Once Upon a Bathroom

My latest bargain find was the pink lined wicker baskets I got for 60% off at Michaels yesterday afternoon. I had my eye on them a month or so back but didn't want to pay $12.99 each, simply for a bathroom basket! We're not made of money you know!

I filled them with travel sized versions of commonly needed items. I found them all in the Travel Item isle at Target:

• Ace Bandage/Ice Pack
• Wet Wipes
• Tums
• Deodorant
  
• Mini First Aid Kit
• Band Aids
• Shoe Polish Wipes
• Hair Spray for the ladies
• Body Spray for the ladies
• Renu Contact Solution
• Hand Lotion
• Tampons
• Travel Toothbrush
• Dental Floss
• Motrin
• Shout Wipes

I have a few more things I want to add, safety pins, static cling spray, a couple AA batteries, hand sanitizer, clear nail polish, bobby pins, emery boards, toothpicks.

I hope someone will find use of these items, and if not most of them I can take on the honeymoon in my travel case, or have around for emergencies when people visit my house :-) Either way - money has not been wasted!

The Seating Chart Board

Walking around Michaels today I found myself wondering where on earth I was going to get a piece of poster board big enough for this seating chart. I would almost need two regular pieces, then you'd see the seam. And I wasn't happy with that idea.

Then it hit me! Photo Matting! They sell it in a standard size of, well I don't know the actual dimensions so we'll just call it "huge". Mr S is outside right now cutting it down to 36 x 24 to fit a old frame I had from 2 x-mas' ago, that when I tried to remove the glass for cleaning, it broke. Luckily I saved it, so I'm going to paint it black....or pink - not sure yet. And then I'll place the chart inside it, with no glass and place it on an easel.

Here's the photoshop layout of how it will look:

4.5 x 6.5 pieces of pink paper as the backing

4 x 6 pieces of white with the names on it

and a ribbon around the top, like my place cards:

With the board cut, I now have to print up the sheets with the names on them and assemble the whole thing. I tell ya, I'm really sick of cutting paper! LOL.

Becky + Stephan

I meant to get this up a long time ago, but things just got away from me. It's another design I did for a really sweet girl out in Oregon, Becky.

She wanted pink, and one of the designs I had already done - which made my job a little bit easier :-) She was so much fun to work with and I LOVE how she added to her pocket fold by:

• Using an engagement photo to add a personal touch (or help relatives remember exactly who you are again..hehe - I should have done this!)
  
• the ribbon around the pocket
• using brads to hold the pocket in place instead of adhesive! (way cheaper I imagine PLUS it held it in place really well!!!)
  

I fell in love with this invite when it arrived in my mail box! It must have taken forever to assemble these but I can imagine the response she's getting from people - and it's nothing to do with my design! This girl really made her invite - HERS!

Check it out!

**Just a note to anyone interested in invite design from me - I am not taking anymore orders until after I return from my honeymoon in September. If you won't be needing anything until then, but want to book me now to save your place - please contact me at acgrundman@gmail.com as we'll chat!**

John, Paul, George & Ringo

Ah, The Beatles.

I heart The Beatles.

I'm not one of those mega fans that oozes with info about each member, down to their current weight and the amount of change in their pocket. I'm just, a fan. I own most their music, an original Abbey Road record (which my father is currently holding hostage with my 1987 Homer Hankie) and I decorated my daughters room with the John Lennon collection when she was born. Her mobile played "Imagine".

Ok, I'm more then a fan. I'm a bit obsessed but whatever, at least I can admit it.

That being said I knew that I had to incorporate The Beatles into my wedding somehow. Not only was my soon to be father-in-law a one of their concerts (how cool is that!) The Beatles are British, along with the family that I marrying into and my in laws adore their music as much as I. It's only fitting that we bring them in somehow!!!

I got my nod to them in the wedding itself with some music being played. I'll be walking out to Here Comes The Sun. And this is how I got them into my reception: My Wedding favors. Clear Glass LOVE coasters, in pink tulle bags.


"All You Need is Love" is one of my all time favorites, and fit perfectly with our wedding! Since I can't have my dream exit from the wedding (click here to see it) this will have to do.

I made the tags myself, of course. cut them out and adhered them to a piece of black card stock to make it more sturdy and then tied it on using the pull strings on the tulle bag. Again then cutting is the most tedious part - and I've still got about 300 squares to cut, but it will all look great in the end!

