As so many working moms know, there are just not enough hours in the day to get it all done. My life is no different. I work outside the home, have two young children, a husband of 12 years and a happy household to maintain. And no. I have no answers or advice or any nifty time-management strategies to share. That is not and never will be the focus of this blog. I struggle with the daily juggle just like everyone else, but I do think that it's necessary to squeeze in a little "me" time here and there. And "me" time - for me - is craft time.
But I do have priorities, and although I would much prefer to play in my craft room rather than do dishes or laundry, or vacuum or dust, I can't bring myself to craft when the daily day-to-day has been left undone. Although I do consider myself a creative person, I am not fond of the chaos that some creative outlets leave behind. Chores first. Craft later, that is if I don't fall asleep. And I usually fall asleep.
So lately, amidst the craziness of a quickly growing business, summer vacation and a two year-old who's giving Taz a run for his money, I have not been as productive in my crafty endeavors as I have been in the past. I have managed to get this blog up and running, though, and that's surely saying something?
And what does this have to do with "A Book for Baby Bailee" you might ask? (Ask, I'll wait...OK.) Thanks for asking! I tell you all of this because the project featured in this first post was finished over a year ago. Baby Bailee is now 16 months old! This word book and the easel it rests on were a shower gift for my cousin's new baby - Bailee Caroline.
When I created this book, the Cricut message board was all abuzz after the introduction of the "Design Studio" software, and creating these custom word books was quite the rage. I enjoyed this project immensely and wish now that I had similar baby books to display in my childrens' rooms! I loved the easel I found as well. It really added that certain "something" that turned this gift from homemade to handmade.
Baby Bailee's was my first attempt at a custom word book. I have done a couple more since, but this one's still my favorite; it's just so girly, and my cousin really liked it. Isn't that what it's all about?
After designing the pages using Design Studio, I cut them out of chipboard on the Cricut Expression and, once complete, bound them with the Zutter Bind-It-All and white O-Rings. I used the large rings to accommodate thicker embellishments and anything else my cousin might want to include in addition to pics of Baby Bailee and her journaling. In order to make a sturdy book, I cut each page two times from thin chipboard (like a cereal box) and adhered them together. I cut the paper separately and ran it through the Xyron to make covering the chipboard pages easier. The cartridges I used were Alphalicious and New Arrival. The paper (regular weight, not cardstock) was from an older DCWV stack; not sure which anymore. The ribbons and flowers were from Michaels. The rhinestones (even a baby girl's gotta have her bling!) were from Wal-Mart.
Should you like to create a similar project, here's a tip: don't adhere the paper to the chipboard before cutting it with the Cricut. Thinking I was being exceptionally clever and killing two birds with one stone, I did that, and regretted it. It was just a smidge too thick for the machine to handle, and I ended up with large cuts across my page in each place the blade had moved. It just didn't have enough clearance. The new Deep Cut Blade may remedy this, though. That would be worth investigating...hmm...maybe next time...
