Photo Friday

I am always striving to improve my skills, and I am a huge proponent of making the most of any equipment that I have in my photography (that doesn't mean I don't want the newest shiniest toys, but it just isn't practical for me to always have them). So, when I heard that a photographer in my area was giving a wedding photography workshop, I signed up right away! Here are a few of the shots that I was able to capture:

Isn't it fun to learn? It is to me! What have you learned recently?

The One with the Wedding Invitations

As promised, I am back to share the invitations that my soon to be Sister-In-Law and I worked on and put together on Saturday:

And a peek at the inside:

We were inspired by this beautiful invitation on Pinterest:

But I love the way Josh and Amanda's turned out even better! She chose a beautiful champagne shimmer on ivory paisley for the card base, with a shimmer vellum top page, I helped her pick out a beautiful green sheer ribbon, and she picked a gorgeous bronze/ivory shimmer paisley cardstock for the "G" monogram. I cut out the "G"s with my Cricut expression and Tie the Knot cartridge at 2", and set the paper size and Auto fill, and let my machine do its cutting magic! Still love my Cricut! We used my Crop a Dile and Fiskars trimmer to cut and punch several at a time, and they came together pretty quickly! Thanks to Amanda, (who chose the gorgeous materials from our local JoAnn's) we had such a fun afternoon making something beautiful!
My brother and his gorgeous fiancee:

If you would like to see more of the engagement photo shoot I did for them, it's on my Photography blog here.

A "Something Blue" Bridal Shower

My *baby* sister is getting married in August, and she asked me to be the matron of honor, so of course, I had to think of the perfect bridal shower for her. Let me tell you, the logistics of being the matron of honor while I am in Tennessee and she is in Florida is a little bit tricky! But we finally worked out a date for the shower, and it was off to the races! I finally thought of doing a "Something Blue" shower, after tons of research on the internet.
First, I made the invitations. I cut the words, "Bridal Shower" with my Cricut and Sweethearts cart, and embossed aqua shimmer paper with the "Friends Forever" embossing folder for the Cuttlebug, and embossed the envelope flap with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. Here's another photo of the invite with a couple of the favors ( I will tell you about them in a minute, bear with me!):
I decorated a clipboard for the gift list:I cut the presents from the Sweethearts Cart (after coating the clipboard with an ENTIRE can of white spray paint and clear sealant), and added an adhesive ribbon from DCWV to the bottom and tied lots of aqua and white ribbon and lace scraps to the top.
Next, I made a ton of these little favors: The white dress box is from the Tie the Knot cartridge, embossed with the Swiss Dots folder. Some tips: MAKE SURE your paper is pressed very firmly to the sticky mat before cutting- a brayer would be a great idea! I tied an aqua ribbon around the waist, and used a huge roll of pearls that I picked up at Hobby Lobby when they had their half off bridal sale to decorate the bottom of the dress, and just taped the ends around the edges of the dress. The purse favors are svgs from Dan's blog, and embossed with the Textiles Cuttlebug folder, tied with a tiny white satin ribbon.
Then I made a little lingerie gift box for the tiny blue undies I gave her:
I used the pillow box svg file from Penny Duncan's website, added a black and white sticky border strip around the middle, and tied with an aqua ribbon with black stitching from Doodlebug, and embellished with some pearl corsage pins from WalMart, and a corsage cut from Tie the Knot.
I made some gift bags for the game prizes, using some yummy satin ribbons and cuts from Tie the Knot (the scroll heart and the bell), and Sweethearts (the presents).
Here is a close up of the towel cake I made for the centerpiece. I used the Grungeflowers svg file from Dan's blog for the roses I put on top, and tied some pretty aqua satin ribbon around some plush white towels. The monogram plaque was created with the Tie the Knot cartridge and Swiss Dots embossing folder. My mom's gorgeous crystal cake stand really made it perfect.
Our cousin, Jocelyn, made the cake. It was red velvet and sooo yummy! The "pearls" in front of it are actually Sixlet candies from the wedding section of Hobby Lobby. We had a coffee punch with chocolate and vanilla ice cream in it, which everyone slurped down (3 punch bowls full!).
A side view of the cake:A picture of Jocelyn, my other sister Elisabeth (in the back), the bride-to-be, and myself.A photo of the corsage I made for her with Dan's Grungeroses svg file, paper, ribbon, and tulle. A photo of the banner that I made with the banner , monograms, and lovebird from Tie the Knot, tulle, ribbon, and I "Glimmer Misted" (yes I made that word up) the plaque in the center and embossed with Swiss Dots before attaching the lovebird.A pic of Bethany and me (I think she was very happy with the shower-which makes all of the hard work worth it!)
A photo of Bethany opening gifts -she got tons of great presents (we had a beautiful sunny day-about 72 degrees, and a fantastic turnout). Bethany and our Mom:Bethany and my oldest, Caitlin (they are so close, and you can really tell how much she loves her Aunt Beth!): All in all, It was a gorgeous day and everything went fairly smoothly-Hopefully it will be a treasured memory for my little sis!

Lindsay's Stamp Stuff Thursday (and I got more scrapping done!)

For this week's LSS post, I did another layout, since my goal was to complete 20 layouts in July. For the "Magic" LO, I used a photo of one of my twin girls at the carnival this past spring on the Merry-Go-Round. To me, there is nothing more "magical" than a carousel to a child- I still love them! Anyway, I embellished it with the Carousel digistamp from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff that I colored with colored pencils first, and then blended with baby oil and went back over the edges with some Copics for shading and blending. I then heat embossed the edges of the page with gold embossing powder, and inked the edges of the pink photo mat and chipboard letters with a couple of Copics.

For my "Playin in The Rain" pages, I cut the Rain Frog from MyScrapchick.com and the splat with my Cricut and SCAL, and the spotted blue paper is from GCD Studios.

The layout with our wedding photo is also on GCD Studios, and the edges of the photo mat are inked and the the edges are embellished with black vinyl Thickers.

The last layout is a quick one of my big girl, and I used one of the shopping bags digistamps from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff, cut one out, and colored and embellished it with a gel flower from Heidi Swapp, some Twistel type stuff for the handles, and cut out some flip flops with my Cricut which I embellished with beads and flower shaped rhinestones.The beach ball is a rub-on , that I colored also.

Now, head on over to the other designers' blogs to "Find the Freebie"!

Lindsay (owner)

Melissa B.

Melissa C.

Olena

Janet

Leanne

Row

Tracey

Tamara

Katt

Lisa

Kim

Erin Bailey (July Guest DT)

Wedding Bells Are Ringing!

My post for today is a wedding card for some friends of my hubby's - we were invited to the wedding, but not sure if we can go or not- he has to work tomorrow. Blech! Anyway, back to the card! I cut the bell shaped card using an svg file that was shared on one of my yahoo groups. I LOVED it, and I have been wanting to use it for a while. I used the rolling pin embossing technique with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder,after spraying it with Pearl Glimmer Mist (I find myself using this color the most-PERFECT for just the right hint of shimmer. The scalloped oval and oval were both cut out using SCAL. I put Pop Dots in between all of the layers, topped it off

with Lora's calla lily paper piecing and a K&Co rub on, and punched two holes through the top and threaded a sheer creamy ribbon through the top and tied. The sentiment on the inside reads: "There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved." by George Sand.

Thanks for stopping by!