Top Secret Surprise Invitations

I've been dying to blog about these. These are invitations I designed for a surprise wedding shower for our good friends. The shower happened yesterday, so I'm in the clear to share it with you all.

I was recruited by the bride's MOH and I was more than happy to help out. When she told me that it was going to be a surprise from the bride's grandmother, I was even more excited! I decided to come up with a "secret mission" style invitation. I created these mini manila folders and the policy envelopes to go along with them. Inside the little folders were the details of the "mission."

The bride and groom were completely caught off guard. I'd say Mission: Surprise Wedding Shower was a huge success. So glad I could be a part of it all!

Lovely package.

Headed to my friend's shower today. Thought I'd give her gift a little TLC. It's amazing what a little baker's twine, washi tape and a grocery bag can do! Inspired by this image:

[From this post on Decor8]
So next time you're at the grocery store and the bagger asks you for paper or plastic, always go with paper! You're going green AND you'll have tons of grocery bags for paper crafting later!

Happy Saturday!

A Handmade Christmas.

ATTENTION:
If you're my mom or my mother-in-law, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER. I mean it! Unless it's after Christmas. Then it's all good.

Ok, moving on...

The hubs and I decided early on in the holiday season to keep things simple this year. We didn't get anyone anything elaborate and I ended up making a lot of our gifts. I especially enjoyed making the gifts for my mom and Mudder (mother-in-law). {Really, if either one of you is reading this.... No further!! Love you, mean it!}

My mom and mother-in-law are cut from the same cloth because they are both geniuses in the kitchen! So for Christmas, I originally wanted to get them something like this. As gorgeous as that is, I don't have that kind of dough for one, let alone TWO of them. =(

Thank goodness for my hubs and Hobby Lobby, which is where he found these. And my idea sprang from there. A trip to Home Depot for some wood stain and I now had these:

 Fun, huh? After a whole lot of drying time (my fault for not following the directions), I went to Michael's and found these:

Have I ever told you how much I LOVE Sharpies? Well I do. So imagine my happiness when I saw Sharpie Paint Markers!! And they didn't disappoint. The extra fine point helped me achieve this:

And the fine point helped me fill in the blanks. And I'm so so happy with the outcome!

I created the dividers and recipe cards to go with it, topped it off with some baker's twine and voila!

What about you? Are you giving handmade presents? I'd love to see! ♥

Merry and Bright.

They came upon a Monday evening... and I couldn't be happier with them! Presenting the Wea Christmas card 2010 edition. These are either on their way to recipients or they've already arrived, depending on how far they are from us.

I used GotPrint for our cards. My bestie tuned me into it. I also used them for my brother and future sis-in-law's Save the Dates. I'm very happy with the result for both jobs. The only problem I have now is that they sent me twice as much as I ordered for our Christmas cards! At first I thought I messed up the order, but I double checked my quantity and I definitely only ordered a 100 and got TWO hundred. A definite oversight on their part, because I only paid for 100... So, who wants a Wea Christmas card?

No, seriously... Who wants one?

I'll be more than glad to send one to you! Message me your address! My email address is over there in my About section. Just think of it as me sending you some holiday cheer! =)

Envelopes to Keep our Cards Warm.

WHOA. It's December 2?! Where did this year go?? My gosh... I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I've been posting few and far between lately due to lots of client work, which I thank the Lord every day for! I've also been busy crafting Christmas presents and creating our Christmas card (which I'll share with you all as soon as they come in on Monday!)

While I wait for those, I've been diligently making envelopes for them. It's amazing what you can do with grocery store paper bags (Shopping IS a pleasure at Publix, BTW!) and an Envelope Template (one of the best purchases EVER). Add some double sided tape and a few TV shows later, I now have these:

Neat, huh? I love them. And I love that I'm being green AND thrifty. Win! I also made the labels. It's my actual handwritten type. I drew it up, scanned it an turned it into a vector in Illustrator. I Printed those up, cut 'em and turned them into sticky labels with my handy dandy sticker maker (another one of the best purchases EVER), which you may remember from this post.

I'm seriously considering turning this into a font.
I can't wait to fill these babies up and send them out! I'm so excited. I love Christmastime! =)

Send Me an Instant Photo

I heard about Send Me An Instant Photo from Pampelmousse 1983. If you know me, you know that I absolutely luuuuuuurrrve instant photos. SMAIP is a place where you can send in an instant photo and it gets a chance to be posted on the blog for others to enjoy. It's such a creative idea! I sent this one of beautyberries from my backyard and it got picked to be in a post!

