Faux Onesie, Real Onesies and MORE for Baby Joseph

Here is my Labor Love for my nephew due in May. We will be going out for a visit and I can hardly wait!! I worked on these projects all last weekend & finished the last touches on Tuesday evening.


I had to make one of Lauren's Baby Onesie cards - here is her tutorial. It was super easy to make and I used Basic Grey's Oh Baby Boy Brighton for my patterned paper (for his other projects below too. It as perfect, using Green, Blue, Orange to make it BOY. I used Melanie's Just so Hoppy for the froggy announcing Joseph. He is going to be named after our Mom Josephine who died in 1996 and his paternal grandfather who also died in the 90's (Anthony). Joseph Anthony Gonzales. I can't wait to see his little face!!! The little bottle is from a Fiskars clear stamp baby set.

I love stamping real onesies too - I made some for Gabriella (Joseph's Big Sister) before she was born too. I think these came out better because I have more ROCKIN' stamps now!! Used Kim Hughes U R A Hoot for Cornish Heritage Farms on the Owl - Who Loves you? See the versatility in this set?? And Stampin' Up!'s retired Favorite Teddy for Wanna Snuggle? Isn't this cute!?? Who doesn't wanna snuggle with a sweet smelling baby?!

Some of my favorite all-time sets by Stampin' Up! are the Crayon sets - alphas (got both) Crayon Kids, Accessories, the first Ronald McDonald Heart & Home set. They are just the most charming for kids stuff! Sure wish they would come back with more!!! It looks cute with the froggy huh? It was my DMIL's idea to put Hoppy Baby...genius! Then of course since we live in Texas and they live in CA - I have to make a Someone in Texas Loves Me! But how perfect is it that I now have a Texas Shape!!? When I made my niece's I had to spell it out...this just takes the cake! Lastly the All in the Family set looks super delightful to have the whole family on the baby and to convey the message they are 'BLESSED' is appropriate.

Here is the Memory Tin I made to keep in his room. I got inspiration from semichocolate who got her inspiration from Beate Below is a picture of the contents of the tin. The tabs are for Joseph's Firsts of the Year my sister can jot importatnt stuff on & then transfer to a scrapbook if she wishes (and I hope she does). I really had a lot of fun making all of this. Melanie let me borrow her Tiny Treasures stamp from her What's in Your Tin 1 so I could complete the front of the tin.

Lastly (and thanks for sticking with me this long) is everything that fits in the tin (with the exception of the little frog). I made a set of wooden blocks covered with the patterned paper - tutorial by Emily at Stamping & Stuff (couldn't find the exact one, but if you do a search you can find it). It's real easy; just cut your paper to the block size & adhere with a coat of mod podge on the block and over the paper. Then sand the edges. I used SU!'s lots of chipboard letters (dipped them in VersaMagic Chalk Ink Spanish Olive). I also covered a small notebook with the paper & wrote on it 'Joseph said (did) the cutest thing today'. This is a notebook she can jot neat stuff in. I made one for my niece too but we ended up using it just to write notes to her because some day when they can read (and understand) they will know by the words we wrote how much we love & cherish them. There's something priceless about having hand written notes from your loved ones.

I have to share a picture of Gabriella - taken on Easter Sunday. This is one of her favorite books, preparing her to be a Big Sister, she already knows what she's going to do with Joseph when he gets here: feed the baby, hug the baby, etc. It's so cute when she says it all!