Cloths

Do Not Disturb Sign

Diaper Caddy/Organizing Bin

UpCycled T-Shirt Bibs

Soft Blocks

Closet Dividers

Alphabet Art

Nursing Cover

Taggie Blanket

Baby Blocks

And of course, what I've schemed up to make, I cannot find a tutorial for--- so I guess I will have to make my own for you all!

It's along the same ideas as this:

Christmas Card Book

I better get started!  Stay tuned to see what I've come up with!

[Cars and Trucks] Drawer Pulls- FREE SILHOUETTE CUT FILES

One of Madisyn's best friends, Hunter is a few weeks older than her.  He celebrated his 2nd birthday last weekend!  Time has flown since our babies were born, where did our little babies go?!
I try really hard to gift personal, thoughtful gifts for close friends.  I wanted to make something for Hunter and his Mom told me that she had yet to order drawer pulls for his new big boy "Car and Truck" bedroom.  I asked her if I could make them for him, and she said YES!

We bought 6, high quality metal drawer pulls from Home Depot that had a large, flat surface to apply some car and truck vinyl.

I created 6 different Silhouette files for cars and trucks to cut my 1.5 inch wide shapes out of primary colored permanent vinyl.  Some of them proved to be more difficult than others due to very small cut lines and removing the pieces necessary to create negative space.  {My trick for this is to use a very sharp dental pick... shhhh... don't tell anyone.}

Kyle quickly drilled some holes in a scrap piece of stained wood we had, that presented the pulls very nicely as a gift.  

The pulls came out exactly how I envisioned them and Hunter and Mommy Candace LOVED them!  Success!

I wasn't able to host the Silhouette Files on my webpage to download for some strange reason.  So, please leave a comment with your email address and I will send them to you!  I'd LOVE to see what you make with them!

Linking Up at these fabulous Parties:

Make Bake Create- Bubbly Nature Creations

Sewn Applique' Rag Tie Bunting Tutorial and Candy Land Themed 1st Birthday Cake Smash Reveal

Before Madisyn was born, I came across the facebook page of a local Newborn Photographer.  She had a Newborn Photography special I just could not pass up.  We bought one for our little Sweet Pea and one for our friends due with Little Baby Hunter 6 weeks before Madisyn.

A few days after Madisyn was born we had our first major outing- Visiting Miss Lindsay Porter at her studio she had at the time, in downtown Snohomish (which is a SUPER cute little town, if you've never been- GO!).  We had so much fun taking photos of our sweet babe and scrunching her up in the funniest little poses- Lindsay was such a professional and I adored her personality.

Needless to say, our relationship with Miss Lindsay did not end there.  Madisyn has had the pleasure of being photographed by Lindsay Porter Photography every couple of months in her first year and a half of life.   I am so glad that we took the time and expense to have these photos done- they will be treasured FOREVER.

Over the last 20 months I have gotten to know Lindsay a little bit better at each photo session.  And as the bunch's product line in Baby Galore, 1st Birthday Outfits and Accessories grew, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to offer these adorable outfits to Lindsay's Clients as well.

What better way to launch our co-branded effort than for a  CANDY LAND THEMED CAKE SMASH!?  I had SO much fun creating the outfit AND Lindsay asked me to handcraft a Sewn Applique' Rag Tie Bunting for her photo-shoot backdrop.

I found a few tutorials here and there- but none of them had the step by step with photos like I longed for... SOOOOO- here is one for you!!!

Cut, Iron, Sew

The first step is to figure out how big you want your bunting triangles to be.  I wanted about a 3 foot banner total, so I eye balled the length on my ruler and decided they needed to be about 9 inches tall and 6 inches wide at the top of the triangle.  I used my fabric ruler to measure and rotary cut 1 triangle.  Then I laid that triangle on top of my ironed fabric and the ruler over the top of that and rotary cut along the edges, using my first triangle as a pattern.  I cut a total of 6 triangles (You will need two for each finished triangle.  

I used my Silhouette to cut out my letters with interfacing and ironed on my letters onto 3 of the triangles.

Once the letters were ironed on, I sewed around the edges of each letter with a coordinating color thread and puled the loose ends through to the back side of the fabric.  Because this isn't a peice that will most likely be washed very much, or at all, I didn't tie off the loose ends of the thread, they should be fine just pulled through to the inside.

With all 3 of the letters Applique'd, I then laid out the triangles without applique' over the top of each letter triangle (right sides facing), pinned and stitched around 3 sides (leaving the top open).

Cut, Flip, Iron

After you've sewn around the 3 sides, cut the tip of the triangle off (the excess fabric outside of where you sewed) so that when you flip it inside out there isn't a lot of bulky fabric preventing you from getting a pointy tip on your triangle.

I used a chop stick to carefully poke the tip of my triangle to get all the fabric pushed inside out.  Once you have it all flipped, iron it to get a crisp finished look.

Trim, Measure, Bind

After you sew your 3 triangles and flip them right side out, they won't be perfectly straight across the top (unless you are perfect, I obviously- AM NOT).  Use your rotary cutter and ruler and trim the edges so you have a straight edge to enclose in your binding.
I purchased premade Extra Wide, Double Fold Bias Tape from Hobby Lobby to use as the ribbon for my bunting.  I cut the bias tape to 3 feet long and then folded in half to find the middle.  I marked it with a pin.

I arranged my bunting triangles on my cutting mat with the spacing I wanted to allow for room for the rag ties between each triangle.  Notice my center of the bias tape pin is the in center of the middle triangle.

And then I pinned each triangle inside of the bias tape fold so that the raw edge was covered.

Sew, Rag Tie, and Done!

After pinning each triangle, I used my widest zig-zag stich on my sewing machine and started at one of the ends of the bunting and sewed all the way to the other edge, taking out the pins as I went.  After it was sewn, it looked like a finished project, but I wasn't done yet.  I used strips of coordinating fabric and tied knots in each strip between the triangles until there was no exposed bias tape remaining... And that's all there is to it!

What do you think?  Easy to make, right?!  Stay tuned to see a few photos of the cake smash session with this set as a prop and maybe even a little Photography Special and Etsy Coupon Code!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

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