FInishing what I started

So I realized while pouring through old posts that I started to talk about my table names but never finished or showed you a photo of them! LOL.

So let's recap, the names of the tables at the reception are named after places that Mr S and I have either been to, or lived in. The majority of the "visited" names are from me, I've traveled to 13 countries since I was 14. And the "where we've lived" options are mostly Mr. S' as he use to live in England and had some really cool sounding places there.

Between the two of us we came up with 24 names, which I printed on 4x6 Rose Quartz Stardream paper I got from Envelope Mall, that I cut myself. I printed them at home on the ink jet and had to lay them out to dry for a bit, as stardream can be fussy when it comes to inkjests.


Then I affixed the crystals...must MUST have the crystals!!!


And lastly I adhered the table name to a black backing piece and - all done! Here it is on my table mock up (never mind the large hand towel where the napkin should be it was all I had pink and small-ish enough to take it's place for color reasons)



I'm really happy with the outcome, and after months of searching I finally found those plate easels in bulk and cheap. They are a little deeper then I would have liked - but the price was right. Find them at Treasures In Display

This is an item that will end up for sale after the wedding, so watch for the blogs about whats up gor grabs in September!

Finding a Place in the World

Well, a place at a table I suppose.

I've taken into my creative rhelm the initial idea I had months back, was inspired to chage it by a wonderful blogger - who's place cards I showed off as "wanting badly" a week ago - and from those things, I came up with this:



Instead of putting a different colored ribbon on each to signify the food choice, which I wasn't too big on in the first place - I am putting it on the place card (Thank you Heather of Road to the Aisle for the inspiration!)

I'm going to do a few more, make sure I love it and then head off to bed for the night.

Just when I think I know what I want....I don't.

Okay - I hired a really great calligrapher Michele Clark, to hand write our place cards. I bought them, had them shipped to her and they are sitting at her place waiting to be jazzed up with her fancy penmanship.

But then I go ahead and browse through one of my other favorite wedding blogs and find these:

These beautiful creations are the brain child of Heather, blogger of the great wedding blog Road To The Asile

So now my calligrapher is holding pre-scored cards in white. And I'm trying to decide if I should do this, or something similar, with a pink and/or black top part and a white backing.....or is I should return the white ones and order pink or black......ug. I'm so indecisive.

I'm off to figure this out, and make up a mock up possibly - and worship at the feet of Heather who has refilled a burnt out August Brides DIY tank...

Wrapping it all Togeter

When I said that cutting the pieces of paper out that make the invite was the worst part of the invite process.....I lied. I hadn't yet been faced with the "belly band" issue.

I'm sure it would have been much easier if the piece of paper I was using to go around the invite was in fact the same size, as the invite. But no. I'm thrifty and wanted to use scrap from my inserts for it.

So I laid out the belly band like this, and tried as best I could after 2 glasses of wine to make it smack dab in the middle (you'll see the final result, is a bit off center. I blame the wine)

I then folded in the two sides, and using a glue stick applied adhesive to the edge of one of the belly band.Then I applied my square seal, and then put the adhesive to the other edige of the belly band. Doing it this way kept me from gluing myself to my invites - which I assure you could have been done with out any wine at all....

As you can see this one is a bit...off. LOL. But I fixed it before I mailed it out - I just never took the extra picture.


And here they are, boxed up ready to head to the Post Office, where I will double check to make sure I have the correct postage (I know I do, but I like to check things about 14 times...) and the post the ones to Europe to our friends overseas. LIKE AUNTIE NORA!!! HI NORA!!!

So this is 90 of them, I have about 30 more or so to get all together...and then they will leave me and I will be sad to see them go....

Finished 6x6 Pocketfold Invites!

Here they are, in all their glory. Months of work, waiting, freaking out and gluing tiny gems to paper and here they are! And they are almost ready to mail!

I have to admit that of all the steps: Designing, Printing, Cutting and Assembling - cutting was by far the worst part and the most time consuming!!!

Here's a quick run down of how it all came together.

• After the jewels were glued onto the invite and the invite stuck to the pink backing piece, I then stuck that whole piece into the pocketfold.
• Then I handed off the pocketfold to Mr S, who stuffed in the Drections/ Information card and the Reception/Accommodations cards and set that off to the side.

Now it was time to get the RSVP's in - and since I had 6 different RSVP's, and each one had to be numbered to coincide with the guests number on my Excel spread sheet this step tooo a little longer then expected.

