More Goodies

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Here Comes the Bride - La Belle Vie by CTMH

I'm getting so excited for my cousin who is getting married in two weeks!  She loves elegant, yet thrifty ideas in decorating as well as her wedding planning.  Since she loves my work, she's allowing me to prepare two projects.

The first is the MR & MRS WAMALA letter signs for the bridal party to hold during the photos.  Those were easy to accomplish with my Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, that only be purchased through a Close To My Heart consultant.  I stocked up on some dark plum card stock and went to work.  I had to determine how big to make the letters in order for them to all fit on a 12 X 12 page.  To do that, I searched the Art Philosophy booklet to determine which letter is the largest (it is found on page 7) letter in the alphabet with the basic font.  It shows me that the 'G' is the largest and would determine the largest size you could on a given size of paper/card stock.  I loaded the card stock, chose the 'G' and told the machine to fit to page.  It then calculates the maximum size the G can be cut on the 12 X 12 and displays it at 7-3/4".  I then set my machine on 7-3/4" size and cut all letters at that measurement.  The machine cuts the letters all proportionally with that dimension even if it didn't fill the page.

See the diagram below for more information.


The second project she trusted me with was to make a 'Here comes the Bridge' sign that the flower girl will carry!  For this I perused the internet and spent quite a bit of quality time on Pintrest (every crafter's best friend)...  I settled on using the La Belle Vie papers to use at the sign base, and then used the dark plum for the lettering.

To make the sign base, I purchased a package of 3 canvas boards at the local craft store.  I needed something that is flat and stable, but also made a great base to add layers of papers and card stock without getting soft, folded or bent since an 8 year old will be carrying it down the aisle.  Before I started, I checked in with the bride about colors and combinations of ribbon, paper, cardstock and my plan.  She feel in love with the La Belle Vie papers since the deep purples complimented her wedding theme...  I took the two sheets of the tan papers (stripe and french writing) and tore them into pieces to layer over each other.  I was a bit nervous about the Mod Podge since I hadn't done it since grade school, so I tried out a test piece of the base and papers to see how to layer them up and avoid the bubbles...

Here is how I proceeded:  I began the Mod Podge process by putting on an initial base later over the canvas board, not too thick!  As I began to layer up the papers and card stock, I learned a few tricks of the trade to share with you ~


Helpful Hints when using Mod Podge:

  1. use only very thin layers of the Mod Podge 
  2. put on a fresh layer PRIOR to placing a layer of paper and let it sit for 5-10 mins till it becomes a bit sticky and acts more like adhesive
  3. use your paint brush or sponge to apply the paper layer to get the air out from underneath - if that doesn't work, use your fingers to get it all laid out flat, and wipe off any excess
  4. if you put your paper on it when the Mod Podge is freshly applied, your paper will likely slide around and you'll struggle more with placement (see hint #2)
  5. let the under layer stabilize and dry BEFORE adding the next layer over your paper - trust me and don't get anxious here...  If your paper gets too wet with under and over layers both wet at the same time, you will bubble up as it tries to dry or as you place more Mod Podge on, your papers will slip
  6. just add consistent, even and THIN layers and let each dry fully before you do the next - don't rush this, take your time and do many thin layers, you will like the results much better
  7. as you get towards your top layers, be sure to use brush or sponge strokes all the same direction so it doesn't look random and every which way (unless of course, that's what you like)!!

Here are a few pics of the process

first put thin layer on base, then place paper
use brush to lay paper flat and get out bubbles
use brush to apply thin layer on top of paper
apply thin layers over top, let dry, repeat
After I did about 6 more layers of the Mod Podge over the papers, I was good to go!  I then drilled two holes in the upper left and right corners for the ribbon hanger.  I also included some decorative ribbons intended to hang down to dress it up a bit as well as a few Cricut cut flowers from the Art Philosophy cartridge - these flowers are truly my very favorite and I'm ALWAYS looking for a new way to use them.

Here are the Cricut cuts made:

Art Philosophy ~
'Here comes the' letters were individually cut from the Font Layer of each letter separately all cut at 2"
pg 58 Font Layer for the scroll work in the upper right and lower left corners - cut at 4-3/4"
pg 68 Font Shift for the flowers - cut in 5-1/2", 3-3/4" and 2-1/2" 

Artiste ~
pg 61 'Bride & Groom' - Accent1 cut at 'fit to cut' (cut largest possible) on a 12 X 12 card stock.  I cut away the '& Groom' so it left only 'Bride'

While making the flowers, I included some used my dauber with white ink to give it a more natural look and then added lavender sparkles with 3(each) pop dots to lift up the bling in the center.







And here it is ~ all dressed up for the wedding!

3 comments:

  1. Lovely! The words really pop off the background, I'm sure your cousin will love it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the modpodged background. What a lucky bride! Thanks for sharing at Friday Favorite Things!

    ReplyDelete