Making of a Wedding: Wedding Cards

This was another "mom, can you make this...?" request from dd...the groom's card, or the bride's wedding card to the groom. Dd's emailed request for this came a couple months before the wedding with a photo attachment of a similar card she saw on etsy. I thought it looked simple enough, I figured I could create a cutfile for it using MTC pretty quickly and cut it with my Cricut. No problem, right? Wrong, mama!!!

Designing the cutfile for it wasn't too bad...I used LD Charming font and hearts from the shapes library in MTC to create the welded names and hearts in the heart shaped window. And for the date, I chose to use Pharmacy true type font. When the cutfile was done, it looked pretty good on screen...but the problem was trying to get my Cricut to cut it....

After several tries and wasting a lot of cardstock, the best cut I could get is what you see below to the left. NOT ACCEPTABLE!!! It was then that I decided it was finally time to take the Silhouette Cameo I received for Chritsmas out of its box...

Setting up the Cameo was amazingly easy, and I was pleased that my MTC program recognized it right away. I was ready to start cutting in only a matter of minutes. And there you have it, (photo above, right) the exact same cutfile, cut on my new Silhouette Cameo. I was totally amazed! The pictures speak volumes of all the reasons why I wanted (needed!) the Cameo.

This second card is the one I made for me and dh to give to the newlyweds. Sadly, because I was so busy with all the wedding preparations, I had to rush to make this and wasn't entirely happy with how it turned out. Much of it was me testing my new Cameo to see how far I could push it to its limits in terms of doing intricate cuts. As a result, the overall design of the card may have suffered a bit...

The base of this card is a trifold with overlapping windows. I wanted to do layers of white on white using papers with different textures and shimmers.The lovebirds on the branches were welded and layered to the front window. An additional window layer of pearlized cardstock embossed with Stampin Up's Elegant Lines folder was adhered to this using foam tape. The bride and groom's names and the word "forever" were welded and layered onto to the second window. And the two glittered hearts above the names were adhered to the center panel of the trifold, which flips open....

...to reveal the sentiment inside. Font used for the window cuts is Lauren Script downloaded from dafont.com, and the birds and branches were cut using is the same clipart I used for the wedding invitations.

And the good new is....this is the last of the "Making of a Wedding" posts...YAY! No more wedding stuff for awhile....I hope!

Making of a Wedding: Tags and a Banner

Just a short post today of a few miscellaneous things created for the wedding...satin hangers with personalized tags for the bridesmaids' kimono robes they wore while having their hair and makeup done... stickers for the snack bags which were passed out to guests at the ceremony...and the "Just Married" banner...
LOL, when dd sent me a photo of a similar banner several months before the wedding and asked if I would make one for her, my first thought was, "Sure, I can make it, but what will you do with it?!" She told me she wanted it to use as a photo prop and then later hang it on their table at the reception. Personally, I don't care much for banners.I know a lot of people make them nowadays, and though I've seen a few really pretty ones, they rather remind me of a circus... Maybe some of the fancier ones would be appropriate for a birthday or some other informal party, but for a wedding? Dd wanted her banner to be very plain, (NO embellishing, mom!). I agreed to do it and secretly hoped she would forget about it.
But as it got closer to the wedding day, dd started asking if I had started making her banner yet. She needed to know because otherwise, she needed to order the one she saw on etsy...for $50. FIFTY DOLLARS?! Are you kidding me? Okay, okay, I'll make it....
The flags were created in Cricut Design Studio, welding shapes from the George cartridge, and cut from Bazzill Bling cardstock. Letters are Times New Roman font, cut with MTC. I used 15 lb. test fishing line to string the flags and tied lengths of white tulle to the ends. Total cost of materials, maybe $10?

So here's a glimpse of the banner on the couple's table at the reception....

And here again at the photo shoot. The newlyweds used this photo on their thank you cards, which I guess was kind of neat. Okay, so I admit I might have been wrong ... maybe banners aren't just for the circus anymore!

...love you, Mom!

Taking another break from posting wedding stuff this week to share a few things I created for Mothers Day this year. Made two of these sliding shadow box cards for my mom and mil... 

The original design for this was inspired by a tutorial by Lynn Mercurio over at Splitcoast Stampers for her recessed window card. I fiddled with the measurements a bit to increase the depth on the inside to 3/4" so the flowers would fit, and covered the front with a sheet of acetate. Then I made and adhered a box bottom to the back so it would look like a shadowbox.