• Mr S would read me the name off the mailing envelope (which I printed up months ago) I would find them on the list, write the number on the back lower corner of the RSVP and he would stuff it in, then lay the whole thing with it's envelope, in a big white box to wait for it's belly band.

The belly band will be the last thing to go on, I tried making the seals at home and honestly gave up cutting them out and simply ordered some sticker ones instead. Sure it was an added $40 for 250, but I'll use them all through out the wedding planning and what not, and it will save me a load of time.
I'm still finding time to take on design projects, be they for invites, programs, thank you cards, Let me know and do it soon if you're thinking about it. Soon I'll be shutting down design until after my wedding and honeymoon - so mid-Sept!!!

Putting On The Glitz!

I started this task last night, as I received the 1's, 2's and 5's RSVP's from my step dad.

I cut it all up, and then realized I still needed to put the crystals on the invites, so I shifted gears and started this process.

In the absence of my actual craft tweezers, I grabbed an old pair of my eyebrow ones, because grabbing the gems and dipping them in glue and properly placing with your fingers is IMPOSSIBLE!

• STEP ONE: Squirt some glue, about a dime sized amount onto a scrap piece of paper. It will be easier to apply the glue to the gems this way.
• STEP TWO: Pick up gem with tweezers and dip lightly only the back, in the glue.
• STEP THREE: dab back of glue covered gem on scrap paper to remove excess, a very little amount is needed and you don't want the glue oozing out the sides.
  

(forgive my photos this time around, camera was having an off day, as was I! UGH!)

When all finished lay the items out to dry, it shouldn't take too long. Especially if you don't use too much glue. Be sure to lay them out flat, do not stack they can and will stick together!

And with Elmer's or the Jule glue I used, you will find that excess will dry clear but it's still better not to have a whole lot because you will still see the clear lump if it's too big.

And then you're all done adding the glitz to your invites!!!

We Need Another Pool Table

Our poor pool table, has been given a life of providing storage since the wedding planning began. It holds everything wedding related, from the files, to the mock centerpiece. My reception Converse Shoes and the Groomsmen gifts. I've recelntly had to begin stack upwards now and wanted to share with you my chaotic collection of wedding day items - get ready it's a mess:

Here it is straight on:


And from Either Side:


Mr S did not find it funny when I called him at work the other day to tell him I think we needed another pool table. What!? I'm out of room! Now I have to start stacking on the floor around it ;-)

3 more months, and we'll be able to play a game of pool again, that is if I can unload everything that comes back from the reception with me!

For The Birds - My Card Holder

When I started looking for something to put my cards in at the reception I quickly realized I was going to have to take things into my own hands, or have the same, tired old white satin covered box that has survived since the 80's. And by 80's I mean 1780's!

I really liked this bird cage idea that I had been seeing on wedding boards, but knowing my family I wondered if they would figure out that the cards belonged in the cage, byu means of sliding them through a slot on the top, and not laying about on the table.

So I just made sure that no one could miss it, and in turn jazzed my cage up a bit.

The Supplies I needed were:

• Bird Cage - here's where I got mine - I paid $11.00 for it!
  
• Glue
• "Cards" 4x6 sign
• Black 6.25x4.25 backing piece
• 1.5 yards of ribbon
• tape

I started by adding the sparkles to the letter "c" on the Card sign. I held the gem with a pari of long tweezers and dipped the back of it into a small pool of glue I had squeezed onto a scrap piece of paper.

NOTE: careful - you really need very little glue, otherwise it oozes out the sides when you press it to the paper.

Then I attached the Card sign to the black backing, using double stick tape.

Then I cut the ribbon strip directly in half and taped it to the back of the card. By cutting it in half I could easily stick each piece through the top of the cage and tie my bow.

It took some playing around with and trimming of the edges of the ribbon but I finally got the right length.

TIP: Want to know how to avoid those ugly frayed edges on ribbon? Grab a lighter and quickly stick the edge (and only the edge) you cut and want the fray off of in, and pull it out just as fast! Only leave it in the flame for a second, just repeat the process until you get the smooth and sleek look you want.

Just don't use a candle or you'll not only de-fray it, you'll get that ugly black residue on it too!

It didn't take much to make this cage what I wanted, and I only did a little thing - you could go all out and weave ribbon through the lower half, hang individual wooden letters from it to spell out "cards" - anything you wanted to make it your own!

