Regift with a twist. It’s an art!

Let’s face it, we have all regifted at some time or another, or at least regifted with a twist. I’m here to show you some fun ways to regift with an upgrade. In other words how to become an A+ gift giver.

I’ll start with these darling baby shoes. I found them at my local thrift-haven for $1.98 with the original price tag still attached of $98.00. They are Italian brand handmade shoes by Little Raggio and they are about the cutest little shoes I’ve ever seen. I’m sure they’ve never been worn, at least not by a speed walker, but possibly a super scooter. I recovered a baby shoe box with papers from my Little Teacup Paper set on LD and placed these twinkle toe shoes inside with a bit of soft pink tissue. Oh my word, I wish I could fit into them myself.

Another treasure from the thrift pile, though this time a vintage baby rattle, has an upgrade with new designs from the Little Teacup paper pack and a little bit of two tone embroidery floss wrapped around the handle. This rattle has a charming sound, and now with its two sided design can bring that charm to baby.

I used the groups of animals in a teacup pattern on one side of the rattle and the alphabet pattern on the other side. Again, these patterns are available at LD in the Little Teacup paper pack.

I am a fan of the vintage wooded nursery products by a German company named Irmi. (to learn more about Irmi go here). While I never had the mobiles or lamps in my room when I was a tot, I do have a number of the lamps in my studio now, and a few of the darling mobiles waiting for just the right babies to come along. One of my dear friends is about to have a little girl and this Irmi mobile is ready to join the welcoming committee for that precious little one. 

So, when you have a gift you want to give and you know it’s had a previous life, likely a good one, you want that receiver to know it’s not just regifting, but the reliving of that gift to a new home and a new life with someone who is brand spanking new.

I thought the common phrase for all brides something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue was the perfect sentiment for this and other gifts for the new baby. Well, that is, the phrase with a twist. I like to think of it as something old, something new, something pink, and even blue! Yes, I do have something new for the tiny one and even something blue, and of course something pink. :) So, the sentiment is just right and became the perfect phrase for this gift card.

The card reads welcome little one on one side and the something . . . phrase on the reverse, tucking into a card pouch and dangling from the boxed mobile.

The reverse side of the card pouch simply reads bless this home with love and joy.

Start thinking of regifting in a new and creative way. It gives you the excuse to treasure hunt at your local estate sales and thrift shops. It gives you the opportunity to be creative with handmade or remade gifts. And it gives you a new mark on gift giving. That is, an A+ mark! Now, don’t forget to start some of that regifting by using the sweet paper pattern designs and gift boxes (baby blocks) from the Little Teacup collection on Lettering Delights and enjoy the art of regifting.

Room With a Coo

A baby’s room is the first place to make a statement about that new little bundle of joy. So make that joyful setting perfect for the new family member with these decorative touches.

I have used the In a Little Teacup alphabet and number cards as a border for this nursery. These are from the Little Teacup graphics sets on Lettering Delights. Each card is printed and trimmed to 5 x 7 with rounded corners and sits on the chair railing of the room.

In keeping with the theme of the teacup animals I pulled one of my favorite coffee cups from the kitchen and happily repurposed it with my stuffed animal squirrel (from the Woodland Tails collection). I also found a pink velvet dress at my local thrift-haven and embellished it with one of my little felt bears (from the My Deer My Darling collection).

My love of handmade embroidery also played a part in the nursery. I hand stitched the “C is for Cat” letter as a wall hanging above the alphabet cards. These embroidery patterns of the teacup animals will soon be available in my Etsy shop.

The number cards also line the room to complete the decor of this soft and sweet nursery.

To get the alphabet and number card designs in this colorway (the girl set) or in the boy colorway click here and choose from the “Little Teacup Alphabet Cards” or “Little Teacup Number Cards” to print and trim. Use heavy cardstock when printing to have sturdy cards for display.

A baby’s coo is one of the sweetest sounds to the ear. A room where those first coos are heard should be as sweet and happy as those sounds.

ABC, easy as 123!

It’s time for our ABCs and 123s, and just in time for a new school year! The complete collection of In a Little Teacup is now available on Lettering Delights.

Let me just spell it out for you, and believe me, it’s as easy as 1, 2, 3!
1. It makes a great set of flash cards for school kids.
2. It is a perfect set of alphabet and number cards for classroom borders, bulletin boards and hanging decor.
3. It is a fun set of scrapbook supplies for making the “first day of school” page for yearly scrapbooks.

