Coffee and Cross Stitch

Lil' Sis's Wedding Scrapbook

Happy Thursday, everyone!  I hope you've all had a wonderful week so far!!

Yesterday, I showed you all the mini-albums I made for the bridesmaids, and promised that today I'd show you the finished scrapbook I made for my sister.

As I mentioned yesterday, I had a little trouble with this scrapbook, but only because the 12x12 layout size can be overwhelming and indimidating at times.  At least for me.  I've read scrapbookers' blogs where they have trouble making cards because they're too small - cards are actually my forte for that very reason.

Anyways.

Before I show you any of the layouts, I want to share with you the coolest thing I've discovered to date.  Now, these could have existed long before I found this gem, but I seriously almost screeched in Michael's when I saw this.

I know what you're all thinking right now - "Jack.  Seriously.  WTF.  It looks like cardboard.  Congratulations, you found the most boring album covered in brown paper bag."

Au contraire, my good friends.  This album is made with KRAFT PAPER as the cover.  Do you know what you can DO with kraft paper??????  ANYTHING YOU FRIGGIN WANT.

You can stamp it.  You can spray it.  You can ink it.  You can PAPER MACHE it.  ANYTHING.

And......BOOM goes the dynamite.

Seriously.  Could not contain my excitement for making not only a super-awesome scrapbook for my sister, but making the actual album just as awesome and personal!!!!!!

I had so many ideas, actually, that I overwhelmed myself and had to wait a day or two before I started working on it.  The idea came to me in the shower, when I was still half asleep (don't our best ideas come at the strangest times???), and trying not to get face wash in my eye. 

Vintage paper.  That's what I was going to use.  So, armed with my bottle of Mod Podge, I went to work.

Ahhhhh!!!!!  So cool & fun to do!!! Above is the WIP...

.....and that one is the finished front cover.

This is the spine...

...and this is the back cover...

The paper looks a little wrinkly in this picture, but I took it before the Mod Podge dried, and I assure you, it dried perfectly smooth & totally awesome.

Ok.  So now...for the inside pages.   Again, I'm not gonna show you every single page I did, but I'll give you a good sampling of the fun :-)

This is the front page on the inside.  I saved my "Save the Date" that Rachel sent to me, took it apart, and put the pieces on this page.  Then, I got out my trusty Cricut & cut out the "Celebrate" that I put at the bottom of the page.  This layout is a perfect example of how I just had to accept & embrace negative space.  It friggin killed me, but I did it.  The paper was just too pretty & elegant to clutter it up with too many embellishments for the first thing you see when you open the album.

I cropped these pics & had them printed as squares - how cute did they turn out!!! Here again I used my Cricut for the "Shower" tag to pull all the yellow from the border print behind the pics.  :-)

....And this is when we got the party started.  Woop woop!!!!  This was the front page of the section for the bachelorette.  Obvi.  We went to the Phillies game & had a room reserved for a pre-game partaaaay & drinkies.  It was great!!!!  I even saved my ticket for Bean so she'd have proof we were in the Hall of Fame Club for her festivities ;-)

More bachelorette fun at the bar after the game!

Remember the shadowbox I made with the wedding invitation?  Well, I saved the invitation Beanie sent out for the rehearsal dinner, but instead of making it into another shadowbox, I used it as the divider to start that section.  Boom.

Candid shots from the church for the rehearsal.

After the ceremony, all in the limo, ready to get our drink on!!!  Woooo!!

That wraps it up, folks!  I hope you enjoyed the books I made for the other girls & for my sis.  I think they turned out great!  Believe it or not, there is only one remaining thing that I have to show you from the wedding -- the stitched piece I'm working on for Bean's wedding gift.  It's 95% complete, and like I said before, once it's in her hands, you'll see a post here about it, since I want her to be the first to see it before everyone else.  

I hope you all have a fantastic fall day!  Go forth & be crafty & do something creative!!

Much love ~~~

The albums are done! | Scrapbooking

Hello everyone!  I've been saying all last week that I'd make a post for the albums that I finished for all the bridesmaids and my sister.  Well...I finally had more than 30 seconds at one time to sit down, compile the pics I took to share with you, and write this post.