Are you doing anything interesting for your card holder?

It's so Rewarding!

Remember a bit back I designed some wedding invites for a fellow bride - well she sent me one, and today it arrived!

Check out the detail on the cascading pocketfold inserts - when lined up they make one fluid image, yet it still appears on the individual cards in full as well.
I was so happy to be able to make these invites, and it's so rewarding to see how well they turned out as a final product. I'm proud to have been a part of this part of her big day!

Mr. F. and Soon to Be Mrs. F.

Last night I helped a friend make her table numbers for her reception. She didn't believe me when I told her if she brought the digital images, I could do it in a matter of minutes.

The simple task did end up taking a bit longer then expected do to the 2 glasses of wine I had with dinner and the 3 beers I had during the creating process...oh and the fact Soon to Be Mrs F and I wouldn't stop gabbing for one second!

Here's a little sample of the table numbers we made for her, they will be printed as regular 4x6 photos, and then stuck to a 6.25 x 4.25 black card stock backing for support.

They will then be held up with the table name holders I am using for my reception - because I'm so great I'm lending them to her for her day, which happens to be 2 weeks before our big day!!

It did take some creative cropping, but they turned out great I think - and how could they not, with beautiful people like Mr F. and Soon to Be Mrs F. in the photo!





*Photo credit to her photographer, will be made as soon as I get the correct name of the studio. Until then my apologies for the lack of proper "props" being handed out. I should note, photos were only worked with as copyright was passed to The "F"s as part of the contract. Duplicating or editing any photograph with out the photographers written permission is illegal.

Crazy.....about designing

Because I'm a total nut case I decided to take on a huge task during my own wedding planning - create and design from scratch someone else's wedding invites and stationary. Someone I didn't know, never met other then on the computer.....

Luckily I got to work with a really fun, and understanding girl, who wasn't one of those demanding Bride-Zillas! Phew! Seriously, if I had to deal with a bride...like me for instance, I would have flipped!

My Bride had a very specific design in mind, one that I couldn't find a graphic anything even close to use for her design - so I had to draw it from hand, by looking at some sample invites she sent me for inspiration. That was one of the most time consuming parts of all this.

Here's a little sample of what her dream and my designing came up with.

She's making a type of pocket fold invite, something similar to mine. And since she decided she wanted the same script font as me, and the same RSVP - they look similar in a few way! But it kept at least a few things easy for me!

The Main Invite

The Thank You Card

Inserts, as they will appear once printed and stacked

The Menu

I had a great time making these for her! I can't wait to see what they look like printed on Opal Star Dream paper and accented with the champange and blue!


Credits:
*Design Idea sent to me by Bride,
*Thank you Mrs Lemon again for your Awesome RSVP - it goes onto please even more!!!
*All other design created by myself using PhotoShop CS2

Drowning in envelopes

Printing on Satrdream paper with an ink jet generally means you have to lay things out to dry.

I just wanted to share my sea of RSVP envelopes, mostly because I'm so darn happy to be done printing them. Word doesn't have an envelope setting for these "4-Bar" envelopes, as they are called, so it took me near 2 hours just to get the address centered and a template set up.

Then, stupid me, I didn't even save the template! Ugh! Bride Brain!

Favors that are great, and less then $1!

This past weekend the pink pouches arrived for my wedding favors. At first I wondered if they would be big enough and, luckily for once I did my math right and they were. In fact they are exactly the right size. Had they been any bigger on the coaster it would have looked totally sloppy and I would have hated the outcome!

To review my favors, for those of you who haven't been flowing along (GASP!) I bought sets of 'LOVE' coasters from The Knot for $1.99 per set of 4. They were on sale at the time I purchased them.

Then, after months of debate, thinking of ditching the coaster, ordering cookies, thinking of a million different ways to package everything, my FMIL came across these pouches on the same sight we got our table crystals. Efavormart.com

So last night I starting putting them all in the pouches. The longest part was getting the coasters out of their original packaging, which was nice - but as I was only giving one coaster per person - leaving them they way they were, was not an option.

It only took about an hour to do all 240, and Mr S and I did it while watching a movie - it worked out great. I just plopped on the floor and in no time we were done.



The other thing that got a little annoying is that the little rubber bits that are on the back side - to protect whatever table you put them on, well they stuck tothe coaster in front of them and it took the jaws of life to get them apart...;-) Okay I'm weak and that's what it seemed like.

