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!

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!

Making of a Wedding: the Favors

I guess it goes without saying that a lovebird themed wedding would have birdhouse favors...and so it was with this one. Dd had requested birdhouse favors very early on so I had quite a bit of time to put these together. Inspired by Cricuteer club member Aileen and her cute milkbox birdhouse box, the original plan was to do something similar. Later, I came across and fell in love with another style of birdhouse box designed by Jani Lewis (Paper Compulsions). My final design was inspired by both styles, created in Design Studio using shapes from the George cartridge.

Here's a view of of the backside of the box, stamped with the date of the wedding and names of the bride and groom. Custom made stamp was purchased on eBay from seller Loongchai74...very reasonable prices!

First, the box templates were cut & scored from Bazzill Bling Diamond cardstock on my Cricut. Then after gluing on clear acetate for the heart windows, I stamped the boxes, with the help of a Fiskars Stamp Press to ensure each impression would be correctly centered on the back.

Six hundred little lovebirds were cut using the same Quickutz lovebird die that we used for the placecards. For these, I added wings, which I punched using the Stampin' Up Bird Builder punch. Eyes are 2mm black adhesive backed gemstones.

To add a bit of texture and interest, roofs for the houses were run through the Dots & Diamonds embossing folder from the Sizzix Hello Kitty Spring Set. Dh took on the job of scoring and marking each roof with guide lines for easier assembly. Leafy sprig and tiny hearts were also punched from the Bird Builder punch.

After all the pieces were finally cut and prepped, we began the tedious process of gluing and assembling. With the patient help of my bff Aunty Pat and sil Aunty Sherry, we finished assembling three hundred little birdhouses in two weekends.

The bride and groom took care of the final step of filling all the boxes with Big Island Candies' yummy lemon shortbread cookies when they arrived...

Ahhh....and here's a glimpse of what the tables looked like at the wedding reception. Bird cages for the centerpieces were purchased from Stumps, battery powered LED candles from Costco, and floral arrangements inside are by Spinning Web Florist. Thank you to groom's cousin Kiki for the photo. LOL, I was so busy enjoying myself that I completely forgot to take any pictures!

Making of a Wedding: The Placecard Holders & Table Numbers

The making of the placecard holders for the wedding was a collaborative effort of many people... my mom's plastic canvas wizardry, my dad's die cutting, dh's sanding & baking, my new son-in-law's paper cutting, and the crafting skills of my bff. LOL, it took more people to put these together than any of the other wedding projects!

First, my mom spent countless hours and alot of patience lovingly stitching up over 200 of these placecard holders on plastic canvas. I decided to dress them up a bit to fit the wedding's lovebirds theme.

I created a simple tent style easel made from Bazzill Bling cardstock which I purchased online on sale at Joann's. But because they messed up on my order, the only way I could get the paper in time was to have them send it to dd's address in California. I ended up sending the cutting instructions to dd and my dear son in law cut all the cardstock to size before mailing it to us in Hawaii.

The little pair of pink lovebirds were die cut using an old lovebird Quicktuz die and inkjet printable shrink plastic. We put my dad to work cutting over 600 of these birds on my Big Shot machine, and Dh took charge of baking and shrinking them on cooky sheets in the oven. The photos above show the die cut birds before they were baked and from the oven window while they baked. They curl up as they shrink and finally flatten out in about 2 to 3 minutes in a 325 degree oven. I then colored the them using Copic pens and each bird was glued onto large pearl head pins which dh had sanded down for a flat surface. Bows were made from gold lame ribbon.

Then together with the help of my bff, Aunty Pat, we spent a weekend and lots of hot glue assembling all 280 of these. Whew! Had I known it would take so many of us and so much time to put these together, I don't think I would have even attempted this. Funny how the first sample I came up with came together so quickly...I guess I really need to work on my time assessment skills...

Happily, the table number cards were a lot easier to do. Much quicker to finish too, since I only had to make 30 of them! I used Cricut Design Studio together with George and Elegant Edges cartridges to create a cutfile for these simple tent style number cards.

Up next...the favors...

Making of a Wedding: The Card Box and Escort Cards

Once dd had decided on a lovebirds theme for her wedding, she started coming up with a lot of creative projects for me to work on. But by far the most challenging was her idea for a birdhouse shaped card box for the reception table. Truthfully, I had no idea of how I was going to pull this off... and at first I started collecting and saving all shapes and sizes of corrugated boxes, thinking I would cut them apart and reassemble them somehow to resemble a birdhouse. However, after searching online for a suitable paint to use, I learned that warping would be a problem with the corrugated board. Then while browsing at a local art supply store, I came across some foam board, and this turned out to be  the perfect solution!

I sketched my "pattern" onto some graph paper and proceeded to cut the panels of the birdhouse from the foam board. This was my first time working with foam board, and I was pleased to find that it cut so easily and smoothly with an exacto knife. After cutting the panels for the birdhouse, I sprayed them with several thin coats of Rust-oleum metallic spray paint (Pearl Mist) until I got the desired shimmer.

After the paint dried, the birdhouse was assembled using a combination of hot glue and tacky glue. The roof was made so it would easily lift off like a cover to a box, with a slit where guests could easily slide their envelopes into the the box.

Next, the fun part...decorating! Added rows of large pink scalloped "shingles" to the roof  (scallop border from Cricut Accent Essentials cartridge welded to rectangles from George cartridge in Design Studio)  using Bazzill cardstock cut with my Cricut and chalked. Fancy flourishes on the front are from From the Nest cartridge and the heart frame for the opening from George. Perched two pretty feathered doves on the front to finish it off. 

Considering this was my first attempt at constructing something out of foam board, I guess it didn't turn out too bad. Only problem is that due to my lack of spatial reasoning, this turned out way larger than expected, standing about 2 feet high, and 10 inches in depth. LOL, now that the wedding is over, I have no idea what to do with it!

And this is the reception card that was passed out to the guests. To keep with the theme, I used the same graphics and embossing folder that I had used previously on the invitations...

On the inside was a short thank you note from the bride and groom and a pocket that held each guests' beverage tickets, table seating assignment and name plates for their placecards.

I found these photo storage boxes on sale at Pricebusters and covered them with pretty Basic Grey papers and Bazzill cardstock to hold all the cards...

.... filed alphabetically so the girls at the reception desk could easily pass them out to guests as they arrived.

Okay, that's it for this time. I hope you will bear with me as I do have a few more "Making Of A Wedding" posts to do. Afterall, this was my one and only dd getting married, and our family and friends lived, breathed and crafted "wedding preparations" for the past 12 months!

Making of a Wedding: The Invitations

Step one in preparing for a wedding: the invitations. This first step was undeniably the most difficult of all for me. Mostly because I had never done a wedding invitation before, and also because I was totally clueless about what dd and her fiance wanted. I did know what they didn't want... NO PAPERPIECING.... and NO ASIAN THEMES... *SIGH* I was being denied creative access to the two things I enjoy the most...paperpiecing (what, no Cricut?), and Asian themes (...no cherry blossoms?)

After spending months of working on and creating about 10 samples and variations (all of which were rejected), dd came across a photo of the lovebirds figurine you see in the photo above and announced she wanted to do a lovebird themed wedding. Finally, I had some direction and ran with the theme.



After coming up with the first samples of this invite, I thought, "Okay, this seems simple and easy enough...." But I didn't realize how much time it would take to print and cut all those pieces of paper for all those layers! Thank goodness for all the help dh provided scoring and putting together most of the base card and pockets on these! When dd and her fiance were here in November they helped with much of the layering and assembly as well.

The embossing folder I used on the invites is a Cuttlebug European folder called Jamara. Although there are several beautiful embossing folder designs available in the US, most of them (A2 size) weren't wide enough, whereas the European folders are 5x7. I purchased mine from Crop Stop where I found a huge selection of embossing folders from several different companies. Best thing is that they will ship any number of embossing folders, dies and stamps to you at a incredible flat rate of $2!

To do the embossing (3 embossed panels on each invite!) I used an electric Big Shot machine. Never could have gotten it done without it! I'm sure my arm would have fallen off trying to crank 600 pieces of cardstock through my manual Big Shot. Thank you to my bff, Aunty Pat for letting me use her machine.

The birdcage and lovebird images printed on the invitation are from Cricut's Straight From the Nest Cartridge. LOL! I just had to get my Cricut involved in this project one way or another! The images were imported from Design Studio into Photoshop where I added color and saved them as jpegs. The branch image is part of a digital flourishes package I purchased from my favorite digital craft store, My Grafico.

The beautiful papers and cardstock I used...White Gold (cream colored cardstock with shimmery gold undertones) for the basecard and embossed panels; Opal Text (creamy pearlescent text weight paper) for printing and the mats; were purchased locally at my favorite store for beautiful papers, Creations Unlimited. Colored cardstock is Pinkini and Green Tea from Bazzill.

