Wedding Stationary - Part 3

The last piece of wedding stationary to write about is the favour box/place setting.  At Christmas time it's become a tradition that we have fudge made to the recipe of a school friend's mum. Elaine is carrying on this tradition and she and Andy also made and boxed up fudge to make wedding favours for friends. Elaine decided that she wanted to do the same for their own wedding so I made up the boxes and Elaine and I made the nine batches of fudge needed to fill them. As well as each of the guests having a box of fudge, chocolate buttons for the little ones, extra boxes were made to give out to those who helped in various ways on the wedding day.

 

The lids of the boxes were made from card printed with the same Nitwit Collections backing paper as was used for the invitations and the inside of the box base was lined with either dark green pearlescent paper for the gentlemen or light green parchment paper for the ladies. This used up lots of the scrap paper created from crafty mistakes along the way.  Making all the lids and bases for these boxes was made a lot easier using my trusty Scor-pal to do all the scoring.

The box and lid were held together by a name label attached to a length of ribbon. The ribbon was threaded through a ribbon slider at the back of the box to keep it all securely in place.  As well as each guest having their own keepsake box to take home if they wanted, the boxes were also used as place setting names and decoration for the dining tables. The table was also decorated with punched out love birds which had been an embellishment used on other pieces of the stationary and this was another way of using up pieces of scrap paper. The love bird theme carried over to their wedding cake as Elaine found a cute little ornament of two love birds which sat on the top tier.

 

Once the boxes, wraps and fudge were made the next task was to put it all together. The first stage was putting six pieces of fudge in to self sealing ATC bags and Alan helped me with this task.  At the end of it he decided that he wasn't cut out for the monotony of repetition work.  The pictures below show everything set out ready to put together.

Next the packets of fudge were put in the boxes and a name or thank you wrap attached to each. The whole process took most of a day and, although there was a lot of work involved in the making and filling of the favour boxes, it was satisfying to lay them all out and photograph at the end.

The last four posts have covered the wedding stationary for Elaine and Andy's wedding.  Next to come are the wedding cards I made for them.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xxx

I'd like to enter the boxes in the following challenges
More Than One Score Challenge 16 - All About Weddings
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge 316 - Wedding/Anniversary
Decorate to Celebrate Challenge 102 - Anything Goes
Through the Craft Room Door Challenge - Anything Goes
All Crafts Challenge June/July - Anything Goes (no cards)

Wedding Stationary - Part 2

As well as the cream cardboard boxes used for holding stationary items a wicker basket and hamper were also used.  The hamper basket was set out for guests to put their wedding day cards in and was decorated with green grosgrain ribbon, paper flowers and bunting made using X-cut nesting dies.  A matching luggage label was made using Sizzix thinlits dies and attached to the handle of the basket.  Luggage labels were also used to decorate our dressing gown coat hangers and the confetti basket.

  

The wicker basket was used to hold little cartons of confetti which were given to guests as they left the church.  A Stampin' up Sizzix die was used to make up these little cartons from card printed with the same Nitwit Collections backing paper as the invitations and each were filled with biodegradable natural petal confetti.  More paper flowers and green ribbon decorated the handle of the basket along with the confetti labels.

 

The dining tables were each given a wild flower name and Elaine made heart shaped labels to tie to the flower jars on the dining tables using her own photographs of each one.  The top table was primula scotica, which was no surprise, seeing as it was the elusive little flower she had managed to see on the holiday when she and Andy became engaged.

  

I used these same photographs to decorate the seating plan board which added a lovely splash of colour.  The board itself was Elaine's old peg board so we did a little bit of upcycling in the process.  Spellbinders oval and heart dies were used to cut out the different layers and green ribbon, diamante hearts and paper flowers were added.  The decorative edge around the board was made using off cut or reject pieces from other projects with ribbon pleated over the top.

