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'.

Cookie Eatin Hat

I've been all about being crafty recently it seems. But I saw a hat like this somewhere and decided I had to have it. My intentions for learning to knit this year were just so I could have this hat. And so I have done it. I have made my cookie monster hat. Now... I just need to figure out where I can wear it.

Embracing the Sweetgum tree part 2

So this year I have made it a point to try to get to a point where I like the sweetgum tree that drops spiney little balls all over our front yard. After reading up on the tree and realizing that they only bear these spiney little fruits after they've reached the ripe ol age of 20 years, and the fact that it is our only source of shade in the front yard... I have decided that I need to just fall in love with the tree and find a use for the balls. So I've gotten crafty. You saw the spiders from Halloween. This so far I've made a

Sweetgum ball Christmas Tree centerpiece


and a few Sweetgum ball Puffer Fish Ornaments


I wonder if these would sell? There are just so many Sweetgum items one person can have in their own household, and I've a feeling I will be getting close to my limit by the end of the year. But the tree just keeps producing more balls. More sweetgum art to come.

z

Girlfriend and Johanna

Ny and Johanna. Layout for Ny's b-day this week.

Favors

I just posted this over at my site...but I figured I would put it here too...
-----------------------------
So, I am throwing all caution to the wind and I have decided to share my first initial with you, and TF's first and last initials. I am doing this, because I started making my wedding favors last night and I am so darn excited about them that I want to share, but they involve our monogram.

When I first started thinking about favors, I knew I wanted to give something that would last rather than be eaten up in an instant like candy. I also didn't want to give out something that would just take up room in people's junk drawers until it was unceremoniously thrown out in a few months, years or decades.

I had seen some beautiful apothecary bottles with cork stops that were filled with sand and shells, and I thought that would be a really pretty thing to have at our wedding because they go with the coastal theme and they would also look nice on the tables and could add to the decor. However, the bottles were pretty expensive and I couldn't really figure out what people would do with them once they got them home. It seemed a bit to tsotchke-esque for what we were going for.

About a week after TF and I were engaged, Laura and I were in a Michael's near where I used to live and we saw square glass ornaments on sale. They were 4 for $2.99! It dawned on me that I could still give our guests the sand and the sea like I wanted to, but instead of having them in the apothecary bottles that would just sit around the house, we could make ornaments for them to have to put on their trees at Christmas (if they feel like it)...This made more and more sense as I considered that I have always tried to collect an ornament from places that I visit so that I can have a small memento to remember what I was doing that won't clutter up the house, but that I can take out once a year and appreciate. Also, when TF and I met each other's parents for the first time it was around the holidays and when I got to his parents house they were putting up the tree. His mom had two clear plastic boxes filled with ornaments that TF and his brother had received every year since they were kids that all had something to do with what they had done during the year. It is a tradition that they still do to this day...So we grabbed up as many as we could and I took them home until it was time to figure out what exactly to do with them.

A couple of months ago, I discovered this site, www.cyberislandshops.com when I was flipping through my Coastal Living magazine. I was able to find shells tiny enough to fit into the opening of the ornament in bulk. I bought four bags for $9.99 each, but I will mostly likely only use a little more than one for the ornaments; the rest I will use for the centerpieces.

When I was filling the ornaments with sand, I realized that they became very heavy, very quickly, so I decided only to put a little bit of sand in and some of the shells. But the ornaments ended up looking a little skimpy, so I thought maybe I could put a piece of paper (that coordinates with the invitations) inside them with our monogram on the front and the date of our wedding on the back. Getting the piece of paper in the ornament proved to be a bit of a challenge, but I think I have figured it out. Of course, I say that on the beginning end of making 125 ornaments!! Once I got the paper in the ornament, I decided that since you can't see the back of the paper that well, I might as well put the date on the front, along with the monogram, so for future ornaments, I will be doing that. It also cuts down on the number of pieces of paper that are glued to each other that I have to get into the ornament and then uncurl.

