Chalkboard Trays

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! This is by far my favorite holiday when it comes to creating Art. All of the pinks and reds. Vintage laces and romantic,vintage, paris themes.

The girls and I started out our day with these adorable heart sprinkled cupcakes from the bakery. When we got home from grocery shopping, and while we were putting the groceries away. There was a knock at the door. It was a delivery man with a delivery of lillies, a teddy bear, bath salts and a box of chocolates. Thanks to my sweet husband.

and we finished off our Valentine's Day at Our favorite antique/ handmade home decor boutique called Willow Lake. The owner Eileen created an irresistable collection of delicious goodies! You can "like" her shop on Facebook to see gorgeous vignettes that are ever changing in her store here...

Hope you all had an absolutely lovely Valentine's Day!

Handmade Wedding Invites

For an Etsy order this Summer a bride asked me for the first time to create wedding invitations.

I'd never done this before so I made her up a sample with coffee dyed background and cream cardstock on the front. Then sewed them together with some soft pink seam binding frills.I threw in with the order a gorgeous embellished Guest Book and she chose to order corespondence tag cards as well. The turnout was so pretty it inspired me to use these colors in my other areas of work such as garlands, roses and trim tags.

Indoor Picnic

Today my girls and I had a fantastic girly day of shopping and decided to have lunch with an indoor picnic at home. We got out the fancy picnic wear and set up their lunches with the windows open and some pretty lanterns.All of their stuffed animals were even invited and had a fancy tea party picnic :)
Life is good when life is simple!

Wood Burning

Wood burning is becoming a popular technique in personalizing weddings. Birch vases, wood slices and wooden tags are being personalized with the bride and grooms initials. The perfect addition to a rustic outdoor or nature inspired wedding.
For these Bride and groom Chair markers I used balsa wooden hearts and burned Bride and Groom in a script font onto the hearts. The addition of some crocheted embelishments and vintage looking rhinestones creates a old world romantic feel.

Tree slices are also becoming a beautiful trend in weddings. For centerpieces, cake stands and more. Here is a simple heart woodburned onto a beautiful oak slice.

The woodburning tool can even be used on such material as paper mache. Here is a simple paper mache journal from Michaels for only 1.99 that is made into a beautiful keepsake for photos of a wedding.

2011 Wedding Creations

Every year in January I love to begin dreaming up new creations for weddings. For the 2011 wedding season here are some beautiful ideas using vintage decorative border images.

Tent Cards to use as placecards, thank you favor cards, or escort cards

Love and appreciation tags with pretty seam binding ribbon from the bride and groom

blank decorative border tags to use for name/placecards, escort cards or wishing tree tags

Coffee dyed used Manilla folders cut into 5 by 7 cards to mark table numbers

Cream crepe paper poppies

Using the highest quality of gorgeous cream crepe paper folds from blumchen.com

Here are some beautifully delicate paper flowers with pearl stamens.