See "CARDS" Banner In Use!

Today I wanted to share a couple photos, from our daughter's wedding reception, where you can actually see how the "CARDS" banner I made for her was used.

If you missed my original post about making the banner, you can see it here.

Anyway, just in case you may be wondering about the strange surroundings in the background for what was supposed to be a 'garden' wedding and reception.... well... while the wedding turned out to be a beautiful, autumn garden wedding on the farm, the weather did NOT cooperate!! 

A cold front had arrived the day before and knocked temperatures from the 70's, down to around 40 for the high.... with the rain not clearing out until just hours before the ceremony! It was very damp, with the wind still blowing strong, so it felt like a huge evap cooler had been turned on us and we were all right in front of it's vent, brrrr! 

With the temperature so low, the wind chills were in the low 30's and the guests were wrapped up in their coats and heavy, handmade, old quilts that were passed out to all who wanted to be warmer! Members of the wedding party were nearly frozen before the ceremony was over.... literally teeth were chattering!.... It did make for a funny incident when the vows were being recited through those chattering teeth. We all shared quite a chuckle when the groom tried to speak, as he was facing in to the wind. He was so cold, he could hardly get the words out, LOL!

SO.... there was no way we were all going to enjoy an outdoor reception under those circumstances, let alone keep the food warm! It had to be moved inside the large shop barn... haystacks and all. That's why all the backgrounds in her reception photos have cars and car parts in them, LOL!

Anyway, here's a closer look at her vintage suitcase, card collector and the banner:

(As always, you can click on the photo to view it close-up)

The painting was a gift someone painted using their invitations for inspiration. I love how they "carved" a heart with the couple's names on the tree trunk :)

Thanks for stopping by today.... I love visitors! Please come again soon.

Wedding Cake Gift Card Box #3

Well another wedding under our belts! Our beautiful daughter was married last month, and over the last few weeks, I've been sharing wedding projects I've made for her... 

This is the final project.... a white wedding cake gift card box, decorated in her wedding colors of mint and navy!

These boxes are truly a labor of love. Under the very top flower on the top, hides a gift card tucked down inside the middle of the top 2 tiers. Except for the lace around the base and the ribbon around each cake layer, this is completely made out of paper!

(click on photos to view larger images)

This a close-up of the front corner floral accent. I made these flowers myself out of cardstock. The leaves are made with mulberry paper in white, which I inked with mint to create their "green" color. 

At the top of this post is the view of the cake from the front. Going around the cake, the next photos show it from all sides..... first, the left side:

Next, the back:

Then the right side with it's cascade of flowers:

I think I used about 40 flowers on this project!! I handmade all of them except the 9 mulberry paper roses. I bought those (and the leaves) from 
I Am Roses. They were white to start with, but I inked the edges on 4 of them in navy. The other 5 larger ones, I painted with Starburst Spray from Lindy's Stamp Gang.... they are the solid "navy" ones. Finally, I sprayed all the flowers with their Scintillating Silver Shimmer spray! Yummy... seriously LOVE that stuff, LOL!!

This close-up of the flower cascade shows a little more detail, but still does not capture how incredibly shimmery all the flowers turned out! I used Liquid Pearls for the centers of the small ones:

I'm showing two photos of the top of the cake... one is a little closer look:

(click photo to view larger images)

That top carnation, with it's 4 leaves, is covering the gift card and slot. The flower is held in place with a pearl-topped, long floral pin. The entire thing just pulls out and then can be replaced after the gift card is removed!

I hope you like my creation and are inspired to try one yourself!

You can view my first two wedding cake gift card boxes by clicking on them in the left sidebar. There are links in those posts to the shops - Lindy's Stamp Gang & I Am Roses - and links to the tutorials for the handmade flowers as well. :)

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Wedding Card

I made a wedding card for my DD and SIL.... it may seem like déjà vu 
because of this recent post - (click here). I made it the same, except I did a color change:

(click on photo to view larger image)

This card is the same size as the other one - 8.5" x 5.5" (a full 8-1/2 x 11 sheet just folded in half). I had to make my own envelope for this one, which took an entire 12 x 12 sheet of Colonial White cardstock!

