Wedding Gift and Card with Silhouette Cameo



Hello everyone!  A couple of weekends ago my family attended the wedding of family friends - The wedding of Dane and Megan.  Dane has been friends with my older son since 3rd grade!  I took the traditional gifting method and shopped from Dane and Megan's Williams Sonoma registry.  However, for my son Aaron, I created another vinyl home decor project!

I used an 11x11 square matte platter and black vinyl.  With my Silhouette Cameo I cut the split W and their names - Dane & Megan - as well their wedding date.  I felt horrid because I forgot to include the plate stand that I had purchased for the platter.




I also used my Cameo to create a wedding card.  I welded a wedding dress, tux jacket and a rectangle together to create this very pretty card.  After sizing and welding the pieces together, I cut the base card in white cardstock.  I then trimmed away the excess wedding dress (the bottom of the dress). 


Next I cut the dinner jacket, shirt & tie, and the wedding dress again.  I also cut the wedding dress highlights in vellum.  I used an embossing folder on the wedding dress before adding the vellum highlights.  I finished the dress with liquid pearl accents at the neckline and small dots of stickles in the embossed flowers.  On the tux, I used gray liquid pearls on the buttons. 




On the inside of the card where the back is visible over the top of the dress, I stamped Congratulations Mr. & Mrs.  I also added a small flourish stamp in the lower right inside of the card.   I really liked this elegant wedding card and hope to make it again.


Thanks for stopping by Busy with the Cricky today and viewing my wedding gift/wedding card projects. I will be back tomorrow with another new project to share!



Photo Shoot For My Daughter


Hello everyone!  I do have projects to share with you, but today instead of paper crafting, I am sharing my daughter, Bethany.  Bethany and I had a photo shoot in our yard yesterday afternoon in an attempt to get photos for personalized graduation announcements.  


Bethany will be graduating from the University of South Carolina, Aiken with a BA in Early Childhood Education on December 12.  Last month she shared the traditional Josten's college graduation announcements with her dad and I.  She hated them.  Bethany wanted something much more creative, fun, personal.  She wanted for the announcements to reflect her personality.


She has a friend who is a professional photographer, but in another state.  Bethany was having difficulty finding a weekend to visit the friend.... She is a bit busy now that she is student teaching!!  So she decided to settle for a mom photo shoot!

She wore two different outfits for our photo shoot, but in all of our favorite photographs she is in her casual outfit.  I think I just like these colors on her better!

I went to various on-line announcement sites yesterday afternoon/evening researching graduation announcements.  I ended up taking a few photos of Bethany's favorite works of art in her bedroom and mixed those photos with selected shots from our photo shoot and created fun, creative, personalized graduation announcements and thank you cards!! 


Thanks for stopping by today and reading my graduation announcement post!  I will be back with real paper crafting tomorrow and Friday!!!

Wedding Hurricane



Hello everyone.  I have been a bit busy this week and have been ignoring the blog world.  I am currently in Spartanburg, SC at Scrapbook Creations for a Breast Cancer weekend crop. I am joining my friends Jan, Susan, Bonnie, and Peggy for a weekend of de-stressing, girlfriend time, and cropping for a worthy cause.

Last night, while packing scrapping supplies and clothing, I took time to create this hurricane.  My older son, Aaron, is attending the wedding of one of his college roommates, Michael, and needed a nice gift.  Aaron and  Crissie will be spending the night at my house en route to the wedding.  I left the finished hurricane, it's box, a gift bag with lots of tissue AND a wedding card waiting for he and Crissie to take to the wedding with them.  I hope they like the hurricane as much as Doug and I.




I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the vinyl for this project.  I used a split letter alphabet, the letter M, and a basic font from my computer. 




In addition to Michael and Christie's names, I added "est. 2012" as they will be married on 9/22/12. 




Here is one final peek at the front of the hurricane.  The hurricane is 8 inches tall so the "M" was cut at four inches tall.  When I added the gap in the middle for Michael and Christie's names, the design filled most of the hurricane side.



I am hoping to have a restorative weekend here in Spartanburg but also to complete a lot of projects to share with you over then next couple of weeks.

Thanks for stopping by today and viewing my wedding gift project!

Downton Abby Layout with the Cameo


Hello everyone.  Remember back in March when I shared the photos of my Downton Abbey Birthday Get-together with the girls?  My blog post was actually about the great moustaches and treat cones that I had made for our Downton marathon, which you can read here.  Well, fast forward to yesterday....

I finally made time to sit down and scrap my Downton B-day photos!!!  I used my Silhouette to cut the embellishments and letters used on the layout.   Have I mentioned that I ADORE my Silhouette Cameo?  I honestly cannot believe I took so long to begin using it.  I am completely hooked and could only be happier if I discovered that I could use the Cameo and my Expression 2 at the same time (technically I should be able to do this, but I have not actually tried).


