Mailing the Hankie Invites

I've owed you this post for so long!

These are pictures and the "how" behind mailing
my wedding invitations.Or just where I got everything!

  
Envelopes~Paper Presentations 

  My favorite store on my favorite block (besides all my other favs on the block)!
I knew that I wanted something really simple in terms of envelopes. This way the Hankies would be the star. I spent hours at Paper Presentations looking for the perfect envelope and sleeve to hold the invite. I found some made with recycled paper and also bought inserts to line the envelopes.

        

Information Cards~Ruffled & Avery 

I made little cards to go the sleeve with RSVP information. 

Used a template on Ruffled (free download!) and Avery labels for the card.

We skipped Response Cards to help keep things eco-friendly. 

Calligraphy~ Briar Winters

Calligraphy on wedding invitations is beautiful! It wasn't really in our budget. I took a tip from The Groom Says and asked a Bridesmaid, Briar Winters, to pen addresses with her gorgeous penmanship.

Mailing them ~ Bunny Tip


These can be tricky to mail if they are very thick! I took them to the post office and had an employee helped me measure the envelopes thickness with the hankie folded. Normally they were 61 cents, but the thicker hankies ended up being over $1.

 

I was very happy with the way these turned out and my guests loved receiving them!
Are you making Hankie Invites too?

Quick and Easy

A couple of days ago I did the quickest craft of my life. I was cleaning off my desk and came around a scrap of pretty, sturdy paper leftover from when I recovered that notebook for Bunny.

I didn't want to toss the paper out, because it was so pretty, but I wasn't going to keep it unless it could be repurposed into something useful. So I punched a hole in the top and looped a scrap strand of embroidery floss through the hole.

Voila! Perfect, easy, elegant bookmark!

Hooray for super simple crafts!

Happy New Year!

-Bea

Paper Wreath! A Monday Share

So, Bea and I are kind of obsessed with crafting blogs lately! And it is nice to see what others are making, up-cycling and crafting. I've been loving the cork wreath that Bea made and had been wanting to make a wreath for myself. And I sure did get inspired to make this wreath!

I first saw this wreath over at Curbly, which led me to the directions by Jeffery Rudell over at Craft Stylish where you can see all the directions. I followed them and made a wreath! My color scheme is very bright and I love it! I think it will work for Christmas and New Years and all winter long. I was tempted to hang it inside my apartment so I can look at while I'm home...but now I have something bright to see when I come home.

A couple tips:

1) I used scrap booking paper and come of it didn't hold up to well to the glue gun. So, heavier paper or painting tiles are good ideas. Though I was able to cover up the areas quite nicely with other circles.

2) I like to keep my crafts as Eco as possible. So, i used a bunch of scraps from my scrap booking paper for the circles. I was reluctant to buy a Styrofoam form... but I caved in and did. I bought a "weathered" green form at Michael's that was sturdier and less expensive than the white. And I plan to reuse it over and over again!


3) It got a little tricky to keep all the circles lined up to be the same length because they start to bend... I would just take breaks and wait for the circles to dry. Then I would bend all the circles so they would be flat! I think thicker paper would help with this too. Mine was thick enough that I could bend it pack into place and crease it so it wouldn't bend again.

Here is the finished product before I hung it on my door with red yarn!

Bunny's Christmas Gift - A notebook of her own

This year, since we're getting into crafting, Bunny and I decided to make each other our gifts. I wanted to give her something practical, since she is planning her wedding for this summer, but I also wanted her gift to be attractive. Again, I wanted it to be budget friendly, too. I'm not ashamed to state on the blog that I was cheap with gifts this year. Bunny is well-aware that I'm frugal, and I think she's a wise enough gal to bee cool with it.

I wound up "making" Bunny a notebook for collecting thoughts and ideas relevant to her wedding and life in general, a journal, I suppose. Here's what I did.

Start with your basic run of the mill marble composition journal. They're around $1.50 pretty much everywhere, and are bound prettily (though you can't easily tear out the papers should you choose to do so).

Gather some beautiful paper. My go to store for this is Paper Presentation on W. 18th St in Manhattan.

Mod Podge. 'Nuff said.

Scissors.

I folded a piece of paper over the front and back covers of the notebook, covering about 2/3's of the outer surface. Then I Mod Podged this down. I cut a length of a different paper to cover the remaining 1/3 of the outer cover and Mod Podged it as well, being sure the edges met up evenly and that I was still able to open and close the notebook.

I found these awesome envelopes at Paper Presentation as well, and I placed one on the inside cover in the front and in the back, so Bunny can store coupons or tear-outs from magazines that she finds inspiring.

Finally, I found a nice letter "G" (you didn't really think her name was Bunny, did you?) in an old issue of Self and slapped it onto the cover.

I ran some embroidery floss around the loop ties of the front and back envelopes (see photos) so it wrapped around the whole cover of the notebook, and I slipped in a purple pen for notetaking.

Ta dah!

-Bea