Tons to Celebrate!

When Matthew received his card, he was so pleased that he told his brother, Joe about me. Joe was a month away from celebrating his own girlfriend's birthday. He wanted me to create a card with an elephant since he and Lauren had just been to the San Diego Zoo (jealous!) and she had fallen in love with the elephants. He also mentioned that her favorite colors were purple and pink.

So with that info, this is what I came up with:

I took some sparkly purple paper and cut the layout using Creative Cards Cricut cartridge. I found the CUTEST clear elephant stamps by Inky Antics. I colored him in with copics and added some sparkly stars.

I added another stamp on the inside along with the sentiment using Hero Arts font stamps. Instead of a border, I added colorful flags to the top and cut happy birthday from the Birthday Bash cartridge. I realized afterward that I didn't leave him much room to write his own message to her, but hopefully he has small handwriting. =)

A Surprise Request

One day I opened up my e-mail and there was a request from a gentleman named Matthew wondering if I could make his girlfriend Katie a birthday card. He had stumbled upon this blog and liked an old Jiminy Cricket birthday card I had made for my friend's dad.

Well, of course!

Since he liked that layout so much, I stuck close to that, adding a few different touches. For one, I added silver stickles to the stars.

As for the inside, Matthew's only specification was some kind of small border and Happy Birthday Katie to be written.

I decided to remain with a cohesive theme, I would stencil a star pattern all around the card.(I was such a nervous wreck doing this! It had to be perfect!) The font is from the cricut cartridge: Birthday Bash. I just love the festive font!

Thankfully, Matthew was very pleased with the result and a few days later, I received another request from his brother Joe! Stay tuned for that lovely birthday card.

DIY Project: Creating Wedding Invitation Shells

Today's post is a labor of love that I am very proud of! Gale and Andrew are two coworkers I met at my last job. If you know me in real life then you know I was not a big fan of my previous place of employment. However among the sea of manipulation, I met two of the nicest, most genuine people ever and I'm so happy that even though I no longer see them every day, we are still pretty close. The older I get, the more I realize how rare it is to find good friends. 

When Gale approached me for help with the wedding invites, I was thrilled. Of course I would help! Her main problem was that she had ordered lovely invitations from a website, but thought they needed some pizazz with the presentation. So I turned to my Martha Stewart paper trimmers and came up with a design I thought she would like. Then we began the process of making 90 invitations. Several trips to Michael's and bottles of wine later, we got to work!

And to his credit, Andrew stuck it out with us girls like a trooper! Never complaining, he diligently did every job given to him. Even if they were quite simple.... haha

At Michael's, Gale purchased LOTS of individual  pieces of Gold 12x12 card stock. (Thank GOD for their massive open card stock sale!) I was first on the assembly line, measuring and cutting the paper.

Isn't he adorable? Ladies, he's single. So good at direction. Such a keeper!

 Then I handed it over to Andrew so he could use the paper trimmer to cut the middle of the paper. Lastly, Gale took it and adding the tissue paper and the actual invitation, closed it and tied it with a lovely purple ribbon.

The glowing Bride-to-be!

I must say, we worked all afternoon and made pretty good progress. Perhaps it was the good conversation or the great music (we listened to everything from The Postal Service to The Shins to John Frusciante) But we cranked out 90 of these rather easily.

We also stamped their custom created stamp from Etsy on the envelopes.

Victory! We're awesome.

When I received the invitation, I almost didn't want to open it.

I was pretty proud of us. I have heard so many nightmares of brides and their DIY projects that they enlist their bridesmaids to help create. This was so far from that and I was just glad to spend some time with my former partners in crime. When my time comes, I know who I will be enlisting for my own DIY projects- my two honorary bridesmaids. =)

And speaking of enlisting help, a few days later, I helped Gale maneuver her way around veil shopping in NYC.  Let me just say, veils are EXPENSIVE! Fo' real.  Plus I have no idea how people get away with selling flower decorations for your hair that cost $145 when you can find the same thing at Claire's for $10. Truth. 

But I did have a little fun....

Between my shirt and phone case, I'm surprised the wedding consultant didn't say "Little girl, stop playing with the merchandise."