{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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Make Bake Create

Totally Unoriginal [BACK TO SCHOOL} Teacher Gifts and a personal update

Hello my friends.  Wow- its been WAY too long since I've written.  If you didn't see it before, my little family moved.  We have had an awesome opportunity to help a family member out- while being helped ourselves and now we live in a beautiful house in Issaquah, WA.  We'll be working on all sorts of fun home-improvements projects to get Kyle's childhood home ready to sell over the next year- I am excited to share them with you all!

Among-st the mess of moving, [BACK TO SCHOOL] has been on my mind, even though I only have a few close to me participating in this exciting time.  I was going to take some time to round up some of my favorite [BACK TO SCHOOL] teacher gifts, but there are SO many good round-ups already out there, I figured... why reinvent the wheel!?  Right??

So, sharing from one of my favorite blogs- Lil' Luna- 15+ Back to School Gifts! (Click the image to head over to her round-up)

Think of how special your child's' new teacher will feel when receiving such a thoughtful handcrafted gift... it will get you started off on the RIGHT foot!

Enjoy-

[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

Summer iPhone Wall Papers!

I LOVED my spring iPhone wall papers I created so much, and I'm feeling VERY summery these days, so I figured it was time to update my backgrounds!

Here is a FREE lock screen and home screen for your iPhone!  
CLICK IMAGES TO BE DIRECTED TO IMAGE TO SAVE- DIRECTIONS BELOW (if you need them)

"Summer" For your LOCK SCREEN

"Summer2" For your HOME SCREEN

Here's How:

• Just click the image and you will be redirected to where you can save it from on my website.  
• If you do it right from your phone, hold your finger down over the image until the menu comes up and click "Save Image".  
• Then go to your Photos on your home screen and find the image you just saved.
• Click on it to open it to full screen size.
• Click the arrow in the bottom left corner.
• Then click "Use as Wallpaper" in the bottom right corner.
• No need to crop or move, just press "Set".
• Then use the first one with the large frame in the middle as your Lock Screen.  Save "Summer" as your Lock Screen.
• Save "Summer2" for your Home Screen using the same steps above- and

ENJOY!!!

LOVE the background image?!  I found it and SOOO many others that were hard to resist at Doodle Craft!  Please comment on this post if you use any of them for something creative- I'd LOVE to see!

Here's so Summer Days!

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