This will be a picture-heavy post, so bear with me if it takes a while to load.  I wanted the girls to have scrapbooks of the candid pics that were taken throughout the spring leading up to my sister's wedding, and not just have the formal pics that the photographer took the day of.  So, I took a bunch of pics that I took and that Hay took, and made these gems for all the girls --

 

These are the front covers for the three books for the bridesmaids.  Mine is "in progress."  You all know that means I'll get around to doing mine...sometime...soon....hopefully.  The most important thing to me was getting the albums done for the other girls and my sister before too much time passed from the wedding.  Since the wedding was in June, I'd say I made pretty good time putting all them together ;-)

I took these pics before I punched the holes for the binder rings, but I had Hay's & Maggie's flip from the top, and Erin's flips from the side.

They're all 6x6 in size.  I figured this would be the easiest for the bridesmaids' albums, since there were a lot of pictures, but not so many for each of them that necessitated an entire 12x12 format book.  Too much.

Also, while putting these together, then Rachel's, I discovered that I'm much better with scrapbooking on a smaller scale.  Sometimes that 12x12 layout size just is so....intimidating.  I had to embrace negative space, and realize that embellishments don't have to fill every last square inch.  It's so much easier to accept some empty space when it's smaller and doesn't seem overwhelmingly empty.  Does that make sense? 

Here are some snippy snaps of the insides of the bridesmaids' minis --

It's a little tough to tell, but since I was doing these in a 6x6 layout size, and I wanted to use a lot of the pictures in all the albums, I had them printed as wallet size.  All the pics on these two pages are 2x3in, so I was able to get a lot of pics in a small amount of space.  :-)

In addition to the 6x6 layout size, I also used some sizes that fit just the pic - I tried to use up some of the mat packs I had laying around, backed the pics, and then stuck them in the book.  That little guy in the middle there is a journaling tag that was the perfectamundo size for the little wallet I had leftover and couldn't figure out just where to put it.  {{lightbulb}} Phototag!!!!

Also.  Please disregard the piles of CRAP all over my project table.  I work in organized chaos.

You're over it.

Clinky!!!

That's right.  We were ninjas.  Bring it.

 

That's it, peeps!!  Didn't they turn out super cute?!?!

Obviously, these are not all the pics I scrapped for the girls, but I gave you a pretty good sample, I think :-)

Tomorrow, you'll get to see my sister's giant 12x12 album that I made for her....and I did something special with the actual album.  I hope you'll come back tomorrow to see how Rachel's scrapbook turned out!!!!!

Go forth and do something crafty on this lovely October day!!!

Much love ~~~~

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Good Golly Miss Molly.  I had NO idea how much time had passed since my last post until just now when I sat down to write this one.

Atrocious.

Since I post to Instagram so often, I think I forget that I'm not actually creating posts here, even though I'm creating a photo diary of what I'm up to.

And it's been crazy, let me tell you.

I took a little time off from work, now that the insanity has died down, and was able to get a few things accomplished.  Not as much as I wanted (nor near as much as I had planned out in my imaginary planner), but I was able to get a few important things done.

Number 1: I FINALLY got myself a dining room table & chairs.  It's about GD time, right?!  I decided just to bite the bullet and get the table I wanted.  No one wants to spend that much money at one time, but, let's be serious, it's been over a year since I moved into this house, and I have yet to be able to eat a meal properly.  Or invite people over. Now I just have to wait for it to be delivered and I'm golden!  (Wait.  Maybe I should have kept my dining room empty....now people are going to want to visit me......)  

Number 2: I was able to finish the bridesmaid's mini-albums to give to the girls from my sister's wedding!!  Woop woop!  I can't wait to give them out, since they're each unique (they all have some pictures that are the same, but many are different and specific to that person) and relive that great day with them all!

This is a pic I posted to Instagram which has a sampling of the pics & pages I put into the second album.  Fun, right???  I had such a blast putting these together!

Number 3:  Since I finally finished the mini-albums, I was able to start on the big album that I'm making for my sister, which includes all of the pics that I used for each of the girls.  To clarify - each girl got some pics that are the same for all; then each girl got pics that are specific to her that the others didn't get.  Example: there's a pic of Mags & Hay that each of them have, but I don't, nor does E, but my sister does.  Make sense?!  Good.