Anyway, I am sure I have bored you enough, so without further ado...here is the example ornament that I made to base all of the rest off of. You can see that there is a blue ribbon at the top to tie it with. The second picture shows the ornament sitting next to all of the paper pieces that I put together last night in preparation for making the rest of them. The final ornaments will also have a bit different sand in them. I am going to use concrete mix because it looks more like beach sand than the craft sand that I used in the example.

Name Plates

Farmwife's nameplates mentioned in her blog. All pertinent information removed.



Anyone else want to commission me ;)

Hand Lilies

Here's another easy, cheap project to do with the kids. Lilies made from hand prints. We made them with the pre-k class in VBS last summer and I borrowed the idea today for our Easter project at church. We made this bunch to give to the Queen Mother as an early Mother's Day gift.

1. Trace and cut out hand prints.
2. Make small loop with one end of the pipe cleaner and glue to palm of hand print.
3. Cut out leaf shapes, wrap around pipe cleaner and glue down (I use clothes pins to hold them in place until the glue dries).
4. Once all glue is dry, wrap hand print around pipe cleaner loop and tape or glue together.
5. Gently roll fingers back to make petals.

That's it. Simple. Cute. Enjoy.

Super Simple Suncatchers

The kids and I made these one day a few weeks ago. It was raining and they needed distraction. They are so easy and can take as much or as little time as you want. I think I may like making them as much as the kids do.

You take coffee filters, smash them down flat, color them however you want with washable markers, spritz them lightly with water from a spray bottle, wrinkle up, smooth out, dry on paper towels, & hang however you like. Think of it as elementary tye-dye. And they are cheap so you can make new ones as often as you like.

My kids love seeing how they change once wet and crumpled. It can keep them busy for a good 30-45 minutes. With 3 kids, that's not bad.

A Little St.Patrick's Day Flare

The Queen Mother brought some St.Patrick's Day notions for me to sew on a t-shirt for BabyGirl to wear to her school party tomorrow. Since green is BabyGirl's least favorite color, I figured I'd get it done, and she'd refuse to wear it. Instead I picked up some green buttons to add to the collection & made her this pin. It's just sparkly and dangly enough to thrill a five year old to no end.

an announcement

Actually it's just a name plate that I sent to my friend who just had a baby as a surprise. I couldn't afford to buy a second baby gift but I wanted to do something to welcome the little guy into the world so I drew this to match her nursery stuff. Of course the real one has the other vital information on it, but for their privacy (even though I don't think they'll ever look here) I left all that off. Plus, it had been a while since I posted (a non-contest entry) to nudge nudge... so this is the kind of thing I've been up to recently.

And We Have a Winner...

Cath stopped by yesterday to see all the wonderful entries in the Punny Valentine contest. She was amazed to see how clever you all were, and I was so proud to be showing her that my friends were so funny and cute.

She thought they were so good that there should be more than one winner, but I told her she was going to have to pick just ONE. It took her awhile, but in the end she chose Ragged's "I love you a hole punch."

So Ragged, Congratulations! I'll be e-mailing you to get your address (which I had but can't find).

And to everyone else, you were wonderful! Thank you all so much. I think we need to do something to inspire us to post here more often. Anyone got any ideas?

-Cate

Punny Valentine Contest Over (Until Next Year)

Thanks to everyone who entered. I loved the entries that you submitted...so much so that I'm going to have to ask Cath to come by and help me pick a winner. She'll be my completely impartial judge.

I just want you to know that you made my week. I was anxious to turn the computer on every morning and I checked it every night before I went to bed. I kept being blown away by how funny, and creative, and cute, and smart you all are.

Cath is snowed in this morning, but hopefully she'll be out and about this afternoon. As soon as she stops by I'll post the winner

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED!

Does this work?

Punny Valentine Entry

Rubber stamps by Darcie's Country Folk