 

There's just one piece of stationary left to write about and it makes a little story of its own so I'll save that for the next post.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xxx

I'd like to enter the following challenges
Decorate To Celebrate Challenge 102 - Anything Goes 
Penny's Challenge 232 - Anything Goes
Ladybug June Challenge - Use Your Dies

Wedding Stationary - Part 1

There were usually a few pieces of Elaine and Andy's wedding stationary being made at the same time which helped with the monotony of batch making. Having watched two craft friends make wedding stationary I knew that there would be a lot of repetition work involved. Chopping and changing between pieces also meant that when a decision had to be made about one of them, such as wording, then the production line could keep moving forward with something else until that decision was made.

The Order of Service cards matched the invitations and they too had the dark green lining paper and the wording printed on pale green parchment paper.  Once finished they were stored, ready to take to the church, in a large cream gift box which was decorated with dark green grosgrain ribbon. Our local card shop had a range of different sizes of these cream boxes so a few were bought and decorated for various purposes on the day.

   

Two boxes were used for the wisdom and wishes cards. The smaller box held the cards and pens for guests to write their good wishes and advice on and the larger box was the posting box for the cards.  Along with their wedding day cards they took these wisdom and wishes cards away to read on their honeymoon and Elaine intends to scrapbook them all later. The larger box is now being used as a keepsake box so the posting hole has been sealed up with layers of acetate attached above and below the hole cut in the lid and silver heart confetti is trapped  between the two layers of acetate to make a shaker window.

Another box was used to store photographer information cards for guests to take away with them. These cards were put together by Elaine and Andy using photos from their engagement shoot and printed on each one was the password guests would later need to view their wedding photos. Blank DVDs were also made available for guests to take home with them so that they could send Elaine and Andy photos they had taken of the day. Sometimes guests can catch magical moments which go unnoticed by the bridal party. Card envelopes for the DVDs were printed and addressed to match the stationary.

Andy had also put together a photo book for guests to look at which included lots of photos of themselves, and of their friends and family, which recorded special events and holidays since they had become a couple.  Photography is important to Elaine and Andy as it was at a local photography class that they had first met.  To celebrate this they each had a photo board with a selection of their favourite photographs on display for guests to view.

More to come in part 2.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xxx

Wedding Invitations

Before I got back from Orkney lots of decisions had been made regarding the wedding including the wedding date which had been set for 9^th April 2015 which meant there were nine months left for planning. Elaine had decided that the bridesmaids dresses were to be green so that became the colour theme for all the stationary items too.

Elaine had in mind an invitation which would have the invite wording on the front of an opening card with an information sheet attached to the inside. My Craft Studio and a patterned sheet from the Nitwit Collection Petal Fresh were used to create the card base. Attached to that were a strip of dark green pearlised paper which had been punched using the Martha Stewart Doily Lace border punch, a strip of the patterned paper on top of that and wrapped around the layered strips and base card was green grosgrain ribbon with a matching bow added on top. Love bird punch outs from the green pearlised paper and crystal gems were added amongst the wording.

The inside of the card was lined with dark green pearlised paper and pale green parchment paper was used for printing the information sheet. The corners of the base card and insert sheets were rounded off using a corner punch. Once we had the design for the invitation sorted it became the basis for other pieces for the day.

Here are some images of the completed day and evening invitations.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xxx

A trip home and a missed anniversary

There was no time to discuss any wedding thoughts and plans with Elaine and Andy when they came back as mum had received a letter with an appointment date for her knee joint replacement operation and was travelling down from Orkney to Aberdeen that week. It was hard to believe that after having her operation on the Saturday she flew back to Orkney the following Tuesday afternoon. She had the option of staying in the local hospital for a few days to recuperate but decided she wanted home to her own house and with hindsight I should have travelled home with her rather than follow on a few days later.

Friends and family who know me well are aware that I am not a confident driver and do not like making sea trips but on this occasion, and because the weather forecast was excellent, I decided to take the car on the ferry and sail from Aberdeen to Orkney.