I found a great cut at the silhouette store - the "Nice stache" cut pictured above.  I also found the fun film strip during the same silhouette store shopping trip.  I had some of the moustache photos printed in wallet size and they *just* fit the frames in the strip!  How perfect were those cuts for this page?
 

On another trip to the silhouette store (I do like browsing there!) I found these three vintage women - Perfect for Downton Abbey.  Those who watch the show on PBS know that there are three adult daughters in the show.  I have named the women in the cut after the characters: the woman with her hand on her hip as Lady Mary, the defensive posed woman in the middle is Lady Edith, and Lady Sybil is on the right - looking to her future beyond Downton Abbey.  I "had" to add the three women to the page.

I used several flourish cuts to embellish the page, as well as a really pretty font to cut my title phrase:  Downton Abbey Night.


I hand trimmed a photo of the popcorn cones and added it to right-hand page.  After I took the photographs I went back and found one of our moustaches and added it to the right hand page, beside the 5 x 7 inch photo, over the swirls. 

My friends and I had decided that for scrapbookers, we needed to be better about documenting our time together.  Well ladies, I am making a start!!!


Thanks for stopping by today and viewing my Downton/Birthday layout.  I will be back tomorrow as I have more new projects to share with you....

Home Again and Party Award


Hello everyone!  I am back home - sweet - home again after our visit to the Smoky Mountains and beautiful Waynesville, NC!   Doug and I spent a few days at the Waynesville Country Club and Spa relaxing and re-energizing. 

Before I share the highlights of our time away, I have to share some fun news!!!  I love the PBS show Downton Abbey.  One of the blogs that I follow regularly is called DOWNTON ABBEY COOKS, and is owned by Pamela, who is married to Lord D!!  Pamela is a wonderful inspiration for all things Edwardian and shares recipes, customs, etc. from the Downton Abbey (and Titanic) time period. 

Pamela ran a contest offering prizes for the two best Titanic Parties and I am thrilled to report that I am her first winner (which you can read about further along in Pamela's regular Tea Tuesday post)!!!!   I will be receiving a copy of the new book, Wentworth Hall!!!  Thank you, Pam - I am thrilled!!!

Okay so now back to NC!!! :-)

The photo below is my poor attempt to share the country club with you while missing the cars in the parking lot!  Sorry.  The Country Club opened in 1926 and has grown and expanded through the years.  Doug says the golf course is great.  He kept talking about having never seen such a well protected par 3!!!  I, of course, loved the spa!  They country club teams with Biltmore Spa to provide on-site services and actually has packages for "while he is golfing". 

I liked the mountain setting, but the rooms were a bit dated... My way of saying that if you are going to get a fabulous room, stay someplace else.  If you are going to enjoy the golfing, the spa, the dinning and the tap room, you will have a nice trip


Our room had a cute little balcony that overlooked the golf course and the mountains!  How is this for a good morning view?


Or this?


Or this?


While in the area in addition to doing some antiquing and shopping, we visited lake Junaluska.  We love the walking path that surrounds the lake!

And what did we eat in our trip?  Well, I forgot to photograph all of the food but the first night we dined at the CC and I had shrimp and grits.  They were quite yummy!


Doug had a southwestern pulled pork wrap with mango salsa and a side of cheese grits.  The grits were fabulous!  (For you non-southerners, think Polenta!).


On Monday we visited City Bakery on Main Street.  For 60 years or so the bakery on Main Street was called Whitman's Bakery.  It was started by Doug's grandfather, DeWitt Whitman.  His sons Charles and Fred took over from him.  Finally Fred retired and his daughter Linda ran the bakery for a number of years, and added a sandwich shop. 

A couple of years ago Linda was ready to retire and enjoy her grandchildren so the bakery was sold, along with the name, to a different family.  The town was unhappy with the new owners and the poor quality of the products.  The locals did not support the bakery and the tourist season could not keep them in business year around so they ended up selling also.  They sold to an established bakery family out of Asheville, NC - the owners of The City Bakery.

To wrap up this long story (!), we visited the bakery on Monday and are PLEASED to report that things are heading back in the right direction!!  The baked goods are once again home baked and wonderful tasting, the sandwiches are back to their former standards also.  We introduced ourselves to the owners and wished them well - it is sad to no longer see Whitman's Bakery but it was a pleasure to see another family will carry on and offer high quality, great tasting food in the same location!!!


Above is my lunch plate at City Bakery - Turkey, Brie and Chutney sandwich with a side salad.  Below, enjoying a lemon cookie!


Doug had the Key Lime pie for dessert and had nothing but wonderful things to say about the taste and texture!!!


In addition to everything else we did, we did spend some time with Doug's aunt Ruth and Uncle Jimmy, who retired back to the Waynesville area.  We spent part of an afternoon visiting with them and then they took us out for a BBQ Rib dinner.  I don't want to think of the number of calories I ingested - but the dinner was quite yummy!!