Birth plans have become the next “big thing” for pregnant women who decide that they want to maintain some control in the labor and delivery of their unborn child, as well as in the post-partum care both she and her baby receive in the hospital. Some people do not know how to create a birth plan, or why creating a birth plan is an important aspect of their pregnancy.

When a laboring woman arrives at the hospital, there can be limited time to get her feelings regarding how she wants her labor to progress across to the nurses on duty. Birth plans are generally written by the pregnant woman, sometimes with the assistance of her labor partner several weeks prior to delivery. It should then be taken to your doctor or midwife at one of your prenatal appointments to go over your wishes and make sure that your provider is aware of any concerns you might have.

Flexibility
One thing to keep in mind when creating your birth plan is to maintain flexible. Even if you have the textbook perfect labor and delivery, chances are that something in your birth plan will not be able to be accomplished or achieved. It might be because of your hospital, or it might be as simple as you originally saying that you do not want pain medication, just to change your mind half way through labor. If you remain flexible regarding what you wrote in your birth plan, the day of delivery will go much smoother.

Creating your Birth Plan
So how do you create a birth plan? You can use our customized birth plan creator, or you can create one from scratch. If you create one from scratch, be sure to remember to include everything that you deem important.

Pain Medication
When doing your birth plan be sure to mention your wishes on pain medication. Do you want pain medication or not? If you do want pain medication, how much and what kind do you want? If you want medication, do you want to have just a shot through your IV of something to just dull the pain a bit, or do you want an epidural which will go in your back and pretty much get rid of all pain and contractions that you feel? Do you want the doctor or midwife to suggest to you medication, or not mention it at all?

Episiotomy or Tearing
Also, when creating your birth plan, be sure to let everyone know what you will prefer when it comes to having an episiotomy. An episiotomy is when the doctor or midwife cuts the perineal area that goes from your vagina to your rectum an inch or two before the babies head comes out in order to help the head come out easier. Some women prefer to be cut; other women prefer to tear naturally. Many women’s activist groups these days are promoting tearing vs. no episiotomy because some women won’t tear at all, or only tear a tiny bit, making the healing time less painful than it would have been with an episiotomy.

Visitors
Let the nurses know in your birth plan who you want to be allowed in the room and when. Some women are fine with having everyone in at once, and others prefer to only have their birth partner, or have other visitors come in one at a time. You might want the interaction and distraction during the early stages of labor, but not want a bunch of people in the room towards the end. There are also times when you may not want your parent or an in-law in the room at all, but you do not want to be the bad guy. Buy writing these wishes down in your birth plan, it enables your nurse to tell people who can and can not go in and when, and also makes the nurse be the “bad guy” so you don’t have to concentrate on those issues when you should be concentrating on pushing your baby out.

Immediately After Birth
Assuming you have a vaginal birth, you should include in your birth plan your wishes for the baby immediately after birth. Some women will choose to bank their babies cord blood and will have that set up ahead of time. Others want to make sure the cord stops pulsating before it is cut, letting the baby get the remaining nutrients that are important for their health. If you are breastfeeding, you may want to be allowed to nurse immediately, vs. having to wait several minutes for your baby to get cleaned up a bit and get eye drops. Your baby is most alert in the 30 minutes or so right after birth so it is an important time for you to be able to nurse and bond.

Just incase a c-section becomes a necessity, you should list your wishes for the baby while they are finishing up your surgery, in your birth plan. Put down whether or not you want your baby accompanied at all times by your birth partner. Let them know ahead of time your wishes on them giving your baby a bottle of sugar water or formula while you are in recovery. Make it clear if you want your baby brought to you in recovery or if you want to wait till you get back to your room.

Postpartum Care
Part of your birth plan includes your post-partum care. Most hospitals support and encourage your baby staying in your room with you at all times, vs. going to the nursery at night or while you sleep. You can make it clear in your birth plan what your preference is. Whether or not you want to room-in, or if you just want your baby brought to you for feedings letting you rest as much as possible. You can also list whether or not you want your birth partner to be allowed to stay the night.