And then there are specific pics of my sis at the shower, that none of us have.  We love you, Bean, but I don't need 900 pics of you opening your gifts.  Nor do the rest of the girls.  Nor do you, quite frankly, but I did give you some.... ;-)

Number 4:  I've done some serious stitching.  Like, serious stitching.  I finished these 4 little fun ornaments ---

 

graph from Blue Ribbon Designs

graph from Blue Ribbon Designs

graph from Blue Ribbon Designs

graph from Blue Ribbon Designs

Now I just have to do the finish work on them & hang them on my feather tree!! Yay!  All of these were stitched on 32 count Echo from Picture This Plus.  Echo, next to Haunted, is one of my FAVORITE fabrics to work with for Halloween pieces.  It's AWESOME.

I also started this fun piece -

 

The Town of Halloween by Primitive Hare

 

This is a super fun graph by Primitive Hare, and it's from the Halloween issue of Just Cross Stitch.  It only has 2 colors -- black and a greenish-grey -- so it's easy and a quick stitch!  Love!

And lastly...
Number 5: I got out my Halloween decorations.  For some reason, I thought I had way more than I actually do, but that's ok.  All the more reason for me to hit the sales on 1 November so I have more stuff for next year ;-)

 

my mantle ;-)

 

I have two really fun Jim Shore pieces, seen on both ends, and some garland to go with my absolute all-time favorite fall candle -----

 

I LOVE THIS CANDLE

 

And that's all she wrote!!!!  I seriously don't know how this week flew by so quickly.  I guess all that stitching and scrapbooking took up more time than I thought!!

I hope you all have a wonderfully crafty fall weekend!  Do something creative this weekend!!! :-)

Much love ~~~~

A Shadowbox Feature

These shadowboxes are seriously becoming one of my favorite things to do.  It's such a quick and easy way (well....quick once your creative juices vibe with your brain so you can actually finish your project. i all but threw piles of paper in the air in disgust one night because i just couldn't get this to jive right.) to preserve a specific memory.  

Whether it's a wedding invitation, like I've done here and in the past for my sister and my friend, Danielle, or it's a baby announcement, a graduation announcement, whatever!  The possibilities for this type of project are endless.

This shadowbox is one I was asked to do by my friend, Erin, for her brother and sister-in-law to celebrate their first year anniversary.  (and....I hope they don't mind having their pic plastered all over my bliggity blog here......;-) )

First off, they got married in Ireland.  Ireland.  If that wasn't cool enough, they got married in a CASTLE.  A CASTLE, PEOPLE.  Castle.  I would die.

So, when I found out Erin's mom saved the brochure from the castle, I knew I had to incorporate at least one picture in the shadowbox somehow.

Recap:  CASTLE.

Ok.

A CASTLE.

The hardest part about this was trying to figure out how to embellish the empty space without detracting from the pictures and the invitation.   For the other shadowboxes I've done, I only incorporated one picture along with the wedding invitation.  This required more coordination, which I think is why I almost lit the entire thing on fire one night.  Good thing I didn't.

A castle.

The gorgeous bride and her groom.

Seriously, peeps.  How amazeballs is this?!  The castle is in the background and is just AWESOME.  The top pic is one I took from the brochure Erin's mom had saved.

I ultimately ended up deciding that the best way to embellish was to get out my trusty Cricut, and do a huge cut-out to serve as part of the background (see that blue flourish? that was the color of the bridesmaids's dresses), yet wasn't just a block of color.  

The paper underneath with all the old script was something I'd found in my stash and decided it was a must for this project, since there's a centuries-old castle in the background.  The key element serves the same purpose as the old script patterned paper - it goes along with the vintage feel of the pictures.

A castle.  For serious.

That's all the crafty I have for you today, peeps.  I'm lost in this castle (can you tell i'm slightly obsessed with it?!), and the history around it.  You know, the whole knight in shining armour deal.  The moat (every castle has a moat), the damsel in distress.  All that.

Moving on.

Go forth and be crafty on this glorious fall day!  Let your creativity flow as we rapidly approach the holidays (seriously - Halloween will be here, like, tomorrow...then Thanksgiving, then CHRISTMAS.....i LOVE this time of year :-) )!