The petals for the large pink flower were cut from Cricut Mothers Day Bouquet cartridge, tiny blossoms were punched from a Carl Kikyo flower punch, and cream colored flowers are readymades from All Natural Accents. Leaves were punched from a large leaf punch and run through a crimper, tiny branches are from a Martha Stewart punch and leafy flourish is from Cheery Lynn's Fanciful Flourish die. Cuttlebug Jamara embossing folder was used for the textured back panel.

Both the sentiment (Chopin Script) and the lacy bordered frame were created in MTC, then glued on to the front of the acetate window.

Then to add some fun, I added the shadow box to the front of a slider card mechanism...pulling the ribboned tab on the side of the shadowbox makes it slide to the right, revealing a card with our Mothers Day greeting. I also added a little vellum envelope on the inside to hold a giftcard or monetary gift. You can find a tutorial for this very clever slider card from my best blogging friend Patti over at her blog, Creations By Patti. Again, I did a few size adjustments so the slider would fit my shadowbox..

Next I made gift bags and decorated them for the mochi I planned to give to the moms at our Mothers Day dinner. Originally I bought plain white gift bags with the intention of decorating them, but realized later that they were too small. In desperation I ended up having to make my own using a large shoebox as a template and doubled layers of white wrapping paper with ribbon for the handles.

For the kokeshi dolls, I created a cutfile in MTC using a scanned image of a cute little kokeshi doll head notepad I recently picked up at a tradeshow. Then for the doll body, I used the adorable Kyoto Cuties cutfile created and shared as a freebie by Jin on her blog at Under A Cherry Tree.

The branches were cut from Cricut Home Decor cartridge, and plum blossoms are the same file as on the kokeshi doll's head, sized smaller. I used  truetype font Segoe Script and MTC to create the Happy Mothers Day sentiment and paper punched hearts for a simple border.

Now for the funnest part...I finally got my hands on some Action Wobbles....and just couldn't resist trying them out on the kokeshi doll heads. LOL, I thought it was cute how they reminded me of those bobble head dolls. So much fun!

And oooh....here's a peek at the tray of haupia (coconut custard), peanut butter, strawberry and chocolate filled mochi that I got from Happy Hearts Mochi that went inside the bags... mmm... yummers! Happy Mothers Day!

Making of a Wedding: 1001 Origami Cranes

Did you wonder what ever happened to the 1001 origami cranes everyone helped to fold? In keeping with the lovebirds theme, I thought it would be neat to put them into a bird cage...

but finding a birdcage large enough to house a thousand cranes wasn't an easy task! Finally found one on sale online at a home decor store in New York. LOL, as you can tell by comparing its size to my curious little Latte sitting in the background, this was pretty big...about 36 inches in height and 24 inches in width.

After all the cranes had been folded, the next step was a mathematical problem...and oh, what a problem! Before I could begin stringing the cranes, I had to calculate the number of strands and number of birds per strand needed for 1001 cranes. This was quite a challenge for my feeble brain especially since the length of the strands and number of cranes decreases as you move out from the center of the cage. In this photo you can see the little tags I had to use to label each strand with it's length and location of where it needed to be tied onto the cage.

In order to get all 1000 cranes to fit into the cage, the ten longer strands in the center of the cage had to be strung with the cranes nestled right on top of each other, with no space in between.

The next 35 strands were strung with the birds about an inch apart. I used 8 Lb. test fishing line to string the birds and strips of rubberband cut about 1/4 inch long as stops to keep the birds in position on the line. I know many people prefer to use seed beads as their stops instead, but I just couldn't see myself stringing the beads, and having to measure the distance between each little bead. The pieces of rubberband were much easier, especially since I could easily move them up or down the line to space and position the birds. You can see the strips of rubberband in the closeup photo above, but when everything was put together, they were barely noticeable.
With the help of my bff Aunty Pat, it took us 2 days to finish stringing the cranes, and another day for me to tie all the strands into the birdcage.

And here's the finished birdcage filled with 1001 origami cranes symbolizing a thousand years of happiness for the newlyweds at the entrance to the reception. Thank you once again to everyone who helped us fold cranes, and to my son in law's cousin Kiki for sharing her photos from the wedding!