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Category Archives: E-Town Creations

A wedding shower- The food!

May 18, 2009

The day of the shower was beautiful. Sunny, breezy, warm. And the morning of the shower, my parents and I ran around finishing all of the last minute details for the shower. Starting with these:

Bee pops!

Inspired in part by Pioneer Woman’s “Springy Flower Pot Desserts” and by Bakerella’s infamous “Cake Pops,” I combined the two into these adorable little desserts. I spent the evening before the shower making the bumblebee cake pops.

Bumblebees

I simply followed Bakerella’s instructions to make cake pops… and then dipped them in yellow melting candy, added chocolate chips to one end for their stingers, brown candy coated sprinkle chips for the eyes and painted on their stripes and smiles with a toothpick dipped in melted chocolate candy.

Bees

Aren’t they cute??

Then my mom and I made these:

Flower pot

Using the smallest sized terra cotta pots we found at Hobby Lobby, we made this ice cream desserts. We placed a vanilla wafer in the bottom, spooned some softened vanilla ice cream into the dish around a plastic straw and covered the top with crumbled oreos (which, with the filling left in the mix, really looks like potting soil!). We froze them like this overnight and the morning of the shower, we wrapped them in bright red and green napkins and tied with a black ribbon. (the wedding colors!)

Dessert

The napkins kept everyone’s fingers from freezing and made the flower pots look like they were wrapped as gifts from the floral department!

We placed cut, artificial flowers and the bumblebee cake pops into the straw immediately before serving.

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And the bride (and everyone else!) loved them.

The bumblebees were pretty time consuming, so I used the rest of my cake balls to make these:

Cupcake Bites

Again, I used wedding colors… and had one of the bridesmaids ask if I sold desserts as a business! I answered, no, but Bakerella should! (have to give credit for genius ideas where credit is due)

We even sent everyone home with a cupcake bite…

Cake boxes

…in their own mini-cake boxes!

Cake of boxes

Mom’s digital craft cutter was responsible for these wedge shaped boxes-

Cake

And the adorable decoration they created when arranged into a layer cake! (Notice that one layer is “vanilla” and the other is “chocolate”!)

Dessert table

As if we didn’t already have enough sweets, we also served some lime bars, heart-shaped elephant ears, and HAMBURGER cookies (vanilla wafers, thin mints, red and yellow icing and green dyed coconut layered together- yum!) which fit our “outdoor”/”summer camp” theme.

We did serve lunch too…

Lunch

Salads and sandwiches!

And for good measure…

Champagne Punch

Champagne punch! Hey- we were all 21! Well, except for this little sweetie…

baby!

But she didn’t get to have any.

It was a beautiful, tasty afternoon. And the leftovers made the next day pretty sweet too!

Leftovers

Choose joy,

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A wedding shower- the invitations

May 7, 2009

The invitation

I like being a bridesmaid. It’s all the wedding planning, creating, and fun with WAY less stress and for way less money!

Last Saturday, my mom and I threw a shower for my best friend who is getting married in just under a month. And the first step was creating the invitations.

We started with their wedding colors. Red and black, with apple green accents. Remembering how Rachel and I did a parody on the popular Mastercard commercials for a class project in high school, Mom and I came up with another for our invites.

the perfect guy: $ 3 summers of Camp Duncan

Rachel and her fiance met while counselors at camp and since the groom is a pretty important part of the wedding, we started with “the perfect guy.” Mom’s digital craft cutter, the silhouette, cut out the black heart and kissing silhouette that we mounted on the apple green layer.

the perfect dress: $ not telling!

Then we stamped and embossed a white dress onto the red layer.

the perfect accessories: $ sensibly on sale

Then we embossed a shoe, crown, earrings, and a necklace in silver on a white layer.

having friends and family to shower you with gifts: priceless. There are some things that Dan and Rachel have. For everything else, there's going to be a wedding shower!

I then printed all of the shower information on white paper and mounted it on the final black layer.

the invitation

Then I stacked all of the layers and tied them with a black ribbon. The finished size was 5×7 and they were definitely well- received!

AND, they were fun! Up next, the actual shower! (With desserts inspired by the Pioneer Woman and Bakerella!)

