more baby gifts

I'm not the only one who has had a baby lately. Here are some baby gifts I've made recently. I just love babies!

another one . . .

Happy 15th Anniversary Mr. & Mrs. Buckman!

the latest

I made this over the past day or so for a wedding we are going to this weekend. I also helped my mom design a very similar one for a wedding gift she needed to give. I figure while you're making one, you might as well make two. Right? With all the humidity we've been having, I just hope it dries completely in the 4 days between now and the wedding. With our super-sticky weather, I'm afraid it will still be tacky by then!


I also made all the invitations for this wedding {along with RSVP cards and a sheet with directions and other wedding info} and designed the programs. The wood for the gift is cut from a big 2x10 if I remember right. It measures roughly 10 inches square and is about 1-1/2 inches thick. There's a sawtooth on the back for hanging, otherwise it props up nicely against a wall or on a shelf.

{Retail price $20}

A creative afternoon

For some reason, as I was sitting outside reading a very good book, I was overwhelmingly compelled to begin this project, one I was inspired to do after seeing this tutorial. I hadn't planned to do any projects at all today. I was really enjoying my book and had planned to enjoy it the entire time the littles were napping, but then those plans went right out the window!
I found a board {not too old even, but pretty beat up} in our yard and got to work. First I slapped a pretty thin, messy coat of white paint to the board, rubbed in a little anitiquing glaze and let it dry. Next I sanded it a little. Then I traced some chipboard letters onto the board {I didn't measure before I started tracing, I had just eyeballed it. When I got to the end I realized I would only have room for "199" and I didn't want to do '96, so I erased it all and started again}. Then I painted the letters with black paint and let that dry. When it was all dry I sanded it again and then hosed it down to get all the dust off {and age it even more!} and I was done!
I love it!
I can't decide if we should put it in our bedroom {it would look great in there} or somewhere more "public" so that people will actually see it. Not many people venture back to our bedroom when they come for a visit!