Feeding
In your birth plan you will list your intentions on feeding your baby. You can state whether or not you plan on breastfeeding, and if you do breastfeed how often and when you want to do it. That is important in the instance that you choose not to have your baby rooming in with you, but instead in the nursery. You should make it clear if you want to feed the baby on demand, when the baby is hungry, or if you prefer to feed the baby on your schedule, allowing the nurses in the nursery to give the baby formula when he gets hungry.

Miscellaneous
There are always other things you might think of when it comes to your hopes and wishes for a happy and healthy labor and birth. Things like taking pictures, video taping, having music playing, moving around, being allowed to take a bath or shower during labor, etc. If any of these things are important to you, or you can think of others, be sure to list them in your birth plan for the nurses and your doctor or midwife. Happy birthing!

by Kimberly Hargis

Creating and making special memories with your child is very important, especially for your child’s development.

Special memories also help build a relationship with your child that will last a lifetime. Moms often do not have the money they would like to spend to do things with their children.

With that in mind, I have put together activities I used to do with my son (who is now 17 and still remembers doing these activates with me). Some activities are also from when I did babysitting at home.

Inexpensive Activities You Can Do With Your Child

Remember Air Hockey?
Some arcades still have Air Hockey Games, which are cheaper to play than the new video-interactive games, but they do not have a time out. If you can find one, suggest that you can score the most goals, and challenge your son or daughter to a game. If you have a young child, make sure that you hit the puck so that stops before the goal line—this will allow your child to successfully defend his goal and hit it back toward you.

The game can go on for a very long time, and you can have a lot of fun with “near misses” and “good saves” and “SCORE!” When my son was an 8-year-old, I could make an air hockey game that cost 50 cents last for an hour. You are probably thinking, “My child will want to play the other games, too!” I used to tell my son that after we play Air Hockey that he could then play two games of his choice. This worked well and I could get several hours of quality time with my son for under $5.00.

Shaving Cream can be Fun!
Get a bottle of shaving cream and spray shaving cream on the kitchen table or other smooth surface (please test this first by putting a little shaving cream on a corner of the table to make sure it will not discolor the furniture!). You and your child can draw in the foam or make a snowman, etc., out of the foam for as long as the foam lasts.

Be sure to wear clothes that can be tossed in the laundry for a quick rinse! After the shaving cream starts to dissolve all you need to do a wipe down the table for a quick clean up. I loved doing this because there is no real mess; it leaves a pleasant smell in your home (and believe it or not does a great job cleaning your furniture). Your child will also think it is so cool that you are allowing them to play with shaving cream. It is almost as if you are letting them do something mischievous.

Supplies List:

• Shaving Cream
• Wet cloth to wipe up with
• Paint Walk

Buy a roll of fax paper or any cheap paper you can find in a roll, and a container of washable finger paint. Dress your child in painting clothes. Lay out unfolded sheets of newspaper just to be safe and then roll out a very long strip of paper (about 10 feet or more if you like) on top of the newspaper. Place a baking pan with paint in it at one end of the roll of paper and a baking pan with water in it at the other.

Take off your child’s shoes. Your child can then step in the paint and then the walk or dance on the paper ending by stepping in the water that the end of the roll of paper. Dry their feet. Tape the paper on the wall and allow to dry.

These footprints are also great Christmas gifts for Grandparents. I used to do this at Christmas with the children for whom I babysat or in a day care center where I worked so the children could give them to their parents for a Christmas present. The children were so amazed I let them step in paint that they behaved very well. This fun activity works best on a hard floor surface.

Supplies needed:

• A roll of fax paper or any type of cheap paper on a roll.
• Washable finger-paint, any color.
• Old clothes for your child to wear.
• Tape to use to hang the paper to dry
• Painting Sheets

When the weather is nice go to garage sales and buy a cheap white sheet that fits your child’s bed. (New sheet or colored sheets will work, just that garage sale sheets are cheaper.) Wash sheet and then hang on the line. At a craft store buy paint that will NOT wash out and is non-toxic. Dress your child in painting clothes. Give your child a paintbrush and allow him or her to paint on the sheet freely. After the sheet has dried, rewash and dry it. The child will love having sheets they painted themselves to sleep on at night. And Mom, you can paint, too!