Much love ~~~

PS - don't forget to enter my giveaway!  See my post from earlier today -- the deadline's been extended!!!

This picture frame was photobombed....

So.  Peeps.  IT'S BEEN FOREVERANDADAY.  How the heckfire are allayas?????  I did not realize it was SO LONG since I posted!  Holy crap.  It's been since my road trip.  (Did you read about my road trip???  Go find out what I did!!)  Unacceptable.

Ok.  So.  The picture frame that I just made.  Ah-may-zing.  Picture frames are my new favorite things to make.  They're so super easy, especially with my craft room staple, Mod Podge.  Since I'm still on my lil' sis wedding crafting kick, this frame fits right in with everything I've made so far :-)

What do you need to make such an easy thing like this?  Simple.  A $1 unfinished frame from Michaels, coordinating scrapbook paper,  Mod Podge, and any matching embellishments and/or stamps that you want to finish it!

Easy peasy!

To start - measure the length & width of the frame sides, so you know how wide & long to cut the scrapbook paper you've chosen for this project.  Glue the paper to the frame using the Mod Podge, and trim any excess that hangs over the edges. 

frame prepped with paper!

I chose Core'dinations paper for the yellow sides, and a piece of chevron patterned paper from Amy Tangerine's Sketchbook line.  I think these two complimented the other things I've done to match my sister's color scheme of yellow & grey quite nicely.  The Core'dinations paper is BANGIN'.  You can rip it or sand it & the core (hence, CORE'dinations. ha.) shows through.  With some of the papers, the core is actually a different shade of the outer color.  This one, however, was just a cream.  I decided to sand it so that it had a rougher look to it; I sanded the chevron paper just a smidge, too.  I didn't want to go to heavy-handed on the chevron paper because it isn't as sturdy as the yellow.  Lovvve how it turned out!

I knew this frame was gonna need a little.....attitude.....thanks to the sanding I did, so I grabbed some stamps, a piece of Bella Blvd printed paper, and went to work.  I stamped the sides with two of the little stamps I have in my British-themed stamp set that I used for sis's gift list book, which I think are perfectamundo.  Then, I fussy-cut the flowers from that sheet of Bella Blvd paper (forgive me, I forget which line it's from - I cut off the edge that had that info on it. sigh.)

What happens when you have all these embellies for your frame?  This!! ----

 

boom.

Alright, the frame itself wasn't actually photobombed.....but the picture I used for this post sure as hell was. HA!  I forgot to mention, once you have the paper set, and you've stamped (or not) what you want, put another thin layer of Mod Podge overtop, so it seals the paper.

The sides needed a little something, too, so I took one of the patterned yellow ribbons I bought for the various crafty wedding things I've been doing, and glued it to the frame using my other favorite craft room staple, Glossy Accents.

 

ribbon edges! brilliant!

Note - I gave a little height to a few of the fussy-cut flowers to add dimension & interest to the front of the frame.  I didn't want it all to be flat.  No one likes flat.  Boring.

All done! Nothin to it! This is a quick and easy project - definitely something you can do on a rainy day or on a weekend and you need a little something special to give as a gift, or to spruce up your workspace or walls, or anywhere!

Now.....if you've made it this far, you've also realized that I got an entirely new BLOG DESIGN.  OMG.  I love you all for following me, despite the fact that my blog was in a sad state of design affairs.  I have the lovely Natasha to thank over at paper crowns designs.  She was absolutely wonderful to work with, and she has her very own beautiful blog.  Go check her out - she takes wonderful pictures.  If you want to redesign your own blog, I highly recommend her :-)  She does blog elements or the entire package if you're in the market for any or all of those things.

I don't want to get ahead of myself, because I know I've been posting sneaks on Instagram (if you don't follow me on Instagram or twitter, please do - i post many pics there with more frequency than i do here, and i post there more often in general), but I do have something VERY special in mind to celebrate this new design.  Please be patient with me, though.....it's a rough time at work, so I have sparse time to craft, which is very sad indeed....I hope to have something new to share with you all by the beginning of next week.

