Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Glue Gun Burns and Triumph

I wouldn't exactly call myself cheap... but you might.
We are not going to be putting any florals in our church.
Told you. 
We attend a GORGEOUS church that really doesn't need any other decorations!

The extremely talented Brian Mullins who took this photo can be found here!


So instead of a bunch of flowers, we are making colorfully tied programs (more on those later) and poms!
What is a pom? Well, in this case it's a Styrofoam ball, hot glue, crepe paper and some ribbon. 
I used this tutorial. 

Basically, you take a Styrofoam ball, and glue the crepe paper roses to it. 
She warns that you will burn yourself.
HA! Understatement of the century.
My fingers were so raw after this project it hurt to type at work. 
My advice, work quickly and in groups as to spread out the burnt fingers!
I also recommend that you wrinkle the crepe paper. The more I crunched it, the better the rose came out!
7 roses in, starting to take shape!

The only thing I did differently (it was a great tutorial!) is I pushed my thumb into the ball to create a "pool" before filling it with glue, then sticking in the rose. 
I wanted to make sure they didn't fall apart a week before the wedding!

I also wrapped my ribbon around a bobby pin, hot glued it, and then stuck it deep into the pom. 
In the end they turned out like this!
 
The Finished Product!

They will be used to reserve the front 2 rows on each side for our wedding party and immediate family. 

What's the worst glue gun burn/ crafting injury you've ever inflicted upon yourself?



Paper, Ink and Glue, and A Picture or Two

Now that most of the invitations have reached their final destinations, I can reveal them!

In worked with the lovely people at CardsandPockets.com to not only select the perfect paper, but to size the pdf files so that they would print properly. They were absolutely wonderful to work with! All of the paper came pre-cut which simplified the process.
 
Yay! The supplies are here!

 
I started with my pocketfold, my mat and a bottle of Elmer's Rubber Cement. 
 Once those were firmly attached, I printed and placed my main invitation in the same fashion.


Then I printed the other cards. On the back of each RSVP card I wrote the guests name in invisible ink, that way we could figure out who it came from if the name was not filled out. We stamped the red return envelope with a personalized stamp we ordered online. BEST INVESTMENT YET! We had the stamp made without a last name so we can continue to use it for years! Once everything was ready to go, we got to stuffin'!


uh, not quite.
 Let's try that again...
 
Much better!

This pocketfolds did not have a closure built in so my lovely Bridesmaid LR and my mom were kind enough to help me tie ALL the bows!
 
Best bows EVER!

My FMIL was so nice and addressed all the envelopes. We stuffed the envelopes, stamped the back with our super stamp and took them to the post office.

We had planned on having them weighed and then stamped with the postage but they worked out to a neat $0.64. Josh took them in by himself, and he had a hard choice - the dolphin or the wedding cake.
After much debate, according to him, he went with the cake - but it was close.
Gotta love him!

We have already received 7 RSVPs back in less than 2 business days! I haven't had the opportunity to bust out the black light yet, but I am a little hopeful someone will forget and I will get to use it.

Did anyone else handcraft their invitations or another key element of the wedding?
Were you proud of your accomplishment?