Years from now your child will remember the day he or she painted sheets with Mommy (and here’s a sentimental idea: save the painted sheets for when your child has his or her first child, include the painted sheet in a shower gift for the mother-to-be!)

A few tips:

• Do not allow the child to paint heavily on the sheet or it will be scratchy after it is washed.
• When rewashing the sheet let them soak in fabric softener to help soften the sheet.

Different uses for the painted sheets:
If you do not like the idea of the child sleeping on a painted sheet, you can hang the sheet over a table for a playhouse. Mark on the sheet what each side of the sheet will be in terms of front, back, side, side, and top. Then lay the sheet out and let the child paint doors, windows, flowerbeds, etc., to make a playhouse cover (or a fort, or fire station, or barn, or a fairy princess castle). Then when the child wants a playhouse simply set up the table and cover with the sheet. Remember it does not matter if the flowers look like flowers. All that matters is what the child sees flowers where the glob of paint is.

Supplies needed:

• Sheet to fit your child’s bed or over table depending on how you choose to use it.
• Paint that will NOT wash out and is non-toxic.
• Paint brush.
• Hopscotch

There is always the lost art of hopscotch! With some simple sidewalk chalk you can spend the day at a park or at home teaching your child the fun of a hop, skip, and a jump. But watch out because one day when I did this in front of the apartments I lived in and half the Mothers on my street ended up playing—we all giggled like little girls and WE ended up having fun, too!

Supplies needed:

• Sidewalk chalk and a sidewalk to hop and have fun on

About The Author
Kimberly Hargis owns and operates Mom’s Break PMS. Printables Madness Syndrome n. 1 : a chronic condition characterized by an uncontrollable urge to find Free Printables on the Internet: sometimes known as PMS. Please visit www.MomsBreak.com.  © Copyright 2004 All rights reserved.

by Andrea SteedI really enjoy giving scrapbook albums as gifts to my close friends. Two of my favorite albums are the ones I gave to my two best friends in college, showcasing each of our friendships in different ways. They each received one for their birthday last year and loved them!

The problem is that like many people, I always wait until the last minute before deciding what to give them for their birthday, so I don’t always have a lot of time to spend on creating a meaningful book. In creating these two albums, I’ve found a fantastic system for creating a gift album in less than a week that I’d love to share.

While my albums were both ABC albums about friendship, I’ve found that the system can work for any type of small album, such as a wedding album, graduation album, anniversary album, and many others.

Below are the steps I took to create my quick gift albums:

MONDAY

Collect Photos. The first thing I did for each of these albums was to collect as many photographs as I could find that represented the friendship that I have with each girl. I collected about 60-70 photos for each album, scanned them, and had re-prints made at Shutterfly.com. This of course wouldn’t be necessary if you had original photos that you wanted to use. Since I was using photos that were already in some of my other albums, I used re-prints for the gift albums. By having prints made at Shutterfly, I was also able to change some of the photos to black and white and do some pre-cropping before I had them printed, which helped in the overall look of the album once it was finished.

TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY

Journal. I decided to do ABC albums for both books, so I started writing words for each letter in the alphabet that described our relationship and then described each of the words by talking about different things we’d done, and recalling memories from our college years. I also found friendship quotes that helped describe our friendships and added them to my journaling. I did all of this in a Microsoft Word document in a couple of afternoons. I’d say this is probably the most difficult part of creating the album, but it’s also the most interesting!

THURSDAY

Choose Your Products. Now that you have all of the “memory” elements of the album, it’s time to decide what products you want to use. I’ve found that the easiest way to choose papers is to choose a line of coordinating patterned papers to use throughout the entire album. Paper lines such as Mustard Moon, Patchwork Paper, KI Memories, Kopp Designs, Making Memories and many others are perfect for albums like this, because their papers come in a variety of colors and patterns that all match each other quite well.

