My DIY Pinwheels To Top The Kid's Pencils

I wanted to add some more fun to the activity booklets I had made for the kids attending our reception, and decided to put pinwheels on top of the pencils I had bought for them. I think the pictures say it all as far as my process went.


I used some pretty thick double sided card stock. But I think thinner paper will work just as well.
Make sure your hole on your hole punch is smaller than the head on your pin. (see #7)
The (4) hole punches will go on the straight cut edge. Of course, you can also always skip the zigzagged side and just keep all lines straight. I just did the zigzag for an added pizazz.


I actually ended up gluing the four pieces together.....putting a dab of glue stick around each hole as I folded each down..........then held in place for a few moments......


I know the pencil doesn't exactly match up with the paper that well (pencil is actually dark purple, but looks brown in pics) but that's ok. It just makes it all that more fun! =)
I also need to concoct a way to make 2 of these pinwheel pencils without actual pins for our two smaller kids. All the rest of the kids are over 10. I'm working on it!
And here it is with the activity booklet and the pillow box I made for the crayons. The pillow box actually just started off as an experiment. I was originally going to just tie some crayons together with ribbon, but then thought that I wanted to put them in some sort of container instead. I tried a few different things, then when I began the pillow box, there was no stopping me. I made them all without a single pic being taken. =(
But I'll make one more for tutorial sake.....soon.
I love the way all the papers match.
I'm still trying to think of some more ideas for the kids. Any thoughts?

My DIY Kid's Booklet

I decided to make just a small kid's booklet for the children that will be at my reception. If all that were invited come, there will be a total of twelve. I started by scouring the internet for templates of coloring and activity pages (wedding related). So I Googled "kids wedding activity book" under images. So I copy and pasted 4 coloring pages and 3 activity pages. On my own, I also created a word scramble with the theme of things you might find at our sweets table, along with another 2 pages of "how many four letter words and higher can you make from the words "PETER AND BELINDA". I put 2 pages per sheet to be printed out, then used my handy dandy cutter to trim them down to the size I needed. (4 x 8)
The picture above is a bit blurry.....but you get the idea.
I then stapled the 10 pages together.
Next, I got the photo cards from SeeHere.com I had made last year......there was a freebie special going on at the time, and I was thinking ahead. lol This is to be our cover for the booklets.
In fact....if you're interested in getting 25 free photo cards from them, they are running a special right now, and all you have to do is pay for shipping. You get (25) 4" x 8" cards in whatever design you choose, to be used for whatever you would like. Just enter this coupon code at checkout: cards-36. This special ends on 7/17/10.
So anyways.....I hot glue gunned the cover to the stack of papers by putting a thin line along the top..........
.......and there you have it! A little time consuming, but it basically cost me nothing but time. (Last year they even paid for shipping on photo cards!) =p

On another subject...........
I sent my invites out in 2 batches......one batch on Thursday and one batch on Friday. Unfortunately, I didn't take pics of my assembly process as I was in SUCH a big hurry to get them out. As I may have mentioned in another post, I've been so busy with Etsy, that time just flew right by me. I wanted to get them out really early so that when the response deadline came up, I could call the people I hadn't heard from to get the count. Then, send out more invites for any open spaces I might have. You see, because of budget AND reception space we had to cut our guest list WAY down low, so I figured whoever couldn't make it on our first wave of invites, maybe people from a second wave could. Make sense? Well anyways....I'll try and take pictures and share from my second wave. How's that?
Did you or do you plan to do anything similar?

For My Mom.....From Etsy

Isn't this such an awesome idea? I found the sweetest angel on Etsy who made this for me. Carrie from SweetAngelLove at Etsy did a FANTASTIC job on this photo collage for my mom for Mother's day. And because my mom has so many grandchildren, she even made me a larger print than her listing was for ( her listing was for an 8 x 10) to accommodate and only charged a few extra dollars (she made me a 16 x 20). She is so wonderful that I just had to mention her on this wedding blog of mine, even though this isn't wedding related. But..........it actually could be wedding related, as she also has a listing for custom wedding photos. You should go take a look! You could get something wedding related......and I'm not sure, but it might be too late for Mother's Day, but you could always give Mom or Grandma an awesome gift for their birthdays!
Well, just thought I'd share this awesome find with you. (5 of those kids are MY grandkids, and my 2 daughters!).
Thanks again Carrie! You're the best!

Happy Valentine's Day!

My wish is for all of my friends out there in the blog world to have a very beautiful day with their significant others.
'Tis a day of L-O-V-E. Enjoy!

Need Table Linens?