Until then (or hopefully sooner!!), go forth and be creative :-)

Much love ~~~

 

 

Bridesmaid Mini Album Preview

I know I keep saying I'm going to post pics of my sis's wedding, but I just can't seem to get around to it!  Especially when I'm up in my crafty room creating fun mini-albums for the bridesmaids :-)

Here's some snippets of the first one I made -- the approximate size of this album is 6x6, with some other random sizes thrown in there, too....

This is what I made for the front cover --

One of the inside pages  --

How cute is the lil' ring bearer???  These pics are wallet size -- they come 4 to a sheet, so this way I was able to get a bunch of the pics as wallets which fit perfectly on the 6x6 paper I decided to use.  Less bulk, but all the great shots Hayley got are still all able to fit in the album!

Know those lil' journaling tags you can get?  This one is from K&Company (no clue what designer line....so sorry folks....), and OMG perfect size for these little random wallets that I didn't totally have a home for on the bigger pages!!!!

This is the inside of the back cover.  I thought it was a perfect way to end the book - all of our hottttt shoes in a circle ;-)

Here are all the pages all lined up and ready for a little bit more embellishing!!  I just have to get some binder clips, and it's all set and ready to give to Hay!!  Woop Woop!!!

That's it!!  I loved working with these papers - I used the same line that I used for the background paper in my sister's shadowbox - it just works so well with all the pictures, even though the yellows don't quite match up, it's still pretty great.

Thank you so much for taking time this weekend to see my crafty creation!!!  I hope you all have a spectacular day/weekend!!

Until next time -- go forth and be crafty :-)

Much love ~~~

J :-)

Just when you thought the wedding was over...

...there's more fun things to do!

I've FINALLY seen some pics from my sister's wedding.  Like, finally.  No one was posting anything to facebook, etc., and I took a whopping total of 3 pics the entire day, so I've been DYING to see how things looked!!!!  One of the other bridesmaids burned the pics she took to a DVD for me, so I now have a bunch I ordered from Snapfish and can start making wedding scrapbooks for all the girls.  I want them all to have pics of the shower, bachelorette, and the wedding day in their own little books, and I have sooooo many ideas flip flopping all over in my brain as to how to do it for them all, so keep an eye on this site for the final products!!  ;-)  

Now, I know you all thought my crafting for my sister's wedding was done since the shower was in April.  Au contraire, my good friends.  Remember how I made a shadowbox for Danielle?  Well, I can't make one for my work sister and not make one for my actual sister.  That's just bad form.

Since I now have some actual photos to work around, I went and got some yellow & grey paper (because, believe it or not, with the chaos in my craft room, there is nothing in those colors. i know, right. crazy.) 

I started off with a piece of yellow textured core'dinations (is that apostrophe in the right place? oh well.) by Ranger/Tim Holtz.  I layered two pieces of 6x6 My Mind's Eye patterned paper (Lost & Found Sunshine) on top, and got this --

Next, I took some gems I had laying around (I think from a Martha Stewart set), and glued them to the little paper in the little box under "Lovely" --

Then, I took another of those keys I used in my shadowbox, and also one of the chipboard elements I used for that same shadowbox, along with the invitation.....

...and then I found some yellow flowers I had laying about...

...and now that I have a cute pic to put in where that placeholder is, it's all done!!!  

Yay!!!!!!!

I love the pic for this -- Hayley took all our shoes, bouquets & purses when we were in the limo going from the ceremony to get our pictures taken, lined them up on the seat, & this is what she got!  LOVE.

It's so much fun to create a memory box/shadowbox with the invitations from weddings; they cost so much money to make or to buy, and they're gone in an instant.  Plus, you never send one to yourself, so the likelihood of remembering to save one isn't that great.  All the more reason why I should create this keepsake as often as I can :-)

That's all on wedding stuffs for now, kids!  I have more coming, since I'm still working on my sister's actual wedding gift (this is just an appetizer wedding gift, if you will), and I'll be making those scrapbooks soon, so keep an eye out -- some good things are coming!

Much love ~~~~

J :-)

Pretty in Pink

Remember this post?  Where I took Danielle's wedding invitation and scrapped it?  Well, I fiiiiinally got the picture I wanted to put in the "place holder" (i blame pure laziness and indecisiveness for this taking me forfreakingever), and last night, put down my needle & thread for a hot minute so I could finish this for her.  Before, ya know, she and hubs celebrate 1 year already.  You laugh.  That date will be here sooner than you think.

