Stamped Card With Sparkly Embossed Bag

Posted by Khris in Favors + Gifts

The lovely Blythe shares with us this pretty project that’s perfect for holiday gift giving or, you know, a wedding.

While the project focus is on the sparkly-embossed organza bag, I think the card is the real showstopper here. How gorgeous would this be adapted into an invitation? And the bag? An excellent way to present favors.

SUPPLIES:
[Note: The numbers in parentheses refer to the item's current catalog number in the current Stampin' Up! Idea Book.)

• Stamps: Medallion (115223) and Tiny Tags (118091) both by Stampin' Up!
• Card Stock: Very Vanilla (101650) by Stampin' Up!
• Ink: Old Olive Classic Ink (102277), Craft Stampin' Spots - Brights Collection (119718) by Stampin' Up!
•  Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder (101930)
• Heat Tool (100005), Powder Pals (102197)
• Old Olive Satin Ribbon (117292)
•  Jewelry Tag Punch (117190)
• 1/16" Circle Punch (101227)
• Linen Thread (104199)

INSTRUCTIONS

For The Bag:

1. Cut a piece of card stock or thin cardboard slightly smaller than organza bag and insert it into the bag.  Lay the bag on a flat surface and smooth out any wrinkles.
2. Ink the Medallion stamp well with Old Olive Craft Ink. Stamp on bag as desired.
3. Sprinkle the stamped area generously with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. Shake off excess powder into a container (you can re-use any unheated embossing powder).
4. Using even back and forth motions with the heat tool, melt the embossing powder. Be careful here; you'll want to heat only until the powder turns liquid. Overheating will pucker and melt the organza. (See below.)
5. Remove card stock from bag. Insert your favor or gift.

Heating The Embossing Powder On The Bag

For The Gift Note:

1. Cut Very Vanilla card stock to 3″ x 6″, score at 3″ and fold in half to create card.
2. Ink Medallion stamp with Old Olive Craft Ink and stamp image on card front.
3. Sprinkle with Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, shake off excess powder, and heat set using the Heat Tool.
4. Tie Old Olive Satin Ribbon around card.
5. Using Old Olive Classic Ink and the solid tag image from Tiny Tags, stamp off once onto scrap paper, and then stamp onto Very Vanilla card stock.
6. Ink “merry” image with Old Olive Classic Ink and stamp over solid tag image. Punch out the image using the Jewelry Tag Punch.
7. Punch a small hole in the Jewelry Tag using the Handheld Circle Punch (or use the Paper-Piercing Tool). Tie the Jewelry Tag to the Satin Ribbon using Linen Thread.

About Blythe:
Blythe Klipple is a demonstrator for Stampin’ Up!
Email: blythe@stampinwithblythe.com
Blog: http://www.stampinwithblythe.com
Stampin’ Up! website & Store:  http://blythestamps.stampinup.net

Hershey’s Nugget Favor

Posted by Khris in Favors + Gifts

It’s favor time!  They’re one of the toughest DIY problems couples encounter because they need to be (a) inexpensive, (b) easy to make, and (c) appeal to most guests. For those reasons, we’ve been recommending edible favors.

Blythe, who created this fabulous favor bag for us a while back, shares this quickie project that dresses up Hershey’s Nuggets for a sweet ‘n’ easy  favor.

Notes

1. This project does require a manual die-cut machine, such as the Big Shot, Cuttlebug, Big Kick, or Grand Calibur. Though not cheap tools, they are 100% awesome and a great investment for paper crafters.
2. Blythe is a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator (a direct sales/home party craft supply company) so her supply list includes Stampin’ Up! materials. The numbers in parentheses next to each item corresponds to the item’s number in the Stampin’ Up! catalog. Of course  you can source similar materials in other patterns, colors, and textures from other companies.

Supplies:

• Big Shot Die-Cut Machine (item #113439)
• Two Tags Die (115954)
• 1 sheet 8.5″ x 11″ Card Stock in Lucky Limeade (122926)
• 1 sheet 8.5″ x 11″ Card Stock in Whisper White (100730)
• 1 sheet of 8.5″ x 11″ Cheerful Treat Designer Series Paper (Hostess Item)
• 1 – 10″ long piece of 3/8″ Ruffled Ribbon in Pool Party (122975)
• Designer Series Brads – Lucky Limeade (122940)
• Dimensionals foam adhesive strips (104430)
• Double-sided tape
• It’s a Wrap Occasions (123590-wood mount; 123592-clear mount) stamp set
• Ink pad in Pool Party Classic
• Bone folder
• Ruler
• Hershey’s Nuggets

Directions:
1. The Two Tags Die (for the Big Shot) is comprised of 2 tags.  You’ll the one on the right side.