And I haven’t even begun to tell you about the possibilities of what this darling collection can do for baby nursery and shower decor, baby clothing, baby gift giving. Oh, baby, it’s so much fun!

Here’s a sneak peek of the baby blocks (gift boxes) and nursery decor. More to come on these themes soon!

This is a graphics collection on LD made for both boys and girls. I have designed the set to offer colors that are softer and sweeter (the girl set), and a set of colors that provide a more rough and tumble appeal (the boy set). The complete collection has the alphabet and numbers as a font set, an alphabet card set, a numbers card set, a wide range of coordinated paper patterns, a set of teacups, and a complete set of alphabet and number blocks that will cut and fold into boxes.

The two layouts above show the colorway for the boy set. I will soon have projects to show with the boy set too!

I will be sharing projects and ideas over the next few days and weeks for everyone from that brand new baby to those big kids in school, from decor to gifts, from learning to playing, from abc to xyz!

Get ready to learn how to play again with the In a Little Teacup collection from yours truly and Lettering Delights. Go here or click on my Lettering Delights sign at top right to start playing around with this fun set!

Rainy Days & Sun Days

I love sunny days and I also love rainy days, but these days I’m wishing for a few more days of rain. Well, since I can’t force the rain to come, I’ve decided to bring it in the form of art. At least I can envision it, and now you can too when you take a look at Rainy Days and Sun Days, a little collection of happy thought for those who love the sunshine or the rain, and for all of you who are happy to have a little bit of both.

When I was about six or seven my dad made a short (film) of me playing in the rain puddles left from a summer storm. We still have that mini movie somewhere in the family archives and named Sheri Puddles by my filmmaker-dad. If I can convert it from 8mm to iMovie I will share the short one day. The main image, above, in this collection reminds me of that summer day when I was enjoying everything about rainy days and sun day.

Here are a few of the other designs in the collection. This image, above, reminds me of the early days of video games. While I wasn’t much of a gamer, I was a fan of Pac-Man, the only video game I’ve ever played, but it must have had a bit of an influence on my creative side.

Are they butterflies? Yes! Are they umbrellas? Yes!. Two, two, two designs in one!

Who doesn’t remember their first childhood songs and sayings? Who doesn’t get a song stuck in their head and re-sing it every two minutes for the next four days? Well, there are a lot of memorable phrases about rainy days or sunshine, and I searched my memory for a few of my faves. Take a look and see if you can’t remember any of these.

So, if you are living in an area, like I am, where the rain won’t come and the sun won’t go, just put these happy thought and images in your mind to cool you off until the days start to change.

Hanging Gardens

It’s time to share the seventh wonder of the world, the Cut Flowers world, that is. This is one of my favorite projects to create with the Cut Flowers collection on Lettering Delight. I like to think of it as the Hanging Gardens of Sheri-lawn. It’s simple, it’s as colorful as you like, and these flowers will not die under this hot summer sun.

To create these floral swags I chose and used all of the petal sets from Cut Flowers on LD. I used 24lb. copy paper and text weight stock from Paper Source in order to get a wide range of lovely color blends.

In order to shape the flower petals into cups and cones, I used a wooden skewer as a tool to curl the petals into shape. This is just as you would curl ribbon with scissors and your thumb. That system would also work as long as the scissors blade is not too sharp.

The swags were made by simply sliding the petals over a thin satin ribbon. I used ribbon that is .25 inch to keep the petals loose and easy to position within the swags.

You should be able to find thin ribbon at most of your local craft stores, however, in order to get the green coloring that I prefer for ribbon, I dyed all of this ribbon with Rit Dye, mixing yellow with a bit of green (kelly, I think) in a boiling pan of water.

If you would like to dye ribbons, keep in mind that polyester will not take dye coloring as well as cotton fabrics, so the satin ribbons will be somewhat faint in color.

Think of this project as a revival of your summer flowers. If you live in an area, as I do, where your outside world has become dry and drab, you can brighten it up with these swags of garland.

You can also gang the strands in a grouping to flow in the breeze and glow in the sunshine. Each strand is approximately a yard in length with additional ribbon of one to two feet on each end for tying.

To create you own hanging gardens and be the wonder of your neighborhood, go to my Sheri’s Creations sign at the top right and click, or go here to get on Lettering Delights site and right to the Cut Flowers collection to download your petals today!