THIRTY DAYS!

That's ONE MONTH.

That's how much time is left until the wedding.

How did that happen?

I may or may not be having mini-panics thinking about what's left to do.....or, you know, just worrying about what's left to do that I haven't even realized needs doing - because I'm like that.

Ack!!!

DIY Frustration

I know this isn't much of a post, but I've been trying to get things done lately re: the wedding including making things happen on the many DIY projects I've set for myself.

One of these projects is decorating a display stand for the cupcakes.  With the help of an awesome crafty friend of mine - Nicole - we started the project and, when I tried to continue it myself, I found that I was getting extremely frustrated with it not coming out how I wanted it to, and having difficulty making adjustments.  When I realized that I was getting seriously irritated with the cardboard, glitter, hot glue, and ribbon itself, I decided that I need to step away.  At that point, it wasn't worth the frustration and, in the interest of protecting my sanity, I realized that I need to go back to the drawing board on this one and simply scrap the current plan for a new one.

Thankfully, I - using Nicole's know-how and ideas -came up with something in the same vein and that seemed more manageable given my now-lowered threshold of patience.

Once I get that going, I'll add a post on it, I'm sure.

I think I have learned the lesson now that, when it comes to crafting and DIY, things that get complicated are not my forte; I'm definitely better at things that are simple and virtually fool-proof....I simply do not have the make-up for much more than what I've posted previously.  I mean, I like being creative, but smaller/simpler projects definitely satisfy my crafting hankering and that's enough for me.

DIY: Table Numbers

A simple DIY project that I completed a while ago: making the numbers for the tables.

Materials:

1. (18) 5"x7" wood frames
2. Spool of 1/4" red ribbon
3. Turquoise cardstock
4. Tan cardstock
5. Glue stick
6. Printer

This project is pretty straightforward, so I figure that not too many details are needed.

After giving the frames to Chris to drill the holes in the top parts of the frame for the ribbon to go through, I first made the backing.  

Using a simple floral image, I printed full-size pages of the image onto the turquoise cardstock and trimmed the paper to the needed 5"x7" size.  

Then I used Publisher to create the image on the tan cardstock, selecting a plus-shaped flourish - which I made red in color-and overlaying the numbers in the Captain Howdy font.  The size for these is 4"x6" so that there would be about 1/2" of the blue peeking out as the border.

Cut the pages, and glue them onto the blue - trying my best to center them and only mildly failing towards the end. Once dry, pop the whole deal into the frame.

After that, the harder part: adding the ribbon.  I found that it was easier to do the ribbon if I left the backing of the frame off. It also took a bit of wriggling to get the ribbon through the 1/4" holes and then some adjusting to get the ribbon to tie well enough.

Pretty simple, but it did take a few hours all-told to complete:

I made more than eight, but I was too lazy/demotivated to take them ALL out of the box for the photo.

DIY: Wishes and Advice

This post includes a few separate DIY projects to make my whole Wishes and Advice Card set-up.

Wait.

Maybe I should back up a bit because I don't think I've posted about this before.

Ok.

So.

I decided some time ago that I wanted to do something just a little different for my welcome table, particularly I wanted to find an alternative to the traditional guest book.  I found a few ideas online and ultimately decided to do my own take on the Wish Tree.  

Partly, I liked the idea because a couple of years ago, as part of my Christmas gift for him, I made a jar of inspirational quotes for Christopher.  I found lots and lots of quotes that I thought he would like - with a variety of topics and tones - and put them in a jar (on small pieces of card stock) for him to take on a [semi-]daily basis.  

The gift went over well, so when I stumbled upon the ideas for the wishes and advice trees and such, I mixed in my own flavor by deciding on having a Wishes and Advice jar.

The idea is that our guests will take a blank card and write either a wish or advice for us as we begin our marriage.  I liked this idea instead of a guest book because this is more interactive, creative, and hopefully will lead to a more treasured keepsake than a traditional guest book.