I think it's great that there are others out there like Lauren of SMAIP that are helping to keep instant alive. So if you're an instant photo lover, go check out Send Me An Instant Photo and DO IT! Thanks, Lauren!

I love Pugly Pixel

If you haven't checked out Pugly Pixel yet, you're missing out! It's a wonderful blog, chock full of creative inspiration! Katrina Tan is the lovely mind behind Pugly Pixel and she is always kind enough to share freebies and tutorials to all of us out there in the blog world. She's amazing. I'm pretty stoked about her upcoming Blog e-course.

(Source: Pugly Pixel)
Today, she's sharing these awesome Photoshop overlays. Aren't they pretty? And they're easy to use... see?

Hop on over to Pugly Pixel and have a look around. You're sure to fall in love with her blog and style just like I did!

I love Jessica Hische.

eriously. I'm a huge fan. Jessica Hische is a super talented illustrator and typographer. She's also the creative mind behind Daily Drop Cap (which I've used here.) She also designed Buttermilk, a font that's on my current font wish list. She's an excellent creative inspiration. Check out this little video:


Art In The Age Presents... Jessica Hische from Art In The Age on Vimeo.

Go check out Jessica Hische. You won't regret it! =)

Journaling for a Cause

I've just joined Journaling for a Cause. It's an online class that's getting ready to start up, hosted by Janel over at Run With Scissors. I'm so excited to participate. I missed out on Janel's 30-Day Journal Challenge, so I was pumped to find out she's starting this class. As the title states, it's for a good cause: Janel and her husband are planning to adopt in the next year or two and the sign-up fees generated from this class will go towards their savings for the adoption expenses!

The class will run for 30 days and there will be a journal prompt and challenge every day. I'm hoping this will help me get out of my norm and push me creatively. Hopefully it will transcend over to my design process for my everyday work. It's also a great way to make new blog friends, to be inspired and supported by others. So if you're interested in Journaling for a Cause, head on over to Janel's etsy shop and secure your spot!

Hip... Hip hop... Hippopanonnamous?

Name that movie! Just kidding... I couldn't resist. It's the first thing I thought of when I saw Hip Hip Hooray! I came across this awesome new blog the other day and I thought I would share. It's so bright and happy, I just couldn't help but fall in love!

Hip Hip Hooray! is a new blog that catalogs any and everything that has to do with kids' parties. It's a great resource for tips and inspiration to help plan a creative kids' celebration.

(All images by Hip Hip Hooray!)

Suann Song of Simplesong (another of my fave blogs...surprise, surprise, right?) along with Amy Atlas, Jordan Ferney, Maria Cooke, and Kate Headley are the talented and creative minds behind such a wonderful site. It will definitely be a go-to for me when it comes time to plan for my kids' party. Please go and give Hip Hip Hooray! some lovin'. 

Nonpareil Magazine

Nonpareil Issue #4

If you haven't heard about it, Nonpareil is an online magazine resulting from a collaboration between Maddy Hague of the Inspired Bride and Kristen Magee of Paper Crave, which just happens to be two of my everyday blog reads. Both of their sites are wonderful wedding resources in their own right, which just makes their collaborative efforts that much better!

Nonpareil is chock full of gorgeous photos, DIY projects and inspirations that are sure to spark up your creativity. I really wish it was around last year when I was planning our wedding! ::Le sigh:: So if you haven't already, check out Nonpareil Mag. You're sure to be smitten like I am!

Crafty Friday-DIY Fabric Tape

This is a new thing I'm trying to keep up with. Crafty Friday posts will consist of DIY that I've tried myself or that I've come across to help spark up some craftiness for you. I can't guarantee that I'll post *every* Friday, but I will do my best to at least post once a month. So here's the first of [hopefully] many Crafty Fridays!

If you're a crafter like me, then you probably have tons and tons of scrap fabric handy. Why not turn it into some fabric tape? It's so super duper easy that you'll have rolls upon rolls of fabric tape in no time!

What you'll need:
- Scrap fabric
- Scissors
- Sticker Maker (I have a Xyron 250)

I bought this Xyron 250 last year when I was creating our wedding invitation. It was around $20 at Michael's, but you can pretty much find it at any craft store--even WalMart! In fact, the refill cartridge is actually cheaper at WalMart.

Basically, you just cut your fabric into strips. Make sure the strips are not wider than what your sticker machine can fit. The 250 can fit up to 2.5" wide comfortably. Once you've cut your fabric strips, just feed it through the sticker machine, pattern side up.

The sticker machine does all the work. It rolls out with the adhesive on the back and onto a wax paper backing.You're ready to go! You can use it as tape to give your gift wrapped packages a little something extra or you can cut them into shapes and use it as fabric stickers!

