Vintage Travel Guestbook

So I'm getting really excited about heading back down south in 2 weeks for my best friend's wedding in New Orleans. It will be a nice break from work, I will be able to enjoy staying in NOLA for 3 days,and then home to Mobile to catch up with friends and fam for 4 days. I can't wait to see everyone!! It will be one of the first times I've traveled by myself, I mean I have flown plenty of times but usually had to keep up with a group (for work trips) or had Jimmy with me. Not that I'm scared or anything, but it will be a new experience for me.

I volunteered to make her a custom guest book for the wedding and I came up with a pretty good idea. I bought a cream-canvas covered Heidi Swapp album about 8x6 and decorated the outside, then made some inside pages that guests can add to. It will be set up next to the photo booth and guests can add pictures and write a message using jars of washi tape and pens! I haven't found the right jars yet but I did finally finish the book and the little sign with 'instructions'. Here are some pics....

And a few closies of the embellshments I used. I used alot of paper from a K&Co travel stack that had these cool stamps. I cut them out individually, inked them with TH Vintage photo, and then heat embossed them. After I had the placement right I added vintage buttons from my stash, flowers, and some cut enamel brads. 

Elephants are a central theme for the wedding too, since it's at the Audobon Zoo and also the wedding logo is elephants. I tried to encorporate that on the front cover as well as using all stamps from places that are part of H &J's story...Mexico, Alabama,  Texas, &  Louisiana.

Here are a few pictures of the inside pages I did for guests to add pictures and write on!

Next is a cute little frame that I found (along with the one used on the front cover). In the dollar$ bin at Michael's...All that's left is to distress it and add the 'instructions' for guests. Also I am letting the Bride-to-Be decide what pic she wants on the front cover!

This is what the mini frame looked like before:

And after! I 'distressed' the detail work with TH ink in vintage photo and some of my Faber Castel Gelatos in gold using a wetted brush, then added the flowers and brad at the bottom.

Here's the 'instruction' part:

And inside the front cover:

Last page of the book,

I had so much fun making this little interactive album that I hope once I bring it down there for the wedding some of my other friends may want one...I could see myself doing any theme. Its basically a scrapbook for the photo booth pics! All that's left to do now is make the jars and buy some washi tape and paint pens in the right colors. I really enjoyed sharing this with you today & love reading your comments...have a great week!

Until Next time~ VV

D.I.Y. Wedding CRAFTS :)

Hi everyone out there in crafty blog land! I hope you are having a good week. We have been stuck inside for the past 2 days due to Hurricane Issac. Happy to report that no major damage here in Mobile where I live, just lots of rain, some rising water and lots of wind. Today is the last of it but I must say this sucker has hung around for a while! A very slow-moving storm. Kinda nice though that we didn't lose power at all I have been able to catch up a bit on housework and I plan on baking this afternoon...zuchinni bread and once that's in the oven, back to the craft room to have some fun! I made some of these crafts for my wedding a while ago, but haven't had the chance to share them on here so I though this was the perfect day to play catch up! Be aware- PHOTO HEAVY POST AHEAD!! 

First up is the basket formy flower girl, my niece Zoe. I didn't want the same old type of basket that you can buy in the store, so I took a yard sale find basket that was 50 cents and spruced it up! First I wrapped the handle in satin ribbon in the 'malibu' color, then I made a large bow using some sheer 'apple ribbon' - my 2 wedding colors. On the back of the bow there are a few layers of pool-colored tulle for texture. In the middle of the bow I put a little decorative element that I made using scrapbook paper, a mod-podgeable shape, glossy accents, and metal tape. I cut out the anchor from the scrapbook paper and modpodged it to the back, then edged it with the metal tape. To add to that, I used 2 sheer flowers from Micheal's that already had pearl centers and for shine I added Martha Stewart crystal glitter to the edges. I also glittered very heavily the edges of the basket, which you can't really see in this photo. 

Next up are some little baby-barrettes that I made for Zoe to wear in her hair. I bought plain barrettes from Micheals and just dressed them up. I wrapped them first in the pool-colored tulle. Then using paper flowers from my scrapbooking stash, I made layered flowers. I sprayed them first with Smooch Spritz in cherry ice and also River Mossy. I hot glued them together and added mini pearls to their centers. I love how they turned out and they were so easy to make!

