Mets Themed Baby Shower - The End!

Hi Everyone,
I am going to keep this as short and sweet as possible.  Oh my, I am so glad these favors are done. Not because I didn't enjoy making them, but because my Stampin Up holiday order arrived and I did not want to open the box until the favor boxes were done.  I have more pictures than words so lets get on with that. When I last posted I had made the 80 box bases.  There was still so much more to do.  I started by prepping the tops. I cut and scored clear plastic sheets for the lids.  They came out great but I did not take a picture of them.  No good photo will come from clear plastic. Next up was the belly bands for the box. Oh my lord why would I even think of deckle cutting these strips.  Math time peeps, each box required 2 strips so then the deckle edge required 2 cuts, which then equals 4 passes through the trimmer per box - times 80 is (HELLO PAIN) 320 passes through the paper trimmer.  Thought my arm was going to fall off! Here is a picture:

 I did have some printing issues as well but I am back on the road with my new Canon laser printer. No need to get into the whole ugly story. All the graphics were done with Serif CraftArtist2.

Pretty in groups of 20! now to get them on the box. That was easy, just took an amazing amount of tape runner from my Scotch ATG gun. Once done it was on to the tags.  Back to the computer and printer we go.

And of course they need to get punched . . .

And backed with SU Night of Navy . . .

So that it would all end up looking like this . . .

Boxes ready to be filled, bowed and tagged!  They came out great and I am told the boxes will be filled with cookies that are shaped like a bat, baseball, baseball glove and baseball cap.  I think they will look just Grand Slam at the shower. I will leave you with this last picture of my SU Holiday Haul . . . Crafty Goodness is on the way for sure.

Bad Pic - Good Stuff, See you soon, thanks for stopping by,
Lysa

Mets Shower Favor 2, Back to School and WORK too!

Hi Everyone,
Gone for 2 weeks or so but now I am back in the craftroom for a last hooray before going back to work tomorrow. UGH!!!! So I had a wonderful vacation at the Jersey Shore. Love me some LBI.  I have to show you my moon pictures. Not because they are great but because I love them. I took a pic on the first night and then one on the last night.  How cool is my Nikon to catch the craters . . .

Awesome, between the moon and the ocean I started to feel a bit small. Which was OK by me! The whole family had a so much fun, We did all the normal Jersey Shore things and I shopped my little heart out too. The sun was great and no rain fell on our parade.  Please don't ask about how many calories I consumed!  Yummy food every night! Not just back to work but back to diet too!  So I took an extra 2 days off so that I would be home for the Stampin Up holiday catalog launch.  Yes, I did get up at like 3:00 a.m. so I could place my order. Yes, I did. Crazy I know but can you blame me?, it is an awesome holiday catalog.  Good thing I saved some of that vacation money cause I did some heavy damage this morning. So since getting home on Saturday I knew I had to get some work done on the Met themed baby shower favors. On Sunday I used my ZING to cut the 80 Night of Navy box bottoms. It was a pain because I could only get 1 box on an 8.5 X 11 piece of cardstock. So shame on you Stampin Up for no longer making 12X12 cardstock in the colors. So that was a full 80 cuts and the left over scraps? well who knows what I will do with all that paper.  On Monday I cut all the box tops, but this time I hand cut them.  I just could not get into loading the mat hitting the cut button etc. . . . Once done with that chore I hand scored them both. Yup, 4 score lines times 160 yet again equals OUCH! but it is done and I am a happy crafter! Here is a pic of 40 box bottom:

They folded up great and I used SU fast fuse to glue them.  So now it is onto the belly band for all those boxes. Before I go the little one (who is no longer little) is headed back to school tomorrow.  Her Mom took her for a hair cut and a mini shopping spree for some new clothes.  I have to share last years first day and a pic from last night.  I could just hug the life out of her I love her so much . . .Here she is  ready to conquer Middle School.

And here she is the mighty conqueror.

 Wow, what a difference a year makes! Congrats Rory on making it into honors math and performing arts gifted program! Hope to be back with more of the Met's shower favors by Saturday, wish me luck. Thanks for stopping by,
Lysa

Congratulations, It's A Met Fan!

Hi Everyone,
Yes, A Met's theme baby shower project is on the craft table.  And it's BIG! So big I have to break it up into sections.  When I set out with the design I had no idea I would be making 80.  Now 80 of anything never really puts me off but in this case just the side tags on the box required many, many paper punches. And by many I mean 160 orange (SU Tangelo Twist) scallop ovals, 160 blue (SU Night of Navy) modern labels, 160  white ( SU Whisper White) 7/8 round scallop circles, 160 printed Met logos 3/4 inch round punch and the kicker of it all 320 printed baseballs 1/2 inch circle. Lets do the math . . . 960 punches. OUCH!! my hands are taking a beating. Here is a picture. Please note the Met logos are not in the picture!

Wow, Now to get started putting them together,  I did my best to stay as organized as possible. Here is the next picture. Here comes the 160 Met logos!

Looking good even if I say so myself! Now for those baseballs and the finished tags!

