Las Vegas Wedding Party & Banner

Hey there!  I am back today to share some of the crafty details from Aaron and Crissie's marriage celebration party.  The party was held at the lake home of our sweet friends Megan and Brandon (daughter and son-in-law of my friend Peggy).  We chose an evening time frame in order to beat some of the heat, though I must say Mother Nature was especially kind to us!!  The weather was wonderful!

The first craft idea I had for the party was the seven panel banner pictured above and below.  Megan and I thought it would be fun to carry though the Las Vegas idea since that is where they married and honeymooned.

I used four cartridges to create the pennants for the banner:  Las Vegas, Pretty Pennants, Tie the Knot, and Art Deco (the last two for their fonts).

Aaron and Crissie selected the photos used on the banner - this first one from a hockey game they attended.

I used the Mr & Mrs Cut from Tie the Knot, then added the word Edwards in a similar font.

Aaron and Crissie also chose this photo for the banner - a Halloween selfie of the two of them.

To continue with the Vegas them, I printed and cut decks of cards, poker chips and rolling dice.  The cupcakes were two flavors with three frosting colors to match the Vegas colors.

Every wedding party needs wedding cakes!!

Other menu items included Caprese Skewers, meatballs, and homemade cheese spread.

We also served veggies and dip, hummus and flat bread, fresh fruits and cheeses, spanakopita, quesadillas, and ham and cheese roll ups (a big hit).

Our beverage center was outside stocked with water, sodas, wine, beer, and a signature drink I called the Vegas Strip!

Above is Bethany with our friend Alex and her dad.  Below is Ian and Bethany.  I was so happy that Ian came in from Atlanta for the party.

Oh the irony!!! We never actually took a photo of Aaron and Crissie together. Below is Crissie surrounded by several of her co-worker.  They all had a great time.

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! 

Beautiful Bride Dress Form Layout

 (click the photos to enlarge)

 Hello friends!  I know I have been missing for two weeks(!!) and though I do have an excuse/reason, I will not bore you with the details and just say that I AM BACK!!  I have missed crafting so much - especially scrapbooking. While Doug stayed with my mom, I spent several hours in my scraproom this weekend working on this layout.

My darling Design Team member, Maureen, is hosting this week's Bitten by the Bug 2 Cricut challenge.  Maureen challenged us to use either a Cricut cut DRESS FORM or a Cricut cut DRESS.  I chose to use the dress form cut from the French Manor cartridge - the first Cricut Circle cartridge.

I cut the dress form in two colors - medium brown and champagne.  I wanted the stand to be darker than the form itself. 

Using my Cricut Explore for the Cricut cuts on this layout, I also used Cricut Design space and a font on my computer to cut the page title, Beautiful Bride.  I love that like other bands of cutting machines, the Cricut Explore also cuts fonts and SVG files!  Yay!  I used the font "Lavenderia Study" for the title.

I used several thin dies for cuts on these pages - the corners, a couple of the mats, and the flowers and leaves.   I cut the flowers in vintage white cardstock, stamped the blossoms with  Blush Pink pink ink, then I sponged 3D Stempel Farbe (Stamp Paint - in Rose Metallic) onto the petals.  I used a stylus and rubber mat to shape the flower petal layers.  I glued the layers together then applied a hint of cocoa brown ink to the edges of the petals to age them.

The base paper - I purchased this vintage looking card stock at the Creating Keepsakes Convention specifically to scrap Bethany's vintage wedding.

In the photo above Bethany's maid of honor, Bailey, was finishing up Bethany's make up and hair, placing the vintage hair piece I purchased for her.

In the photos below Bethany is allowing her bridesmaids and I to dress her in her bridal gown.  We were very careful not to smudge her make up or muss her hair!  I had the honor of lacing her in her dress.  Sigh.....

Not having been in my scraproom for some time, I have to say that I LOVED making this layout.  I love all of the lacy cuts and vintage flowers.  I cannot wait to scrap more of the wedding photos.  And I thought that Maureen's challenge - the Dress Form, was perfect for this layout!!

We hope that you decide to join us this week at Bitten by the Bug 2.  Create a project using a Cricut cut Dress or Dress Form, tell us which cartridge you used, then link to the original post at BBTB2.  

Thank you for stopping by today!!!   

One More Wedding Post

Hey there!  I am back with what I hope may be one final wedding blog post!  This last weekend we received the professional photographs of Bethany and John's wedding day.  It was such a beautiful day, beautiful, wedding, and beautiful bride, and I am so happy that the professional photographs capture the beauty and love of the day.

I am starting with a couple of family photographs.  The top photo is, of course, Doug and I with our daughter.  She is towering over us in her heels and looking so stunning.

The second photo is our family - new members too!  And below is our family, complete with my mom, or as the kids refer to her, Granny!

I thought I would give you a quick peek at some of our decor.  This is the table top arrangement we used.  Bethany found the fun wood votives and the trinket boxes.  I found the little lanterns and the mercury glass votives.  I had succulents growing in my kitchen for five months to use on the table and to enhance the arrangements.  Finally, I made the table runners using 12 inch wide burlap and 5 inch wide lace sewn over top of the burlap.

One of the really sweet and unique decoration we made was the photo filled antique window.  We enlarged Bethany and John's engagement photos and placed them in the window panes.  We used two of these large windows and an antique door with glass panes, all containing photos, to decorate various areas.

As you can see above and below, our caterer really embraced our vintage/rustic theme.  Their sets up were fabulous, as was the food they provided.

No, they did not serve dip from the container!!  The photographer wanted to photograph the buffet areas before the caterer was quite ready.

And now for the final wedding craft:  I created a banner for the front of the cake table. Originally we planned to use an antique buffet from which to serve the cake.  However the base of the cake was too large for the buffet so we ended up with a regular table (boo).  However, the extra touches we had, decorated cupcakes displayed on my pink depression glass sandwich server, flowers, and the banner I made for the cake area all helped to cover for our inability to use the buffet.

The banner was made using my Cricut and Pretty Pennants cartridge.  It looked lovely on the front of the table.

The cake looks great - and it tasted great! It is missing the topper in the top photo.  They used a small bird nest with two little love birds, carrying through the rustic and love birds theme.

If you peek around Bethany and John feeding one another cake, you can catch a glimpse of the banner.

The cake was not our only dessert.  As a surprise, we also had ice cream cones, which many people loved!  It was a fun idea for a warm evening and many of the guests enjoyed ice cream and cake!

I am straight up going to confess that I spent so much time working on a wedding book at blurb.com that I did not make this week's BBTB2 project.  Our sweet DT sister Maureen challenged the team and all of you to use a Cricut cut Owl on a project this week.  I hope you will take time to go by Bitten by the Bug 2 and share some love AND consider joining the challenge this week.

I will be back with some actual paper crafting later this week!!

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.