A Poorly Photographed Layout and a Baby Update

Hello everyone.  Today I am going to share another poorly photographed wedding layout with you AND give you an update on my overdue granddaughter. 

Bethany was admitted to the hospital last night, given medication and was hooked up for monitoring. Avaleigh is being a stubborn girl and just does not want to meet us!  However, Bethany's doctor says enough is enough - today is the day!  This morning Bethany will be reevaluated and most likely will receive a Pitocin drip to start labor.  If nothing develops and there is not marked progress, Avaleigh will be delivered via c-section today.  The odds are against them for a natural delivery. The doctor said that 80% of women in Bethany's circumstances (lack of dilation, etc.) end up with a section. Bethany seems to be taking this all in stride, though she and John did call and talk to us last night. But then again that was probably to settle down Doug and I!!!  If all goes well I just might have baby photos to post tomorrow!

Now to paper crafting - this two page layout - again POORLY photographed - was created using printed card stock with solids.  I love, love the sentiment - You put the Happily in my Ever After.  I found this cut and the Mr. & Mrs. cut in the Silhouette America store.  

I used a lot of pearls to embellish this layout.

I hate that the photos are so dark, blurred, glarey, etc.  The layout really is darling when one can actually see it!

Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to check back tomorrow to see if we have baby news!!

Details Wedding Layout

Hello everyone.  Do you remember the old saying, "The Devil's in the details"?  I do not believe that.  I believe the finished look is in the details.  And that is what this layout is all about - the look of Bethany's wedding created with the details.

First, I MUST apologize for the color issues I have had with the last two layouts. Neither Monday's layout nor today's layout photographed true to color.  The colors are much better in real life.

I was a very fortunate mother of the bride in that my daughter had a vision of what she wanted for her wedding AND it was a look that I loved and had no trouble embracing and growing.

With this layout I feared any scrapping elements might over shadow the actual photos so I went with a simple layout:  I cut my printed 12 x 12 inch sheets of  card stock down to 10.5 x 10.5 inches and matting them onto Colonial White card stock. Using my Silhouette Cameo, I cut six double layer roses and two corner vines.

I assembled four of the roses the correct way, and for the other two I applied the negative area of the petal cutouts to the background rose.  I wanted to create a bit of contrast when I layered the flowers on the pages.

I cut the vine in a subtle cashmere color to enhance the pages, but not over take them.  I am very pleased with how the pages turned out, even if the photos do not reflect the true colors and details.

Please forgive any errors in this post - I am sure I missed many.  We like to honor the true 12 days of Christmas at our house so yesterday was Christmas decor de-decorating day where everything was taken down and put away - almost.  My Dickens Village is still out  and I must sort through bows and tags to see what is salvageable.  Yesterday was also my mom's 78th birthday so in addition to the Christmas deconstruction, I also hosted our family for Granny's birthday gathering last night.  It was a LONG day.  THEN I prepared this blog post. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  I will be back in the week more rested with a new post! 

Wedding Crafts - Still Awaiting Professional Photos

Hello everyone!  There are still wedding crafts and details to share, though I have decided I am not going to await the professional photographs to show you how some of the crafts were used.

As many of you know, Bethany and John are both public school teachers.  We did not want the wedding to be overwhelmed with all things school related, but we did want a couple of cute teacher inspired touches.  I designed their wedding favors (above) to reflect their profession.

I found natural wood pencils on-line that could be orderd personalized.  I order a ton of personalized pencils, but as I understand it, Bethany and John will be using the leftover pencils in their classrooms this fall.

I found two print and cut images in the Silhouette America store:  the report card and the Always & Forever image.  I combined the two, placing the Always & Forever image onto the report card.  I then used the add text feature and personalized the report cards with "Bethany & John", "7/5/14", and "Thank You".  I printed the altered report cards onto cream colored 8.5 x 11 inch card stock, four per page.  I used my paper trimmer to cut the report cards apart.

I purchased mini-composition books (3 for $1 at Dollar Tree) to use as our base booklet.  With the help of my scrappy girlfriends, Bethany, and her matron of honor, we covered all of the book with brown card stock.

My friends then glued the report cards to the brown covered booklets.  I had planned to used pink and white twist twine to tie the pencils to the booklets, but I will be honest - that became too labor intensive during the last two weeks before the wedding!  So, I placed the pencils in a round clear cylinder vase and placed that in a large rectangular Longaberger basket full of the notebooks.

The favors were not my only print and cut project of this wedding - I also made personalized print and cut tags for the hospitality bags.  Keeping with the pink and brown colors, I printed the tags on to pink card stock and affixed the tags to the tan and brown love bird hospitality bags.