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Wedding Season

April 22, 2009

2 of my best friends are getting married this summer and preparations are now in full swing. As a bridesmaid for each of them, I’m finding myself having many flashbacks to my own planning process a year ago. While that was really really fun and exciting, helping my friends through it is even better. Because I don’t have to be stressed about it. I don’t have to be the bride to whom everyone runs for answers. I don’t have to be the decision maker. And as fun as being engaged was, being married is WAY better. So this spring I plan on fully enjoying all of the wedding excitement without all of the pressure. And blogging about the shower, wedding, and reception ideas that I used for my wedding and am coming up with for my friends this year.

Invitations, centerpieces, decorations, bridesmaid dresses, etc.

Here are a few flashbacks from my wedding! (11 months ago!) Disclaimer- our wedding was colorful. I am not a “pink and white” person. My bridesmaids all look best in bright/bold colors so I chose to put them all in a deep, wine red colored dress.

I also knew that since we would be married outside and that I wanted a very festive, fun, and laid back atmosphere for the reception that I could get away with more color!

On a trip to Archiver’s to plan my save the dates, I found the perfect striped paper and everything then stemmed from that piece of paper. I’d scan it and post it, but they don’t sell it anymore and I’m too lazy to do it right now! Anyway, I ended up with red, orange, and yellow with a few teal accents and the natural green of my flowers and the backyard in which we were married.

I’ll start with the last detail that I decided on- centerpieces for our reception hall.

Centerpieces

Our centerpieces were VERY simple. I wanted a lot of color on the white tables and searched for months to find table runners or fabric that I could afford to lay on each table. I ended up buying several yards of the colors pictured here from Hobby Lobby. It’s a simple cotton broadcloth… and my mom and I ironed it and cut it into squares. Then we just laid them on top of each other to create the multi-colored, layered look here. And each table had a different pattern!

The terra cotta pots are also from Hobby Lobby and they are filled with mixed nuts and colorful m&m’s for people to snack on. The center one is a potted flower- in red, orange and yellow. We put out a couple of votives and added the table numbers (also handmade… a piece of 8.5×11 cardstock in red, yellow, or orange folded in thirds so that it stands as a triangle and wrapped with strips of a striped paper that I used on all of my wedding stationery. Then I just printed the numbers in the same font that I used for everything, mounted them on green or teal cardstock and glued them to each side of the triangle!).

And, voila!

Colorful, simple, and CHEAP. (Which is important when you have so many tables to decorate and little to no money!)

Here are some other beautiful centerpiece ideas that I’ve seen at weddings we’ve attended in the last few months (I probably like them a little better than mine but they were also professionally done so, more expensive I’m sure!)

Ornament favor

At Z’s cousins’ Christmas wedding, ornaments at each place were the favors.

The water carafe was even beautiful with basil, lime, and cranberries floating in it!

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Check out that professional flower arrangement!

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This centerpiece was from a friend’s June wedding. I love lilies and would’ve covered my reception hall with them if they were more affordable! Instead, I bought 5 large orange ones and had them in my bouquet!

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(Notice how her table numbers are very similar to what I did… they’re so easy, cheap and look really nice!)

Next post will probably be full of dresses and flowers- my favorite details by far!

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Woven Heart Basket

February 12, 2009

enhanced-hearts

I think that these are technically known as “Swedish woven hearts” - or something similar. My mother’s grandmother was Swedish so I have a little bit of Swedish of blood me- which you’d never guess by looking me! Anyway, I remember making some of these on a mini scale when I was little. We used Christmas fabrics and gave them away as ornaments to our family members and I was reminded of them recently when my mom taught some of her work friends how to make them. I had been trying to come up with some simple gift idea for my sisters-in-law for Valentine’s Day (they LOVED it when I sent them cards last year!).

These were perfect.

I started by buying 2 coordinating “fat quarters” at JoAnn Fabrics. I brought them home and ironed them well, folded them in half lengthwise and then, using a rotary cutter and straight edge, cut the fabric into 4 equal pieces that were 5 inches wide.

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I forgot to take pictures of the first few steps but the one on the left is 5 inch wide strip, still folded in half but after I’ve applied the fusible interfacing.

Because these were going to be rather big, I ironed on fusible interfacing to the wrong (inside) side of each 5″ strip.