Next is one of the crafts I'm not quite done with, they are 'pew cones' that we are hanging on the end of the aisles and putting baby's breath in. I got the idea from a wedding DIY book Jimmy bought me while we were at Powell's Books in Portland. We used embossed wallpaper, silver metallic spray paint, a hot glue gun, and aluminum foil to finish the edges. Here I have more of the tulle inside the edge of it because I thought it would make them look fuller, but I am not sure I will do them all like this. Guess I won't really know until we get the flowers in there!! All that's left to do on these is add wire hangers to the back. Here are some pics:

And next is one of my favorite things I've done besides the glazed jars, it's a paper banner that says 'THANK YOU' that Jimmy and I will hold up and take a picture with on the day of the wedding, then we'll use that picture to send out our thank you cards! I got the idea from pinterest, but of course I had to put my own spin on it. I used all scrapbooking papers, including cardstock from Bazzil.  Also I made another banner that will decorate our table at the wedding, it says 'MR and MRS H'. Here are some pics:

Okay, so that is all I have to share with you today. I have a few more things up my sleeve for the wedding to complete, maybe if I get some of them done this week I will have another share soon! Please check back if you are interested in tutorials on these crafts as I plan to add a complete supply list and instructions later! Until next time, Peace Ya'll~ VV

Supplies List:

(banners) 

Bazzil premium cardstock in 'pomegranate splash' and 'carribean breeze'

Blue & Ivory Chevron paper- Canvas Corp

Large red dot and small red dot paper- old chrismas paper stack

Bronze Glitter by Martha Stewart crafts

Glittering Glue by Martha Stewart crafts

The Ribbon Boutique 1/8 organza ribbon

Cricut Cartridge- Don Juan

stick-on pearls-Micheals

paper flowers- Prima and Recollections

Pebbles crystal candy dots

Chipboard block mist-resist by Ditto

Ditto mist in turquoise

Tim Holtz distress stain in antique linen

Tim Holtz paper distressing tool

(pew cones)

embossed non-pasted wallpaper

Silver foil spray paint

aluminum foil

light teal colored tulle

hot glue gun and glue sticks

scissors

wire for hanging

DIY bouquet charms & a PP sketch challenge!

WARNING: PHOTO-HEAVY POST AHEAD!!

Good evening, everyone! I feel like I have really been out of the loop this month with everyone and everything out there in crafty blog land. That's mostly because I have gone to working 6-day work weeks during prom season. I still have a little less than 3 weeks to go, and although I love what I do, I'm starting to get a little burnt out. I just really need those 2 days a week to do errands, keep my house clean, grocery shop, pay bills,  not to mention have some me time and down time and fun time. I know I've got to keep pushing through and it's only gonna get worse if I don't make the best of it, so that's what I'm trying to do right now. Today was my first day off since last Sunday and I was able to get a lil' crafty time in. I also got to eat lunch at one of my fav restaurants- California Dreaming, and I finally got a new phone!! An iPhone 4S. Super excited about it....been wanting one for a while and finally broke down and spent the money to get one. I know it will be worth it though, in the long run of planning this wedding, J and I are going to need these phones!!!

Alright, enough of my babbling on. A few weeks back I decided to tackle one of the crafts I wanted to make for the wedding day, DIY bouquet charms. I have seen a few different versions, mostly here . I was inspired my Mrs.Crab Cake over at the Hive. I have seen other ones, but I thought taking this idea I could make another version similar to it and get the same effect. Overall I'm really happy with how they turned out, even though they show a few imperfections I think I will probably not re-do them because everyone I have asked says that they show 'character' and it makes them look old, which is kind of what I was going for- vintage, right?? So without further ado- here is my complete tutorial:

1. The first thing you should do is select your photos. I used head shots from a few old pictures that I happened to have in a large bin of old family photos and had them re touched at a kiosk at  Walmart. This was the simplest way for me, however if you're photo shop wiz which I am not, you could certainly do them yourself and print at home on photo paper. At the kiosk, I retouched them and printed them all in wallet size for the purpose of the size of the charms and also they were all changed over to 'sepia' which I liked more than the black and white option. 

