T-shirt for Randy

Dear Kelly,

I guess because Randy has a pacemaker, I really like anatomical hearts now. So for his birthday next month, I just finished embroidering this t-shirt from Sublime Stitching pattern Vital Organs:



But I'm not entirely sure that it looks right. What do you think?

Love,
Shayne

Wedding buttons

Dear Shayne,

Of course, being the button-loving fiend that I am, I had to make buttons for our wedding. Coming up with wedding/love/hockey/party phrases was one of the most entertaining parts of the planning.

I loved seeing which ones each of our guests chose -- one person also has a partner named Bill, so she was proudly wearing an "I [heart] Bill" button. Another guest was a goalie, so he selected "I'm the goalie." (He may have also taken "Goalies rock." Of course!)

Plenty of people were also wearing the cryptic: "Icing. Explain." (the hockey term, not the delicious topping on baked desserts. If you would like an explanation, wikipedia does a better job than I do right here.)

They were a really good conversation starter, which was particularly nice because many of our guests do not know each other -- we've moved around a lot, so our friends and families are far-flung.

I love this photo that our photographer took of our rings + buttons:



I think my favorite was: "Best. Party. Ever." Cause, well, it pretty much was. I mean... buttons + Stanley cup = awesome.

So which buttons did you and Sam end up choosing? And anyone else reading this who came to our wedding -- which button was your favorite?

love,
kelly

PS - These photos were taken by our photographer, Kevin Lam, although I did edit them a bit myself, so if you you think they're over-processed or oddly cropped, that's all my fault. ;)

Wedding invitations

Dear Shayne,

As my lack of posting would indicate, I haven't been too crafty lately. Amazingly, I think I'm still recovering from our wedding in July. I hope to get back to more frequent crafting soon (especially with Christmas looming).

In the meantime, I realized I still haven't shared many of my wedding crafts here. So let's take a look at our invitations!

After the somewhat crazy Save the Dates I had made, I figured the invitations could be simple. To that end, they were a basic card that I Gocco'd with a design I created and the straightforward "Here's where to be and when" info:


One of my favorite parts of the invitations was our RSVP cards -- I spent months scouring Ebay for vintage Toronto postcards. In the end, I found a dealer online and met him at a postcard show outside of Toronto to get the final 30 or so we needed. That was kind of a surreal experience, but fun. I used the Gocco to print our info on the backs:


I cannot remember where I saw this, but I shamelessly stole this idea from a wedding blog I was reading at the time -- the options for attending were "will attend" and "will be there in spirit." I absolutely loved that positive way of saying no.

(It was sooo much fun to get those postcards back in the mail!)

I bought this lovely paper from Paper Source and cut it into strips to make a band for the invites and RSVPs. Also, I used printable vellum sticker paper (side note: totally f'ing cool -- no smudging!) to include our website URL on the band:


Here are the individual pieces -- I ended up including a piece of vellum between the postcard and the invite because the ink wouldn't quite dry on some of those vintage postcards and I didn't want brown smudges on the invite. (Cause, um, ew.)


Miraculously, I let the Crazy Train pass on through the station without stepping aboard and I did not make our envelopes. Just a standard envelope from Paper Source with a fancy printed label from Stuck labels:


I failed a bit with that font -- I liked it because I thought it looked casual-yet-fancy, but I did hear murmurs that some of our invitees felt like I was trying to "cheat" and make it look like I hand-lettered the labels.

For the record: I was never trying to make that claim. There is no flipping way I would try to either a) hand-write my wedding invites or b) even make it look like I did. I fully embrace technology, people!

The return address labels are also printable labels -- these were from Paper Source:


I felt a ton of pressure to make these "perfect" and I'm not sure that I achieved that goal, but they got the info across, people seemed to like them, and I am generally happy with how they turned out, so I consider that a success.

(Plus, our wedding was totally awesome, so who cares what the invites looked like, right? Heh.)

love,
kelly

Bridal lust: I want this!

Dear Shayne,

I know I shouldn't lust after such a frivolous item, but I cannot help it. I just can't. Remember the awesome kitty print I bought at Maker Faire? (Blogged about here.) I've been following the artist, Brittney Lee, ever since. She makes such sweet stuff!

The current object of my adoration and desire? This awesome bride paper sculpture:


Isn't she bee-you-ti-ful? Look at the details! The doily and paper cut skirt layers! Swoon!

I know I won't be a bride forever, but it's still so close to my heart that I cannot resist drooling over this amazing piece. Imagine it with a red mat instead of yellow -- perfect for me, right? Right?

Except... she's not quite in my budget at the moment. You know... right after throwing that big ol' party n' all. But I just had to share her loveliness with you. Maybe some other lucky bride will see this post and snatch her up. I hope so, because she needs to go to a loving home. (And soon -- so I can stop lusting over her already!)

love,
kelly

PS -- Photo taken from Brittany Lee's Etsy shop, where you can find this pretty lady and many other sweet creations to ogle over!

It's a miracle!

Dear Kelly,

Jenny and I have started going through my craft room! I'm getting rid of tons of stuff, including a billion rubber stamps that I have no need of. Would you like either of these:




I have a feeling we'll need to have a giveaway soon for our lovely readers :)

Love,
Shayne