Paper is my current favorite medium at the moment (the Spring paper wreath was my last craft project). I also bought a paper cutter a while back that cuts out perfect circles…no longer will I try to cut circles out with regular scissors again.  So my latest craft project involves pretty paper, lots of circles and it just so happens to be another decoration that I made for my baby girl’s first birthday which is just a week away!

I cut out 7″ circles from design paper. It’s cardstock so it’s really nice and sturdy. I then cut out 5″ circles of solid color cardstock. Lastly, I printed the letters on regular white paper and cut them out with 4″ circles. I glued the 4″ circles to the 5″ and then glued it to the 7″ design paper.

Next, I punched out two holes on the top of each circle so that I could thread craft ribbon to string them all together. 

This is a super easy project (especially with the cirle paper cutter) that you can make for just about any occasion.

Wow, I can’t believe our “baby” is turning 1! I remember vividly the day that Cathy and I launched embe. We were so nervous and excited–we  received our first sale within hours of the launch. Our first order was a pair of leg/arm warmers!

A very heartfelt thanks to our family, friends and customers for their support. And thanks to all of you who have an appreciation for the handmade craft. It’s been an awesome ride so far, and we hope you continue to join us on our creative journey.

To mark embe’s first birthday, we’re throwing a special event:

Free shipping applies to US/Canada only. Orders placed between July 15 and July 22, 2010 will not be charged for shipping. embe reserves the right to place any of its items on hold during this promotional period. Due to potential volume, processing may take an additional 1-2 weeks. We will confirm via email if it takes longer than the normal 2-3 weeks.

Last weekend my family enjoyed two great milestones in our kids’ lives; my baby girl (who is exactly three months old today!) got baptized and my boy turned 2! It was a very special weekend shared with family and friends.

Unfortunately, my family back in Texas was not able to partake, but we definitely felt their love, thoughts and prayers. One of my sisters sent each of them cards – handmade cards too! They were just so cute, I had to share (I believe I mentioned on more than one occasion that I come from a quite crafty and talented family, right?!).

The handmade touch definitely made the sentiments even more meaningful. I will make sure to save these as keepsakes (I see lots of scrapbooks in their future!).

Here is my birthday boy and newly baptized baby girl!

Before my son was born, I had so many ideas on what I would do to capture those precious moments and milestones of his life…taking lots of pictures and videos, writing in my journal to record special moments, sending monthly updates to family and so on. Now that he’s almost 17 months, it’s hard to believe that I got a lot of those memories – his first year in particular – pretty well recorded. Here are a few things that I did/am still doing that you could do too:

1) “First Year” album – if you have a digital camera, it will be easy to organize your child’s pictures (from birth to present) by month so that you can pick and choose which ones you want to print for your album. And if you use a scrapbook album like I did – the one where all you have to do is add the pictures (believe me, by the time you get to putting the album together, your kid won’t let you do the real scrapbooking with all those embellishments!) – this project will be a cinch! Every now and then, I’ll flip through the album and be amazed how small my son was…and now that he’s older, he can actually recognize himself!

2) Birthday letter – one thing my husband and I started doing and that we hope to continue doing is writing our son a letter each year for his birthday. It’s a great way to tell him what he means to us and maybe even highlight those extra special moments of that year. We’ve only written one so far, but when I do get to reading it again (I included it in his “First Year” album), it takes me back and gets me all emotional! When he’s older, we’ll read it to him and when he’s a lot older, we’ll give him all those letters for posterity.

3) “First Year” movie montage – if you have time on your hands, this is definitely something you should consider doing. I’ll admit I spent countless hours making a 4-minute montage of of my son’s first year, using one of my favorite songs (‘My Eyes’) from one of my favorite bands (Travis) as the soundtrack. Having so much family back home in Texas who don’t get to see him often, I really wanted a special way to capture his first year for all to share.

4) Christmas ornaments – we bought our son his first Christmas ornament last year. It was a cute little angel. We paired that with a snow globe. In a couple of months, we’ll be looking for his next ornament and will hang it with last year’s. It’s a cute little thing to do as your child grows…and each ornament will change based on your child’s interests.

5) Growth chart – my idea for making growth charts actually came from a gift idea for my aunt’s child who is my son’s age. It was so cute that I had to make him a boy version (hence the Isaac and Sophie growth charts!). He’s been extra curious about the chart lately, especially when I added his new height markers. I’m glad I re-designed them b/c now he can’t pick them off! Anyway, it’s a great way to track your child’s height progression and something to add to the next idea!

6) Keepsake chest – after listing items 1-5, I decided that I need to create a keepsake chest for my son! I know there will be a ton of things that I’ll want to keep and hold on to, like his first real art piece, school projects, trophies and awards (no pressure kiddo!). And when he’s an adult, it will be something I’ll give to him to go through and reminisce. That won’t be for a long time so no need to feel sad yet!

7) Family Web site – I use Shutterfly create our own personal Web site to post pictures, videos and write updates to send to family. It’s a good way to keep everyone in the loop.

Anyway, this should give you a good start to building and recording memories for your kids. I just hope that I can do the same thing for my next child!!