2. Cut two pieces of Lucky Limeade card stock  to 2-1/2″ x 5″. Following the die-cutter manufacturer’s recommended plate+die+cardstock configuration, cut two of the scallop-top tags.

3. Using a ruler and bone folder, score a line across the short side of each tag, 1″ from the bottom.  Crease on fold to get a nice, crisp line.

4. With the bottoms of the tags facing each other, layer them one on top of the other, to form “U” shape. The bottom edge of the top layer will align with the crease of the bottom layer so that you’re making one long piece with the decorative scallops at each open end. 

5. Attach the layers together with double-sided tape.

6. The next step is to decorate the Hershey’s Nuggets. Take off he outer wrapper (but leaving the foil). Cut 1″ x 3″ pieces of Designer Series Paper and wrap each Nugget, securing the paper in place with double-sided tape on the inner edge of the underside of the paper.

7.  Secure the Nuggets to the inside of the packaging. Apply two strips of adhesive to the bottom of the “U”, where the nuggets will rest.  Set one nugget on the adhesive.  Put a bit of adhesive on the bottom of the second nugget and set it on top of the first.  Pull up both sides of the “U”.  Poke or punch a small hole on the top of both sides. Set aside for a minute.

8. Tie a bow using a 10″ piece of Pool Party ribbon.  Carefully poke a hole through the center of the ribbon.  Push a brad, carefully again, through this hole and then through the hole in the top of the tag.  Secure at the back of the Nugget Holder.

9. Finally, using Pool Party ink and Whisper White card stock, stamp the “Thanks So Much” image from the It’s a Wrap Occasions stamp set. Cut it out, leaving an narrow white edge.  Attach to the front of your Nugget Holder using 3 Dimensionals (double sided foam pop up adhesive dots).

Blythe Klipple, Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator since 1996.  Fresh ideas almost daily on my blog:  http://www.stampinwithblythe.com

Need Favors? Check Out WeddingFavors.Org

Posted by Khris in Favors + Gifts, Product Love

One of the most agonized details for do-it-yourselfers is what to give as the wedding favor. Finding that one great little gift that’ll please all 175 of your guests and not break your budget is the Holy Grail of DIY planning, isn’t it?

To help you find the perfect token of thanks to your guests, I’m very pleased to introduce WeddingFavors.Org, an online merchant of favors, favor supplies, shower favors, and even small gifts for your wedding party.

My first time visiting WeddingFavors.Org, was a tiny bit overwhelming. The selection is huge! Their products span hundreds of items in countless themes, colors, and materials.

If you’re hit with a case of overwhelm or indecision about your favors, don’t worry. Their Favor Finder feature lets you enter the price range you want to spend, the color you’re looking for, the season of your event, and the type of event then outputs a huge list of recommendations that fit your criteria.  It’s so easy!

Even better? If you’re not happy with your purchase, WeddingFavors.Org, has a generous return policy that gives a full refund and will pay for return shipping back to their warehouse so you can buy with confidence.

Some of my favorites:

Meant To Bee Personalized Honey. A sweet treat for your lovely guests.

Snowflake Design Place Card Holders. Gorgeous For Winter Weddings or Holiday Fetes.

Kensington Personalized Travel Tumbler For Your Maids

Cherry Blossom Elegance Mini Pillar Candle. Perfect For Spring.

Prices range from under $.50 for for favor packaging to over $15.00 for things like bridesmaid gifts. With many favors, you get bulk discounts. Buy more, save more.

BONUS: WeddingFavors.Org is extending a discount to DIY Bride readers from now through October 31st. Use coupon DIYBRIDE to get 15% off of your order! Favors, favor supplies, bridal shower favors, gifts – it’s all eligible.

Don’t forget to visit WeddingFavors.Org on Facebook or Twitter to learn more about their company, products, and special insider information!

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post, meaning that DIY Bride has been compensated for the article. We firmly stand behind our review and recommendation and are committed to promoting only those companies we feel offer our community excellent products, ethical business practices, and outstanding customer service.

Ask DIY Bride: Printing In White?

Posted by Khris in Invitations, Programs, + Stationery

This pressing missive comes from Julie:

I saw some killer invitations that were dark purple with white printing. How can I print in white with my inkjet or office laser printer?

