inspiration to reality: ceremony programs

The ceremony programs for our wedding were inspired by this amazing paper artist at Paper and Thread.  We were unsure what the weather would be like at our October wedding in Southern California, typically we experience heat waves around that time, so in preparation for that occurrence we felt a fan style program would be the perfect solution.

paper and thread studio

paper and thread studio

As with all of the diy paper products for the wedding, the ceremony programs were a labor of love.  The mr. spent hours designing and perfecting the content of the pages.  My mother helped with all of the hand punches (circle in the middle of the cover and decorative corners).  And I'm pretty sure there were several other helpers for the assembly however they were put together so close to the wedding date and I don't remember much from that time.

Supplies:

Kraft paper - Michaels

"R" custom monogram -  The Wedding Chicks

Fonts - dafont.com

Content design by mr. roundy - Free trial of Adobe Photo Shop used on a Mac Book Pro

Circle paper punch - Marvy Clever Lever Craft Punch (Michaels)

Corner paper punch - Fiskars 3-in-1 Heritage Corner Punch (Michaels) 

Eyelets - Recollection Brass Eyelets (Michaels)

{wedding photos by Heidi O Photo}

fabric heart garland

Oh {wo}man this was a difficult project!  I'm really happy with the way it turned out however it was a beast to complete.  As always I started with an inspiration photo...

bananasaurus rex

Cute right?  I was determined to use all upcycled fabric for the garland, so I set off to clean out my closets and craft supplies.  I even asked a friend for any of her daughters clothes she was planning to donate because I knew they would have cute patterns.  And in a last ditch effort not to buy new fabric, I stopped by a couple of thrift stores.  Here's a pic of my fabric collection for the project.

Look at those thrift store prices for the fat quarters!

With the inspiration photo in hand I estimated the size of the muslin square (2.5"x 2.5").  I also noticed some squares held two hearts so I doubled the length for those.  After that I created a heart shaped template with cardstock paper, traced the template onto my fabric and cut out my hearts.

In the first assembly attempt I thought I could cut corners by sewing straight down the middle of the heart or vertically down the square.

The single stitch plan didn't work very well; it was just too clumsy. So I decided to sew all of the muslin squares on first as you see below and then go back to sew the hearts on.

 In the end there are 2 stitches on each square, one vertical and one horizontal.

And here's the final product!  It took about 6 hours to complete this one strand and I hope to finish another to hang above this one.

Lessons learned:

• Muslin is not the best option for the base square.  The weave of the fabric is too loose and the stringies were driving me nuts!
• Quilting fabric worked best for the hearts.  The fabric from the upcyled cotton t-shirts wasn't stiff enough and those hearts tend to flop over.
• Use a much thicker string than I did. The crochet yarn I used kept twisting after the garland was assembled and it was a real pain.

see's candies

The mr. and I have shared this box of See's Candies since 2005.  Say what?

Each year we swap filling the same heart shaped box with a custom assortment of candies.  This tradition was suggested to us by my Aunt Char who, when shopping for her own See's candies, witnessed an elderly lady filling a heart shaped box she had shared with her husband for years.

What's your Valentine's Day tradition?  Here's some coupons if you are inspired to start a See's Candies tradition.

malakai 2.1.2011

I'm an Auntie {again}!!  And let me say the baby shower was perfectly themed because this little guy is absolutely cute as a button!  Baby Kai tricked his mommy into thinking he was ready to come out at 6am.  But after a long day of playing in the park and eating buffalo wings he decided to join his family at 9:14pm.  

Much to everyone's relief, Malakai's daddy made it back from military training just in time for the birth.  And big sister Malia fell in love with her baby brother immediately.  In fact she burst into tears when another visitor tried to hold him.

Here we have the proud Uncle daydreaming of football games and future hikes with his little nephew...