Archive for the ‘designs & crafts’ Category

I love it when couples personalize their stuff (invitations, websites, favors, programs, thank you cards, etc).  I think the easiest and most obvious way to do that is to incorporate the use of pictures.  I received a wedding thank you card, which doubled as a holiday greetings card, from Hanh+Wing the other day and I thought it was very cute.  Their wedding was in May, but it was totally worth the wait (haha, just joking guys!).  It might take a little more time and maybe a little extra money to personalize your stuff, but it at least it won’t be a typical ”cookie cutter” and it’ll stand out.  At the end of the day it’s all about preference though.   Personally, I prefer to put a part of “me” into my stuff and I like receiving stuff from others with a part of “them”.   Trust me that your hard work won’t go unnoticed.  I promise someone notices. =)

I’m a little late posting this, but better late than never.  I finally found time to take some pictures.  This is the wedding program I designed and made for my sister.  It’s a simple and square shaped program.  The insert (ceremony/wedding party detail and message from bride and groom) is held in place with a satin ribbon.  I replicated the name emblem from the invitation and put that on the program to stick with the theme and provide some design consistency.  This is a very easy and economical DIY wedding program.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love the idea of having a photobook as a guestbook.  Being the cool sister that I am I created one for my sister for her wedding using her engagement pictures.  I ordered it in a black leather cover from MyPublisher and it came out looking really nice for a DIY project.  Too bad I didn’t get to take a picture of the cover before presenting it to my sister and her husband.  I wish I had ordered mine in leather instead of the annoying book jacket I opted for.  Just FYI, book jackets falls off all the time… really annoying!

Over the weekend I picked up supplies for my sister’s wedding favors.  I got these 2×2 boxes to be filled with Seattle’s Chocolate truffles.  The ribbon I’m using is double-sided satin so I don’t have to twist and turn the ribbon to get the “right” side to show.  Nice!  I thought the mini present looking boxes were too plain still, so I decided to add a tag.  Each tag had to be individually punched out (one of my new favorite crafting tool) and stamped with the “thank you” message.  I’ve actually only made one as a sample for my sister.  I’m probably going to end up helping to tie the ribbons on since it’ll be the most laborious part of the whole process.  The boxes and satin ribbons came from Packaging Specialties.  The tag-maker, stamp and paper came from Paper Zone.  I kept all the scraps from the invitations so I didn’t have to buy extra paper for the tags.  Anyway, I love PS and PZ.   I could do so much damage there!

Latest project:  my sister’s wedding invitations.  I’ve been busy working on them over the past three weeks and finally finished the last 55 of 175 invitations today.  What a relief that was!  The wedding is about a month away so you can see how important it was for me to get them done… like  right now, haha.  I didn’t have very much notice.  My sister got engaged earlier this year and the search for a date and venue for an early Fall wedding started early Summer.  Once it was confirmed I jumped on creating a mass production worksite on my small dining room table.  My kitties were much kinder to me this time by not interfering with the work process too much.  Seung was even helpful.  I offered to make her invitations since I was feeling a little creative.  Plus, I knew my sister would need A LOT of help and I could save her money without sacrificing  too much in design and creativity.  I wore those shoes before so any help I can offer to any bride is my pleasure.  Well maybe just the lucky ones =).  I came up with a few mock designs below.  There was only one clear winner in which my sister, her fiance, my mom and I loved the most.ekinvit01And the winner goes to…

ekinvit02

ekinvit03

Every part of the invitation was made from scratch.  The pouch was probably the most frustrating part.   Actually, I take that back. Kinkos was the most frustrating part.  They messed up on 100 of the cards since some of their staff are idiots and can’t operate the cutting machine.  They weren’t the cheapest cardstock paper either.  I can’t believe how many times I had to tell one of the guys how to cut my paper and he still did it wrong and on top of it did it very poorly.  It was disappointing since I thought I found the only Kinkos in town that actually does a great job with it too.  After a few venting sessions to random crafty people they told me never to go to Kinkos to get my cuttings done and recommended me to Office Max instead.  I have to say that I’m very impressed with Office Max’s Impress services.  They’re cheaper than Kinkos too.  Anyway, all of the supplies for the invitations came from Paper Zone.  The beautiful French ribbons were from Packaging Specialties for $84 a roll (call me crazy??!).  I needed two rolls *ouch*.  I don’t really know why anything labeled as “French” is so expensive.  We totally could’ve used the simpler solid ribbon for about $7 a roll.  What can I say?  The best way for me to justify paying $84 for a roll of ribbons is that it was similar to finding that perfect ”dress” except in this case ribbons, hehe.  Next project:  brainstorm ideas for ceremony programs, placement name cards and reception menus.  I’m swinging towards something simple since the invitations drained all the energy out of me.  We’ll just see…