How to Make Your Own Scratch-It {Plus a free printable!}

As promised, today I am sharing with you how I made our very own scratch-it's to reveal the gender of our baby to our closest family and friends at our gender reveal party. I had seen many DIY scratch-its floating around Pinterest, especially around Valentines day or as an anniversary present, but didn't see many to reveal the gender. So I decided to just wing it and ended up loving how they turned out!

What You Need

Clear contact paper (I found a huge roll at Dollar Tree)

Cutting utensil to cut out your scratch-it piece

Metallic acrylic paint

Liquid dish soap

Paint brush (or one of those $.10 cheapo foam brushes from your craft store)

Scratch-it paper

And time! This isn't an easy project to start last minute.

First, you need to make up what you want scratched and print them. Make sure that whatever size you make them fits with what size of actual scratch-it piece you'll make. For example, I had a 2 inch circle punch so I needed to make sure the scratch-it was big enough so that the pink bow was covered. I designed my scratch-it in Illustrator, but you could just as easily do it in Microsoft Word. And because I love you all so much....I included a free gender reveal printable at the bottom of this post just for my readers!

Next, you need to mix two parts paint to one part liquid dish soap. Don't get too worried about having the exact right proportions. It's a very flexible guideline.

Spread out your clear contact paper on a flat surface and start painting. Depending on what color paint you use, you will most likely have to do 3-5 coats of paint in order to get a thick coat so you can't see the content below the scratch-it. Don't worry though! That's normal. The soap makes the paint pretty streaky so you'll need multiple coats.

Once you're happy with the paint density and it has time to completely dry (at least an hour after the last coat), then you can start cutting out your circles (or whatever shape you've chosen). I used a two inch circle scrapbooking punch and it worked great!

Then all you need to do is peel off the back part of the contact paper and stick it to your scratch-it and wait until the big reveal!

For us, we didn't tell anyone we had made scratch-its and everyone thought that we were still planning on revealing the gender through the cake. Little did they know we didn't trust people to not stick their finger in the cake so we went to plan B and I think it turned out perfect with a little element of surprise!

Are you planning a gender reveal party for either yourself or a friend? I've included a free gender reveal printable just for you! If you need them a different size or want it personalized, shoot me an email to burlapandbabies{at}gmail{dot}com.

Download It's a Boy scratch-it or It's a Girl scratch-it

 

If you missed the full gender reveal party post, you can catch up and read all about it here. 

Motivational Monday

Well do I have exciting news for you all today!! Not only do I get to introduce you to one new cohost this week, but two! Amanda from Dwelling in Happiness and Cassie from Kent Heartstrings are joining us as cohosts for our weekly Motivational Monday Party! I am so excited that these sweet ladies are jumping on this motivational bandwagon.

They both have been linking up some awesome posts over the last few weeks/months and I am excited to get to know them even better and see what other awesome things they create. If you don't already follow them, be sure to hop over to their blogs to check them out!

Hosted by: Burlap and Babies, The DIY Mommy, Dwelling in Happiness, and Kent Heartstrings

Ready to share what has been motivating you this past week? Link up a recent post of yours, something that motivates you to create or just be awesome! Our goal is for this link up to focus on craft, DIY, & home posts so please try to remember that when linking up. Please limit it to three links per week and remember to link directly to your post. Do not link stores, giveaways, or other link parties. Also, hop around some of the other posts that have been linked up to share the love and get motivated by what others have been up to...because of course, this is Motivational Monday after all.

Each week, each hostess will feature their favorite post from the previous week. If you want to be featured, be sure to follow all the hosts. By linking up, you agree to let each host share your photo and link back to your site. Link party goes live Monday and ends at 5:00pm PST on Friday.

Don't forget to grab a Motivational Monday button in the sidebar to put on your own blog to help spread the love! 

This DIY arrow art Katie at Little House of Four shared last week at our party are just adorable! Katie used gold paper and mod podge to make over these cheap Home Goods canvases. I just LOVE how they turned out! Thanks so much for sharing, Katie!