Ahem.

Anyways.  When I was in Joann fabric with one of my super spectacular 40% off coups, I saw the 12x12 shadow boxes and thought, YES.  Perfectamundo.

HOW.CUTE.IS.THIS.  OMG.  I apologize that the pink does not stab you in your eyeball with its hot pinkness, but trust a girl.  It's like whoa pink.  I had to turn the flash off because otherwise this would be just one big white glare.  That, is not cute.  No.

And.  hello.  Danielle's pink shoes & hubbie's pink socks?  ADORBS.  love.

Now...for some close-ups of the various pieces in this big collage.....

Do you see that up in the top right-hand corner??  That's the wax seal that was on the envelope of the invitation.  I took that baby right off, saved it, and glued it to that cute little polka dot piece of paper and stuck it up there in the corner.  Adorbs.

And flowers in the bottom left.  Boom.

I think this whole project turned out pretty daggone amazeballs.  I do so wish I was able to capture the true hot pinkness of this project, but the glare and horribly terrible lighting in my old house were very unhelpful in this situation.  Booooo.  Oh well.  One of these days I'll be able to hire an actual photographer to take pics for my super-famous bliggity blog.  Until that day when I'm totally rich and famous, you'll have to deal with my amateur photo hour.  And you're over it already because you love me :-)

HA!!!

That's it for today, kids.  I hope you have a fanfreakingtastic Tuesday, and get busy with your creative juices and MAKE SOMETHING TODAY!!!!!!!

Much love ~~~~

J :-)

Is that a notebook? A keepsake? Whaaaat?

Everyone knows it's the maid of honor's job to write down all the fabulous things the bride-to-be got at her shower.  Usually, this is done on a piece of torn-out paper from a notebook with wide spacing.

We need to sidetrack here for a second.  Why, WHY does any paper company feel the need to make wide-spaced paper??  I mean, you might as well shove a dotted line between those two solid ones and just make it penmanship practice paper for elementary school kids.  If you write anything on that paper, it's huge, since we all feel compelled to write our letters bigger in the space provided, because the solid lines give us the boundaries, if you will.  This is only appropriate if you're writing on posterboard for a presentation on the Ancient Egyptians in Art History class.

College ruled paper should be the only thing sold.  Period.  There should be no other options.

Moving on.

So a bridal shower is supposed to be filled with all of these lovely, wonderful things that give you lasting memories of everything leading up to your special day.  Then you get this piece of paper with your gifts scrawled all over it, and it looks a hot shabby mess.

My cousin had the idea of using something a little nicer than a piece of paper or just a plain notebook; something that would end up being more of a keepsake.  

Enter the "gift list book".  Taking the above idea, I naturally took it one step farther and made the book.  

I started with two pieces of chipboard about 4x5.5".  I cut a black piece of paper big enough to make the spine, and extend over onto the board just enough to give it stability.

 
This is the outside of the book.  You can see where I scored the black paper so the spine would bend easily after I glue everything together.

This is the inside -- I had to leave enough room to fit the pages & glue inside, but not so big that the binding glue would end up all over the place.

Next, I took cream and grey colored plain paper (can you tell Sis's colors are yellow & grey???), and cut them to fit the book.  Then, I stamped a cute flower stamp on the corners of the pages to give them a little bit of oomph.  I had 3 different stamps that I used, but I'll just show you these pages.  I'm sure your readers are going haywire with all the pics in this post already.

Next, I took a sorta plain piece of paper, cut it to size, and glued it to the front & back of the book.  I wanted something with a little flair, but plain enough that I could embellish the front however I chose and not have it clash.

Then, I took a piece of AWESOME patterned paper, cut it to size, and put these pieces on the inside covers.  Seriously peeps, how amazing did this turn out?!  I LOVE this paper!!!!

For the outside cover, like I said, I wanted to be able to embellish without clashing, so this is what I came up with.  Fun, amiright????  These pieces were all parts of 12x12 papers, and I just cut out the ones I wanted, and clued them on the covers.  Then, I took a piece of Washi tape which had a music staff on it (as a former music student, I cannot pass up anything with music on it), added that to the front.  Then, I took this awesome British-themed stamp set I got at Joann's for $1 (yes, $1), and used a couple of them on the covers in random spots to add just a lil' something that it needed for that extra spunk.