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And then I cut a 5″ strip of very heavy cardstock to make my pattern. To make sure that the weaving works properly, it should be a square. So, in this case, the curved “heart” part has to happen at least 5″ up from the bottom. (I hope that makes sense!- I suggest practicing on paper first- especially if you’re making them a different size.)

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Then lay the flat end of the pattern on the fold of your fabric, trace, and cut out the top curve. (It’s unfolded above and both ends are curved now)

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See? I was trying to show here how the “main” woven part of the heart is a nice square and the curved part is then left alone. - Does that help?

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Then, I took my straight edge, cutting mat, and rotary cutter and cut 5″ long cuts into the heart, 1″ apart. I ended up with 5- 1″ strips that looked like this:

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Now for the weaving!

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In order for the basket to actually open, you can’t weave the strips simply over-under-over-under. As you can hopefully see above, the dark pink goes in between the layers of the light pink. then the light pink goes through the dark, etc.

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Here it is when it is all woven:

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The best thing about using fabric over paper is that you can bend it all around to get it to weave and it doesn’t get wrinkled or crunched like paper does.

enhanced-hearts

Then I tied on some white ribbon handles. (I just poked it through the weaving and tied it to itself!)

enhanced-filled-hearts

Added a tag,

filled-heart

And filled them with some goodies. (A giant heart cookie- see yesterday’s post, some chocolate, and a handmade valentine note) Happy Valentine’s Day!

One more V-day related post to go!

And it’ll be a delicious one!

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Stained Glass

January 14, 2009

This is one of my favorite wedding pictures. And it wouldn’t have been possible without my lovely and talented friend, Ericka.

This is her with the beautiful stained glass window that we designed and made together for our wedding. Stained glass is her hobby and she has a real passion for it. When Z and I decided to get married outdoors, the only thing I thought I would miss was the stained glass windows in my church. My mom then suggested making our own! Z came up with the idea of two intertwining tree trunks to symbolize the joining of our lives, etc.

And Ericka was instrumental in making it happen.

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First we drew the pattern that you can see surrounding the brown glass. We cut up the first pattern into “puzzle pieces” and then trace them onto the large posterboard shown here after numbering all of the pattern pieces. We ended up with a “paint by numbers” type template. We then took the “puzzle pieces” and traced them onto the appropriate colors of glass.

Then, Ericka cut all the pieces out. I know how to do it, but she’s a whiz and could do it about 10 times faster than I could… and when you’re wedding planning, you don’t have time to mess around.

After you cut out the glass using a special glass cutter (it creates a score line on the glass and then you use a “breaker” that simply cracks the glass along the score line. It’s pretty amazing!), you have to “grind” (aka sand) the edges so they all fit togther well.

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This is pre-grinding.

Then you “foil” the edges. We put a copper foil on each edge of each piece. This helps the solder hold everything together.

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Then we fit them all together really tightly and placed pins all around the edges to keep everything in place. For big windows, like this one, Ericka added some metal reinforcement along the big joints too.

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And then she soldered it all together. And her dad built a frame for it.

This is us working on it.

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And here is the finished product. In all it’s glory. Hanging from the arbor under which we were married.

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Oh, and then we made a miniature one from which we hung 3 “strands.” Instead of lighting a unity candle that would have been blown out by the wind anyway, we braided “a cord of three strands” that “is not quickly broken.” (Ecc. 4:9-12) Yeah, we’re non-traditional. And I loved it.

And now we have that beautiful window and the cord hanging in our bedroom instead of a pillar candle. (Not that there is anything wrong with a Unity Candle! We just did everything a little differently… but more on that later.) For now, I’ll just remind you of how cool of a backdrop stained glass makes.

Choose Joy and be different,

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Handmade Greeting Cards

January 8, 2009

I love paper. I love to draw, scrapbook, make cards, and I can even make origami paper cranes. Paper is relatively inexpensive, can be found in a multitude of colors and patterns, can be easily cut, glued, etc. As a result of my love of paper and very small craft or gift budget, I make a LOT of gifts out of the stuff. Scrapbooks (see my “Baby Shower Gift” post), ornaments (origami stars), and CARDS. I like to send cards to people (I sent out handmade Christmas cards to a lot of people this year) but it is even more fun to make a set of coordinating cards to give as a gift to someone so they can send them to their friends and loved ones.