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Now let's get this week's party started! Link up your craft or home decor posts and get ready to motivate others to be awesome! 

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Week 26

How far along? 26 weeks. Depending on the app, baby girl is either the size of a head of lettuce, eggplant, or the length of a green onion. Hmmmm. I went with the lettuce.

Maternity clothes: Absolutely! Bought this purple shirt I'm wearing in the picture from Goodwill for $4.99!! And the skirt is one of only two maternity clothes I've bought full price so far, well it was buy 1 get half off but best purchase ever. So comfy!!

Sleep: Doing good. Waking up about once a night to go to the bathroom. I even survived tent camping this past weekend without it being a big issue.

Food cravings:  None still. I'm starting to think I'm going to be one of those prego ladies who doesn't have cravings. I feel like I'm missing out!!

Nausea: Nope
 
Symptoms: Edema on and off but mainly in the evenings when I've been on my feet a lot. I am one of the lovely 75% of pregnant ladies blessed with that dark line up your belly, linea nigra. And it's just getting darker as the days pass on.

Total weight gain: Ashamed to admit it but it's the truth. I have gained 21 pounds since getting pregnant. However, I do feel good that I haven't gained anything in five days now. Eating a lot more protein and walking more certainly helps. I am determined to be healthy for this dear little one I'm growing.

Movement: All the time! This little girl is just like her momma and doesn't like to be woken up. When she does, she gets angry! Her active time is in the evening after dinner time.

Gender: Still a girl! If you missed our gender reveal post, you can read all about it HERE.

Labor Signs: Been getting Braxton-Hicks every few days still.

Belly button in or out? In but definitely getting less deep.

Wedding ring on or off? On, my fingers only seem to get swollen when I go on long walks.

Happy or moody: Happy!!

Best moment this week: Glider came this weekend and makes the empty room start to look like a nursery!

Looking forward to: Conquering our half marathon on Saturday!! Wish me luck!

Gender Reveal Party Bow Cookies

When trying to decide what was important for me to have at the gender reveal party, I kept coming back to a picture of pink and blue gender reveal cookies in my head. They just helped tie the food into the theme of bows and bowties and so I set off to figure out how to make it happen.

First off, I found a bow cookie cutter at Joann Fabric & Craft Store. With a 40% off coupon I think it came out to less than two bucks. Then the day before the party I made up a batch of this sugar cookie recipe from The Shabby Creek Cottage. Be sure to watch the cookies when they're baking to not overdo it. The edges should just start to turn golden brown when you pull them out. The first batch came out around 8 minutes and by my third batch they came out around 12 minutes. I think this had to do with how long the dough had been out of the refrigerator and how much it had been rolled to get it the right thickness. The dough worked perfect though and didn't spread!

One trick we learned from the trusty Alton Brown is to use a serving spatula under the cookie cutter to transfer each cookie to the baking sheet before removing the cookie cutter. This helps keep the shape better during the transfer.

After your cookies have had plenty of time to cool comes the stressful fun part!

If you've never used royal icing before, you might want to practice before decorating on your beautiful party cookies. I used a combination of a few recipes until we found the perfect royal icing consistency but mainly I used the Royal Icing 101 tutorial from Tips from a Typical Mom. Most recipes will tell you to buy meringue powder, but the milk, corn syrup, and powdered sugar worked fantastically for us!

You will want a thicker consistency to outline your cookie, then add some more corn syrup for the flooding (or the inside part). For the piping of the outline, I just used a ziploc bag and cut a tiny corner off. Practice a few times on cookies that either broke or don't look perfect to get a feel for it. Just remember, your party guests will love them no matter what they look like so don't stress it if you mess up!!

Let these harden for about a minute or two before flooding it with the middle icing. You want the edging to act as a dam so the icing doesn't pour off the cookie but you don't want to wait too long either. Once you fill a cookie, use a toothpick to spread it out. This stuff is like magic and will seriously just dissolve all the little imperfections!

