Jingle Belles Christmas Card

I love making ATCs. This weeks Jingle Belles challenge was perfect for me to jump back in to non wedding crafts. I made an ATC then decided that was enough for the card along with a patterned background, so I didn't add any more embellishment beyond a red border to the card itself. The card is also small. Only 5 1/2 x 4 inches. Very simple and fun.

Boutonnieres

Even though we didn't have attendants at the ceremony, I made boutonnieres for the groom and fathers of the bride and groom. They were finicky to put together, but at the same time simple. I took a peacock feather and trimmed off the excess bits of feather. I added the small green flower with a long stem then wrapped green ribbon around the base, secured with a dab of hot glue. This part was difficult because the ribbon kept shifting and wanting to unwind after the glue was securing it. For the final touch, I tied a bow using blue ribbon and hot glued it deeply under the flower to add just a hint of blue. It was much easier to tie it away from the boutonniere than to tie it around. I was trying very hard not to break apart the eye of the peacock feather, which made putting the thing together more difficult.

For myself, I put a large white flower in my hair I picked up at Hobby Lobby. The mothers had smaller white flowers pinned to their dresses. Very simple but a really nice touch.

Unity Candle

As part of our wedding we did a unity candle ceremony. It was a little bit different from most in that we included the guests as well. Everyone was given a small stick candle and candle holder. We passed the flames to our siblings who then passed the flames around to everyone else. Once the unity ceremony was finished the guests were asked to make a wish as they blew out the candles. As of yet, I don't have photos of the individual candles.

Everything for our candles was purchased at Hobby Lobby. The 3 candles and candle holders were all 50% off. I love Hobby Lobby sales. The large pillar is white with two layers of ribbon that was attached using corsage pins poked into the candle. The heart is from a pack of brads. I snipped off the brad part and just hot glued the heart over the ribbon. The initials (DHM) were found in the scrapbooking section and were just simply stuck onto the candle. They stick just fine on the wax. Easy peasy!

For the guest's candle they had a 6" green stick candle. The candles alone were much too plain so I had to spice them up. I started by wrapping some of the thinner blue ribbon around near the bottom...maybe 2/3 of the way down the candle. To do this I used a small dab of low-temp hot glue on the candle and stuck one end of the ribbon on it. Then I wrapped the ribbon around, overlapped it with the glued end and added another dab of glue to keep it in place. This was still too plain for me so I went back and added a heart brad as described above. Looking back now I would have added the heart over the seam of the ribbon rather than on the opposite side.

Short update

Long time no post. But it's been a very busy summer. I got married on the 13th of August. (I did make the bouquet in the picture, but that is the only thing you can see here.) Very soon I will start sharing photos of the things I made for the wedding with a summary post with links back as a reference. The house is coming along nicely. There is still so much to do, but we can only afford to do so much at once. Good thing we plan on staying here for a while.

Crafting on a bigger scale.

Just wanted to pop in and say a quick hello.

We have moved into the house, ended up with a third kitty and adopted a puppy. Things have been busy. We've been living out of the kitchen for over a week now since pulling up the carpet. Hopefully we will be done installing the new flooring by Saturday. I really hope this happens because our help leaves Sunday morning. They are the ones who know what they're doing too.

I finished and sent off my wedding invites. As soon as I can get my scanner set back up I'll post some pictures. I love how they came out.

I'm used to working on smaller craft projects. Ones that don't take more than a day or two to complete. The house has been like one big ongoing craft project. We have all the walls and ceilings painted. Most of the trim is done, but today I'll be painting the new base trim we got along with the doors. If the sun decides to come out I'm hoping to get some progress photos.

Along with everything else I managed to get a garden planted. Some of the seedlings I started don't look so good. Some of them look okay so far. I'm hoping at least one plant will survive and produce veggies.

I'm also planning on building a chicken coop. If I can pull this off I'll be beyond happy. I have projects planned that I could never pull off in the apartments I've lived in. We have saws and drills and other tools that I can use to craft stuff now :)

I hope everyone out there is doing well. Time to paint some trim.

Welcome!

Just wanted to say a quick hello and welcome to all my new followers.

I'm still in the process of moving. I can't wait to start crafting again, though I won't have a dedicated space for a while. Hopefully I can really get going on the wedding crafting soon.

Link Up Love Party with K. Andrew

The Link Up Love Party K. Andrew is hosting over on Getting Cricky with K. Andrew is a way to get to know fellow bloggers and find new inspiration for your crafts.

So far my most favorite project I've posted about is my Marion Smith Inspired Art Journal.



If you'd like to join in the Link Up Love, follow the link back to K. Andrew's blog and join in.





As for me, I'm moving to my new house this weekend so I doubt I'll be posting anything new soon. Have a great end of the week!

Easter Flower Pot

I made this little candy-filled Easter pot for my fiance's parents. It was quick and cheap.



I used Lettering Delight's accordion fold rosettes, glued them to wooden skewers and stuck them in a foam ball that I cut in half. The paper is just plain cardstock. The pot was $1 from Target. After placing the flowers in the pot, I filled around the skewers with candy. Yum! If I had had more time, I probably would have painted the skewers and maybe added some paper leaves.

Save the Dates!

Today I sent out the Save-the-Dates for our wedding ceremony and dinner. For the wedding, I'm trying to handcraft as much as I can. Thankfully we're having a small ceremony so I don't have a hundred invites to make. The Save-the-Dates are made with printable magnetic sheets. I was going to print out the text, then stamp and emboss on it, but discovered that ink doesn't take well to the glossy paper. I ended up stamping the image on white paper, scanning it in, then put the image in my template and printing out the entire thing. Each magnet is 4.15" x 2.75".



Then I made a card with slits on it to hold the magnet. I ended up adding a little note saying "It's a magnet" because both of us felt that it wasn't obvious with how thin the magnetic paper was. The outside of the card is stamped and embossed and measures 5.5" x 4.25". A perfect fit for the envelopes I have.



The stamps I used are part of a Fiskars set.

Long time - no craft

I apologize for the lack of posts. Right now there is so much going on in my life and I really haven't had the time to do much crafting. The good news is that I will have a few wedding related crafts to post soon :)