In addition to deciding what papers to use, you’ll want to decide what fonts or lettering templates to use. I used three fonts in each album: a typewriter type font for each letter and the words for each letter, a print handwriting font for the journaling, and a script font for the quotes. Since all of my journaling was written in a Microsoft Word document, it was easy to change the fonts and page margins. I printed all of the journaling on white cardstock, so that I would be able to cut each section out easily and adhere them to the pages.

FRIDAY

Do Some Pre-Scrapping. This is what makes creating the album easy. Now that all of your journaling and photos are ready, put them into page protectors in the order that they will appear in the album. Cut each letter and journaling block out so that they’ll be ready to adhere to the pages. Decide what photos will go with each journaling section and add the photos to the page protectors. This is a great task to do in front of the television! Now your album is ready to put together!

SATURDAY

Put it Together! This part goes very quickly since most of the work is already completed. I’ve found that starting at the beginning and just making your way through the album is the best way to complete it. Since all of your papers coordinate, simply start pulling papers and making your pages. I kept both of my albums simple and used colorblocking and paper tearing techniques to create varying backgrounds. Add a few embellishments and stickers to your pages, and you’ll have an album to cherish in no time at all! With all of the pre-scrapping and planning done, you can easily complete the entire album at an all-day crop or in a couple of afternoons.

The key to this system is having your journaling done first! It makes creating the rest of the album quick and easy…and I’ve found that it makes a very meaningful album to read, and a wonderful gift to receive.

About the Author
Andrea Steed is the author and creator of Scrap Tutor, a web site and CD-ROM that teaches you how to create scrapbooks and how to perform many popular techniques used in scrapbooking. For more information, visit www.scraptutor.com.

No matter what pose you choose for your cute baby photo you are sure to find that you need the proper focus in order to pull off the photo perfectly. Most consumers purchase point and shoot cameras. These cameras are great because they do not have all the bells and whistles that professional photo equipment comes with in order to get the average casual camera user truly befuddled. On the other hand, they do not have all the bells and whistles that professional photo equipment comes with, which means that you cannot do some of the truly remarkable things that professional photographers make look so simple.

How to Create Focus when you cannot Change the Focus
The good news or bad news depending on how you view it, is that point and shoot cameras do not have focusing abilities. This means that you can’t really take close up baby pictures without getting very close to your baby. It also means that you don’t have to worry about photos that are horribly out of focus because you hit the wrong button. When getting to know your camera (I recommend doing this before baby debuts) you should take the opportunity to take pictures of one object (such as a stuffed animal) at various differences in order to see how those pictures came out on your camera.

Taking the time to know your camera is an important first step in taking the baby pictures you have dreamed of taking of your baby. You may find that some of your innocent little baby photos are just the stuff the baby photo contests winners are made of. Truthfully, however, there is much that can be said about taking the time to learn your camera before taking photos of your bright bouncing little one. This allows you to know the best angles for certain views, how close or far away you need to be in order to achieve a certain look, and the perfect distance for photographing larger groups as they go gaga over your little one.

While you cannot manually focus your fixed focus camera you can affect the picture you create of your baby by moving changing the distance between you and your baby. The most important thing to remember is that by keeping your focus on your baby and creating a background or setting that doesn’t diminish your baby’s importance or prominence within the photograph you should have a beautifully focused photo of baby to remember for years to come.

From the time your newborn comes home through all the months and years of his or her growth and development, baby pictures will abound throughout not only your household and office, but that of your extended families as well. And although your little one’s pics are already incredibly adorable, how do you find a way to give them that extra-special keepsake touch that will last for years and years?