Now's the hard part....let these harden for a good couple hours before doing your detail piping on top. Really. It's better if you just wait. While you wait, I suggest drawing out what outline you want on your bow. Some people do different designs depending on if it's a blue or a pink bow. Others just do the outline of the bow and no inside details. Or you could go my route and just wing it and have the first ten cookies look different. (I highly suggest you don't go that route but it's up to you...just remember, I warned you!)

Now, remember! They won't look perfect...unless you're a pro, in which case will you come help me make cookies for my next party?! These cookies are, however, made with lots of love and excitement as you plan for this new little one coming in to your life.

And don't they look just adorable?!

Join me next Wednesday to hear all about how I made our very own Gender Reveal Scratch-its! It's super easy and I want to find an excuse to make them for all parties and celebrations now!

To read all about my full Gender Reveal Party, check it out here!

Motivational Monday

Thanks for stopping by Burlap and Babies for another week of Motivational Monday! As you'll see, this week it's just Christina at The DIY Mommy and I hosting. Kendra at Joy in Our Home has decided to do other things but I just wanted to thank her for hosting with us the last 9 weeks! It's been great and I'm glad for the relationship we've been able to build through this party.

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! If you saw my post from last night you'll see I spent my weekend being one with nature...well as much as can be while tent camping 25 weeks pregnant. But now we're here for another week. I'm excited to see what you all have been up to lately. And thanks to everyone who linked up last week -- you are awesome!

Hosted by: Burlap and Babies and The DIY Mommy

Ready to share what motivates you? Link up a recent post of yours something that motivates you to create or just be awesome! Our goal is for this link up to focus on craft, DIY, & home posts so please try to remember that when linking up. Please limit it to three links per week and remember to link directly to your post. Do not link stores, giveaways, or other link parties. Also, hop around some of the other posts that have been linked up to share the love and get motivated by what others have been up to...because of course, this is Motivational Monday after all.

Each week, each hostess will feature their favorite post from the previous week. By linking up, you agree to let each host share your photo and link back to your site. Link party goes live Monday and ends at 5:00pm PST on Friday.

Don't forget to grab a Motivational Monday button in the sidebar to put on your own blog to help spread the love! 

Last week, Melanie at Melanie Gets Married shared her 2014 Home Tour with us and it was filled with SO much inspiration and awesomeness! If you haven't yet, you need to take a look as she gave us a full tour along with links to posts for each room of projects she's been working on over the past year. And seriously, her office is to die for! Definitely gave me major inspiration to get my butt in gear to makeover my office before little one makes an appearance.

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Now let's get this week's party started! Link up your diy, craft, or home decor posts and get ready to motivate others to be awesome! 

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Weekend Camping Adventures

I just wanted to jump on and share a little snippet from this weekend -- well, because it was fantastic and ten years from now I don't want to forget these things. About two years ago when we moved back from college we moved to the other side of town and had to start practically a whole new life.

Where do we shop? 
Where's the cheap gas? 
Where do we go when I want some legit chinese food? 

Ya know...the important things in life! But most importantly, we had to go church shopping again. It took a few months but we finally found a church we liked and after this weekend I'm even more sure we made the right decision.

Now, I'm not one to talk about religion or Christianity too often around the blog but if you have a good place to call your church, you'll understand what I mean. We spent the weekend camping with over 700 other people from our church, including our Korean and Hispanic congregation. We met people. Ate way too much junk food. Got covered in sand from head to toe. But more importantly just felt included.

And it was lovely.

PS I just need to brag real fast that this 25 week prego lady totally rocked at the tent camping thing. I was quite impressed with myself.

Liebster Award Nomination

A few days ago I was nominated for a Liebster Award by the fabulous Melanie over at Melanie Gets Married. I had never heard about this award until she commented on one of my posts but I love it! I love blogging and writing about my passions but sometimes it gets tiring wondering does anyone really read what I write. Is there any point? But when I wake up in the morning and have new comments or emails from readers I'm reminded of why I do it.

