A Crafty Shower

When it came time to have a bridal shower, my first instinct was to pass. Everything about my wedding up until then had been rather small and unconventional so I felt having a shower would contradict that. Then the combination of my mom insisting I have one and me realizing that it was my wedding and I could do whatever I wanted, changed my mind. What was important was that I stuck to my guns: no restaurant brunches and no shower games.

Instead I wanted to do something fun and different. Obviously, crafting is such a large part of my life and it was something I thought the other ladies would enjoy too.

Off to Paper Source we go! The store on the Upper West Side has a large side room and since my shower would be in the summer, I wanted my theme to reflect that. We went with a Moana/Lilo and Stitch tropical shower. I chose a basic card making class that people at all levels would be able to do. The folks at the Paper Source let us bring lots of food as well as decorate the space and honestly, it was the best time. Not everyone knew each other, but the activity was something fun they could do while chatting.

 I'm so glad I decided to try something different because it was such a great afternoon with the most important ladies (and gentleman) in my life. Below are some pictures of the day.

Here are the supplies for making the invitations!

Embossing and washi tape made for simple and quick invites. Also, Disney font because, obviously.

Our treat table/favors table! I created decorations based on Moana and Lilo and Stitch quotes.

Tiki brownies and Tamatoa treasure cake!

This is from his song, Shiny which is one of my favs. 

Kevin is one of my closest friends from college and also my officiant!

Table set up!

We're all busy crafting!

All the smiling faces was exactly what I wanted.

My creations!

My wedding party!

This handsome guy showed up at the end to help with clean up.

Champagne favors with my personalized tags.

Everyone's creations for the day!

The Mommas!

My lovely group of women (and Kevin <3)

Bride Tribe

Surprises are the best. The BEST. I love them. I’m a hard person to surprise though. I get nosy and suspicious really easily. I like to bug and bug until people crack. I’ve been told it’s not fun for the other person, but I just can’t help it!

So imagine my surprise when I walked into my apartment last August and found a million balloons scattered around the place. The soundtrack for Pixar’s UP was playing and my very sweet boyfriend was standing holding a bouquet of sunflowers. I would like to say my first reaction was sweet- I cried, I laughed, I grabbed him. But no- my first instinct was to say, “What the fuck?” (If you know me then you aren’t very surprised by this) But then the speech came and the ring and then I started jumping and crying so eventually, I got there.

Fast forward a couple of months later- it’s time to pick my wedding party. BRIDESMAIDS ASSEMBLE!

There wasn’t a question of who I would ask- just a question of HOW. I wanted it to be special and personal and Disney related of course.  My girls are all Disney fans themselves so I knew I wouldn’t have to ponder too much on this. I decided to create a Disney Princess box for each of them showcasing their favorite princess. I was sly about this, randomly taking a poll for a Disney Blogger online (which isn’t too much of a stretch since I used to be one once upon a time) and pretty soon, I had my results.

I wanted the outside of the box to be the wedding colors of red and navy blue. Off to Michael’s I go! I found these great boxes with room for a picture on the lid and painted them all accordingly. I covered them with blue ribbon to give them a sense of “opening a present” (I covered the photos for this blog just to give them some privacy).

Once you open the box, this is what you would find:

• Will you be my Bridesmaid postcard from Papersource
• Bottle of champagne with “I Love You” written in different languages and cute cartoons. I also made a special tag for each of them
• A Ring pop (featuring Sid the Sloth from Ice Age since JP worked on that movie!)
•  A mini clipboard for notes
• A figurine of your Disney Princess from the Animator’s collection (TOTES my fav!)
•  A Little Golden Book of your Disney movie which I took a part and added pages of notes about the wedding after the story

I was able to deliver them personally to each girl and it was so wonderful to see their reactions. I was so glad they all said yes and have started this crazy journey with me!

From L to R: Michelle (Aurora), Me (Belle), Rachael (Ariel- also my Maid of Honor!), Tana (Pocahontas), Monique (Mulan) and Gale (Jasmine)

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."

Happy Engagement!

Welcome to the next card challenge for Made Especially for You. This week's challenge is to create a card using three different papers- no more, no less! I find challenges like this to be lots of fun since paper layering always brings about great creations. The challenge runs from Monday to Sunday

Onto prizes! Our sponsor this week is Julie from 3 Girl Jam! The winner this week will receive a 2 piece bundle of crinkle ribbon.

This is what I came up with. A friend of mine got engaged the weekend before Valentine's Day and I wanted to make her an engagement card.

I used a sparkle patterned paper, black and plain grey paper. I found this adorable stamp at Michaels and I decided to glitter emboss it. To add some extra sparkle, I added some jewel embellishments. Here's hoping for a long, happy life for the lovely couple!

Til Next Time, Happy Crafting!

A Ring and Cupcake Celebration!

It's been awhile since my last update. I actually have been very busy making Valentine's Day cards for a very great cause. I urge you to take a look at Winter's website. She is collecting Valentine's Day cards from January 1st to the 31st and then will send them to children's hospitals including St. Jude's, Texas Children's Hospital, Vanderbilt Children's hospital and more. This is such an incredible cause and I hope all of you can take a moment and send some cards in. I haven't finished mine yet since I was trying to make at least 15 or so. When I finish them, I will post them.

This post is dedicated to two special celebrations I had the pleasure of taking part in yesterday. An old friend of mine from college is getting married and last night was his engagement party. I finally got the chance to meet his fiance and she was the sweetest girl ever! You could tell just how in love they are and being the hopeless romantic that I am, stuff like that just makes me giddy.

Joe and Stephanie truly are the perfect pair.

To celebrate this union, I turned to my trusty Cricut and used the Sweethearts cartridge which is one of my favorites. Instead of using different colors and cutting the birds out a million times, I tried using colored pencils, which to be honest, I wasn't very happy about. I need better pencils. In the end, I felt like it needed something else, so I added three jewel embellishments. (I'm learning from all these websites that sometimes simple is perfect!)

 

I used Zots to create the 3D effect with the birds.

But the engagement party was also doubling as a birthday party for my friend Allen. I met Allen through Joe and he was a very nice and funny guy. My best friend Monique is a cook extraordinaire (trust me! Check out her website!) and she baked Red Velvet cupcakes with cheesecake filling and they were a big hit. I'm sad I didn't snap a photo of them.

The birthday boy, Allen with the lovely baker, Monique.

When creating Allen's birthday card, I tried remembering something special about him. He was an early education teacher so I wanted to create a card I thought an eight year old would like. For this card, I ventured into the Birthday Bash cartridge for the first time. The crocodile was fun but the tiny triangles proved tricky on the top. I used tweezers for the first time ever! I also didn't want to simply put him on a very busy looking print, so I used my Cuttlebug on plain red paper, keeping with my circle theme.

Next up will probably be my Valentine's Day cards, but who knows? There are some great challenges out there I'm dying to try!

Til next time, Happy Crafting!