DIY Bride Answers:

Though home and office printers have come a long way, none of the ones on the market print in white ink. What you see with most commercially-printed invitations is most likely an inverted printing technique. The designer will create a design with white text on a color background in her layout program. She’ll then print the design on white paper. Because home-office printers can’t print in white, only the background color will print, leaving the text areas open. The wording/design will show as white because there’s no ink on the areas the printer didn’t put color on the white paper. Make sense?

If you truly want white ink on colored paper, you’ll need to do a labor-intensive manual process something like using a rubber stamp, letterpressing or screen printing where an opaque white ink is spread onto a stamp, plate or screen (respectively) and then applied directly to the paper. And, for what it’s worth: getting a solid, opaque white ink is notoriously hard. Be prepared for lots of experimentation and extra printing!

DIY Kate Middleton’s Bouquet On A Budget

Posted by Khris in Bouquets + Flowers

Just after the wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William, we ran a breakdown of materials and an estimate of what it’d cost to recreate Kate’s ultra-lovely monochromatic bouquet. Our verdict: about $1200. A number of professional florists wrote in to tell us our estimated number of flowers, especially the lily of the valley, was a bit off. We were being too conservative, they said. Yikes!

We loved Kate’s bouquet and, from your letters, so do you. However, that $1200+ price tag is simply way out of reach of most of us. We contacted our friends at FiftyFlowers.com to see what we could put together for a DIY Bride version that wouldn’t break the bank. They’ve released a Kate-inspired combination box that brings together some of same elements of the princess’ bouquet but at a price that’s made for us commoners. We got our hands on one of the boxes and made our own Kate bouquet for about $200.

Have you ordered from FiftyFlowers before? Here’s what to expect when you buy their wholesale flowers:

1. The box arrives on your doorstep. You’ll need to get it in your house and get those flowers hydrating ASAP after their journey. When you open the box, you’ll see the flowers in bundles. They’re wrapped in paper during transportation.

2. The flowers are packed very well! The lily of the valley are in a separate box (left). The other bunches of flowers are on the right, stabilized in the box by the pieces of wood. The wood is stapled to the box. Have a screwdriver on hand to remove them or a box cutter to cut around them to get the flowers out without damaging the stems.

3. Oddly, the first thing you notice about the lily of the valley won’t be the extra paper and packaging. It’ll be the scent. It is HEAVENLY.

4. The unpacking shots aren’t the most exciting, I know. I wanted to show you a bit about what to expect. So, let’s get on with making this beautiful bouquet!

Carefully pull the flowers from the box and gently unwrap them from the paper. Please have buckets (or large vases) of water on hand and ready to go when your flowers arrive. They’ll be very thirsty after their journey and may look wilty and tired. A good drink of water rehydrate them. (FiftyFlowers has excellent flower care instructions on each of the flower’s pages. Do read up before you buy! Some flowers require more pampering than others; have a look before hand to see if the work is within your DIY comfort zone.)

Obligatory rehydration shot. (The lily of the valley are very small!):

The stock looking is very smushed and sleepy here. This is to be expected and why the buckets of water are so important! A nice, long drink is in order for these guys. It took about 3 full hours for them to perk up enough to be usable. Plan your time accordingly! Don’t order flowers to be delivered on the day of your wedding. Ever.

It’s also worth noting that stock was substituted for hyacinth (FiftyFlowers.com now lists either/or in the description) because with real flowers, Mother Nature reigns supreme. The grower had problems with the hyacinth. Always, always be flexible in the types of flowers you’ll accept in case a grower has to make a substitution which is quite common.

5. Once your flowers have had time for a drink, it’s time to get started on creating the bouquet. We’re making, like Kate’s, a wired bouquet. What this means is that each flower stem is essentially replaced with floral wire. This serves a couple of purposes: 1.) to eliminate a lot of bulk in the handle if you’re using a lot of flowers and 2.) to allow the flowers to be positioned in less-than-natural positions – like Kate’s shield-shaped bouquet.

The first step is to cut the stem from the flower, leaving about a 1/2 inch to 1 inch from the bottom of the bloom. This remaining stem will be where you wrap wire around later. After you cut a stem, place it back in water so it stays fresh while you’re cutting the rest. (Meet Sweet William, by the way. Isn’t it pretty? There are several blooms on each stem. It’s the foundation of our bouquet.)

6. Because Sweet William has a thick stem, I used the following wiring technique:

Push length of wire (about 18″ long) through the stem, about 1/2 down the stem.

Fold wire in half, once it’s through the stem:

Then wrap one side of the wire around the stem a few times. Repeat with the other side.

Twist the remaining/overhanging wire together. Wrap floral tape around the stem, from the bottom of the bloom to the end of the stem.