Two hundred twenty five invites were finally completed by early December and ready for mailing... whew! Now I understand why they charge so much for custom made invitations!

For My Daughter, the Bride to Be...

So here it is finally...my version of the neat-o tri-fold screen card created by Aunty Mollie a long while back! I wanted to do a special card to include with dd's shower gift, so I finally sat down with Aunty Mollie's beautiful card to try and figure out a way to come up with something similar. Using her card as a template, I traced the shape of the base card onto a piece of paper, scanned it, then had MTC trace it into a cuttable file.

Here's how the card looks on the inside after removing the belly band...

I think the hardest part was to get a cuttable file for the frame on the inside of the card that would fit just right and allow the two sides of the card to close nicely flat. It took a bit of fiddling around, but I was finally able to size the frame so it would fit.

Wedding gown inside the frame was put together with scallop circles cut from ice gold text weight paper using dies from the small and large set of Nestabilities. These were then folded and layered by adhering one inside the other. Scallop edges were then stickled and embellished with pearls.

Just about the time I was putting this card together was about the same time we had just finished folding the 1001 origami cranes for dd's wedding... And since I wanted to add some Asian flavor to my card to go with my mom's Asian themed shower centerpieces and favors, I decided to use my Carl Craft origami crane punch to punch out a few gold cranes to add behind the dress and to the bellyband. The resulting finished card was nowhere near as awesome as Aunty Mollie's, but dd seemed pretty happy with it!

Ok, I guess that wraps it up for the wedding shower stuff...now on to the wedding preparations!

Showers Of Love

Here's the invitation created and sent to the guests by my sil Sherry, for dd's wedding shower. Just love the girly feminine look! So pretty!!
 
Sherry used her Cricut and the Wedding Solutions cartridge to cut the hearts from glittered cardstock, and a Sizzix 3 Dots embossing folder (from Birthday Set #2) for the base. She used a Stampin Up! scallop trim border punch and 'You're Invited' stamp from their Sincere Salutations set for the ribbon border, and I think the little popped up butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch...so SWEET! Thank you so much, Sherry!

Also want to share a few of the lovely handmade cards dd received with her gifts that day...

This beautiful sakura decorated gift card holder was created by calabash cousin, Sherry... She always does amazing work! Check out all the layers she used to create these blossoms and notice how she puffed up and shaped each individual petal  with a shaping tool for a wonderful 3D effect...

And these two sweet cards from our super talented Aunty Mollie...she used her brand new eClips cutting machine to cut the images on these! Love all the extra touches she added to make each card so special and one of a kind....neat umbrella background embossed onto the basecard with stickle glitter raindrops....and shiny silver brads for the towel bar! So creative!

Many thanks from the heart from dd and myself for everyone who made this day so wonderfully memorable and extra special! Thank you too...to everyone for braving the traffic that day...sitting in traffic waiting for President Obama's APEC entourage pass was NOT FUN!

Beckoning Good Fortune

Ready for a cultural lesson? When dd and her fiance returned to the islands in November to finalize details for their wedding, my mom and sil threw a wedding shower for them. My mom, who is a plastic canvas fanatic, stitched up "maneki neko" or "fortune cat"vases for the centerpieces and filled "masu" boxes with mochi for the favors.

The "maneki neko" or "fortune cat" is a Japanese symbol of beckoning good fortune (see how the cat has his paw lifted as if to say, "Come in, come in, good fortune!") The kanji characters mom stitched on the gold coin read "sho fuku" which translates to "welcome in, good fortune!"

The little square black laquered boxes are "masu" boxes, which were once used by the Japanese to measure rice. In old Japan, one's wealth was often measured by "masu", or the amount of rice they owned. The character in gold on the boxes is read as "fuku" which translates to "good fortune".

The masu boxes were filled with dd's favorite "chichi dango" or sweet milk mochi, wrapped in cellophane bags and closed with these pretty sakura. Each delicate petal on these blossoms were painstakingly hand shaped from paper clay and put together to create each sakura by my amazingly talented "calabash" (extended family) cousin, Sherry. Aren't they absolutely beautiful? Thank you so much, Sherry! Your sakura added such a special touch to the favors.

And many, many thanks from the bottom of our hearts to my sil and mom for working so hard to throw such a lovely wedding shower for dd at such short notice!