How about making your own customized, personalized baby picture frames? It’s a simple and fun way to enhance those photos with some added charm and uniqueness and there’s so many great ideas that are not only easy to bring to fruition, but inexpensive too! Customized baby picture frames not only make for great decoration, but they’re also wonderful to give as shower or special event gifts as well. And while you’re at it, you may even discover a hidden creative talent lurking inside that you didn’t even realize you possessed!

Let’s look at an easy way you can design and/or dress up any existing baby picture frame you have around the house or a new one that you’ve recently purchased or received.

The Way of Polymer Clay
Polymer clay is widely accessible at any craft store and in most hobby sections of your local department store. It’s available in an abundance of colors, really easy to work with and very inexpensive. And because it’s moldable, the possibilities for the designs you can create are practically endless. Now for this type of project, you can make the entire frame out of clay, overlay it onto an existing frame or dress up an old frame with cute clay embellishments.

To create a frame completely out of clay, you can choose to roll it out flat to your desired shape and density (not too thin to prevent it from cracking once it’s dry), and then cut out the center in any shape you like too – consider using a heart or other creatively-shaped cookie cutter to give it that special touch. Also think about using any household utensils to add texture and design effects to the piece as well.

Another idea is to roll out different shades of clay in a snake fashion and then place them parallel to each other in a log style, trimming the ends and space for the photo.

Make cute embellishments like ducks, flowers, boats – wherever your imagination takes you – and attach those to the frame. You can even spell out your baby’s name or create a short and sweet message to grandma or grandpa, etc.

Once you’ve got your frame the way you like it, make sure all the pieces are firmly attached and place it on a cookie sheet. Bake it in the oven for about 20 minutes at 250o then remove and cool.

Afterward, you can choose to use it as is, attach a thin piece of protective plexi-glass (photo plastic available in any craft store) to the back of the frame with a hot glue gun or lay the entire piece over an existing frame of the same dimension attaching it with hot glue as well. Use the same concept for adding embellishments to a plain frame you may already have.

Making your own polymer clay baby picture frames is not only an inexpensive and unique way to display those precious photos, but it can also be a very relaxing, almost therapeutic activity for mom as well.

by: Abigail Beal

Making your own wrapping paper is a fun activity that children or adults can do. With some creativity you can create gift wrap that is unique and different – everyone will know the gift is from you!

When making gift wrap with children you will probably want to use either craft white paper or craft brown paper (like the grocery bags). You could even use the inside of a grocery bag if the gift is small enough.

At several points depending on your child’s age – they may need help. If your child is not ready to cut with scissors, then manage all of the scissor work and let them have fun gluing everything. Remember to select non-toxic materials. Consider all art materials toxic unless they say they are non-toxic.

Stamping Shapes Paper: To make this you can use either sponges or potatoes. The ease with potatoes is they give children (and adults) a “handle” to hold onto. Sponges are a little harder to hold onto once they get wet, and your designs may not get as clean and clear results.

Use tempura or acrylic paint. Be sure with children to use non-toxic paint. Remember with art materials that if they do not say they are non-toxic, chances are they are toxic – so be aware and stay safe.

Select your paint colors and cut simple designs in your potatoes or sponges. Great shapes include stars, hearts, arrows, lightning bolts, circles, triangles, letters, numbers and smiley faces. Help your children cut the designs depending on their age level.

Lay the paper flat on a dry and protected surface and stamp away with your potatoes or sponges! Remember to put your design all over the paper so that it shows all over your gift, not just one area of the paper. Let it dry overnight before wrapping gifts.

Names or Shapes Paper: To make this paper you will need several sheets of fluorescent paper (8 ½ x 11”) is fine. You will also need glue sticks and scissors.

Select a name or a shape that you wish to do for your paper. Think about the size of your gift, is it big? Is your gift small? If your gift is big, then your letters or shapes can be bigger. If your gift is small then your letters or shapes need to be smaller.

If you are giving a birthday gift it could be fun to write the birthday child’s name. If it is a gift for Mom then you could write Mom. Or consider writing a short message like “Happy Birthday” if you have enough room.