I used one of my favorite photos of the couple while they were dating... (even though she hadn't gone 'blonde' yet at that time!)... and printed it out in Sepia. 

I used CTMH cardstock in Colonial White and Outdoor Denim. along with Outdoor Denim ink. The embossed panel is slightly raised with dimensional tape. Using a sponge, I distressed the edges and the raised embossed area with the matching ink. 

The lace-edged burlap is from a shop on Etsy. I just absolutely love it! 
I also used a wider version of it on the Guest Book album. (You can see the album here, in case you missed it).... The metal heart I've had for so long, I don't remember where I got it! It's attached using a hot glue gun.

Finishing touches are the little punched hearts, embossed & inked, and 21 pearls from CTMH (Mocha Opaques)!

Thanks for stopping by today. :)
Have a great day!

Wedding Cards Banner

Another wedding project to share today!

My daughter is going to use a small, open, vintage suitcase to collect any cards the guests may bring. She asked me to make a banner sign to string across the inside lid, so everyone could just drop their cards down in the suitcase.

Her only request was that it had lace on it..... so this is what I made for her:

(click photo to view larger image)

I started by making my own tags from Kraft paper. They are about 6.5" long. Then I stamped my chosen image randomly filling in the area in Versamark and did some heat embossing with superfine white embossing powder. 

Then I used the sewing machine to add the lace. I next added the mint ribbon and decided on large, round brads to use to hold the tags onto the twine by wrapping the prongs around it. One problem... I didn't have any large white brads! So I used what I had -- gold ones -- and I made them white by heat embossing 4 layers of that white superfine powder to cover them. I think they turned out well, even with the bumpy texture it created on them.

I finished them off with 1) computer generated letters to spell "cards" in navy, which I ink-distressed the edges in Desert Sand, 2) a small 
hand-painted sparkling rose & leaves accent, and 3) a matching mint bow.

I sent my daughter a photo when completed (we live in different states) and I was thrilled that she loved the banner!

Thanks for dropping in again to see my work. Please come by again :)

Wedding Sparkler Labels

Just a quick post today.... 

At the wedding send-off, they've decided to use sparklers instead of rice, birdseed, confetti, etc.

I made these labels in MS Word.... 10 to a page.

I took the photo (sorry for my shadow) before I cut them apart. I also cut slits just above and below the words, for 2 sparklers to fit through each label..... like a ribbon slide.

I can't show them with the sparklers, as the sparklers had to be shipped by ground straight to DD from the manufacturer. I had to include these labels in one of 4 boxes I had to ship out to her with all the projects I've made for the wedding! 

I'll be sharing more projects soon.

Thanks for dropping in :)

Wedding Easel

We needed a sign of some sort, for the instructions on how to use the little message cards for the Guest Book. I had thought about typing up the instructions and putting them in a pretty frame on the table beside the book, but decided it needed to be double-sided since the table will not be up against a wall. 

This is what we came up with:

Sorry the photo is blurry.... (note to self: do not try to take photos when hands are shaky, lol!).... Anyway, I took the photo in a mirror to try to show the back easel. It is lower because it sits on the easel frame, but I think it will do the job.

While the Guest Book table might end up under a tree somewhere, it will be able to be accessed from both sides. With the 4 decorated navy gel pens available to use, more than one person could be sharing their well wishes or advice at one time.

So I thought a double-sided easel with chalkboards would fill the bill.... and my hubby found this wooden table-top easel at Walmart. It was unfinished, so he painted it white to match the Guest Book Box holding the mini-cards, pens, and envelope seals. He also found 2 small chalkboards and painted those frames as well.

Here's a little clearer view that's also closer up:

I decorated each easel with a simple corner floral and bow accent. Again I painted the originally white roses from I Am Roses with Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays. I blended a few colors to get the right color of mint. 

Here's a close up of the flowers after I painted them. They are not put into the corner arrangement yet, but I wanted you to see how they sparkle... I just love Lindy's Starbust sprays!

