Templates to the rescue!

Grab a coffee, because this is a long post, with lots of photos.

One of my best friends from high school recently had her first child, a baby boy.
I wanted to make something special for her, and her son William.



I bought a plain wooden frame at Michael's thinking I would somehow paint it or "scrapbook" it for him.


I knew that the colours in his room were chocolate brown, orange, and light green. I went to my LSS and found the PERFECT paper to use as the background.



I pulled the colours from the paper and painted the frame chocolate brown and lime green. Then the paper was cut to size, and the centre square was cut out. I used the same green paint to dry brush an area that would "frame" the name that was cut out using my Big Shot, and the Sunset font from Sizzix.



I added some extra dimension by using some of the paper that was cut out for the centre frame, and continuing the pattern. I also used my star punch to add some stars to the corner of the frame, and some fabulous buttons to fill in some of the circles on the paper.





This is the first time I have done anything "scrappy", and I am really happy with how it all turned out.



I also wanted to make something special for Chris (the mom) because I know she will need some time to herself to relax as well. Lauren's From the Desk of template to the rescue!



I made two of the From the Desk of templates, and then secured them back to back to create a carrying case for the goodies. I used the tip Lauren shared here to add the side panels to the doubled template. They fit perfectly!






I cut out a little handle using my circle punch from SU, and punching 3 times to make enough room to carry it.

Inside the gift was a bottle of liquid honey, two boxes of cookes, and an assortment of teas.



I made a small box for the teas, and wrapped the cookies in coordinating paper, so that when it was all packaged up, it looked like an actual gift basket.