With that in mind, the idea resulted in creating several mini-projects:

(1) the cards themselves

(2) the jar

(3) an explanatory sign

and

(4) pens

Up first: the cards themselves. I created a template in Word, but it can easily be done in Publisher so that fours cards fit on each page (approx 3" x 4").  I found a pretty floral image online (like this one), adjusted the image so that it was a watermark and set it as the background.  Then I decided on the wording (after a few attempts) and added it in.  The result:

I used a beige card stock, printed about 160 (cards not pages), and used my really awesome paper slicer to cut them out and voila! the task is done!  And without any finger cutting.

Second task (and arguably the most fun): the jar itself. I used a mason jar that I'd procured at some point in the past, small paintbrushes, and acrylic crafting paint (and one small piece of ribbon).  I painted the design I wanted, wrapped a bit of gingham ribbon around it and it was done.  I tried not to worry too much about getting the paint perfect since I'm not an artist and it really wouldn't matter anyways.  Result:

Third is the sign: I figured that I should probably explain to my guests what the whole thing was about.  Using a cheap frame, I added a matting page using the same floral print from the cards and printed that on a piece of blue card stock, before adding the explanatory message.  I took a little while to decide on the wording and the fonts to make both clear and as concise as possible:

For the fonts, I used Font Paradise which has a really great program that makes it super easy to actually use the fonts you've downloaded. And yes, it's totes legit and not a virus.

Fourth were the writing implements: take one part ballpoint pens, one part silk flowers, and one part florist tape.  Cut the flowers so that the stem runs along the barrel of the pen; wrap the floral tape around and around until the whole pen is covered.  The backside of the tape will be sticky, but that will go away with time.

The total set-up:

I'm pretty satisfied.  :)

Invitation DIY

Not too long ago, Chris and I set out to prep and send all of our wedding invitations.  Despite still needing a handful of confirmed addresses, we buckled down and got them sent as I posted before.

I also said that I wanted to post about the actual prep itself. So. I'm doing just that.

My beautiful set-up for making those invites:

I've got: 12" x 12" red and light blue vellum paper, a bone folder, a ribbon-hole-punch, a paper slicer, reams of turquoise and red gingham ribbon, and the invites themselves.

The back of the petal holders.

Front and back of the invites all folded together. 

It actually took quite some time with the bone folder to get the invites together like this.  The invite itself is inside, a square printed with all the information.  I had to put the invite in each petal folder, get the sides to all fold in just right so that it would look like the bottom part of that picture.  Then, I took the bone folder and creased down all four edges.

Also, because I'm paranoid and crazy, I shook some periodically to make sure that I'd actually put the invite on the inside.

Then came the vellum and ribbon part.  To make the invites look like this:

1. I took the vellum I had ordered and sliced it into one-inch-wide strips using the paper slicer (slash my favorite helper).
2. Used the ribbon punch to punch the holes in both ends of the vellum strips.
3. I cut the gingham ribbon into foot-long pieces.
4. I placed an invite in the center of one of the vellum strips.
5. I folded the ends of the vellum (doing my best to make sure they were even) over the front of the invite, creasing it on each side with the bone folder.
6. Then came the tricky part: tying a length of ribbon into a bow....without tearing the vellum (which I did many times).

Once all those steps were done (and goodness gracious did that take for-ev-er!!!!!) it was time to print the envelopes.

Honestly, it was such a frustrating process using Microsoft Publisher, and Excel Spreadsheet, and lots and lots of ink and envelopes. I don't even want to get into it.

Suffice to say, eventually, all the envelopes were printed and ready for their invitations.

We stuffed them all and I couldn't resist adding one more touch:

Shimmery turquoise heart stamp.

The great thing about a crafty/DIY-style everything is that it doesn't have to be perfect!  Not all the stampings were perfect, but that's totally okay!

All boxed up and ready for the big invite drop-off!

Phew!!!  Just remembering all the steps is exhausting!

Action Returns: Candy Buffet Bags

A lot has been going on in my life over the past month or two aside from the wedding planning piece.  I had a family member pass away, another get very close, I am *thisclose* to being finished with my dissertation, and I have been managing my internship application extravaganza.
This last piece is the most stressful because the quality, location, and type of internship I get for next year will make a very big impact on my future career as well as Chris' and my lives.  It's too complicated to try and explain here, really, but suffice to say, if things go the best they can (from what's possible now) either (1) we will be moving across the country to Miami OR (2) we won't be living together because I'll move to either Fresno or Merced for the duration of the internship year.  Plus, the nature of this stage of my program leave me feeling worthless, powerless, and downtrodden.