(click on the photos to see larger)

The only thing is that I took this photo with my cell phone and the bigger blue rose turned out more like a royal blue on my monitor instead of the NAVY color it really is.... so frustrating! I wonder if I'll ever get this color thing figured out since I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Oh well, such is life! :)

I will use a chalk marker to write on the chalkboards so the instructions can't be just rubbed off like regular chalk. 

I hope you like this, as much love is going into all these projects for our only daughter. And I love that I can share them here and maybe inspire some creativity in others.

Thanks for stopping by again today. 

Wedding Guest Book

Our daughter is getting married in October. It will be an outdoor country-chic wedding at her in-laws farm in Ohio. I've made her several items for her wedding and the first one I'd like to share is the Guest Book.

I made this guest book with a 12x12 strap-bound scrapbook album. Her wedding colors are navy, a true mint blue, and white. I found a navy fabric album and decorated it, as well as the inside pages.

I don't know why it looks black in this photo (at least on my monitor), but it's definitely navy in color.

I custom painted white flowers from I Am Roses with Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays (my favorite way to color flowers!) and I made my own 
2-tone small carnations. Then I built the arrangement on a piece of cardstock as a base. Here's a close-up:

The bling letters I purchased from ?? and they are self-adhesive stick-ons. 
I was surprised at how well they stuck to the fabric, even to the burlap! Thought I might have had to add fabric glue to have them stay put, but so far, so good!

The pretty burlap lace ribbon I purchased on Etsy... love it! It wraps around the entire front cover and is removable. I made it that way for shipping purposes... if I decide to attach the flower arrangement to the burlap before shipping, I can remove the strip to better protect the flowers from getting squashed!

Now for the inside....

The writing was done in MS Word in different fonts. It is double matted on mint and navy. I stamped a pretty flourishy corner vine in Mint Julep mid-tone ink, both from Hero Arts. 

The next four pages are just for the guest signatures. I used a gel pen in Navy to draw each and every line! I also scored a separating line between the 2 columns and stamped the same leafy vine in the corners.... used a finger dauber to put both colors of Navy and Mint Julep inks on to the stamp.

The rest of the pages look like this:

My daughter wanted something a little more than just the traditional signature book, so I painstakingly scored and inked and stamped all these 6x6 squares (4 per page), as well as the envelope flaps.... pages upon pages, LOL! ... Let me tell you, that with arthritis in my hands, this endeavor took me awhile to finish. I could only do 3 single pages per day. My hands were happy when I was finally done!

The guests will be able to fill out a small card with a greeting, marriage advice, well wishes, or whatever they want, then put the card in an individual envelope and seal it shut with a silver double hearts envelope seal. 

These are the little cards I inked and stamped in various ways:

The last page in the book I just made a pretty medallion image with the same stamp because I didn't want the book to just end with an envelope page and I didn't want to leave it blank either. I think it turned out fairly well.

My hubby built me a custom-sized box to accompany the Guest Book. It holds the little cards, the envelope seals, and the decorated navy gel pens for signing. It even has it's own little 'trash' bucket for the backing paper off the seals!

Well I'm finally done! I guess I should have warned you about a photo heavy post :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Wedding Card

For my son's wedding, I made him and his new bride a card, of course!
I got the idea from a pin on Pinterest, and I think it turned out well.
Michelle's favorite color is pink, and her wedding colors were pink, yellow
and purple, so I made the card in those colors. I'm just glad they liked it!
But the photos came out a bit blurry... sorry :(

the front

(remember to click on any image to see it bigger)

The ribbon is actually keeping the card closed. I didn't want them to have

to untie and re-tie the bow, so it's a permanent bow with a magnet closure

underneath. It needed something to keep it closed, since it turned out so thick! See what I mean...

I even had to make a custom box for it....





This is the card open and standing (close-up photos are farther down):

and this is the back, both open and closed:

Here are some close-up shots of the front and back of the card:

As usual, I used a bunch of I Am Roses. All the colored

ones are painted with Lindy's Stamp Gang's Magical Mica's!

