A gift for baby Chase!

A friend of mine (and her husband) just had a precious, beautiful baby boy!  His nursery is FABULOUS!  Check out Cristi's blog, Charm Home, to see pictures of Chase and his awesome new digs!

As soon as I saw pictures of the nursery, I wanted to make a gift for Chase that would tie in with his nursery.  I knew I either wanted to do a paper cut or try what would be my first attempt at hoop art.  I decided to go with what I know and stick with a paper cut...an owl for baby Chase!  I tried to draw a template, but just was not satisfied with how that was going!  On an unplanned trip to the mall for an eye glasses repair for my husband, I walked into the little shop next door...and there it was!  The PERFECT template...on a PURSE!  At that point, I probably did something that will make some people mad - I took a picture of it...I didn't buy it!

Pretty cute, huh?  I increased the size, printed the image on plain typing paper, and stapled it to another white sheet of typing paper.  Then, I whipped out my self-healing cutting mat and Xacto knife and settled in for a 5 hour project of cutting...cutting...and more cutting. 

When I was done cutting, the print out looked like this:

And Chase's present looked like this:

  

And now it looks like this:

Yes, the pictures are horrible - that's what happens at 1:00 in the morning when I am bleary eyed and using my iPhone to snap pictures. 

I love how it turned out!  I love owls!  And I LOVE that baby Chase is here and healthy!  Congratulations to Cristi and Billy!
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With this post, I am participating in my first ever link party!  Please pop over to Carolyn's Homework and check out all of the other linked projects!