Birthday

Made at SU class.
Our demo is a bully a lovely lady who made us hand-cut around all those letters.

Happy Birthday

(sorry for the dreadful photos) Made at SU class.

Birthday Wishes

Made at SU class.

Golden Wedding Party

Recently my parents celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary.
I offered to do all the stationery and party stuff instead of buying them a present.
Lots of photos here to explain it all :)

Pure coincidence that they had fifty guests, it wasn't planned that way. I really don't like repetition in crafting so this was a labour of love for me.

Initially I was going to make fifty favour boxes using my various Sizzix box dies but then decided there was enough to do with the invitations, table plan etc!
Instead I bought a pack of disposable icing bags (Lakeland Ltd) and filled them with a variety of sweets in gold and clear, sweets were just Sainsbury's value range so it didn't cost too much to fill them.  I know traditionally wedding favours are meant to be in fives but as this was an anniversary and not a wedding I didn't think that would matter.

The night before the party I tied handmade tags on with curling ribbon. I didn't do this beforehand as thought the ribbon may get squashed in transit (party was three hours from where we live).

Next it was after-dinner mints.
I printed the messages and then cut with punches. All punches used are Stampin' Up!

Mints are often on 3 for 2 so an inexpensive addition to the party.

I didn't want to use a wet glue just in case of seepage into the mints, extra-tacky tape just a dash on each piece.

Each mint was decorated both sides, at the party we tipped them into a cheap basket that we had sprayed gold. After dinner some of the younger guests took the basket round to each table for me.

My parents were having a vow renewal in a chapel and asked for donations to the chapel in lieu of presents.
I had seen a beautifully decorated 'postbox' in a local shop that sells exquisite wedding stationery but it was £25.
Ebay had plenty of plain boxes for around £5, this one was £7.50 including the ribbon and postage, bargain!

The guests could post their cards, money envelopes etc into the postbox, no risk of them getting lost that way.  We decided not to decorate the box so that the chapel could keep it for future events.

The same shop that sold the £25 postboxes also had gorgeous table plans, absolutely stunning.
My mum made enquiries as to the price and was told £200!!
I told her I could make one from a piece of mount-board for a fraction of that.

What actually happened was that I dropped into my local picture framing shop to buy just a piece of plain mount-board but got chatting to the owner about why I wanted it. I discovered that instead of me matting and layering straight onto the board that he has a machine (similar to a heavy duty craft robo I guess) that could cut any size apertures that I wanted, that he would double-mount around the edge of the apertures, plus engrave two initials either side of the top. All done to my exact specifications and at the total cost of £25.

the picture framer man engraved my parents' initials and I followed the line with self-adhesive gems

Within a week he had cut the board for me. A few packs of gems, ribbon and some diamante buckles all from Ebay and I got busy.
Now at this point we did not actually know how many tables there would be at the party so I had decided on nine apertures in a three by three formation. I thought that if we had five, six, seven or whatever tables that nine would still look symmetrical and that I could use the gaps for photos or perhaps flowers. Better that than have too few apertures.

In the end we had five tables so four blank apertures which I filled with photos of my parents' wedding back in 1961.
My mum had asked that I didn't use 'numbers' as table markers so no one could get offended if they were at a lower number to someone else. We came up with flower names instead and I deliberately went for the shortest names possible (rose, lily, iris, daisy, poppy) to make it easier ha-ha.

To hold the flower names we used giant pegs sprayed gold.
The guests had been asked a few weeks previously to choose what they would like to eat. I know from a job I had years ago that whenever I had arranged Christmas parties and people had to choose in advance what they wanted to eat that nine times out of ten they forgot what they had ordered.

This time I collated the menu replies so that I knew not only who was sitting at what table but also what they had ordered. I printed this out and attached it to the back of the flower table names.
I have to admit that this was the single most commented thing out of all that I had done.
The head-waitress ran to get the hotel manager when she saw them and he offered me a job, he was joking obviously but anyway it would be too much of a commute for me...
I could hear the guests coming in chatting about how they had no idea what they had ordered, then they saw the printed information, everyone saying how fab it was. *polishes halo*
It really made sorting out the lunch a whole lot smoother, especially for the waiting staff. I wonder if the hotel are going to start something similar themselves now.

The head-waitress suggested we put the icing-bag sweet favours into the water glasses, they fitted perfectly.

The completed table plan, just a few gems had dropped off on the long journey but I had taken spares with me so no gaps visible :)

The picture framer who cut my table plan also sold me an extra piece of mount-board. I popped a photo of my mum and dad in and stood it on an easel. As the guests came in I asked them to write a message on the mount-board for my parents to read afterwards. I know from my own wedding that we ended up with a guest-book that had about a hundred or so pages and yet the guests only wrote on the first six or so and the rest of the book was left blank.
With the signed board we could get it framed after the party and then it could go on a wall at my parents' house so they have a nice reminder of the party.

So that's it :)
All the hard work paid off, everything went well and we all enjoyed the party. I got lots of nice comments about the things I had created and it was fairly cheap to put together using my existing stash plus some extras.
Time for a rest now!

New York Wedding

I made this for my brother and his girlfriend who are due to marry next week in New York.

The card is 8 inch square (Papermania, pack of six for £3), first time I have used this size but I think I like it. I normally use 6 inch x 6 inch but this gives the option to use scrapbooking paper where the pattern is quite large and still see enough of it.
The paper is by K&Co and has a lovely sheen to it which the photo does not show.

The stamped image is a very old stamp, not sure of the manufacturer but could be PSX.
Ribbon buckle is from ebay and is lovely and sparkly in real life.

With it being a special card I prettied up the envelope a bit using Sizzix Block Party alpha and some gems.

Mum

Cardstock and polka dot ribbon are SU.
Alpha is Script by Sizzix.
The flower stamp is by Hero Arts and comes with a coordinating Sizzix embossing folder, it's called Silhouette Vines. I love the effect of the embossing, really makes the stamping 'pop'. I added a couple of coloured pearls to the image too.

Birthday Wishes

Made at SU class.
I like the flowers across the card but am not keen on the distressing effect so would leave that off if I was making it again.

Butterflies

Made at SU class.
We brayered the inside of an embossing folder with ink so that the embossed bits stand out in white against the coloured ink background.

Unfortunately for me I brayered in one direction only and so my card looked stripy, I helped my mum with hers and tried brayering in both directions and there were no stripes. Oh well someone had to be the guinea pig and go first...

Acetate

I love making acetate cards but they are a bit tricky to photograph.
Made at class, all materials are SU.

Golden Wedding

My mum and dad recently celebrated fifty years of marriage.
This was the card I made for them to match the colours of their party invitations and favours etc.
The bottom half of the card has a vellum overlay and you can't tell from the pic but it's a large card (front is the size of A4 card which made making a box to fit a bit tricky!)

The flowers are a combination of SU punches and Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die, finished off with Papermania brads.

Gift Bag

Made at SU class.

Birthday Wishes

Made at SU class.

Wishes

Made at SU class.

Men

Made at SU class.

Men

Made at SU class.
I like the above card except for the wobbly lines drawn around the script, it really spoils the card I think.

This one we used a single line stamp repeatedly to make the plaid effect. I think it would work as a gift tag but  I like to see a bit more on a card.