 2. The second step is to cut all your photos down to size, the easiest method to do this is to measure using the glass scrabble tiles/ jewelry findings or whatever you are using for your backings and trim it down from there if you have to. For mine, I made 2 larger circle ones and 4 smaller rounded squares, basically 2 sets because I wanted to give one set to my sister. For the squares, I cut them down as close to size as I could and used a corner rounder to give them that rounded edge. Even on a small scale, I think it worked pretty well! 

 Here is a close up on one side of the circle ones- 

 And the other side of the circle charms- backed with glass so I used 2 photos back to back that I double sided and taped together.

And here is a closie of the rounded square ones, not perfectly matched but I LOVE these!

 3. Next, to add dimension to them, I decided to put a slate blue mini pearl on each one. None of the examples I saw had these, but for some reason I just thought it made them look more 'bridal'. I tried to stick them each in the same spot so they would all be uniform.  I didn't take a photo here of the circle one, but i added a larger pearl to it as well. 

 4. The last step in my opinion, is the hardest. I used glossy accents or 'liquid glass' as some of you call it to cover over the entire charm. I was very careful in the beginning to do an even coat and make sure bubbles were popped, but I found that hard to do since I wasn't sitting there watching them dry. I even dried one coat with my heat tool and then did another coat to make it a little thicker and there were still tiny bubbles. Obviously if you were using glass scrabble tiles in this step that would be avoided, but I already had the liquid glass on hand and I was trying to buy as little as possible for this project. 

 Here is a close up of them before they were dry. As you can see here it looks like most of the bubbles were gone, but they will still pop up over the drying period. So annoying! Although, everyone in my family that I have showed them to says that makes them look vintage and old and have character, so I guess I'm cool with it! LOL!

5. The last thing you have to do of course is find the type of ribbon you want to tie them to your bouquet with, I was able to find this super cute velvet ribbon in the 'malibu' color for my wedding, and it worked perfectly as far as the thickness I needed. Here are a few close ups of what they turned out like!! Voila:

  Ok, so the last thing I will share with you tonite is a quick little LO I did at the last minute to get in on the sketch challenge over at Purple Pumpkin Crafts.  I absolutely LOVE their handmade embellishments and their March Sale is actually tonite, about 3:30am Central Standard time...if I didn't have work so early in the am I would be getting up at that crazy hour to make an order. I still have quite a stash from the last one and I need to really get in my crafts room and organize....ahh another day. There's alot of stuff in there that I forgot that I have, don't you love when that happens?? Ok, so here was the sketch we were supposed to use:

I apologize for these photos, some of the first ones I've taken with my iPhone  today and I can't figure out how to rotate these, so this will have to do for now!! 

 Ok folks, that's about it for me tonite. Thank you once again for stopping by and I promise I will be leaving some comments on all your blogs very, very soon. Feels great though to have another LO out in the world... I am on my way to making a facebook page all about scrapbook consulting, technique teaching, and maybe even doing personalized books for anyone if they are interested. We'll see how it goes...def not my full time job right now but I would LOVE if it was. Good night, and PEACE Y'ALL~ VV

Supplies List:

Bouquet Charms:

The Jewelry Shoppe findings- Hobby Lobby -

 18mm square stamping blanks x 4

1 1/4 round frames w/ glass x 2

steele blue stick on mini pearls- Michael's

Tim Holtz distress ink in Vintage Photo

corner rounder

fine tipped scissors

Glossy Accents 'liquid glass'

double sided tape

ribbon of choice

Layout:

background paper- unknown from stash

12 x12 sheet used for scalloped square- Bo Bunny 'Ad Libs Verbiage' #12

My Mind's Eye- 'Stella Rose' collection title words - 'Mabel So Sweet'

Recollections Signature floral embellishments- browns

teal and dark brown cardstock from stash

fabric covered buttons- Purple Pumpkin Crafts

yellow stickles

Smooch Spritz in gold glow

Tim Holtz distress ink in Tea Dye

dark brown cat eye- Colorbox

Tim Holtz paper distressing tool

The Jewelry Shoppe- 2.5mm flower cabochans

fabric pieces- straps from an old sundress (bought @ Buffalo Exchange in Portland, OR)

stick on pearls in white, dark brown, and dark teal- Micheal's

brown Zig marker

pop dots