The bags were filled with local information, maps with points of interest, restaurants, etc.  There were "About Aiken" booklets.  I made a personalized map that included all of the venues with an attached page of written directions to all of the venues:  Rehearsal, Bridal Breakfast, Groom's Luncheon, Wedding and Reception.  There were personalized bottles of waters that matched the printed tags and there was homemade baked honey chex mix.   I had also purchased tea from a South Carolina tea plantation - the oldest in the country, but I forgot to add it to the bags!!

I also made bags and tags for the children who planned to attend the wedding.  We had eight children coming, six family members and the children of special friends (one of their daughters had been in John's classroom last year so it was especially fun for her to attend the wedding).   Anyway, I found wedding themed  activity coloring books (with crayons) for the kids bags.  I purchased a huge box of play-dough and split the containers among the bags.  I added candy necklaces and toys.  For the girls there were Playmobile Bride and Groom characters and for the boys there were Playmobile soldiers and pirates.  I added Legos to the older boy's bag.  And as you can see, I carried the love bird theme through on to the print and cut tags.

The bags for the children were placed in an antique tool box for me to hand out at the reception - they looked wonderful!  I think this was a fun surprise for not just the children, but for their parents as well.

I am still hoping that we will receive the professional photos soon.  I promise to share more of the fabulous shots when they arrive.

Here's the Scoop on the Bridal Shower

Hello everyone!  Today I am going to share the details of Bethany's second bridal shower of the weekend - Sunday's Ice Cream Sundae shower!  My friends Peggy and her daughter Megan hosted an adorable, fun themed shower featuring ice cream sundaes frozen and served in mason jars, with a topping bar and cookie and pastry bar!  While anything but light and lean, the shower was darling (!) and so much fun!

Bethany received many beautiful and useful items from her bridal registries, including dishes, a mixer, camping stove and coffee maker, serveware, and small appliances.  Honestly I cannot remember all of the wonderful things she received.  Our friends were so generous and so kind!!  We truly have the best friends EV-ERRR!

Just like with Saturday's shower, I decorated my gift bags and gift card to coordinate with the theme of the shower.  While I had no idea exactly what Peggy and Megan planned to do with ice cream, I knew that this shower theme included ice cream.

I found the fun ice cream cart cut in the Silhouette store.  The only problem I had with the cut was that it did not have a base on which to build the cart.  After cutting the individual pieces, I assembled the pieces on the virtual cutting mat in the software, welded the pieces together, and offset the card at 0.0 inches to create a background the size of the cart.  This worked great as a base on which to assemble the pieces.  I used large foam dots to adhere the ice cream cart to gift bag #1.

For my second gift bag I used an ice cream cone cut.  This ice cream cone was actually part of the ice cream card from Silhouette.  After making the card, I enlarged the ice cream cone and cut it at 11.7 inches tall.   I embellished the large cone with buttons and used large foam dots to attach the cone to the bag.

The card came out so cute with the addition of a stamped sentiment and pink and white twist twine embellishment.

Bailey, Bethany's maid of honor, was a wonderful help at the beverage station.  Peggy severed fruit flavored iced tea and lemon infused water in adorably decorated mason jars.  The jars were just darling!!

I thought you might like a close up on the beverage jar - just so cute!!

Shortly before the guests arrived Peggy pulled this tub of frozen ice cream filled mason jars from her freezer. She decorated the jars in coordinating ribbons, raffia, and buttons.  Beside the tub of ice cream was a toppings bar that included chocolate, strawberry, and caramel toppings, sprinkles, praline crunch topping. cherries, and whipped cream.  This was so fun and SO YUMMY!

If you look closely at the photo below you will see that Peggy and Megan also framed Bethany and John's save the date card.  How cute is that?

The ice cream sundaes were a huge hit.  Everyone loved them, especially John's sister and nephew!  The baby was so funny and he loved the ice cream.  He also was fascinated by Bailey's long hair and hat.

I am so grateful to my friends for hosting and attending the bridal shower... and for those who could not attend but still sent gifts!! Wow.  Again, I have the best friends EV-ERRR!

I am happy that the bridal showers are behind us for a bit - though there are still two more, I believe.  We are down to the final two months until the wedding and I find we are all getting more excited!

Thanks for stopping by today and reading about Bethany's ice cream shower!!

LOAD 513 Day One Layout - Mrs. White

Hello everyone!  I am ready to tell you more about LOAD 513 now that I am getting the hang of this.  Each day there is a prompt that somehow relates to the Clue game.  Day one the prompt was "Mrs. White is in the house," the Clue character, Mrs. White.  You could do anything that had white.  There were several snow layouts, white belts in Karate, white space on the layout, etc.  I went with white lace.

Last fall one of the guys that my son Aaron grew up with was married.  Dane is a great guy and we think his wife is so nice.  I had previously cropped the family pages from the wedding - but then I received a couple of photos from the professional photographer.  I like this photo of the wedding party with Dane and Megan up front.  Aaron is the man in the back right leaning against the pillar.  He was a groomsman.