The white ones are the original colors as they came. 

Now these photos are from the inside of card.... first and second 'page'...

page 1 closeup

page 2 closeup

And then 'pages' 3 and 4....



page 3 closeup

page 4 closeup - (we tucked a check in the pocket behind the tag)

and the closeup of the tag:

I did the embedded-embossed technique on this tag, as well as

the hearts on page 1 and the hearts here on the back:

a closeup of hearts on the center back

Well, that's a lot of photos, and all of them were probably not necessary for this post, but I never know when to stop until I've run out of photos, LOL!! 

Thanks for stopping by.... have a great day! :)

Tutorial - a Square-Triangle Tri-Fold Card.... (an oxymoron??)

A square-triangle? "Isn't that an oxymoron?" you ask.
NO!.... not when we're talking about the Square-Triangle Tri-Fold card!
I even put a diamond on top...

This is my first tutorial, so I hope you like it. It's really pretty easy
to do. (You can click on each photo to enlarge it.)

For this particular card, I'm using the retired paper pack - Floral
Impressions - and cardstock in Amethyst, Olive, Grey Flannel and
White Daisy.

Now, on with the tutorial....

The Card Base:
The finished card must be a perfect square. For this tutorial, we'll be
making a 6x6 card. The card base needs to be three (3) times as
long as it is high, so we'll need to start with a piece of cardstock that
is 6" x 18"...

To achieve this, an entire 12x12 piece of cardstock is needed for the
base. Take cardstock and cut it in half, then score each half at the
6" mark..... like this:

Using a very strong adhesive (I used Provo Craft's Terrifically Tacky
Tape), glue one 6x6 section of one of the pieces to a 6x6 section of
the other piece, to end up with this:

Now score both outside sections diagonally in the same direction:

(I used my cutter and the embossing stylus to score)

(I just bent these scored marks to be able to see them better)

Now fold the scored 'triangles' like this:

(Oops! The card base in this photo is upside-down ---

I had just turned it over to use the bone folder

to crisp the folds.... sorry... turn it back over to continue!)

Then fold each side in, like this:

Use bone folder to crisp folds. The finished card base will look like this:

Make Your Focals:
The base of your 2 focals need to be exactly the same. You can make
them anything you like. I used my Cuttlebug and diamond-shaped
Nestabilities to create mine.

(you can see my focal bases 2 photos down!)

Time to put card together: 

Now cut 2 squares out of chosen patterned paper - one 5-1/2" x 5-1/2"

and one 5-5/8" x 5-5/8". (I cut my 5-1/2" square from the matching

Level 1 Kit I had - also retired, and the 5-5/8" square from the B&T
paper that matched from the Level 2 PP.)

Then cut the 5-5/8" square piece diagonally to form 2 triangles. Ink
all the edges of papers and card base if desired. Adhere to the triangle
sections of the card base. Next, adhere the 5-1/2" square in the
center of card base, as shown:

(see my focals now?... just not decorated yet!)

Now it's time to finish decorating the 2 focals, so we can add them to

the card! My sentiments are just printed in Word on my computer,

and popped-up with very thin (1/16th" thick) double-sided pop-up
foam dots for a little extra dimension. I edged the top diamond with
Lavender Flower Soft!

For the card to open and focals to be in the right direction, it's much
easier to close the right side of card first. Add middle focal by one
edge unto the folded triangle, leaving the bottom left side of focal
loose, like so:

(This is what it looks like open, after attaching the focal... see how the
focal is sideways? Very easy to get it glued down in the wrong

direction, if you don't close the side in first!)

Now close the left triangle over top of the middle focal. Attach front
focal piece. Only glue bottom left edge unto the triangle and make
sure that it's completely lined up over that middle focal, like this:

Now open it all up, and finish the center square.

I used Word again for my inside sentiment (not shown here), and

printed it out on cardstock. I cut it smaller, leaving enough space

on it for our signatures, and attached it on the

center square in the middle. Signed it, and...

Viola! All done!