Wedding Card Box

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my son got married this past summer!!!! One of the projects that my new daughter in law requested for the wedding reception was a card box. She showed me a few pictures of what she was looking for, so naturally I volunteered to make one!

I was trying to find a set of 3 boxes, but was having great difficulty. Then I found this set of gray/silver nesting boxes on Amazon. Even though they're a set of 10, I thought they'd be perfect! So I chose the 3 sizes that I thought would work best, and I'll save the rest for another project lol

I had a set of small, medium and large boxes with lids. Now I can visualize what needs to be cut so when it's all put together, cards are dropped in the top opening and can fall all the way through to the bottom of the large box ... 

CUTS:

• Small box ... opening in lid and bottom of box
• Medium box ... opening in lid and bottom of box
• Large Box ... opening in lid

I started with the small box lid and cut an opening for the cards to go in. I made sure to set it towards the front of the box so I can decorate behind it. The opening I decided on was 1 inch thick and 8 inches long. I used a razor knife and metal ruler to help with the cutting.

After that was cut, I placed the small box on top of the medium box lid and traced the bottom of it with a pencil. This gave me guidance on deciding where to cut the opening on the medium lid. I measured about an inch inside the traced box and used the razor knife and ruler to cut out the hole. Using the scrap cut out as a guide, I traced it on the bottoms of the small and medium boxes and the lid of the large box, then cut them all out. 

I thought about gluing them all together, but decided that it would be difficult and awkward to transport. So I came up with the idea of using binder clips inside each box to hold them together 

It really made it much easier to transport! I just stacked them all inside of each other, then clipped it together at the reception.

Once everything was cut and clipped, it was time to decorate!! I had several different ribbons on hand to choose from. I decided to use a rhinestone mesh ribbon around the card opening, and a white with silver metallic edge ribbon around each of the box lids. I thought it made it easier to apply with double sided tape than gluing all of the ribbon.

I used my Cricut to cut the word Cards out of black vinyl and attached it to the bottom front. For me, deciding on the flowers was the hardest part! Not only deciding on which flowers, but also their placement lol. I didn't want to make it too bulky so there was no damage when stacking them inside of each other. After playing around a bit, I used hot glue to finally attach them to the box. this is what I decided ...

And here's the card box on the Welcome Table at the reception (it received a lot of compliments and I was so happy with the result) ...

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed this project. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me - I love hearing from you!

xoxo

Dawn

Wedding Reception Invitations

After 10 years (& 3 children!) my son and his girlfriend decided to get married this past Summer!! But, they had a little twist! His dad & I, and her parents all live in northeast Illinois. My son and his girlfriend live in northwest Indiana. But they decided to get married in Nashville, Tennessee! Another twist was just the parents were invited to the wedding, but they planned on having the wedding reception 8 weeks later in Illinois.

So, we all drove down to Nashville and spent a wonderful weekend. The wedding ceremony was held at a beautiful little wedding venue and everything turned out perfectly. 

Once we got home, it was time to start planning the reception! Wedding reception prep starts with the invitation designing! Naturally because I’m a crafter and card maker, my son and his bride asked me if I could make the invitations. And y’all can imagine my answer lol! 

So, after some discussion about what they were looking for, my brain went to work on visualizing some designs. I knew I would be using my main go-to’s … Stampin’ Up! & Cricut products. They chose to use the colors light purple and gray, so of course I was going to use Stampin’ Up! cardstock (it's absolutely the best!). I picked out the colors Highland Heather and Smoky Slate and the bride & groom both approved.

Next was pulling up Cricut Design Space to start playing around with designs. I tried several designs that just didn't appeal to me. After discussing options with the bride, we decided on a tree shape, cut down the middle and folded over to the center. When you open up the tree, all of the reception details were on the inside. So I began designing, attaching, slicing, welding, sizing and resizing until I got it just right. Believe me, there were several failed attempts lol. It's a good thing I'm always stocked up on Stampin' Up! cardstock!

After creating the final design, I needed to figure out how to keep the invitation closed. I searched my stash and found several rolls of white ribbon that had a silver edge. However, it didn't look right using white on the gray and purple. Fortunately Stampin' Up! also carries coordinating Stampin' Blends markers!! I colored the white ribbon Highland Heather and it was the perfect touch to hold the invitation closed!

I created the inside design on the Canva app and printed it on the Highland Heather cardstock, then cut and attached them to the inside of the card base. Using the colored ribbon, I then tied them closed. I think they turned out pretty great and the bride and groom loved them! (& so did the guests!)

Thanks for stopping by today! If you ever have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me or leave a comment ... I love hearing from you!

xoxo
Dawn

Halloween Witches

A few years ago, I made these witches for my front yard. Unfortunately I didn’t take pics of putting it together 😩 But I’ll do my best to explain …

I started off with 4 pieces of conduit (hollow metal pipes) for the body. Then I filled a plastic grocery bag with newspaper and shaped the head. Using duck tape, I attached the handles of the bag ‘head’ to the top of the pipe. I used a black flat sheet and centered it over the top of the head and used orange tulle to tie around the ‘neck’. For the face, I found some great witches masks and attached it with hot glue. I also used hot glue to attach a wig and the witches hat. I created all 4 witches the same way. They certainly aren't pretty lol ...

For the witches cauldron, I started with (3) 1x1x36 wood pieces to make the stand (you can use sturdy branches or whatever you have on hand). Holding them loosely together, I spread them out in a tripod form and wrapped twine around the top to secure.

I poked a hole in the top of each side of a plastic cauldron and used twine to attach to the tripod. I grabbed some sticks from my yard and stacked them under the cauldron, and used orange glitter tulle that I bunched up to create the fire.

Then I took 4 pieces of rebar (thick metal poles) around 4 feet long and pounded them into the ground to form a circle around the cauldron. I slipped each witch over the rebar and positioned them to face each other. Taking a corner from one of the witches sheets, I tied it to a corner of the next witches sheet to look like they were holding hands, attaching each witch to the next until all 4 were tied to each other.

This is what they look like in my yard this year ...

Here's a list of the items I used:

(4) plastic grocery bags
bunched up newspaper to fill each head (you can also use poly-fil stuffing, tissue paper, or plastic)

(4) 4-5 foot pieces of metal conduit

(4) 4 foot pieces of rebar

(3) 3 foot pieces of 1x1 wood pieces (or other choice of wood)

twine

plastic cauldron or pot

Orange glitter tulle, for tie and fire

twigs/sticks for fire

(4) black flat sheets, or other large material

(4) witches masks, wigs and hats of choice

I hope this made sense lol. I really wish I would have taken more pictures to help explain. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or contact me.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

xoxo

Dawn