I have been having an extraordinary amount of feelings lately.

This has also resulted in my not-quite-panic-mode response: sluggishness. I'm also used to having so much more of a "to-do" list on my plate with exams and papers and applications and what-have-you that I got into the habit of only attacking things on that list that were emergencies. Notice that my blogging has been sporadic - that, too, is part and parcel.

Pour this all in a blender and you get the version of me who has been feeling crappy and stressed out but without the benefit of getting nearly as much done as I could or as I would like to.

But, in a positive development, today my motivational and action-oriented bone returned to me.
Now, that's not to say that I got tons done, but I got a respectably reasonable amount done.

Case in point, I did this today:

These are the bags that will be placed out for use in conjunction with the candy buffet at our wedding, which will be our favors.  I bought the small glassine bags quite a while ago (after much internal debate about size and color).  After their arrival, I began experimenting with how I wanted to personalize them.  I decided on stamping them, and then played around. Chris offered his preference that we use white ink (he thinks it looks classier than the other color options).
So, about two months ago (or not, I don't remember these things anymore), I stamped the fronts of the bags in waves with this stamp:

Then, just a week or so ago, I took them back out from their temporary storage placement (but were always in the front of my mind since it's such a simple, easily-completed task) and started stamping the back with our custom logo stamp. I did the first few dozen in waves.
This morning I decided that I would finish it,finish them all.
I did.

The sense of pride in completing this simple task was alarming.  All I did was finish stamping 250-ish bags, going back and forth with my hands in repetitive motions for something like an hour, maybe two, while watching television.

Placing those bags in Ziplocks and pressing the air out while sealing the containing bags, I had a rare sense of progress.  It gives me hope that, instead of just obsessing about everything left to do, I will actually do them and ultimately spend less time on each task.

Free Wedding Graphics and Templates

Last night, I was having difficulty sleeping; I was ruminating heavily on the wedding and its details.
Naturally, I jumped onto my computer and began working on wedding stuff.
In the process, I came across a wedding website that I haven't perused before: www.theweddingchicks.com
Among their items, they had some free, customizable, downloadable graphics for the wedding.

Here's some of what I made:

Their templates can be customized by color and by some words.   You fill in what you want and they email you the product in .png format.  The templates can be found directly here.

Hella cute, right?

Stamp!

I'm definitely late on posting about this, since it happened several weeks ago, but that's what happens when I'm consumed by dissertation work and working on my application for internships for next year.

As you know if you've read my other post, I had Chris create a custom logo for us/our wedding soon after we got engaged.  And then, I found Rubber Stamp Champ.com -- among other things they will make a custom stamp for you from an image you send them.  So I, of course, ordered a custom stamp of our logo for use in ostensibly many different ways!  

When, a few weeks after I placed the $15 order (yeah, way less expensive than I thought it would be!!), the stamp arrived in the mail.  Obviously, I went directly to Michael's to get ink pads, other stamps, and blank notecards to test out my pretty new custom stamp. 

Pics:

The custom stamp in many different colors.  It's  little bit difficult to see the silver and white ink on these colors, but I'm super happy with how it turned out!

The assortment of items that I simply had to purchase at Michael's.  The blank ink will apparently stay on any surface once you let it dry.  Might be a good choice for some slippery surfaces.

A sample stamped Thank You card - some of which we sent out after the engagement party.  I'm not sure that I'm in love with the design, and next time we'll get smaller cards because the stamps are rather dwarfed by the size here.

Another view of the cards: front and interior.

We also recently got bags in that we'll use for the candy buffet (more about that another time, I'm sure), and we'll definitely be stamping those!!

I'm certainly not the craftiest person in the world, but this is the kind of thing that I really enjoy.  I feel like things like this are what will make our wedding personal and a reflection of us.  Also, the crafting supplies can be used for more than just the wedding.