One Year Paw Prints

Alexandria thoughtfully (with some extra thought by Mama) got both my husband and I the same frame/kit for Christmas that we could use to make a keepsake for her first birthday.  She bought the BabyPrints - Photo and Baby Footprint Desktop Frame at Babysakes.com.  They have various versions of the same idea, but we thought it would be nice to have a picture with the print.  The frames come in all different sizes, colors and layouts so you can pick whichever you like the most.  We also chose to have my husband's be a footprint and mine be a hand print so we had one of each as a keepsake.

Things you'll need:
 - BabyPrints kit (or substitute using the suggestion in the note at the bottom of the post)
 - Baby for hands & feet
 - Aluminum foil
 - Hardcover book about 8 inches square (I used one of Alex's many board books)

The instructions were pretty good that came with the kit.  You cover a book with the aluminum foil so you have a non-sticky surface to roll the 'printing clay' on.  You knead the printing clay for a few minutes (make sure your hands are clean as any spec of dust/dirt shows on the white clay) and then roll it out on the board.  You might want to keep in mind while rolling what type of shape you'd like the print to end up on.  My rolling came out in circles / ovals, so I just rounded them up a bit after we did the print to make them more uniform.  You could also roll it so that it's more of a rectangle / square shape so you can make even edge trims after you do the print.  Whichever you choose, I would say I rolled it until it was about a 1/4 inch thick or maybe a little more.  There's really no science or trick to getting a level surface, but now that I think about it, I may have been able to press a book on top of it to level it off and make it even; might be worth a try!

As with others, my husband's help was needed for the foot print to hold Alex up over the print.  We did let her put a decent amount of weight on her foot once it was placed on the clay.  With the hand, I sat her on my lap and put her palm down on the clay first while I spread out her fingers and then smushed her hand into the clay. 

You then let the prints sit for a few hours and then flip them over based on the instructions so that the backs could dry.  Personally, I let them sit just the way they were for a day because when I tried to flip it over, some of the clay was sticking to the foil and I didn't want to ruin it.  I think we let them sit for about 4 days and I flipped them back so that the print was facing out after a day of the back facing out.  After it's dry, you assemble them in the frames and are done!  Now they provide double sided sticky tape for this which does NOT work, so I'd try to use something more permanent to stick the print to the matte they provide so that it stays on better.  Here's the final product!

Because the hand print was larger than would fit in the white matte frames they provided, you can see the brown piece in the print side of the frame that separates the glass from the print.  The white mattes they included in the kit covered some of the hand print edges, so I just didn't put them in.  I'm considering painting the brown piece white so that it contrasts better with the other side and doesn't look dingy!  After that, all I have to do is find an empty wall or table top on which to display them!

**NOTE: If you'd like to do this without buying a kit, I suggest using Crayola Model Magic as it is the same consistency and has the same drying effects as the 'printing clay' that came with the kit.  You'd just have to find a frame that you could use that had some depth on one side so that the hand/foot print would have room to fit behind the glass.

Ladybug Rocks

With a ladybug extravaganza for Alexandria's 1st Birthday celebration to plan, I was trying to come up with a cute centerpiece that was easy, not expensive and one that I could get Emma involved in.  I remembered the cute little ladybug rock that Emma made me for this past Mother's Day and decided to make a bunch of them for the centers of each table.

Things you'll need:
 - Round rocks - any size will work, just a lot more effort the larger the rock
 - Red and Black paint
 - Paint Brush
 - Plastic Google-y Eyes
 - Clear glue

First you paint the rock red which is pretty simple.  You may need to do a few coats to get full coverage and you'll need to plan for the rock to dry before you flip it over to paint the bottom.  After the red is done, you paint a circle of black at one end of the rock.  I'd love to tell you there's a science to it, but there isn't.  You be the judge as to how big or little you'd like the head to be.  Next you add black dots to the back with the paint brush (I used a smaller brush); again, no rhyme or reason to them.  Final touches are to add some google-y eyes to the head using clear glue.  I got a bag of ~300 eyes for about $5 at Walmart that has all different sizes in it, so I just used whatever size I thought worked best depending on how big the rock was.  Here's the final product; pretty easy and definitely something you can get your kids involved in.

