DIY Stationary

One of the Book Club girls is moving away...to Kansas City! We are going to miss her so very much, Book Club just won't be the same without her.

I wanted to get her something nice as a going-away present and remembered when I made these for Kelley over at The Lawrences for her bridal shower...They are easy to make and nice to give someone who loves stationary and might be needing to write some thank-you notes in the near future! I originally got this idea from my mom, but I don't know where she got the idea in the first place. I just thought they were so cute and such a clever idea!

All you need:

Stamps and an Ink Pad

Pretty Paper

Adhesive squares (I LOVE LOVE LOVE these things!)

Packaged sets of cards and envelopes (I bought these at Hobby Lobby and they had a plethora of colors to choose from!)

Seeds! (I purchased these at Sunflower Market, I really liked the vintage look they had to them and each packet was less than $2)

I didn't have my camera the day I made them, but they were really easy. Here are some photos of the finished product...

1. Cut the pretty paper to a size which will cover the majority of the front of the card. Do yourself a favor a use a paper cutter! It just looks so much better...

2. Affix the paper to the front of the card using the scrapbook squares. (You could also use a glue stick, but it just doesn't stick as well, in my opinion.)

3. Using the adhesive squares again, affix the seed packet to the left side of the card

4. On white or any corresponding color, stamp a message and cut it out accordingly! My stamps said:

"Wishing you sunshine and sunflowers all season long"

"Friends are flowers that never fade"

"If I planted a seed for every time I think of you, my garden would grow forever"

*Note: I totally poached these stamps and the aforementioned paper cutter from my mom!

5. Stick the stamped message on the right side of the card and you're all done!

Now your friend can send the cards to anyone they want, and the recipient will have a packet of seeds to plant! Cool, huh?

Steal This Idea!!!

I thought these candles were so clever! These were the favors from a bridal shower I went to a couple of weeks ago. In place of the religious picture, there was a picture of the bride and groom.

I know they are sort-of tongue-in-cheek as they are obviously Catholic religious candles, but you can purchase them without any saint or Jesus or Virgin Mary stickers on them, so don't feel like you'd be throwing anything away, thus being sacreligious!



I'm not going to show the picture of mine to save the future bride and groom's privacy, but these can be made into just about anything you could put on a sticker! And they come in such bright colors, they are a nice (and different!) favor to provide to guests.

Bridal Shower Gift-Part Two

OK, here's gift #2 from the weekend of bridal shower attendance!

I came up with this idea years and years ago and it's a nice gift to give a couple about to get married. Whether or not we've actually been brides ourselves, we know how hectic it can be to pull off a wedding. Between all the commotion and chaos, it's easy to lose sight of the reason for the celebration in the first place!

I like to give the bride a "Date Night" that she can share with her future husband to help them reconnect before their "I Do's".

I like to include a bottle of wine, some microwave popcorn, candy, and a gift card to Blockbuster so they can just spend a night on the couch, watching movies together. This can be altered in any way to reflect the likes of the couple involved. I also have given gift cards to a restaurant and theater in an envelope for a "Date Night" present as well!

Bridal Shower Gift-Part One

I was lucky enough to be invited to two bridal showers this past weekend and wanted to share a couple of gift ideas with everyone!

My go-to gift lately has been this first one: A Wedding Day Survival Kit!

I am fully aware that both my camera and my picture-taking skills are EXTREMELY poor, but you all get the idea here, right?

(I found these cute houndstooth tissues after the original picture was taken. Cool, huh? The tissues, obviously NOT the picture!)

Inside each kit, I like to include things that a busy bride might need on the big day: hair spray, chocolate, hand cream, a granola bar, mouthwash, deodorant, gum, lip gloss or chap stick, clear nail polish, Kleenex, and my little piece de resistance, a little bottle of tequila complete with some lime salt to make it a little better going down! Put it all together in a cute make-up bag and you have yourself a fun and different gift to give your friend at her bridal shower!

It's kind-of a gag gift, but my friends have confessed to actually using it on their wedding day and being quite glad to have it!

Welcome to the Nuthouse

I have never won anything on these blogs, though not for lack of trying. I entered to win a Kitchen Aid mixer from our good friend Pioneer Woman last week (I know I didn't really need to provide a link, but I did anyways.). Guess which entry number I was? Number 13,949 out of more than 16,000. Seriously. That is pretty disheartening.

A Blog Swap is something right up my alley because everyone wins!
I heard about this swap from the girls over at The Secret is in the Sauce.
Shannon from Welcome to the Nuthouse had a really fun idea about swapping things from your hometown with somebody who had never been to your region and would love to go someday!

As anyone who knows me can imagine, my mind is buzzing with all the fun things I can give somebody from my wonderful state, but I'm not going to provide any spoilers......yet.

Check out her site and join in on the fun! The deadline is May 6th and you have an entire month to get your package to your new blogging friend!

Friday Fun Fact

The Mr. and I are heading to a friends house tomorrow night for dinner. They recently moved into their new place and we want to bring a housewarming gift. (OK, let's be honest here, I want to bring a housewarming gift, I'm pretty sure the Mr. could care less.)

Anyhoo, I learned that it was a European (namely Italian and German) as well as Chinese custom to bring salt as a present to new homeowners. The former believing it adds spice to the resident's life and the latter believing the salt brings good luck. (Similar to the way throwing salt over your shoulder protects against bad luck once you've spilled it!)

Now, I realize that this is more a "Friday Fun Superstition" than a "Friday Fun Fact", but nonetheless, it's a fun gift idea the next time you visit someone who recently moved in to their home. I plan to jazz the gift up a bit by purchasing a gourmet salt from Williams-Sonoma as well as wrapping it up in pretty paper. Hey-you can't just bring some random salt shaker you swiped the last time you went out to eat!

Happy Friday everyone!