Homespun :: Baby Blessing Book



Please note:  These book contains baby blessings written by and used with permission from Kelli Shockey




I have had the opportunity lately to make some baby blessing keepsakes for some of the women in my Mom's group. The blessings, which were written by somebody else, are just sweet little prayers for the new arrival - it covers almost everything! I've done the keepsake a few different ways - a few times I did a decorative pocket with the matted blessings tucked inside and then other times, just matted each blessing on some nice paper. This time, I wanted to bring out the big guns: Chipboard Coasters.

I have been wanting to make a Chipboard Coaster book for awhile, but I never get around to it. So here was my opportunity.


The thing I love about doing stuff like this is there are NO RULES! I've seen tutorials on how to do it - but if you know me, you know I'm a CRAFTING REBEL! I rebel against the tutorial...I go my own way.


Each page of the book has kind of a different look, different colors - I'm all over the place. I wanted kind of a distressed look, so I sanded things, painted, stamped, deckle cut, etc. The topper was I modge podged each coaster. I can't help myself with the podge...if I could, I would podge everything. I love the podge. My favorite part is peeling it off my fingers. Anyway - had a small moment of trepidation with the podge on this project....halfway through I wish that I hadn't gone to the podge, but in the end I think it worked ok.





The book is kept together with some twine, which is reinforced with.....you guessed it....a little podge. It's probably not as good as all those tutorial books that are out there, but hey - it's handmade with love. I hope the recipient is blessed.

Welcome to this world, little Jordan!

Homespun :: Flip a verse book


Someone I know is turning another year older...and, unfortunately for her it happens a few days after Christmas. As if that wasn't enough, it's 1 day before the birthday of her eldest child. Bummer.

Well, I can't change those circumstances but I thought I'd try to smooth things over a bit with a home-made gift. So I buried myself away in my craft room and the following emerged:

My friend loves to receive scripture - I think more than anything else. So instead of just sticking to our traditional one birthday blessing, I came up with 38 of them! And what better way to feature 38 scriptures than in a sweet little home-made book.


Each page features different textured or patterned paper and some of them have a little bonus feature like the one above. Or this one below:






Because I ran out of twine (which is what I typically use to bind something of this nature) I scoured my bins and found some nice pliable wire. Because wire is somewhat boring on its own, I threw on a few beads. I thought that was a nice accent.

Now I don't know about you, but 4 days after Christmas, I'm TIRED of looking at rolls of wrapping paper. So...I took a blank bag and stamped a tree on it. I also purchased a CD for my friend, which I wrapped in an inside out grocery bag. I stamped that as I did the bag and now they coordinate!



I hope my friend loves this gift as much as I loved making it for her.

Business Card :: AFH 2009

Business Card :: Contra Costa Chocolate Fountain

Snowy Fence


One thing this California native is digging is a nice gentle snow...