I start with a package of 25 blank white cards and envelopes that I always buy on sale for about $5 at Michael’s or Hobby Lobby.

Then I usually drag out all of my stamps. For Christmas, I received a large set of acrylic stamps that I used to make the cards pictured in this post. The stamps are completely clear and self stick to a clear block so that I can see exactly where I am stamping on my paper.

For the set that I’m posting today, I tried to then pick papers in sets of 2, usually one dark and one light of the same color. Like this one. It’s a bright green and light, coordinating green.

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Then I embossed the stamped images onto the dominant color of the card. I embossed with white when the dominant color was the darker of the two and black when the dominant color was lighter to have some good contrast.

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Then I inked the edges of the paper with the stamped image by rubbing the edges lightly with my black stamp pad. This really defines the edges of the focal piece of paper and gives it a more “finished” look. Then I matted the stamped image with the lighter (or darker) color and glued it on the card.

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You’ll notice that I didn’t stamp any words on any of these cards and that they are different colors. Yet, I tried to be consistent in how I inked the edges, matted, and use coordinating colors on each to give the set a sense of uniformity.

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To finish off this gift, I bought a cardboard hinged box from Michael’s for another $5 and glued coordinating papers all over the outside before sealing it with several coats of Modge Podge. Now my friend will have a box to store all of these cards and any that she may make or buy to give away in the future.

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Baby Shower Gift

October 21, 2008

Noah's Ark- baby style

My family has a thing for Noah’s Ark. It’s probably because for several years, my grandpa built and painted small wooden arks and my grandpa sculpted and painted hundreds of pairs of animals and they sold them at craft shows. They were known as “Roger and Joan of Ark.” Each of their 5 kids now owns an ark as well… and my mom has a small Christmas tree that is completely devoted to Noah’s Ark ornaments. Because of this, when I saw the above album as part of a scrapbook kit in Hobby Lobby, I couldn’t help but buy it for my cousin who’s baby is due within the next 2 months. I love to scrapbook, and have found that most people truly enjoy having/looking through scrapbooks (more so than plain albums) but many are too busy/too intimidated by getting started to ever make their own. Hence my idea for the perfect shower gift. I know a new mom won’t have that much (if any!) time to learn how to scrapbook so I did most of the work for her. I bought the album, complete with kit- matching/complementary papers, stickers, embellishments, etc. and have assembled it WITHOUT pictures. Then, I’m leaving post-it notes with instructions of where to journal (write captions) and what size photos will fit on each framing mat throughout the book. Now, all my cousin has to do, is take photos, trim them occasionally, glue them in where appropriate and write captions for them. It was a little bit of a challenge for me to scrap without photos because usually my layouts/color scheme center around the photos I want to highlight. However, we know the baby is going to be a boy and having all of the matching papers and stickers helped a lot. (I have supplemented with some of my stash from home too… but only a little). I got faster and it turned out to be really fun!

I think this idea could also be applied to wedding gifts (use their wedding colors and that way, they can have a ready made scrapbook to fill with some snapshots from their wedding- and maybe won’t have to pay for a professional album- or at least, they’ll have some place to put all the pictures that YOU took at their wedding!), or birthdays too. (Make a mini album, themed for how old they’re turning- or, if you’re having a party, have the album match the theme). I’ve included photos of my layouts for your inspiration… I think the pages will look WAY better once they are filled with adorable pictures and handwritten notes from Mom to Son.

A place for that first picture and the baby announcement

Sorry for the glare...

This one is my favorite

GRRR… I just spent a long uploading every stinking page and now they’re gone! Plus the front page of this blog is all weird now… What’s the deal with that? I’ll try another post later and maybe it’ll fix itself!

Anyway, I still have a few more pages to make, but I like what I’ve done so far. I hope my cousin will too!

Aren’t baby things adorable? Make something for a baby in your life- it’s fun!
Creatively,

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Category Archives: E-Town Creations

A wedding shower- The food!

A wedding shower- the invitations

Wedding Season

Woven Heart Basket

Stained Glass

Handmade Greeting Cards

Baby Shower Gift

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