Box it up

Whew! A packed room of brides, eighty favor boxes, four rotations, one hour! It was speed crafting at its finest at last night's DIY Workshop. Loved the projects that my fellow crafty vendors came up with and was so happy that everyone seemed pleased with the favor box kits that I put together. I definitely had more time to chat with the brides this time around so I think I finally came up with the perfect project. This is the finished box that everyone assembled:

If you're an Oahu bride and need a little wedding fix this weekend, be sure to check out the Wedding Expo at the Hawaii Convention Center this weekend! Hours are Friday (6-10pm) and Saturday (10am-5pm). Would love to see you there!

Fold it, wrap it, glue it

Less than a week to go until the DIY Workshop at The Wedding Cafe! This "speed crafting" night is always fun and definitely keeps me on my toes as I attempt to teach a project in ten minutes flat to four rotating groups of brides over the course of the evening. The key, I think, is keeping the project simple enough to demo without a lot of detailed instructions, yet universal enough that brides personalize it in their own way should they want to do something similar for their wedding.

The "ingredients" for my project this time around are shown above: 2" x 2" x 2" die-cut favor boxes, strips of washi paper and oh-so-sparkly rhinestone buckles. The only pieces not shown are the satin ribbons that go with the buckles.

Hope the project goes over well!

Shifting gears a bit...

It's as if Santa Claus himself declared my office a satellite workshop for a dozen of his elves. Paper strewn about, scraps of ribbon scattered on the floor, a colorful explosion of holiday goodness. No elves here, though...just me. I made this mess all by myself.

Last week I participated in the annual fair at the East-West Center on the UH Manoa campus. Did I panic when I only had ONE notecard set ready to sell just a week prior to the fair? Yeah, a little. I knew that I had to work at the speed of light following the Thanksgiving holiday and my clean-ish office space suffered for it. No time to properly organize my supplies or even put my tools away after I used them. As my mom told me many times in my youth, it looked as if a hurricane had blown through my room.

But after the storm...

I was happy with the notecards, calendars and gift tags that I created for the show. A different assortment of goodies than in previous years and most of my inventory sold well. It was a nice two-day break from wedding invitations and event stationery, but now back to our regular programming.

Love the dots

Loved meeting all the crafty brides at last night's workshop, although I goofed up on the handouts that I had carefully (or not so carefully) prepped for the evening. About 80% of the handouts were missing page 2. Yikes. At least I realized this early on and just "winged it" during my 15-minute sessions. Tanna @ The Wedding Cafe was able to email the soft copy to all the attendees first thing this morning so crisis averted. Phew!

Anyway, the highlight of my evening was sending each attendee home with their very own box of mini glue dots. (I LOVE these things. They changed my life. I wouldn't be the person I am today without them.) I offered two quick craft projects at my station: a cute lovebirds favor tag and a hanging sign that read, "Bridal Suite - do not enter." Both projects required the attendees to master the art of glue dot application and I hope my love of glue dots was contagious.

ReinBEER

I'm still trying to finish up a few Emi Ink projects, but I squeezed in a quick...and I mean QUICK...arts and crafts session to whip up these root beer reindeer for family and friends. Someone sent me a photo of these adorable guys last week and I couldn't NOT make them. I only wish I could credit the creative person who came up with the idea! This is everything I used:

• Henry Weinhard's root beer (it was on sale and I liked their label the best)


• brown pipe cleaner


• red pom poms


• googly eyes


• red satin ribbon


• jingle bells


• glue dots

I tackled these assembly line style and put my husband to work twisting all the antlers while I stuck the eyes and noses on. The finishing touch was the two little bells dangling from the loosely tied satin ribbon. That's it! A cute addition to any gift.

Crafty letters

I found the cutest craft letters at Paper Source awhile back and had to get my hands on them quick. I had an idea...a vision...an inspired thought from deep within. I loaded my shopping cart, whipped out my credit card, and celebrated my latest paper-related purchase (and trust me, there have been many).

That was two months ago and my adorable craft letters are still sitting in its original shipping box in the corner of my office. My vision is still crystal clear in my head, though, and will reveal itself to the grand masses (aka at the Wedding Expo) later this fall. But in the meantime, I thought I'd share my source for these crafty letters in case you're interested in doing something special at your reception.

~ Maybe a lovely painted monogram at your sign-in table.
~ Maybe a Swarovski crystal-encrusted "i do" on your cake table.
~ Maybe a decoupaged "emi ink" to pay tribute to your favorite stationer's blog.

Just some ideas to inspire you.