(Source)

Here are a couple of links to other variations of this project:
Fabric Paper Tape Tutorial from Annekata
DIY Fabric Tape and Stickers Tutorial from Natalie Jost

Happy crafting!

Typography and Music

Two of my favorites combined into one courtesy of Mico Toledo. He's a designer who combined his love for music and typography and created a project called Music Philosophy. It's a weekly graphic/typographic interpretation of philosophical song quotes, which he makes available for viewing and download on the site. Here are a few of my faves:

Check out more designs at Music Philosophy! Some of the designs can even be purchased as t-shirts from Skreened! Go forth!

(*via Paper Tastebuds)

It just may be...

..the most amazing kids' room I've ever seen! ::GASP:: (Found on one of my daily reads, Design*Sponge)

(All Images by Jackson Visuals via Design*Sponge)
I've already recruited the hubs to make this for our kid when the time comes! Hehe... It's amazing to have a husband who's so handy. I tell him that almost every day.

Hop on over to Design*Sponge for more images of this amazing room!

Love Letter Murals

Came across this via Hula Seventy--Love Letters unlike any I've ever seen.

From their site:

Love Letter is a project by Stephen Powers with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and is sponsored by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.  Generous support provided by the Brownstein Group and Septa.

 Want more? Here you go!
www.aloveletterforyou.com
Mural Arts Project

Just lovely!

Can you believe it's the first of APRIL already? Where is this year going? Seriously? Thought I'd start a new month off with this great inspiration.

Meet the Avi & Kate invitation suite from Rifle Paper Co...

How amazing are these invitations? And yes, that's embroidery floss sewn RIGHT on the the paper! See?

(All images by Rifle Paper Co.)

Anna Bond is the amazing talent behind Rifle Paper Co., which has been making the rounds of pretty much all of the wedding and inspiration blogs that I've come across. And what's so cool is that she's based in Winter Park, which is basically right outside of Orlando. (It's always great to hear that there's so much talent and inspiration right in your own backyard.)

So if you have the time, go check out her awesome blog. It's sure to fill you with all kinds of happiness and creativity!

In and around the Wea house

We found our lovely house on Craigslist. This is our first place together, on our own, since we got married in July. We're renting, so we can't really fully make it our own, but here are peeks of what we've done to make this house more like home.

My felt ruffle wreath

I made this during the holidays, right after we first moved in in December. Got the idea from Domestistuff. I figured that I'd use ivory colored felt so I could use it year-round. I'm all about multi-purposing! =)

Remember this picture from this post?

Well here's a detail of the vellum flowers. I love how light they are and the rustling sound they make when I move the vase.

Got this idea from The Storque on Etsy. Namely, this tutorial. Detecting a pattern yet?

Over past our kitchen, we have french doors. We now have curtains over them and this baby. My coffee filter garland! Isn't it pretty? Seriously, coffee filters... who knew?

Right next to the french doors is our little brag shelf. It's a small collection of our loved ones, but we hope to grow it in time. Please excuse our ugly router and modem.

We love this shelving from IKEA, which was our bff when we first moved in. I can honestly say that 85% of our house was furnished by IKEA.

Here's my favorite detail of this spot. Our first dance pic taken by my friend, Jace. I customized it by adding our vows on the otherwise empty screen on the left. Thank goodness for Snapfish! Got the frame from Bed Bath & Beyond ("but I dunno, I dunno if we'll have enough time!" 5 points for correctly naming the movie...)

Moving on over to Chuck's favorite part of our home... Our music nook! Doesn't it look like a music store in here?

This area was so empty when we first moved in. All that was there was our Waikiki mosaic on that back wall. It was a picture I took during our first trip to Hawaii together in 2007, atop Diamond Head... Best. View. Ever. Definitely one of those things to put on the Bucket List. Anyway, the mosaic is made up of old CD jewel cases held up on the wall by velcro. When I blew up the picture, I tiled the prints on several sheets of paper. Then I used the insert on the back of the CD case as a template guide to cut out my tiles. Pretty neat, huh? Man, I love the internet... Find the tutorial here.

Right next to the music nook is our "wa-wa-WEA-wall"! It's our little "Wall of Fame." No internet this time. This one was all us! Hey, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve still.

Basically, when we have get-togethers or when people come to visit, I take an instant picture of them and put it up on our wall. And the name? Think Borat... wa-wa-wee-wah... HA! We have the best last name ever.

So that was a small tour of what's decorating the Wea Hale (house in Hawaiian). I'm pooped... and so is Mushu!