I am not going lie, it was the baseballs that took me to the brink! Yes, they drove me to drink, and it wasn't coffee! Here is a pic of where the tags will happily live until they go onto the finished box.

Oooh,ah look how nice they look ready to go and in groups of 20 tags (10 boxes) Well now I am just getting silly! So here is the schedule to finish off this shower favor project.
80 Night of Navy box bases (machine cut with my ZING)
80 Clear plastic box tops (machine cut with my ZING)
80 Printed Met logo belly bands (really 160 pieces put together to make a 17 inch strip, hence the 2 tags per
     box, so the seam would not show) really, I kid you not!
80 printed tags with the new Mom's name and the date of the shower. Shaped like a baseball, of course!
So I am now taking a 2 week break due to my real life job. Stay tuned for the finished project.  I hope to have this completed by the 2nd or 3rd week of September so that I can get my Halloween MOJO on!  Thanks for stopping by,
Lysa

Crib Explosion Box

Hi Everyone,
I took a break from wedding things to make this explosion box for a co-working who is having a baby. I had so much fun making this box that I just had to share it with you all.  First I have to say I was under a bit of pressure to get it done as I was asked late in the game to make a card that would hold the gift card we were giving her.  Well I spent just about the entire weekend in the craftroom making it.  But I have to say I think it was because of the theme.  I just don't have a lot of "baby" themed graphics and papers kicking around in my craftspace.  I had said to the family if I needed to make a Christmas or Halloween themed explosion box I could have banged it out quickly.  I had spent so much time looking for graphics and making the crib that the whole thing got away from me.  In the end it was worth the effort because it came out awesome and my all my co-workers were excited to give the new Mom her gift card. First I have to show you a picture of my desk as I was making it.  This was my first so you know the paper scraps were flying! I even posted this on my facebook page. Here is the pic:

WHAT a mess!!! But then it all started to come together around that adorable 3-D crib that is perfectly sized to hold a gift card. Here are the pictures that I took and while they are not the best I am sure you will get the idea of how the box came out.

Wow, Do you love it too?? I knew I was pressed for time and searched for a crib file online but they were all for sale and I thought I could make one fairly easy just by looking at a picture.  I saw some really pretty ones for sale but I thought if I kept it simple I would be able to create it quickly.  I used my CAP2 software to make the file and  exported it as a pdf so that I could use my ZING and MTC to cut it.  Well all went well and I thought I would share the file with you all.  Here is a picture of the pdf file:

So cute! If you want to try to make the crib you can fine the pdf file here:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/hkr6ldzmvlx3weh/crib_to_post.pdf
and as always for my MTC peeps you can download the file here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/wc8788k344oev2l/crib_by_lysa_and_huey_to_post.mtc 
 If any of you have any questions just leave me a comment and I will do my best to help.  I really love this explosion box card and will make more in the future. I am already thinking a wedding one would be fun to create.  I could just see a wedding cake in the center. Thanks for visiting and PLEASE enjoy the file and consider leaving me a comment, I so love to share files and comments inspire me to share more.
Lysa

Diaper Cakes Revisited

Diaper cakes always are a winner. No matter how they are made. No matter if they are a gift for the new Mom or a centerpiece for the tables. I just love them. I know the cost of making them is through the roof. But people they make a hit!! I love when they are themed to the new baby's nursery and in the color scheme of Mom's choice. This pink and chocolate cake matched the nursery it was going to and because the diapers are a larger size there is no need to dismantle the cake right away. Here is a quick shout out to the you tube watchers who saw the video and were so nice to comment. I really wish I had the time to get into making instructional videos but time for me seems to be a premium these days. If you need any tips on making a diaper cake or any other project you see here, leave a comment and I will help anyway I can. Enjoy and thanks for visiting!
Lysa

A Paper Project

See I really do play with paper. I had the pleasure of attending a baby shower for a relative back in February and I made these for the table. I got the file from lkc over at the SCAL forum Her blog is http://thealliancetrader.blogspot.com/ How generous is she to share this great box file. I gave her a shout out on the SCAL forum. She does great files. Need I say they cut like BUTTA. Check her out if you can. I used the cricut and SCAL to cut these. The paper is from the Martha Stewart pink stack, which I got at Walmart. The candles that went inside were scented "clean linen" and here is a little tip. I got them all packed into boxes and put "clean linen" scented wax melts into the box along side of the favors. After being in the boxes over time the paper absorbs the scent and they smell really pretty. I do have to say that making large quantities of a favor is something I really enjoy. Wish I could get a handle on taking better pics but hopefully that will come in time. Have a great night and thanks for visiting!
Lysa

The Diaper Cake Video

I had to make this my first video post. This video is on you tube without the music. I get requests for sound so I thought this would be a great starting point for the blog. I have been making these cakes since 1987 and I still make them to this day. I have done so many but this classic pooh was always one of my favs. And notice the tag, to me it is the best part. I have other diaper cake pics and hope to upload them soon. Hope you enjoy the video and thanks for visiting.

Lysa