DIY: Stamp Thank You Cards

You know that Christmas wedding shower where we illustrated our love story? I mentioned it in a post yesterday, if you missed it. Well, that reminded me that we needed some thank you cards for all the swell gifts we received. 

I had already bought all the supplies to make some DIY stamped thank you cards but just hadn't carved out the time to make them. Thank YOU blog world for the motivation! 

I just wasn't content with the idea of going to the store to buy some thank you cards. I can't think of many things that express appreciation quite like something handmade. 

So here's my little DIY stamp project, that could really become any type of card you wanted it to if you changed the letters. 

Supplies:

• 1 sheet of foam
• A block of wood (Or some hard surface to glue letters to)
• Scissors
• Super glue
• Acrylic Paint
• Paintbrush
• Blank note cards

The project itself was really simple. I drew an outline of the block size in pencil on the foam, since the sheet is clearly much larger than my notecard. Then I freehand sketched letters and cut them.

Then I glued them BACKWARDS on my block. I emphasize that because I may or may not have fluid them regularly the first time and had to redo them. Oops!

Then I just mixed my paint colors and painted the letters on the stamp. It took me a few tries to get the groove of actually getting all the letters to read on the card. I pushed them all down then gradually lifted the left side, then the right side and then I went back and lifted from the middle down. (I hope that makes some sense!) 

Regardless, put a bunch of paint on there, push the stamp on the card and then find your groove! 

The great thing about acrylic is that it makes it really simple to switch colors in between. I just washed it in the sink with soapy water.

I'm pretty happy with the final product, and I hope it will really help get the message of gratitude across!

Happy creating!

—Holli Anne

Wedding Shower Fun: Illustrate Your Love Story

You know those wedding showers where there is just a random mix of people? I had one this Christmas with my family, my future family, college friends, high school friends and church friends. 

It was super wonderful to be around everyone, but when it comes to entertainment, the crowd was definitely mixed. It wouldn't be the crowd to say, make dresses of ourselves out of toilet paper (for me, there's NEVER a crowd for that). 

Our party host thought it'd be fun for us to tell our "story" since not everyone has been around for the whole thing. So right before the shower we came up with the idea of illustrating our love story for the group. It ended up being a big hit, even for the people who already knew it. 

Plus, who doesn't like hearing a sappy love story at a wedding shower? Mix that with silly little drawings and you've got a fun, unawkward way to talk about yourself to a crowd. 

Literally, this could go any way you choose, but I'll tell you our story, as we told it. It also may be a fun way for you to get to know me and Joseph, since I'm going to be blogging about our super thrifty, big, DIY wedding. 

Joseph and I met his freshman year and my sophomore year of college in pretty awkward fashion. (Yeah, I'm six months older…scandal!) I was working as a server at Ruby Tuesday, and this professor notorious for tipping 100 percent of the bill came in with a group of students. I obviously jumped on the opportunity to serve his table. Only drawback? My ex-boyfriend, Joseph's friend, was one of those students. Oh, well, I made $100 and met my husband.

Eventually, Joseph and I started gaining mutual friends. We worked on the school newspaper together. It didn't take us long to start crushing on each other either, but there was that whole awkward ex-boyfriend/friendship code thing we had going on. Solution for someone who wants to say "Oh, I like you" but can't: Call them Favorite. (Yeah, that's the silly nickname we have for each other).

Homeboy started to phase out of the picture and me and Joseph were just all friends and such. We liked each other. People noticed. And they started to harass us about it in normal fashion. We just kept right on being Favorites and dating other people though, no problem. 

Two summers ago, we finally weren't dating anyone at the same time. And, we also were the only two people of our giant friend group left in our college town. Naturally, we hung out every. single. day. One day, Joseph's little brother Phillip joined us for an all day hang-out. Afterward, he hardcore harassed Joesph about why we weren't dating. Joseph told me about it, and it finally brought us both to admitting outloud that we "liked each other." 

This is pretty self-explanatory, right? 

When I told him, "We won't ever date." I accidentally meant, let me dwell on this for a while. So that's what I did. I thought about it in my head…what it would be like dating…if we would ruin our friendship…you know, the things overthinkers think about before getting in relationships. Then one day, I just asked him what he thought about the possibility, expecting him to take some time to think about it. Instead he jumped right on it, and we started dating right then (September 18, 2011).

(By the way, I didn't name any of these "acts" or "scenes." I just feel the need to say it).

Anyway, we date, it's the best thing ever and about a year later we get engaged in my apartment with Joseph telling me lots of sweet things. Now, I'm less than two months away from getting married.

Hope you enjoyed our story, and we'd love to see an illustrated version of yours!

—Holli Anne

Wedding Reception Ideas: Fun, Simple, Cheap

Last night I got in super wedding-planning mode, and since it's only two months (March9) away AND the first time I've gotten any motivation to really do it, I took full advantage. 

Maybe it's because I've ordered a dress and booked all the venues we need (important stuff!) that I feel more free to start really planning my favorite part of any party: the details. 

I thought I'd share some of our wedding reception ideas and inspiration, particularly some wedding food ideas that are really affordable and really US. 

This is our vision: a fun, interactive wedding reception. 

When people arrive at a wedding reception and the bride and groom aren't there, people just don't know what to do. Also, they are hungry. I hate that awkward standing around period of receptions! Our solution? Make your own popcorn concoction at our popcorn bar!

We even want our reception food to be a little fun and interactive. The first plan: Make your own sandwich bar. Tons of breads, meats and cheeses to choose from. Maybe even some griddles for panini options…

A sandwich, no matter how cool it is, shouldn't stand alone. But combined with homemade soup, it's pretty awesome, right? We are going to get some of our closest friends and family to make a crockpot of soup, so there will be a lot of variety. We also love the simplicity and homeyness of the idea. There's something comforting about hot soup. 

Instead of just one giant-tiered wedding cake we want a lot of cakes, that look like ones you might see in your home. We are making some and some of our family and friends are joining our efforts. We even want our guests to join in a little with say, painting their own cupcakes or cookies! 

We are also really wanting the reception to be as much like a dinner party as possible. So some people may be eating, some talking, some dancing and others…playing BOARD GAMES! 

These are just our starting ideas. I can't wait to see how this transpires over the next couple months. All of this came from my Pinterest board Future Things. You can also see more wedding inspiration on Tyler Anne's Holli is My Homegirl board. (We are excited over here!) 

Oh yeah and one more thing. In case anyone forgets we want it to be fun, we probably need to have a version of these on the tables.

—Holli Anne