Garlands by Paper n Stitch

Um, this seems like an odd request because I love the garland and the tutorial is great, but, um, can my husband-to-be and I borrow your tree?

(Trail: Mint, Paper n Stitch, photo: Jeanne Ciasullo)

Stitched Envelope (by MistyBliss)

This is the beautiful work and photography of Michelle at MistyBliss (found by way of Mint.) I love how stitching looks on paper. I'm always hesitant to try it. I'm not exactly sure why. I stitched vinyl and paper together once without losing an eye so...

Michelle has a lovely blog. (Oh macro photos!!)

Wonderful!

Decorative Tape (from NothingElegant)

Decorative tapes are kind of the coolest thing ever. I wish they'd officially land here in the USA. Thanks to the internet it's possible to buy them but they are slow to catch on in craft stores. These fantastic rolls are just some examples of all the cool stuff on NothingElegant's etsy store.

See if Z and I had a registry, it'd have stuff like this on it. (And that's why we're probably not having gifts.)

(Trail: Ffffound, NothingElegant)

Hanging Air Fern (Pigment via Oh Joy)

This is a shop, Pigment, Joy from OhJoy found in her new town of SanDiego. You can buy these Hanging Air Fern from their online shop. What an amazing look.

Tape Invite (Heather Toupin)

This is another image from the talented Heather Toupin. Heather does custom made invitations. (Her email for more information is on her Flikr profile page.)

I may need to start another tag called, "Z and I are not this cool." Or ZINK for short. B/c I know people who are this cool and when they get married I will give them Ms.Toupin's name and say EMAIL HER AND DO (something almost exactly like) THIS! And then I will get one in the mail! (Squeal!)

Invites (by Rolaine)

Shades of what our kitchen table is going to look like in a few months. These invites were done by Rolaine, a graphic designer and web designer.

Baby Steps

It hit me yesterday perusing the blogs. At first I thought it was the standard blog panic (ohmygodthere'ssomuchhereI'llneverbeabletodohalfofthis) but it eased into a very important realization: I have no idea where to start.

I have ideas. (Oh don't I have ideas.) And I have tons of people offering help. But before I launch the army of the willing I want to be sure I'm not going to waste their time on something that may not work. I want to know the entire plan (and that it will work) before I start any of it. The result? Nothing. The result is absolutely nothing.

I'm doing things. Sure. This morning I finished the rough draft carving of a stamp that may become our save the dates. Occasionally I'll pop in an episode of Bones and cut some flags. But do the flags match anything? Will they actually look good in the yard? Should I save some of the material for the flowers? What color will the table cloth be, will it even match anything?

Questions begot only by more questions.

The only other big party I've planned (and big b/c of the preparation not b/c of the number of people) I learned a valuable lesson. (Oh this sounds so silly.) But basically it's like they teach you in community organizing, "Some time is not a time. Some place is not a place. Some one is not a person." Vagueness doesn't amount to anything. The same thing was very true with colors for New Years 09. I kept thinking, "Oh I want some version of gray, blue, yellow...and maybe brown." But the blue kept changing and it wasn't until I found a ton of fabric at Goodwill that was a very specific blue did I know that THIS blue was THE blue and everything else (food, drinks, color of ribbon on favor liquors) would be matched to this from here on out.

Because we're doing our wedding ultra low budget and because we're trying to do it without creating a bunch of new things, we're not really having a color palette. I've loved this idea for as long as I've been thinking about weddings. But maybe that's a mistake. Maybe I need to say this one color is the base of everything. Even if it's a warm neutral tan. If it doesn't match THIS then keep looking. I just need a starting point. Something solid that everything else can be judged against.

It sounds so trivial I know, and yet for this, it's that first step of a thousand. Knowing that I'll be walking in this direction for a long time, I'm still trying to figure out where to place my foot.

Handmade Invite (by Heather Toupin)

This is a lovely handmade invitation by Heather Toupin. Love the type and border. Someone is into Nouveau..and so am I!

Art Nouveau Invites (from Mew Paper Arts)

The more I looked around on Mew Paper Arts various web spaces, I couldn't help but love her design.

(The colors aren't quite my style but this is my kind of design. Oh yikes! Also these and this.)

Check out her blog and her etsy store.

Pencils! (by Laura Normandin)

I saw this post on Design*Sponge and then totally forgot about it. I'm glad I checked Weddings and Cookies blog today because there it was noted again. Great idea for scraps (or not scraps.) Thinking about envelopes in the last post you could totally do this same thing with envelope innards.

(Post from Design*Sponge guest blogger Laura Normandin of Wren Handmade.)

Clever Thank Yous (by Inchmark)

I kind of love anything that uses the insides of envelopes (second one from the top). I started saving envelopes a few years ago and occasionally still come upon a stack flayed open and shoved in a drawer somewhere.

These oh so cute thank you notes are from Inchmark.

Recycled Quilt Flowers (from Jane Joss)

There's a great tutorial by Jane Joss over at Design*Sponge on recycled quilt flowers. The picture on the left is from their etsy store, which has a bunch of their creations for sale.

I've tried this stem technique before and it's a lot of work. Floral tape seems to vary in how well it sticks. But if it can look even half as great as this, it seems totally worth the time. I love the effect!