Taking the car with me was a good decision as it allowed me to take mum out and about and to attend appointments whilst she recovered. These trips out were made even more enjoyable as the weather during my stay was beautiful. For the first time in years I ended up sunburnt whilst weeding. Mum's knee problems meant that she hadn't got around to flower planting but had got vegetables planted and the weeds were taking over the potatoes. 

 

This is a view from Mum's garden along with a few pictures of some of her flowers. Notice that there's not a cloud in the sky in this view looking down over Kirkwall towards St. Magnus Cathedral where Alan and I had got married thirty years ago. During my trip home I missed our pearl wedding anniversary. In the scurry of many events, including Ian's birthday, I hadn't even made a card to leave behind for Alan and a bought one had to do instead.

To make up for my lack of effort here are photos of hand made cards we received from family and friends. 

Thanks for reading today

Liz xxx

Engagement Card

It was a week after their engagement before Elaine and Andy returned from their holiday and we were able to congratulate them in person and pop a bottle of bubbly to celebrate. However, that week had given me enough time to put together an engagement card and I used my favourite layout, colours, techniques and embellishments to make it.

 

Two different shades of lilac pearlescent card, dufex silver heart card and two different shades of lilac printed card from a Create and Craft pack were cut and layered to make the different tiers for the card. The bottom and middle tiers were made by layering up the cardstock with nine 5cm squares stitched on the top of the middle layer to make a grid for the nine little toppers to sit in. Lilac grosgrain ribbon was wrapped around two corners of the bottom layer before the middle layer was added on top using foam pads.

The top tier was the nine little toppers. The squares, hearts and sentiment layers for these were die cut using Spellbinder nestabilities dies and purple thread was wrapped around each set of squares to add an extra frame to the embellishments. An Avec embroidery and embossing stencil was used to prick out the design for the stitching on the corner squares.

To finish off the card hearts in the form of pearls, stickers and a silver charm were added along with a bow made from the lilac grosgrain ribbon.

It's hard to believe all this happened almost a year ago and that they are now a married couple.

Liz xxx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Crafty Cardmaker's Challenge 140 - Stitching Real or Faux
Card Mania Challenge 69 - Use a Metal Embellishment
Crafty Catz Challenge 282 - Stitching
Deep Ocean Challenge 105 - Add a Charm
Craft for the Craic June Challenge - The Big Occasion

More Happy Elaine

It's nearly a year since a new post was added to this blog but this next one will reveal what happened for it to have been abandoned for so long.

 

In a previous post I wrote about Elaine being happy at finding the elusive little plant Primula Scotica (Scottish Primrose) whilst on her holiday in Orkney with Andy. This happened on day one of their holiday.

The following day was another happy one when Elaine met Sheila Fleet in person and had a photograph taken with her whilst on a visit to her workshop. Sheila is an Orcadian jewellery designer and Elaine loves her designs and has bought and received several pieces through the years and this was an opportunity to add some more pieces to her collection. The Primula Scotica charm was most appropriate considering she had seen the little plant the previous day. 

 

However, another really, really happy event was to happen on Elaine's holiday and we had been let in on the secret some months before when Andy came and asked for our blessing to ask her to become his wife.  Another piece of Sheila Fleet jewellery was about to be added to her collection.

And so, on the first of July 2014, on the island of Hoy at St John's Head, Andy proposed to Elaine and she squeaked yes. Elaine thought Andy was setting up the camera to take a self timed photograph of their achievement to reach the cliff top but the surprise on her face was priceless when he walked back to her and then dropped down on one knee. All was captured on video, which we were able to enjoy later, as Andy had set the camera to record the event as it happened.

 

And here is the happy couple when the self timer was actually set.

 

Once they got back from their holiday, and had told close family and friends they were engaged, a wedding date was set for April the 9^th 2015. I was given the honour of making the wedding stationery and took the decision that other crafting and blogging had to go on the back burner until after their wedding and hence the long absence from posting.

Hopefully the next post will follow quite soon.  Have a good weekend.

Liz xxx