I'm sure I've told you all before that my venue doesn't supply linens, and that I was supplying my own (ummm...or maybe I didn't). Well, they aren't and I AM. I already bought my round tablecloths and linen napkins quite awhile ago. And then there's that special I jumped on a couple of months ago from LinenTablecloth.com. In fact....all but my napkins are from LinenTablecloth.com. My round tablecloths I bought through their ebay site. And I just recently received $50 worth of merchandise from them so that I may review their products and blog my opinion on them. So here I am!
Now, what I got with the $50 was (1) 14 foot polyester white table skirt, (4) of their new white satin universal chair covers, and (1) each of 14" x 108" silver satin and lavender satin table runners.
So let's start. The picture above is 2 different chairs. One is a wooden folding chair, and the other is a rounded top dining room table chair. The following picture is the side view of the folding chair with the satin universal chair cover.

Then a picture of it from the back.
Next is the side view of the larger chair..........

....and from the back. So as you can see, they truly are universal. I love the satiny material! I only bought 4 for the head table.
These are some sashes I bought from linentablecloth.com....before the $50 was offered to me. Above it is tied in a bow.......
......and here in a simple knot. I can't wait to decorate the real thing!!!! 7 months-6 days and counting!
These are the table runners......same color on the lavender sash as on this table runner. I also received this silver one, but it seems to look kinda white in the pic.
Here it's draped across my coffee table, but tons of material hanging off the sides, of course! It will look much better when it's steamed and wrinkle free ( they also sell a portable steamer at linentablecloth.com which I am planning to purchase). =)
Here's a close up of this very pretty material. Feel free to click on the pic for a closer look.
And last but not least, here is my humongous white polyester table skirt. It is constructed so well! And the pleating is awesome! I don't know if you've ever seen pics of people's wedding tables where the pleats around their skirt are kinda pleh......well, the pleats on these babies are sharp and defined....and pretty stiff. So I know it's gonna look great at our table....no "pleh" here!
So.....am I happy with linentablecloth.com's products? Well, duh! I wouldn't keep going back for more if I wasn't! And not only the quality...but the price!!!! I have SCOURED the internet to find something less expensive, but my searching always leads me back to linentablecloth.com. Always! They are constantly having special deals, daily twitter contests, and are currently adding more to their inventory and doing their best to make their site the best that it can be....for who? For me and you, of course! Us future Mrs's. (lol) So if you're looking for great, affordable linens.....even rather than renting.....I highly recommend linentablecloth.com. If not for them, I'd be having "like-linen" tablecloths......thank you Linen Tablecloth!

Oh, and reading this back....I realize I sound like a fricken' commercial, but I swear......I'm not getting paid to say these things. I had their permission to write my true opinion on their products.....good or bad. And this IS the most inexpensive place I've found for linens. I love 'em!

I'm Sorry.....

I've been so very busy with jury duty, but will get a break from it with the weekend and holidays coming up. I promise to post the winner of the Poster Giveaway tomorrow....PROMISE! I'm so behind on everything....you should see my house! I haven't been able to make things for my Etsy shoppe either, as I had planned......=(. Oh well, you know how it is when duty calls!

Another Alternative To The Wedding Cake.....

(source)
It's a "shooter" cake. Now THAT'S different! Nothing I would consider, but pretty cool if you ask me.
Speaking of, we had our cake tasting this weekend. Out of the 4 different flavors we tried (rasberry, lemon mousse, coconut mousse, cream cheese mousse)....all were white cake with buttercream......we chose the cream cheese mousse filling. It was heavenly. Because it was a mousse, it didn't have a bite to it. Just smooth and mellow. So yay! One task down. We've still lots of time before we put our order in, but at least we know what we want.
Since we'll be having a small 2 tier (for show and for cutting) and the sheet cake for the guests, we will probably make the 2 tiered with 2 different flavors. The coconut and the lemon.....also very mellow and yummy. =)
What are your favorite flavors, and do you have any flavors that you just can't stand?

Just Got My Winnings! Earrings!

And they came wrapped in a box with a pretty pink bow...all the way from Canada! I won these on a giveaway that Chic 'n Cheap Living hosted.



Aren't they puuurty? These were made with tender loving care by Kim from A Little Bit Of Pretty (etsy shop). And she has FREE wordlwide shipping! So go check out her shop....you're sure to find something you'll fall in love with.

And I got a greeting card with it to boot! She's a sweetheart.
How cute is the card? Right?
Well, just thought I'd share.
Thanks Chic 'n Cheap Living and A Little Bit Of Pretty.