I included a lot of white lace cuts on this layout to meet the "white" requirement. However, I decided to make my own flowers for this layout using dies.  I cut, shaped, and assembled the flowers following the steps below.

I started by inking the edges of the off white side of the petals.  Then using a stylus and foam mat, I began shaping the flowers.  I stared with the smallest sections and shaped the petals inward by pulling from the center of the petal down toward the center hole.

For all of the other layers of the flowers, regardless of size, I started with the petals face down.  Using the stylus, I made a back and forth C shape across the outer edges of the petals until the edges roll up.  As they rolled I used a finger to nudge the edge into the roll.

Once all of the petal edges were curled to the back, flipped the flower over began the second step of shaping.  Using the stylus in a back and forth motion, I made tiny circles from the center of each petal down toward the center of the flower.

 As I rubbed with the stylus the petals began to roll up (all but the outer edges) toward the middle of the flower.  Once all of the petals are standing up (with the edges curling out) each flower section should look like the flower below.

Once all of the layers are shaped, I begin assembling.  The center of the flower is assembled differently than all of the other layers.  Overlap the left side of each petal over the next, gluing the petals to make a little tunnel.

After the center had dried, glue each consecutive layer into the next, turning the flower slightly to off set the petal layers.   Your finished flowers should resemble the flower below.

After I finished shaping my flowers, I gave them a spritz with Glimmer Mist Sugar Cookie color.  This added darker areas in the flower.  I followed this with a few brush strokes of clear low glam glimmer.  Finally, while the flowers were still damp, I sprinkled the flowers with a very small amount of fine white glitter.  I waited for the flowers to dry completely before attaching them to my page.

In addition the flower, leaves, and lace, I also added a title with a cutting machine.  I cut the title at 2.5 inches tall.

Here is one last look at my LOAD 513 day one layout.  I really do like the daily prompt and the motivation to get me into the scrap room daily. All daily layouts have to be posted in a private Flickr account by mid-night pacific time each day.  I am a bit concerned about when I go to my mom's over mother's day weekend.  Her Internet connection is very slow and is guaranteed to give me a hard time. Hopefully we can run out someplace and I can use their Wi-Fi.

Thanks for stopping by today and view my layout.  I will be back tomorrow with a new post.

Event Wednesday - Bodacious Party Favors

Hello everyone.  Today is Wednesday and that means it is time for my weekly Event Wednesday post.  Today I am going to give you a sneak peek into the party favors for my 1920's Speakeasy Party. 

If you have not been following along, I planned two parties/events this spring.  The first was an afternoon tea with my girlfriends on Palm Sunday in March and the second is a Roaring '20's Speakeasy Party later this month (in a week and a half, actually).  Last week I shared the handmade party invitations.  So this week I will share the party favors.

Since this is a Speakeasy party I thought we needed to send our guests home with "bootleg" liquor as they await the repeal of the 18th amendment.   I ordered old fashioned looking bottles with cork stoppers from a bottle supplier on line.  I went to our local liquor store and strolled the aisles until I drove the salesman mad looking for the perfect bootleg bottle filler.  I finally settled on Irish Cream Liquor. 

I used my Silhouette Cameo and Silhouette printable metallic adhesive sheets to create personalized bottle labels - Bodacious Bootleg Booze Bottled by Doug and Susan.  My friend Susan M. saved the day with the metallic sheets - I had ordered the sheets and they did not come in.  According to the store at some point after I ordered they sold out.  I could not get them from a local store, from Silhouette, or from Amazon.  But Susan M loaned me a package of the metallic sheets she had on hand.  In the meantime I found another on-line source and ordered sheets to repay Susan. 

Back to my labels - I set up a print and cut file in the Silhouette Studio software.  I personalized the fonts and the wording of my labels then I went in and changed the exterior cut shape.  The labels were cut at 2.5 x 2.5 inches.  I know the title - Bodacious Bootleg Booze - is a bit cutsy, but I like it!

I also printed and cut a sheet of Repeal buttons.  This is a copy of the buttons worn by The Crusaders, those against the 18th amendment.  I turned the art into a jpeg and printed and cut the buttons.  Using the cord, I attached the buttons to the neck of the bottle. 

The corked bottles are 6 inches tall and have an 8 ounce capacity - for 8 ounces of Irish Cream Liquor!!   I photographed the bottle next to my favorite liquid glue.  I am not sure this really helps with the perspective, but I am hopeful.

All I have left to do is fill the bottles right before the party.  I can only hope my guests like their Bodacious Bootleg Booze as much as I do!

Thanks for stopping by today for Event Wednesday.  I will be back tomorrow with another Mad Men inspired card to share.

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!

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!