Card Box

Now that the wedding has passed, I can share many crafts that I created.  Sharing some tips and advice will hopefully save some of you some time.  So many projects online seem simple and then when attempted, troubleshooting, trial and error, and patience are required.

The wedding card box was a simple task and it is where we began the wedding crafting.  The box is a terrarium from Ikea called Socker.  The terrarium comes in white so we spray painted it gold using Rust Oleum Metallic Gold (1910830).  The terrarium can be easily taken apart and the glass removed. This definitely makes it easier for spray painting.

 I measured the box and used the measurements in Cricut Design Space to adjust the font.  One of the most critical parts of any project, in my opinion, is choosing the font.  I can easily spend hours testing and trying fonts.

This was the first time I would use transfer tape.  I can not believe I did not know about the existence of transfer tape.  I did the mug project by manually pulling the words off and then having to form the letters and words. It was frustrating and time consuming and now I can definitely laugh about it! Being that, this was the first project using the tape I decided to print the writing and cut and place it on the box before moving to the vinyl.  This was just to ensure that sizing was perfect.

After cutting the letters and weeding the extra vinyl, I was able to use the transfer tape to lift and place the letters on the glass.

Mug Shot

I was not the least bit surprised when I received a phone call from my sister as I was painting the blocks for the countdown.  She had a project in mind in which she she wanted my help.  She explained that it was a year until her wedding date, and she wanted to post a photo announcing this on social media.  Little did she know, I was busy painting and adhering numbers and letters to finish the surprise gift I had secretly planned. She went on to explain that she wanted me to help her cut some letters on vinyl to put on a mug and create a "future Mrs. Ayan" mug.

This project required a blank mug. Although I had not thought of it at first, we ended up buying it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond:

The next part of the project began to feel a bit tedious and I was convinced would be the hardest part.  The task of finding the right font.  So we tried font after font.  We downloaded what seemed to be an endless amount.  Finally, we found one that seemed perfect!  We downloaded Stylish Calligraphy TTF and liked the curly waviness of it. We measured the mug and knew we wanted the words to expand around 3-3.5 inches in length and about 2.6 inches in height.

The hardest part was yet to come and we didn't even know it.  Peeling the letters off the sticky mat left us with a thin string of letters hanging off our finger.  We couldn't even make out what letters the string of vinyl were supposed to be.  We had to go back and forth between the Design Space image on the monitor and what was dangling off our fingers. Slowly we adhered, adjusted, pulled off, adhered again, until we formed the letters and words.  At one point we began using tweezers as well.
Looking at the finished product, it would never leave you to think that the placement of the vinyl was as difficult as it was, but we both had huge smiles at the end of this project!

Counting Down

After completing the engagement magazine file, I decided to search for another gift idea.  Picking a venue and date is one of the biggest decisions in the wedding journey.  I wanted to create another craft gift to give on the day that the date was set.  It automatically made sense to me that a countdown gift would fit the occasion perfectly!  I searched online and came across Something Turquoise's blog post on wedding countdown blocks: http://somethingturquoise.com/2015/01/30/diy-wedding-countdown-blocks/

I replicated this project changing just some minor details.

I started by taking a trip to Jo-ann's Craft Store.  Unfortunately, I did not find the wooden blocks in the right sizes.  They did carry the cubes but not the longer piece for the bottom layers.  I visited AC Moore next and was able to find both the cubes and longer 10 inch pieces.  I knew the longer piece was a bit too long and would need to be cut down.  The cubes I purchased were 1.75 inches.  I bought 4 of these to have all the different number variations. I cut the 10 inch piece to 5.25 so that the second line would line up with the length of 3 cubes above it.  The last long cube for the bottom row was cut to 6 inches in length.  My husband and his miter saw came in handy for this part.

I decided to do a pink background with gold letters.  I purchased FolkArt #438 Ballet Pink paint.  I wanted gold glitter vinyl but did not want to wait to order online, so I decided to give scrapbook paper a try.  I began by painting the blocks:

While the blocks dried I worked in Cricut's Design Space creating the letters.  I decided to use Mensch, the same font that Something Turquoise mentioned on her blog. I wanted my letters and numbers to cover the majority of the block so I decided on 1.68 inches in height.  I also added his last name to give it a personal touch!
Here is an image of the project in Design Space:

Next, I cut the letters on gold glitter scrapbook cardstock and then decided to use the Xyron create-a-sticker maker.  I was able to put each of the numbers and letters into the device and then pull them out on a strip that made them adhesive.  This eliminated the mess of using a glue stick or any other type of adhesive.  This device really comes in handy when trying to make tiny pieces adhesive.

I then positioned the numbers and letters on the blocks.  I originally had planned to use Modge Podge to seal the letters onto the block however, they seem to adhere so well that I left it as is.  I gave this to her with 365 days left till her wedding date!

 

Of course I love the look of the heart and look forward to when the countdown looks like this: