This past Saturday I had a baby shower to attend. For my close friends I always try to make something personal. Something they'll never, ever throw away.
The problem was that by Friday I still hadn't come up with an idea or gone shopping. So Friday night we ran up to WalMart and I picked out a few items in the infant section: a camoflage had and mittens set that will fit next winter, long sleeve white tees that will fit in 12 months and the most adorable monkey sleeper that will fit 3-6months.
But I still wanted to find something personal. I had about given up when we were perusing the clearance aisles. That's when I found this.
For $5.
Couldn't pass that up. Wish I would've grabbed them all!
So early Saturday I picked out four paints and got to work....
Baby {B} is a boy so I wanted to go sorta primary but picked different shades of primaries. Instead of the typical red, yellow, blue and green, I chose crimson, canary yellow, leaf green and sky blue.
It took 3 coats of paint to get a nice even finish. Sorry, I don't have a close-up of the final coat here.
I thought it was a major improvement from plain ol' white. But it still needed something so I scrounged around in my supply of Stampin' UP! rubber stamps and picked two that I thought would go: safari or bugs.
I went with the safari. Though I borrowed the ant from the bug set. I did his name free-hand in green at the bottom. I added some word stickers to the mat (a favorite of mine). But I wish-really, really, really wish-I would've painted the mat blue. I still could but, eh....that's kinda awkward to do at my friend's house. What do you think? Technically, it isn't finished in my book because I haven't signed it yet....which I'm going to do today....it's a long story. See, if I sign a painting, I'm saying that I'm done and have to be happy with it as is. It's my way of dealing with my perfectionism.
More later about my sudden burst of creativity brought on by necessity.
I like to give all that stuff, too. It just doesn't make me feel all warm inside. It just makes me say "ooh" and "ahh". And wish I could have another baby. 
