New Wedding Invitations (and a Baby Shower)

I believe it's time to post a few new wedding invitations! 

Bailey and Aaron's wedding was in a very rustic chapel, overlooking Tablerock Lake. Her dress was lace and pearls in antique white. Everything had a very vintage feel, right down to the old "gangster car" parked outside. A sparkly doily on black silk paper fit right in! The RSVP postcard and a map with the couple's registry information slips into the pocket, right behind the wording.

The fans list the members of the wedding party and are one of my favorite wedding items I've ever made. They're just so pretty! We didn't want everything too matchy-matchy, so I printed on three or four different patterned papers and used three different colors of seam binding ribbon for the bows. Displayed in a pretty basket by the guest book, they were as pretty as any flower arrangement!

When Carissa asked me to make her invitations using camouflage and orange, I almost cried. I could not imagine how I could make it pretty. (You know how I feel about orange!) But the Realtree camo (Who knew there were different brands of camouflage?!) just looks like fall! The glittery orange tulle they planned to use for decorating added just enough color and sparkle. 

Chelsea decided to go away to get married, so she didn't use these, but she wanted something red and silver with a western feel. She would have needed her invitations very quickly, so I kept everything as simple as possible. I haven't mixed fonts or colors before, other than on Bailey's fans, but I really like that effect. 

Bowen's "Gigi" is an old friend of mine. In the past year her family has given her four grandchildren. F-O-U-R! I'm so jealous! Bowen's room is decorated with a vintage baseball theme, so of course his shower invitations needed to have that theme as well. I made these the same way I made Michael's graduation announcements. Everything was laid out on the computer then printed on heavy cardstock. 

Now for the really big news.... Most of this post was done on my iPad! I told you I'd figure it out. The only thing I had to use the computer for was to adjust the size of the pictures and the spacing of the text. The font is different, but I'll figure that out eventually. So now if I get in a pinch, I have a back-up plan! 

Thanks for stopping by! I'll see you in a few days when you come back for your November calendar and desktop!

"Wedding March-ing"

Andy and I went to a lovely wedding Saturday evening. I NEVER used to cry or even get the least bit misty at weddings, but now that I'm seeing the "kids" that grew up with my boys going down the aisle, I can't keep the tears away! And I turn into a sniveling mess when one of them has a baby!

I got to know the bride, Becca, when she served as the drum major for our marching band. I'm sure for some of you that conjures images of a girl in a knee-length pleated skirt with a baton. Others might picture someone standing on a podium simply keeping time. But when you commit to being drum major for the Aurora Houn Dawg Marching Band (NOT the Aurora "Marching Houn Dawg" Band--take a moment to picture the difference) you take on a huge responsibility. We have a long-lived and very impressive reputation around the state, and the drum majors are the student leaders who help keep that reputation alive. They lead both on the field and off, setting a strong example for other band members with their work ethic and dedication. When the band takes the field, the drum majors do not simply keep time. They take charge and they conduct. These students know the music inside and out, forwards and backwards, and they almost always win the Best Drum Major awards at the competitions the band travels to each fall. Becca was very young when she stepped into the role--I think she was a freshman, possibly a sophomore--but "she wore the uniform," if you know what I mean. Having been unbearably shy until my senior year, I was impressed that an underclassman was able to carry herself with such confidence and poise.

Fast forward a few years and guess who Becca called about invitations when she started planning her wedding.... Yep, ME!

Becca wanted a casual country wedding using sunflowers and mason jars in some of the decorating, so I came up with this design for her invitations...

The card on the left is a thank you note. We decided to go with a monogram on half of the note cards and "Thank You" on the other half. That way, any left over cards can be used for any occasion. The card with the wording pulls out of the pocket and the RSVP and other information are tucked behind it.

We were able to work the mason jars into the Save the Date cards:

That is a piece of vellum that I ran through the printer then through the BigShot with a mason jar die. It really popped when I inked around the bottom and the shoulders of the jar. The "zinc" lid is a piece of silver metallic cardstock, also inked to bring out the lines, and that's a Top Note die behind the jar.

That's it for today! I have to get back to learning how to address envelopes using Excel. I don't enjoy using Excel or Word nearly as much as, say, Photoshop or Coolibah! 

Go figure!

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!

More Weddings

I know. I didn't show up Friday. I ran around Springfield with my husband all day. He bribed me with food! What can I say?

