Mulberry Rose Pomander

Getting a shout from my husband in the loft, 'Do you want these Wedding Pew Ends down, so you can take them apart and use the flowers on them?' 

All the hours I'd spent making our pew ends for our Wedding less than a year ago, I didn't really want to, but I could see his point. Sat up there, gathering dust, they'd may as well be put to use.

I knew I could use the roses on some more of my sample invitations or other creations. It then clicked. What about making some more pew ends or a ball of flowers ideal for little flower girls or hanging from garden crooks as aisle or venue decor.

Researching eBay for polystyrene balls large enough to do what i wanted them to do, I was surprised at actually how reasonable they were in price.

The arrived with Mr Postman (he must love me for all the parcels I am ordering at the moment for my samples), I wanted to try and halve one of the balls. Getting the bread knife out, this can not be that hard - Or can it? Those things just don't want to cut! I gave up in the end and went on with making a pomander.

These roses I use are made from a mulberry card. They are extremely sturdy, so I thought ideal for little flower girls. With the way children throw things around in excitement, they'd remain in tact, No roses will be falling out, no petals being pulled off. (The husband even mentioned how it could be used as a football also!!). 

I secured my ribbon on and started to place my flowers on to the ball.

I am extremely happy with the way the pomander has turned out. A few more roses squeezed in maybe to fill some of the small gaps, but I'd only a few flowers left so had to make do with what I had.

But for anyone interested in buying one from me. I can tailor your colour scheme with the roses and they'll be £25 each.

Small balls can be used for pew ends... but watch this space. I am having more thoughts on pew ends so I am sure, I won't be able to resist in having a play. After all, I have another six days of leave yet! :D

Winter Wedding Creations on a 

Beautiful Spring Day!

With the sun shining, yellow daffodils standing proud in my garden and being almost 20 degrees outside, it almost seemed wrong to be creating winter themed Wedding Invitations. 

I was designing these with the winter in mind, but not to take it to the Christmas side of things. A royal blue and silver theme, the samples came together quite simply for them. I'd done one set of samples, but there was just something missing from them. It needed the sparkle of what winter brings when the ice gleams in the winter sun on the ground.

Googling for inspiration, the idea of a large silver snowflake taking centre stage really caught my eye and got my creative side flowing.

There were to be two different invitations created for the day and evening guests. I wanted the day time guests to have that winter sparkle I was after, and the evening to be simpler but have the winter theme in mind.

After showing my lovely couple, Becca and James there sample, they were delighted. Very few changes were made to them and so the order was placed.

And here is the final result:

Giving A Little 'Favour'

Favours are small presents of gifts you can give to your Wedding Guests to say 'Thank You' for coming. 

They come in many varieties and shapes, but here are just a few of  the classic square boxes you'll find containing maybe sugar almonds, chocolate or a charity pin.

Fancy Florals

Having used a few of these mulberry flowers on my own Wedding Stationery last year, I browsed the website to see what other inspiration I could gain.

Wow, so many beautiful designs and colours too choose from. However, the special offers page caught my eye with lots of mixed colours at an unbeatable price. For this reason, I ordered two different types of flowers.

My husband answered the front door to Mr Postman, and I rushed down stairs, with freshly painted nails eager to get into the box but why would I want to ruin my nails? OH WELL.... scuffed up they went!

Opening the box to 'wow' flash of colour before my eyes, I ripped them all out of their box and sat with them in front of me. What impressed me the most was the look of these flowers. Even the husband passed comment on just how life like the flowers were, asking 'are they real?' And to me, you really wouldn't notice unless you knew what they were.

Sitting curling all the stems on the flower around a biro pen, I couldn't want to get up stairs and have a play with these beautiful flowers. I'd recently invested in some vellum paper, lace and 3mm ribbon to try out too. These four items were about to work wonders together.

Finishing up and looking back on the invitations, I have to say that these are some of the my favourite creations to date. I love the feel and look of the flowers and how they compliment the whole look of the invitations. I think I may need to invest in some more colours and styles to try out.

But for now, here are the photos of today's creations:

Cadbury's Purple and Hearts Sparkles galore

This was my other big order I'd been working on through out my three days off.

Sirena had found my designs through a Wedding Planning Forum and immediately contacted me for ideas. She had ideas in her head of what she wanted, then left the rest for me to design.

A few minor tweaks here and there, and I was receiving the 'Go ahead' email. 

This invitations are one of my more complex designs. Lots and lots of cutting. I think I approximated around 60 cuts per invitation needed for this specific order. And the whole order of 50 invitations took me around 14 hours to create. 

I didn't think I was going to be able to finish these invitations off right away, as my buckle sliders were coming from half way around the world. A missed parcel from Mr Postman (silly me had my music too loud to hear his door knock), I collected them first thing the following morning from the parcel office. Thinking they were something completely different., to my surprise, their were 50 shiny, sparkly heart buckle sliders sat in front of me. Which was fantastic news, I wasn't expecting them for another 2 or 3 weeks, it meant I could put this order to bed  and get them sent out asap.

To sit back and see the completed order finished in front of you, is such a wonderful sense of achievement. I have to say, I completely fell in love with these Invitations. The sophisticated purple of the ribbon and the luxury feel from the heart buckle slider, completely pulled this order together. With my head, arms and hands hurting from 14 long hours work on this order, to see them all sitting back in front of you saying 'I created each and every single one of you!'. I really hope Sirena and Michael's family and friends love the invitations just as much as I do.

And here are the photos:

And here are my two first big orders, packed into their boxes ready to be sent out!!!

Fold Over Invitation Making Process

I wanted to create a post, where by I show every part of my creative skills that are required for making a hand crafted Wedding Invitation. 

I was setting to work on creating a beautiful fold over Invitation order for a customer of mine and I thought of doing a picture process along the way. I wanted it to show how it all starts with a simple a4 piece of card and then becomes the Invitation of someone dreams. For this order I was creating 42 Day Invitations and 20 Evening. 

Step One:

From the computer to the printer. All my work is designed and planned out before hand on the computer. Once ready and proof read, Off to the printer we go. 62 Invitations printed, round two.

Step Two:

Onto the cutting board. I then hand cut all my invitations to size. This has to be done with every a4 print out that I've had through the printer. Four sides cut to size = 248 cuts.

Step Three:

Once all cut to size, my fold over invitations then need scoring on four sizes to create the 'fold over' look. Another 248 scores done.

Step Four:

I then have to carefully cut all of the diamond shape scores on the corners so that my fold over invitation works. 248 done and cut out.

Step Five:

I then have to cut a length of ribbon and attach it to every invitation.

Step Six:

I then have to cut 64 'Wedding Invitation' tags and punch holes onto them. With this order, I then attach 64 mini keys to the tags.

Step Seven:

I carefully then create the bows and prettiness for the fronts of the invitations. And my final look is done.

64 Fold over Wedding Invitations - DONE!

Winter Wonderland

I have been asked to create some winter themed Invitations for a customer but with out the Christmas feel to them. I had created an initial sample but I wasn't happy. It was lacking that something, that certain sparkle.

So after getting my thoughts together with that I actually wanted, I ordered a few items that would set me on my way.

Well today, Mr Postman delivered me those goods and here is my take on Winter Wedding Invitations.

The first set are the main wedding Invitations that she wants for her Day time guests. The second simpler invitations are for her evening guests.