Into the YourStory machine it goes to get glued & bound.....

And voila!!!  This is the front cover....

.....and the back!!!  Brilliant!!!

There you have it, folks!!  A wonderful keepsake for the bride-to-be which lists all the gifts she received, which she can also use (so long as you put enough pieces of paper inside) to write down all the gift she gets for the wedding.  Or to tally up the cash.  Semantics.

After it was all said and done, and people were filing in to the dining room to get coffee, tea, and dessert, I presented Sis with the book.  I think by her reaction I did a good thing ;-)

That wraps up "gift list book" day, folks!!  I hope you enjoyed today's installment of Bridal Shower Week!!!  Tune in tomorrow when I'll show you the favors!!!  Woop woop!!!

Much love ~~~~

J:-)

The Day is Finally Here!!

Well, everyone, I can FINALLY share with you the madness that has been going on in my house.

My sister's bridal shower was yesterday, and it was a huge success, despite the fact that it POURED rain all daggone day.  All day.  Like, not even a little bitty spritzy rain.  POURED.  

However, that did not stop either of us from wearing our new springy dresses and shoesies for the occasion ;-) (OMG.  Shoes.)

This is me and my lil' sis all gussied up for the event --

That's me on the left, in black, as usual.  Sis is so much more bold with color.  At least my dress has ruffles!  haha!

Today's spotlight will be on the guest book that I made for the event.  Rather than have everyone sign just a regular ol' book to commemorate the day, I decided to have everyone bring a recipe on a 4x6 in recipe card (my OCD went slightly haywire and induced twitching when people brought index cards, but after about 2 or 3 non-recipe cards handed to me, I got over it).  They were either given a dessert, entree, or appetizer (by random selection) in their shower invitation, so Sis didn't end up with 19 Devil's Food cake recipes, 2 chicken dinners, and 15 taco dips.  Also, by having them write out the recipe and sign it, she has something from everyone in their own handwriting, and record of everyone who came to the shower!!!  Yay!!!

This is the front of the book -- 

I used my Cricut to cut out the pot for the window, using my From My Kitchen cartridge (I used this cartridge for the entire book).  The background paper was something I picked up on sale at Michaels...and of course, don't remember the brand.  It was so cute with all the bright colored kitchen utensils & accessories, I just had to pick it up.   The flowers were just something I had to add to liven up the front of the binder.  

I chose a D-ring binder with photo page inserts, because this was the easiest way to make sure Sis could add and subtract pages as she needs them, plus the recipe cards are easily accessable and everything is customizable.

Inside the front cover, I wanted a "title page" of sorts, so this is what I came up with  --

How adorbs is that apron!  Love!  Nothing too fancy -- just enough color & whimsy to make it fun!

Then, after this page, I made separations for each major section.  I didn't make one for seafood or breads, but will have to go back and make these pages since Sis got an heirloom recipe for Irish Soda Bread and a crabcake recipe, but I have time for that ;-)

Here are the pages for the major categories --

The last one is my favorite :-)  Always eat dessert first!  I mean.....

I know it's tough to see in these pics, but if you look closely on the left of the shot, you can see the 4x6 pages with recipe cards already in them.  I had blank ones in some of the slots so she had some of her own, and in case anyone forgot to bring their recipe with them, they could write it down on one of these cards.  Also, on the backs of all these category pages, I put a coordinating patterned page, so the backs weren't just plain, boring white when you turn the page to find a recipe.  

Fun, huh???

Unfortunately, I don't have any snapshots of the book with the recipes which Sis received, but at least you can see the section pages that I made, along with how it's assembled.

For those of you planning a bridal shower, I highly recommend doing this.  My sister was SO excited to have this with all of everyone's favorite recipes, and all the guests were thrilled to pass on their favorites!!

I hope you enjoyed Day 1 of Bridal Shower Madness Week!!!!  Stay tuned -- tomorrow is my post about the giveaways we had!!

Much love ~~~~~

J :-)