Now all that's left to do is to print, and attach the little "Thank You" tag to them. The pouches are cinched, but not tied so I can easily do this.

After all was said and done this was a very inexpensive favor:

Coaster 4 for $1.99 and one per guest = .50 each
Pouches 10 for $1.80 and one per guest = .18

Total cost for favor for guest = .68!

LESS THAN A DOLLAR!

Programs - Take One!

I spent the majority of last night working on the programs. My eye balls hurt and I pretty much hate Photo Shop now. But after some cutting, printing, adjusting and ribbon cutting I came up with this:

(Never mind the wrinkled monogram on top, I used the wrong glue but it worked to get the general idea.)


The program is really simple to make and was really quiet inexpensive, when all is said and done each one will cost roughly .70 or less!

SUPPLIES

• I bought black linen card stock in 8.5x11 size, and folded it in half. That made the outer portion of the program.
• Next, though the sample is on regular printer paper, I ordered metallic text paper for the inside. I cut those pieces after they were printed, to 8x10.5 - just a half an inch smaller on the inside so that the edges didn't hang out when assembled.
  
• The ribbon in the sample is Light Pink 5/8 doubles sided satin from Michaels Craft Store, I paid $3.99 for 5 yards, and it's a huge rip off so I searched the net and found Favor Frenzy had some, but not in my color - so I popped over to Ribbon Retreat for Pink in 100 yard spool for about $10 or so. I suggest 3/8 ribbon - I used 5/8 and find that it's much too big and the program likes to stay open because of it. (Check Favor Frenzy first as their prices are cheaper)
  
• I picked up a 2 inch reach hole punch by Punchline (McGill Inc.) at Michaels, and found that the hole size was a bit big so I will be going back to get a 3/16 hole instead of the 1/4 I'm used for the sample.
• The pink backing to the monogram on the top is from scrap from my invites. The monogram will be printed on the same white metallic paper as the inside.
  

TIPS AND TRICKS

Cut the ribbon in 1 yard pieces, this will give you enough to comfortably tie the bow, and trim off edges to make the ends nice and crisp.

I punched the hole on the black outer part first. I simply put the 2 inch reach punch as far as it would go and punched once on the top and once from the bottom. Directly on the crease of the fold!

The after I printed and cut and folded the inner part, I laid it inside the black outer piece where it should sit, flipped it over and used a pen to mark through the holes where to punch on it. It's a putsy process but it worked like a charm every time.

* Let me know if you have any questions about how I made them or anything! They are still in the "mock up" stage but as soon as my product arrives I'm going full force on them!!!

Get With The Program!

I'm embarking on a new creative journey! The Programs for the wedding. I've actually gone back and forth about weather or not to do them, save the time and the money and skip it all together - I mean who woulnd't know what was going on or who would be getting married...really.

But in the end, the desire to have all things "tradtional" so to speak won, and I'm not starting to lay out my designs.

My program will come from inspiration from 2 other programs I have seen. One, I found on line, a Knotti Bio that I am in love with - props to Jenimac for the next photo:


The Program is an 8.5x11 sheet of cover weight card stock folded in half, the long way. Inside on regular white paper was the information and the whole look is completed with big, elegant ribbon and a monogram on the front.

I plan to use this idea for the outer cover of ours, but instead of a plain inside I'm going to keep going with the Stardream Metallic.

We will have the monogram on the front as well: It will look like this (see right), which is a theme that is carrying through out the whole wedding. I may add in the date at the bottom however, and possibly "All You Need Is Love" which is kinda our mantra in life.

As for the inside, I got the idea from a program I came across while at my PREPARE class at church. They passed around a basket full of programs and told us to take what we wanted for inspiration. The one we really liked was actually printed on Metallic Stardream paper and really suited us as a couple.

It has a photo printed on the it's cover (What will be Page 1, in our program) that is faded out and has a sweet saying along the top.

The Back, which is directly next to to it, has a sweet Thank You to our guests and another photo.


The inside, simple and straight to the point. And east to read - which was a big thing for us. We didn't want an over crowded inside that was hard to make out. Simple, clean lines.
(excuse the image, my scanner either is zooming in on one little corner of the program or cuts off the bottom, I've tried it 40 different ways.)


I'm starting creation today of the inner part - with Photo Shop CS2. When I have something - you'll know!