So here I am to share a little bit more about me and then encourage some other lovely bloggy friends to do so too. This award is dedicated to bloggers who have less than 200 followers or less who are just getting started. Hopefully you'll jump over to their page and follow along on their journey too.

The rules for me and the ladies I've nominated below...

1. You have to link back to the person that nominated you.
2. You must answer 11 questions given to you by the person that nominated you.
3. After completing these questions you must nominate 11 bloggers (or 9 in my case) with under 200 followers and give them 11 questions of your choice.
4. You must not nominate the person who nominated you.
5. You must let your nominees know that they have been nominated and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it.

Now on for my questions...

1) Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging in December 2012 after the realization that I no longer had homework to do in the evenings and wanted something productive to do in my evenings rather than just sitting on my butt watching tv. Plus, I love reading other people's blogs so I figured what the heck?! why can't I do that too?!

2) What is your favorite project that you have made since blogging or what is your favorite blog post?
I am really proud of my Gender Reveal party from last month. It was so much fun planning all the little details and documenting it all so one day little one will be able to read all about it. 

3) What is your favorite room in your home?
The nursery. I have a blank slate to make it what I want since we knew moving in that it would be the nursery so just kept it empty. I could sit in there for hours just dreaming about our future and how many memories we will be making in that room in a few short months.

4) What is your favorite holiday? Why? 
Christmas! I love Christmas and the season surrounding it. People are just generally more happy and giving and loving. Besides, who doesn't love singing Christmas carols and driving around looking at Christmas lights while drinking hot chocolate and sucking on candy canes. I could seriously listen to Christmas music all year long if mr g would let me.

5) If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
I wouldn't move. Our families are here in Oregon. This is our home. We are an hour and a half from the beach. An hour and a half to the mountain. An hour and a half from beautiful hiking trails with many waterfalls. And have a plethora of activities to do any night of the week in town. I wouldn't change it for anything.

6) Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Tough question! In my ideal world, 5 years from now I will be a stay-at-home mommy with two kids and one on the way writing this blog on a more regular basis and bringing in a small income to help provide for our family doing something I love.

7) What is something you would like to learn to do really well?
Sew. I have made curtains for almost every room in our home now, have reupholstered some chairs, and am currently working on a quilt for the little one but I feel like there is still so much more I can learn!

8) What are some of your favorite books you've read lately?
Hmmm. I used to be a major reader but haven't sat down and read an entire book in probably a year. I'm a blog reader though and right now I love reading Birth Without Fear.

9) What is your favorite thing to spend money on?
I am super cheap and hate spending money. But if I was given money and told to spend it on something fun for me I would probably go crazy in Michael's or the home decor section at Target.

10) What are three of your favorite online shopping websites?
Amazon...you can find anything on there. Groupon...because of course I love a good deal! And Pick Your Plum.

11) What inspires you?
What a loaded question! To condense all the thoughts running through my head I would say things or people who make me happy. Whether that be a new color combination, my husband, a pillow I see at Target, something I come across on pinterest, a newborn baby, or really anything that puts a smile on my face.

And now it's your turn!! Here are nine fantastic ladies that I have had fun discovering over the last few days or weeks or months. So go check them out and follow along on their journey! I'm sure you will love them as much as I do!

My Nominees
Dwelling in Happiness

She Builds Her Home

Crazily Normal
Table for Two, Please
The Kolb Corner
Live & Learn: The Seibert Way 
The Honeycomb Home
Love the Here and Now
Whispering Loudly

The Questions for My Nominees
1. How did you pick your blog’s name?
2. Which blogger would you most like to meet and why?
3. What is your favorite season of the year?
4. Where is your happy place when you just need to get away and have some time to yourself?
5. What was your most favorite vacation?
6. What is your most prized possession?

7. What’s your favorite recipe you make?
8. Which blog can you not get enough of?
9. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
10. You randomly have 4 hours of free time to do what you want, what do you do?
11. What is your favorite project that you have made since blogging or what is your favorite blog post?

Have fun and don't forget to tag me back so I can read all your responses! Thanks again Melanie for nominating me!