Write boxy letters or cut out shapes and glue them onto the paper. Write the name and glue it onto the paper several times. Allow it to dry overnight. Then wrap gift.

Picture Paper:
To make this paper you will need magazines or newspapers. Catalogs such a flower catalogs or children’s catalogs are also good. Comic books are good for this also. You will need scissors and glue stick.

Select a theme for your paper. Are you going to cut out pictures of animals? Cartoon characters? Flowers? Home images? Or are you going to cut out words? Find the images and cut them out. Glue them onto the paper. Allow it to dry and then wrap your gift.

Special Message Paper:
This is good for most children of any age. First select how large the gift will be and cut the gift paper to size.

Select markers or crayons. You are going to write a special message to the friend or loved one to wish them a Happy Birthday or other good wishes. Help your child select their message.

Write the message on the paper. Now write the message again in other line with a different color marker or crayon. Continue until the paper is full. You can use medium to large handwriting – actually any size handwriting is fine. Just continue until the paper is completely filled. Let this paper dry before wrapping the gift.

When you give the gift remind the birthday child they need to read the Special Message on the wrapping paper.

Feminine Doily Paper:
This is a cute gift wrapping paper for a girl’s gift. This is also an easy project to do with even most young children because it only involves glue sticks.

To make this paper you will need paper doilies, either white or metallic (your choice). This project works best with the small doilies. You will also need a glue stick.

Glue the doilies onto the paper. Glue them in an even pattern all over the paper. The doilies will give the gift wrapping a feminine look. Once the doilies are dried, wrap the gift.

There are many other ideas for gift wrap that are in your home and right in front of your nose. Just use your imagination and you will find many other ideas to use with your children. Happy wrapping!

About The Author
Abigail Beal © 2004 Abigail Beal a.k.a. “the Gift-wrap Goddess” teaches gift wrap in suburban New York. She is the author of 2 ezines: GiftWrapGoddessWraps and CreativeCraftsTeachers. To subscribe: groups.yahoo.com/group/CreativeCraftsTeachers/ groups.yahoocom/group/GiftWrapGoddessWraps/ contact: creativecraftsteachers@yahoo.com or giftwrapgoddess@yahoo.com

by: Abigail Beal

Chances are at the holidays you’ve been tempted to make holiday wrapping paper. But you may have heard too many stories about needing to use potatoes and tempura paint that bring you back to your grade school days. Have no fear – you do have options! Here are some suggestions to get your creative juices flowing.

Okay this one does involve a potato….. but it’s good:

For this one you need to get some supplies. Yes you do need a potato. I prefer using a potato for stamping rather than a sponge because the potato gives you something to hold onto, and more importantly you can create your own customized look. So keep in mind that if you find a rubber stamp you fall in love with – the potato is optional.

You will need: acrylic paint in one or two colors, metallic pens in one or two colors, paper (can use traditional butcher block paper, white craft paper, or fancy paper from the art store).

In terms of paper – think of the background color you would like to have. Your local art store will often carry many beautiful colors of handmade gift paper. Select a paper that has a porous and fiber-y texture to it – you want to be sure that the paint soaks into the paper. If you select a paper that has a shiny side to it, the paint will not set well.

Think of the design you would like to do. For this gift wrapping paper design you are going to stamp a design with your potato and then embellish it and add some writing to the paper. A good choice for Valentine’s Day would be to cut a heart stamp in your potato and then to write the word “love” or “I love you” on different parts of your paper. Or you could write a special message to the person you are giving the gift to. You could embellish the hearts with little arrows.

Good designs for your potato could be hearts, stars, lightning bolts, letters, numbers, arrows and basic shapes. Stamp your gift wrapping paper first with your acrylic paint and then allow this to dry for at least three hours.

Once the paper is dry then return to add your embellishments with your metallic pens.

Special Memories Paper:
For this paper you will use photographs that you like and visit your local copy center that does color copies.

