September 7th, 2010 -- Posted in family, scrappy / stampy |
For one of our family craft activities this summer, we bought and played around with these cool things called Shrinkydinks. My son had tried them out at his daycare and proudly brought home his creations so we thought we should give it a try at home. We bought a combo pack with different types of papers – clear, white, cream, etc. The idea is that you colour on the sheets with some type of permanent marker, then you heat them up in the oven so that they shrink…
What I decided to do with my share of the paper was to stamp images on it with black ink, letting it dry before putting them in the oven I’d just bought the new Baby stamp set from Stampin’ Up too and was eager to try it out.
“Before”
“After”
You’ll actually be surprised how much these things shrink. I have no idea about the science behind how the papers “bake” or anything, but it was quite cool to watch. It happens relatively quickly, right towards the end of the baking time. Here’s a pic showing the size difference: the duckies are stamped on to the paper and that tiny duck is the one that’s been through the shrinking process…
So at the time I just tucked away the pieces I created, to be used at another time. When I later had time and inclination to create a baby-themed card, they were the perfect little embellishment. You would definitely want to stick them on with Sticky Strip or another strong adhesive, because they can be pretty bulky and heavy on your card.
So when it came time to make a baby card, I had these extra little embellishments on hand. They actually made a great centre-piece to build a design around. Here’s how the first baby card turned out…
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July 12th, 2010 -- Posted in contests & freebies, work/career |
When I was a young single mom-to-be, I planned ahead for the days of caring for my little one. I was lucky to find an apartment in a good neighbourhood that was not too terribly expensive and still clean and safe. From there, it was a matter of sticking to the basics as well as making use of lots and lots of hand-me-downs, food cupboard supplies, and second-hand-store purchases. I created regular budgets to keep track of my spending.
I’m surprised it’s taken until now to realize how useful sharing these budgets on the Young Mommies site would be, but better late than never! One thing I hear often from young women who are just finding out they are pregnant is “How much will this baby cost exactly?“.
I realize the cost of living has changed since 1998! but a lot of the general estimates are still roughly the same. Especially with baby gear – you can always spend as much as you want on that stuff and there are options ranging from “free” to “$500″ for almost each thing, whether it’s a crib or dresser or travel system, etc.
So what I did was update and transfer over 2 of my old budgets…
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May 10th, 2010 -- Posted in blinkies & other cuteness |
I have not fallen off the face of the planet, I swear. I actually have put in quite a few hours over the past couple weeks designing things, but then haven’t had time to blog about them! Wish I had time for both! I find when I’m feeling creative, I just have to grab that urge and run with it as much as I can. It is much more rare these days unfortunately, especially when one considers I also have to be feeling up to sitting up and putting any ideas and thoughts into a real tangible result.
Here’s one of the many things added to the Freebie and Blinkie collections on my KStar site over the past little while…
This “pink mix” style of blinkie base was used to create a number of different-themed blinkies, including:
2010 Mommy Blinkies
“I ♥ Baby” Blinkies &
Month-of-birth Baby Blinkies
Lots more to come, so please stay tuned! and if you don’t want to wait to see the new designs posted on my blog, you can always check out the front page of KStarDesign.com to see what’s new in the “What’s New” section! 
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