Craft Banner for 1 Year Old's Circus Party

Ruby blowing out the candles on her Circus tent cake at her first birthday party. Some clown holding her.

Shapes cut using Couture Creations nesting dies and Cuttlebug.

First Birthday Banner

Sunday was my daughter’s first birthday party with a circus theme. I had to create something special for her. Every month for the past eleven months of her life I have taken a photo of her with her teddy bear on our old oak, red linen covered armchair. Same bear, same chair, same girl one month older each time. From helpless bemused infant propped in a pillow to feisty, yelling character spilling out of the chair with energy I’ve watched her change. Now I want to celebrate it in a banner. 

Craft Banner Tutorial using Nesting Dies

Having never made a banner before I thought I’d do a practice banner. So I started with a four letter banner spelling out her name. Once I got the hang of it and realised how easy the cuttlebug makes it I was brave enough to commit to twelve more scalloped shapes for the backgrounds and twelve circle shapes for the monthly photos. Incidentally now would be a great time to buy a cuttlebug if you don't have one as the Scotties online Mega Mid Summer Madness sale is on till 2/3/2014.

Step One: First I cut out the scalloped circles in American Craft card stock in Rouge using Couture Creations scalloped nesting dies.

Step two: Next I cut out circles of  Die Cuts With a View mat stack  in two alternating  patterns using the Couture Creations plain circle nesting dies in a size smaller than the red scalloped circle. You could also use Spellbinders circle nesting dies. My circus theme colours were red, black, yellow and white so I was looking for anything in those colours in dots and stripes.

Step three: Finally  I stuck on poster letter stickers from my stash to spell out the name. Some that could work nicely are Kaisercraft Hello Sunshine stickers. Then I attached the smaller patterned circle to the red scallop shapes using dimensional tape so they would stand out and have a little dimensionality. Self Adhesive foam squares would be good for this. I used a hole-punch to put two holes in each circle and strung some ribbon through. Easy!

The first half of the banner showing months  1-6.

And voila! My party guests could see a little snapshot progression of my gorgeous little bundle getting bigger. And I found a way to celebrate her birthday through my love of craft.

The second half of the banner showing months 6-10. 11 and 12 not pictured here.

The name banner hanging on her cot with instagram filter on image.

More from this author can be found at: http://crafterlala.wordpress.com/

Pocket Scrapbooking - One Mum's First Attempt by Paula

Hi Everyone!This is my first attempt at pocket scapbooking. As a mum with a baby and a newbie to scrapbooking I wanted to see how easy and fast the pocket scrapbooking could be...but I also wanted to try out some of my new goodies so I thought I'd keep it simple but add a few embellishments and details. See below for step by step instructions on how I did the few bits and pieces of embellishing that I did. 

Choosing photos

Laying out all patterned cards

Selecting from plain cards to balance 

The basic spread with no fancy stuff yet

First I will tell you about my basic process of getting started. I managed to get my baby asleep in the cot (a minor miracle I tell you!) Great a little bit of time to myself to scrap but I had to work fast because I knew she'd wake! No time for a lot of thought and organisation but that's what's great about pocket scrapbooking. I randomly selected one of the pockets then slotted in four photos along the top and bottom looking for a general theme of 'new baby' but also that the colours and moods of the photos related.

I laid out one of each kind of vertical journal card that would fit in to the remaining four smaller pockets through the centre of my layout then made sure I was left with four that toned together, matched the sentiment of the photos and had two patterned, two plainer cards. Once I had made the decision that was the hard part done the rest was gravy, getting to play with the Cuttlebug, Couture Creations dies and stamps and a few bits of flair.

Once I had the basic arrangement sorted I looked for ways to add something. You totally don't have  to but I  like ...totally couldn't resist. I used the Couture Creations Scallop Circle nesting dies to cut shapes from the journaling cards themselves as I realized this was the best way to get colour matches for the palette of colours I was using. Other card would be more tricky to 

tone in.

 In the next four steps I had some fun with stamping the diecut shapes using Couture Creations stamps, Doily Collection and Ranger Archival Ink in coffee. I felt the brown would tone in with the beige shades in the We R Memory Keepers journaling cards. (I was using the  set of cards called Captured. ) I stamped directly on the journal card then taped the cut out over top of the stamped image. 

Finally I added a few more embellishments in the form of heart shaped sugardots from Prima Anna Marie and Speech Bubble wood embellishments  from Studio Callico. And voila, not only my first pocket scrapbook page but my first scrapbook page with any kind of flair. Easy peasy pudding and pie! Pocket Scrapbooking you have a new devotee. (and if you're wondering...the baby only woke once! Yay!)