Photo only looks amazing because it was taken by my friend and photographer, Steph aka. S.M.I.T.T.E.N. Photography.  The leaf was one I made really quickly with my Cricut to throw underneath the ladybugs on each table.  They also doubled as a weight to hold down the balloons!

Child Designed Bookmarks

Being an avid reader (well...more so when I wasn't chasing after a 1-year old) and having multiple book lovers in the family, we really try to instill a love for reading in our children.  Emma loves to read and does amazingly well in reading at school.  Alexandria already opens her books and babbles as she turns the pages.

Because of this, I thought it would be neat to make bookmarks for everyone in the family that likes to read while occupying Emma during an uneventful day.  We had done this in the past, so I definitely have some lessons learned, but wanted to make some more for the holidays (and because Uncle Jason directly requested a new bookmark).

Things you'll need:
 - Paper - I use the white scrapbooking sheets that come pre-filled in the clear pages since I have a bunch of that extra, but you can use any kind of paper/color you like.  I'd recommend something thicker than printer paper in case you use markers so it doesn't bleed through to the other side.
 - Scissors
 - A few sheets of laminate (more on this later)
 - Pencil, pens, markers, crayons - whatever they want to draw with
 - Ruler or straight edge of some sort

First things first is to decide how big you'd like them to be.  The first time, we made them about 6 inches by 2 inches (worked well cutting the 12x12 scrapbooking paper into equal pieces).  I liked this size much better than when we made them this time about 6x3 inches.  You'll see why later when we laminate them.

One trick that we learned after the first time was to write the name of whoever the bookmark was for on the back before drawing a picture on the other side.  When mass-producing bookmarks, it definitely makes life easier to remember who's was who's when you're staring at 8+ bookmarks with similar designs!

After all of the pictures have been drawn, it's time to laminate them.  I purchased sheets of laminate in 8.5x11 inches sizes that had a hard clear front and then a less sturdy (sticky) clear back.  This way it gives the bookmarks some support so they don't bend and is easier to laminate than if you had two flimsy sides.  I will say that they were more expensive than I originally assumed, so you can decide for yourself.  Line up the bookmarks on the non-sticky piece of laminate so that they're about 3/4's of an inch apart.  You'll need the extra in between for the edges of the bookmark so that they don't come undone.

I also try to use the nice edges at the end to line them up against so that some sides of the bookmark won't have a 'hand-cut' edge to them.  Now here's the tricky part, you have to peel the paper off of the sticky side while at the same time using the ruler as a guide to press the sticky side to the non-sticky side.  Slow and steady wins the race with this one!  This is why it's also good to position the bookmarks towards the edge so that you can start sticking the two sides together before you get to the bookmarks.

You want to keep sliding the ruler along the page so that it presses the two sheets together.  Absolutely pause and re-align the bookmark edges when you get close to starting to laminate over them so that they don't shift.  After you're at the end, take the ruler and rub all over the laminate to make sure it's together and that all air bubbles are out.  I also make sure to go around the edges of the bookmark a few times to ensure that there's a good seal.

Once they're fully together, you can cut them apart and leave however much you'd like of the clear laminate as a border.  I'd recommend to not cut too close to the actual bookmark so that the two sides of laminate don't separate with wear.  I'd also suggest from experience to round the corners; our first set were like daggers on the corners!

The finished product!  Emma's this Christmas were a penguin sliding theme with her newly learned dialogue bubbles! :)  They make cute personal gifts from the kids that every book-lover can enjoy.  We use them all of the time at our house and could probably use a few more!  Happy reading!