Before you go to the copy center, think if you want to include any special messages on this paper. Such as wishing the person you are giving the gift a “Happy Birthday” or wishing your mother “Happy Mother’s Day”. If you would like to do so, then type these messages out on a word document – select a basic typeface such as Times New Roman but italicize it and enlarge it to 18 or even 24 points. See how large you like the typeface. Bring a number of copies of this message with you, and a glue stick.

Lay your photographs out on the largest paper they have. This is usually a tabloid size of paper 11” x 17”. Scatter your photographs, do not center them on any one part of the paper – remember that your gift will cover most of the paper. Once you have scattered your photos, add your special message to the gift wrapping paper.

Depending on how large your gift is, you may need to ask for several sheets of this paper. You may also choose to use larger photographs, or ask the clerk at the copy center to enlarge your photographs when they make the color copies. Also ask if they can make you a copy that is really shrunken down so that you can use this for the gift card.

S-E-C-R-E-T M-E-S-S-A-G-E P-A-P-E-R:
This paper is good for a humorous occasion. Probably not the best choice for a wedding gift, then again I’m not invited so what do I know?

We’ve all seen those movies where characters get a spooky ransom note made out of cut out magazines and newspapers. Why not create a special birthday wish or holiday greeting to a friend or a loved one? It will be something different and this is great for someone you have traded nicknames with and share a lot of jokes with.

Select newspapers and magazines. Tabloids are great because their letters are very large and clear. Magazines are nice too because they often use artistic looking typefaces, and this can add some variety to your message.

You will be doing this on 11” x 17” paper, so visit your local copy center and pick up several sheets of this paper. You will need this first to begin the project.

Now choose your message. Go through your newspapers and magazines and obtain the letters. Keep them in a pile.

Once you have your letters, line them up as you wish them to appear on the paper. Remember to space them out so they cover a lot of the paper and not just the middle. Use your glue stick and glue them down.

After your message is glued down, return to the copy shop and have them run your masterpiece off on the copy Xerox (if you did the other project they already know what you are up to….). Have them make you several sheets if your gift is big. Then have them make you a sheet that is very shrunken down for the gift card. As small as possible.

Leaf Rubbings Paper:
Do you remember grade school? Did you like it? One of the things I liked was doing leaf rubbings. We would pick up leaves and bring them inside and put them under pieces of paper, rubbing crayons over the paper to get an impression of the leaf.

Okay, stroll down memory lane over. I was just beginning to remember what the lunch room smelled like……

For this project that is exactly what you are going to do. Select some leaves. Get a box of crayons. I would suggest buying a box of crayons with a wide variety of colors because the more variety of colors you have in front of you, the more colorful your paper can be. Once you get started you may want to create several sheets of this paper. You will also probably want to test this technique so that you fully understand how it works on a small piece of paper and then do it on your gift wrap paper (just the way the hair dye companies remind us to do a test strip…..).

A good leaf tip: Select leaves that have good “skeletons” – that have stems and all sorts of edges to them. It will give your crayons more edges to pick up on. Small wide leaves won’t give much of an impression. But also try to select a variety of leaves. Take a nice walk through your community, picking up leaves on the way. You will be surprised by how many leaves are actually available.

Do this also one leaf at a time. Put the leaf under the paper and take your crayon and peel your crayon completely and break it in half. Then put the crayon wide side down on the paper, rubbing side to side while exerting pressure onto it. You will quickly see how much pressure it takes to get a good impression of the leaf.

There may be other items that you can use for this project. What else leaves an impression? You can do office items like paper clips – paper clips come in a number of shapes and sizes.

Well, these are just some ideas for your inspiration. As you can see, gift wrapping ideas are often right at your fingertips. You can create gift wrap out of something that is probably right in your home, office or backyard! Happy wrapping!

About The Author
Abigail Beal is the author of two zines Creative Crafts Teacher – for crafts teachers and Gift Wrap Goddess Wraps – all about gift wrap. To subscribe: groups.yahoocom/group/GiftWrapGoddessWraps/ or groups.yahoo.com/group/CreativeCraftsTeachers/. giftwrapgoddess@yahoo.com

Breastfeeding is an amazing, natural occurrence that women have been practicing since the beginning of time as a way to feed their babies. A woman’s breasts have milk glands in them which are activated by pregnancy and begin the process of producing breast milk almost as soon as a woman gets pregnant.