[note color="#F5989D"] 

Note: GET HELP when doing this step. It takes a long, long time to cut, wire, and wrap each and every stem. I did this by myself and it took about 3.5 hours. In that time, on a moderately warm afternoon, the flowers started drooping. Get them done as quickly as possible and keep them cool. Once you you wrap the stems, there’s not much you can do to keep them hydrated. The longer you take, the more risk of having wilted flowers by the ceremony.

[/note]

Wrapping lily of the valley: Pull apart (actually the flower stems will just fall away) the flower stems from their leaves. Because lily of the valley is so delicate, it’s best to wrap them in bunches of 3 or 4 for strength and stability. With fragile or very thin stems, don’t push wire through them, just wrap the wire around them.

You’ll end up with a number of leftover lily of the valley leaves. Keep those to fill in any spots or add extra greenery later on.

7. Onceyour stems are all wrapped, it’s time to get arranging. I have to say that I agonized over this part, trying to get the arrangement just perfect. Here’s the thing about working with white flowers: the more you handle them, the more they’re going to bruise and show wear. Ideally, you need to work quickly and make placement decisions without too much fuss. Because, silly me, I was working along, I missed out on getting the exact step-by-step shots here. Basically, I put a bunch of Sweet William together, secured with rubber bands, added the other flowers in the gaps, secured with more rubber bands, bend the stems into place, bound the handle with floral tape then covered with ribbon and secured with pins.

More detailed:

I began with bringing together about 12 of the wired Sweet William stems and semi-loosely secured them with a rubber band (elastic for our international readers). I arranged them, in my hand, into a heart formation. When I got the right shape, I used another band to better secure them so that they didn’t lose the formation. This heart shape is the base for the bouquet. You’ll see lots of open gaps; that’s exactly right. In those holes, you’ll be adding the rest of the stems.

The lily of the valley and stock were dispersed throughout the bouquet. The beauty of wired stems is you can manoeuver them into a better position if you find that you’re getting too many of one flower in an area. I tried to keep the flowers fairly evenly distributed throughout so there were no obvious “clumps” of flowers showing. I used only a few sprigs of the myrtle, which is unfortunate. It’s a lovely greenery and, like the lily of the valley, smells utterly divine.

8. Here’s a shot of the wrapped stems/handle. As was Kate’s, the bouquet handle is slightly bent forward to better showcase the flowers to onlookers. It’s a very different approach than the bouquets we’ve been seeing for the last 10 years or so. I kind of dig it.

9. I wrapped the bouquet handle with 5/8″ white double-satin ribbon and secured with DIY Floral Pins, also available from FiftyFlowers.

Ready for the Big Reveal?

Total Cost: $216.98 (prices approximate)

Royal Box Combo $199.99

Pins $5.99

Wire $5.00

Ribbon $3.00

Floral Tape: $3.00

Tools needed (not included in costs): floral shears or a floral knife, buckets for water, wire cutters.

NOTES:

1. Have a cool place to store your flowers while they hydrate.
2. Hall your supplies ready before you begin cutting and assembly.
3. This is a project NOT meant for the bride. Enlisted trusted helpers on this one! It took me, start-to-finish, about 4 solid hours (not including taking pictures) to do this bouquet by myself.
4. Order more flowers than necessary or scale your project to use less than the full amount of flowers you’re receiving. Several blooms of stock did not perk up during the rehydration period and were unusable. This is natural and to be expected. Even professional florists buy a significant more than they’ll need to account for damaged buds, broken stems, wilting leaves, etc. Anything can happen during shipping – delays, extra hot (or cold) weather, exceedingly rough handlers. Be prepared.
5. Work quickly and with as little handling of the flowers as possible. White flowers are very prone to bruising; they turn brown! The less you fuss, the better the end result will be. The stock was the most fragile of this bunch. The lily of the valley was surprisingly robust!
6. If you have issues with highly-scented bouquets, this is NOT the one for you. Lily of the valley and myrtle have beautiful aromas but can overpower if you’re fragrant-sensitive.
7. This was a small bouquet. It was maybe 6 – 7 inches across. Had the bulk of the stock not been wilty and discarded, I could have filled it out more but it still would’ve been on the petite side. If you’re a plus-size gal (like me), a small bouquet can look out of proportion with our body type. FYI on that.
8. There was a ton of myrtle left over. Had I the time, I would’ve loved to have made wreaths from it. It’s gorgeous foliage. Don’t let it go to waste!
9. A sharp floral knife or shears are essential for this project. They’ll make all the cutting SO much easier and faster. (See Tip #5.)