In one of my first blog posts, I put up pictures of some of the wedding invitations I've made. This is how the most recent order turned out. The bride-to-be found some invitations she liked, but they were quite pricey (I do mean QUITE!) and it just wasn't practical. She sent me a picture of what she found and I managed to design this for about one-sixth the price! The only similarity between this and the inspiration piece is the kraft paper, but it still has the same feel. The wedding is in an old cotton mill near Dallas, so the muslin seemed appropriate. It wraps around the invitation and the RSVP and ties closed with twine. It took a good little while to make 220 of those little muslin flowers, and I had strings all over from tearing the fabric, but I think it was worth it! I made half of the note cards with "Thank You" and half with a "C" for the couple's last name so they can use them as blank note cards if they have any left after all the thank you notes are written.

Now I'm ready to start throwing ideas at my cousin's fiancee to see what we can come up with for their wedding. But that's in the fall of 2013, so I'm not in a huge rush!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week and I'll see you Friday (probably)!

Wedding Invitations and blog practice....

I really wanted to get a post up yesterday, but you know how sometimes being a mom overshadows everything else? Even when they're 19 & 22, they still need Mommy sometimes. I guess it's good to know you're not obsolete! 

I found out why you couldn't leave comments. I think I fixed it. Let me know if you still have trouble with it and I'll ask someone who knows what they're doing. I'm definitely learning as I go!

I learned how to make my pictures all pretty. Thanks, Splitcoast Stampers! The members there are so helpful! I finally realized that I should look there for advice before wasting hours searching all over the internet. Usually someone else has asked the same question and no one makes you feel like an idiot if you don't know all the proper techie terminology. I guess they speak my language! 

Next I'm going to try something else new--I want to put a button on the left side that will take you straight to Splitcoast, but I'm not sure I can pull it off. If I figure that out I'll also have a button to the February issue of Scrapbooks, Etc. to show off my first published page.

Last weekend I had a booth at my first bridal show. Andy helped me set up. He came up with a GREAT display piece for me to use. I'd like to put up a picture of my table, but it really didn't photograph well with all the other tables and vendors in the background. There weren't very many brides in attendance, but I met several people who could prove helpful. A couple of photographers, the manager of a wedding chapel, a dj/wedding planner, and a florist either took my business cards or asked for sample books!

Autumn

These are some of the invitations I had with me. They're normally sold in sets, which include the invitation, one or two inserts (RSVPs, directions, etc.), and a thank you. The price for these sets range from two to four dollars, depending on the types of paper and the level of detail involved. 

Daisy

For example, Autumn and Daisy are the same design, but Autumn is four dollars a set and Daisy is two dollars a set. Autmn has glitter paper, metallic paper, embossing, and two punched leaves, so the supplies cost more and it takes a lot longer to assemble. The paper for Daisy is just as heavy and of the same quality, but without 

the glossy or glittery finshes, and there 

are fewer steps involved in assembling 

each invitation.

Pearl

Pearl is very elegant, and uses some of the same kinds of paper as Autumn, but since it requires fewer steps its price would start just over two dollars per set. 

I can tweak any of these designs or come up with something completely new, depending on what the bride is looking for. I'm getting ready to start an order for graduation announcements. Same principle, but with school colors instead of wedding colors!

If you're wondering where some of the names come from, it's pretty simple. 

Autumn has the colors of autumn, and Janis had an autumn wedding. 

Daisy has flowers embossed on it and looks summery. I picture a groom in jeans and a white button-down and the bride in a sundress carrying daisies.  

Pearl is made of shimmery pearl and gold papers.   

Sassy

Sassy. Ok, this one's not so obvious. When Alexis, the bride, was a little girl, she couldn't say her name correctly. It came out "Sassy" and boy, did it fit! lol    

That name stuck with her, and now, twenty-some years later, some of us still call her that!

Amelia

 Once I got Amelia put together, it reminded me of my great grandparents' wedding picture. I don't know why--it just did. My great grandmother's name was Amelia.

Cherish

I don't know if you can make it out, but the C in the middle of the label is not a monogram. The word Cherish is in there. That's a perfect spot for a monogram, but everyone's monograms don't work real well together, and I thought that cherish  was an appropriate word for a wedding invitation. (And a really pretty stamp!)

Crystal

All I could think of when I looked at this one was a winter wedding with lots of white and silver. If you're going with a winter theme you have to decorate with lots of  crystal, right?

I think that's enough wedding talk for now. I have some magazine submissions to get to work on. I'll let you know how they turn out. Thanks for stopping by!