One of the early signs of pregnancy is sore, painful breasts. For many women they will notice a dramatic increase in the size of their breasts early in the first trimester. The milk glands are a cluster of cells high up in your breast. When you have your baby and deliver the placenta, the estrogen and progesterone levels in your body decrease and the hormone prolactin will rise signaling these glands to produce and to send milk down to milk ducts.

However, some people report leakage from the areola prior to delivery of their baby. This yellowish leakage is called colostrum and can begin as early as the second trimester for some women, and not till after delivery for others. The colostrum is the first food your baby will get and the most important as it is full of antibodies to help protect and strengthen your baby’s immune system.

So when does your body actually start producing milk? It just depends on how you look at it. What do you consider the first step in production? If it is when the glands are triggered to start their job it is early in the first trimester. If it is when you first notice colostrum then it would occur at whatever point your body started leaking it, possibly in the second trimester, often not till birth. If it is when the white milk starts to flow then it happens within your baby’s first 72 hours of life. Have no fear though. Breasts were made for the sole purpose of feeding our children and in most cases will do their job and the milk will come when it is needed the most.

By Criss White

Even with modern technology like email and cell phones, printed invitations have remained the most common way to let people know about your upcoming party and will continue to remain popular due to the timeless rules of party etiquette. Invitations can be a major cost, especially for large parties, like weddings and some baby showers. However, with a little creativity and time, you can make your own printable invitations, even if you have no artistic skills.

1. The first step is designing your card. You can use a simple word processor like Microsoft Word and if you want, you can go to the Adobe’s website at http://createpdf.adobe.com to convert your file into a pdf file. Select the proper dimensions and print out a sample on some plain white paper just to make sure it is the right size.

2. Next, you will want to find the proper card stock to print out your invitations on. Your local office supply store will have these and you can purchase them inexpensively there.

3. Use the word processor to insert text boxes with the words you want on your invitation. Play around with the fonts and text color.

4. There are many sites that offer free clip art and pictures that you can use for your invitations. Just do a search for “free clip art” on the search engines and you will find many sites that provide these services for free. Browse through and download the pictures you want and then insert them into your card at the desired location.

5. If you use a background image, make sure it does not obscure the text on the card. Ideally, background images should be watermarked. Most word processors will allow you to select background images and make them watermarks. Another alternative is to click on all the text boxes and give them solid colored backgrounds.

6. Need a catchy poem or verse? Once again, you can search the internet for related verses. For example, if I am making baby shower invitations, then I can search for “baby shower poem” or “baby verse” and any other related phrases.

7. Save the master copy of the finished card and print out a sample copy on plain paper to see what it will look like. If it looks good, then you can start personalizing each card and printing it out on card stock.

8. If you do not have a color printer, then create a personalized copy for each guest and save it as a separate file on a disk. Take the disk to your local print shop and have them print out a invitation for each guest. Some print shops may even print out the invitations for you if you give them the guest list and template. A print shop will cost more than printing them out yourself, but probably less than buying invitations from somewhere else. Plus the product should look very professional and they may even have the right card stock available. Additionally, print shops can do engraved invitations as well, which are good for upscale occasions like weddings.

Some other guidelines include try to stick to a central theme, don’t try to use too many pictures and colors, and compare your card to others at card stores to get a feel for what a good invitation should look like. Remember that most invitations are simple and have just a few graphics and maybe one verse. As you can see, there are infinite possibilities when creating your own party invitations and not only is it a fun project, but will also save you money.

About the Author:
Criss White is a professional web writer on baby and new mother topics for baby and pregnancy websites. For more personalized gift ideas, go to Personalized Baby Shower Favors and for more candle gift ideas, see Baby Shower Candle Favors.