A Craft Of A Different Kind

Hello my lovely, lovely friends,

Thank you, thank you, thank you SO much for all of your sweet comments, thoughtful wishes, hugs and condolences for the loss of my Butchie-boy. You people are awesome, I already knew that, but it makes me feel so good that so many of you feel the same way about your animals as I do mine. A pets love is so special, so unconditional, I think we're lucky to get as much time with them as we do, but no matter how long you get, it still never feels like enough.

Let's get back to the crafty goodness, shall we?

Recently, I tried something that's still pretty new to me and it turned out pretty good, so I thought I'd share with you guys. One of my very best friends, Melissa recently became engaged, and I'm SOOO excited for her. I'm going to be in the wedding, y'all! Maid of Honor to boot!

I wanted to send her a "congrats on your engagement" card, but I wanted to do something a little different than just your standard Hallmark fare, something she can keep and that kind of fits with her dream of a fall wedding. My answer, a custom banner!

I have mentioned before, but paper craft isn't my speciality. Not by a long shot. It confuses me, there's so many options, and I don't feel like I have a good handle on what goes with what, and how it's all supposed to come together... so I had some help designing this project, cutting & scoring my "ingredients". Did you know Jill is a paper craft goddess?? It's true. She won't admit it, but it's true none the less. I've been in her playroom. I know her secret.

Jill scored approximately 14 billion little strips of paper for me while I set about cutting all the other pieces out with my Sizzix and some of Jill's die cutters. I didn't take any "in-progress" pictures, but here are some close ups of the way each piece came together.

Each piece was comprised of four different paper elements, the back piece done in purple,

The ruffle, (that's the scored part - thanks Jill!) made with three coordinating papers,

A scalloped circle, which I then ran through the Sizzix again with a texture plate, and the letter. I added a little bit of glitter with a glue pen, and added some gems for sparkle.

After the pieces were finished, I punched holes in the top corners of each of the purple pieces and added little grommet-dealios (that's a technical term) with Jill's Crop-o-dile so that I could run a coordinating ribbon through the tops.

So then, how to ship this thing? Mel & Cory live in southern California, so it was going to need to go through the mail. I wanted it to be safe, and I thought it would be neat for Mel to be able to open the package, pull one piece and have the rest of the banner come out in a neat row, also to have some place to keep it, if she wanted to save it. So I devised a plan.

I used a plain, round craft box from JoAnn's and Modge Podged a piece of pretty fabric to it to make a nice, sturdy box. This was the first time I've really Modge Podged anything like this. I had a few "ooopsie" moments, but I think it came out ok.

I also made a little coordinating tag, ala Alice In Wonderland...

And a little envelope and card which I taped to the top of the box lid.

I'm happy to report that Melissa loved her "card" and even sent me video of her opening it, so sweet! She even said she's going to incorporate it into the wedding reception somehow, isn't that cool?! Melissa & Cory are getting married in 364 days, woowoo!

I liked making this banner, it's fun to do new kinds of crafts and stretch my comfort zone a little. I know as time goes on and we get closer to the wedding, Mel & I will probably be up to some other crafty adventures, so I'm sure I'll have other things to share with you guys. Yay, wedding craft!!

That's all for now, I suppose! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Next up, I have some fun little Halloween projects to show you, so stay tuned.

oxo,

Lisa