Here they are...

This morning I took my box of invitations to the 24 hour post office in Boston. I walked up to the desk and my palms were sweating and my hands were shaking. The clerk admired my stamps and the address design, put them in a tray next to her station and said she would personally hand cancel them herself. When each guest receives theirs, here is what they will experience:

The outer envelope (minus the stamps because I took this picture before I had them)

The inner envelope...TF hand addressed the inner envelopes. Notice our embossed monogram on the flap.

A close up of the monogram on the flap.

Opening up the inner envelope

The invitation

Response card, envelope and map insert on the left, invitation on the right

The back of the invitation also has our monogram embossed on it, just behind the 'Reception to Follow' text on the inside.

Close up of the response card and envelope...notice the embossed return address on the envelope. That was also on the back flap of the outer envelopes.

Wilshire Graphics Press also made us a stamp of our address so I could stamp it on the response envelopes in silver ink, instead of having to write them all out.

I can not even begin to tell you how wonderful it feels to have these out the door. I have been working on them since November!! That is when I first finalized the design and ordered the paper. The save the dates were cut from the same card stock as the pocket folders and they went out January 2, which is part of why I have been working on them for so long.

I can't wait to start getting official responses back!!

(and well, now you know my name :)

Trying Again to Get the Pictures to Show Up!

Wedding Cake Topper

The base is a wooden oval from Lowes that I spray painted white. The figures, grass, and flowers are made from polymer clay.

I began with aluminum foil over wire armatures, then covered it with Super Sculpy for the first baking. (I left wire extending from the feet so that I could attach them later to the base with a staple gun.)

I added colored sculpy for the suit, dress, hat, hair, etc., then baked again. (A pasta press will make the clay flat to use to cover the plain sculpy). I attached them to the base, and baked again. Then I added the grass, flowers, and his arm around her shoulder and baked again. Lastly, I glued on the pearls.

That Look and Other Inspiration

My back is screaming from sitting on the floor, but I couldn't let go until I finished this work. My soul sista served as my inspiration for this weekend's layouts. I have all these great photos of Grilfiend. Finally played with the pixs and came up with these pages. The layouts scanned a bit dark, so click on the photos to get a better look at the details. I sewed the seed beads on the flowers, painted the swirly chipboard with sparkly black acrylic paint, stamped the winged heart on acetate, the background paper was purchased.


Shot of MadRetz's earring(s) she bot at the Maker Faire. I took it with her camera and edited it in iPhoto. I like her contented smile.


I took this pix while we were playing in Sausalito. You can rent bicycles and cruise around town. I suggested we do that, then Mad could buy a mountain bike and I'd have a partner for all those trail rides I want to do. I got "the Look" haha!!! I'm thinkin' I got the eyebrow raise too, but you can't tell with the stunnah shades on! Can you tell that she wasn't hip on the idea?

I printed the "YOU" in 325 point Impact font, then cut them out of black cardstock. I printed the other text on a manilla folder, but now it dawns on me I could have done that for the larger letters, instead of mounting the cut outs on the manilla, sheesh! Could have saved myself a bunch of time! The background paper, arrow and star are all the same line of scrapbook papers.

So much fun!!!

Ice Cream is King and so are Philettante Mochas!

A couple of layouts I completed last weekend...


I think the ice cream quote on this one says it all.

As for the backstory on this layout...MadRetz and I started stalking this kid, uh, I mean, we would go to Tully's hoping that Phil would be working... Anyway, this adorable boy with a sweet smile that would rock any teenage girl's world, made these wonderful dilettante mochas, dark chocolate goodness for Mad and I to imbibe before our stamp club meetings. It was a highlight of the evening to be helped by Phil.

One day it dawned on me that I could be his mom, that I'd probably like and be really good friends with his parents, that he was probably the same age as my best friend's son, and because of other distractions, we stopped going to that particular coffee shop.

Anyway, this is my memento to those fun moments : .)

Dilettante became Philettante and the lyrics are from the song "Taylor the Latte Boy" as sung by Kristen Chenoweth. Click on the photo to see the text of the email.

Doll Diaper Bag

Tomorrow is BabyGirl's 6th birthday. She wanted stuff for her baby dolls since Bitsy is coming (they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery). I picked up some doll clothes & a bottle set at the store last week and wanted to get her a diaper bag for her babies. The only ones Wal-Mart carried were made of clear plastic & I knew they would be very short lived at our house.

Tonight I decided (at 5 pm) that I would just make her one. I also made her a tiny burp cloth to match (that's it hanging over the side of the bag). I am proud of this project for the following reasons: 1. I had no pattern, so I made one. 2. It's made entirely out of scrap material left over from a baby blanket I made a few years back. 3. It's sort of quilted & I've never done that before.

I hope she likes it!

Flying Hearts

Basic Grey papers, Hambly rub-ons, miscellaneous charms. I'm thinking it needs a black frame tho'.